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“Yes! She was awake and willing. Yes, goddamn it!”
“Okay, let’s keep our voices down here.”
“Okay, but you are saying shit that isn’t true.”
“Look, I believe you, Rodney, but we need to understand what happened. Mallory did pass out, right? That’s why she wasn’t in the photo, correct?”
Van Ness shook his head as if it were wrong to give up secrets about the dead.
“She got sick from the gin, okay?” he said. “Then she crawled back into one of the beds in the room and fell asleep. And that’s it. She never made it to the dance. I had to wake her up to get her home.”
“So you went down to the dance without her?”
“Yes, I did. It was my senior prom and I didn’t want to spend it in a hotel room babysitting a girl who couldn’t hold her liquor.”
“Did all four of the guys have keys to that room?”
“Uh, yes. I mean no. There were two keys, so we had to share.”
“You had a key?”
“No, I borrowed Andy’s or Victor’s when I went up. They had the keys. I told you, it wasn’t my room. I didn’t have a key.”
“What about Taylor? He have a key?”
“I don’t think so but I don’t remember.”
“So, I want to be sure I’m clear. When Mallory was passed out in that room, anybody with a key could get access to the room. Is that right?”
“Yes, but I wish you would tell me what is going on here. You’re making it sound like we did something wrong and we didn’t.”
Ballard ignored the plea. She was too locked in on checking boxes with her questions.
“When Mallory got sick, was that in the bed or did she go into the bathroom?”
“The bathroom. She jumped up and ran in there. After a while I checked on her and she was leaning against the bathtub, passed out.I got her up and cleaned her up a little bit and then I helped her to the bed.”
Ballard wanted to say sarcastically that he had shown some real chivalry, but she kept editorial comments out of her questions.
“And this was after you two had had consensual intercourse, correct?” she asked.
“Yes, definitely consensual,” Van Ness said.
“What was she wearing at the time? When she got up to go into the bathroom after sexual relations and when you brought her out.”
“Uh, well, nothing. She had taken off her clothes.”
“When you got her back to the bed, did you cover her up with a blanket or something?”
“Of course. I put her head on a pillow and pulled the covers over her. I’m not an asshole.”
“And then you went downstairs to the dance.”
“Yes.”
“And did you give your key back to the person you borrowed it from?”
“Probably. I don’t remember if it was Andy or Victor.”
