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“You do know that I’m a writer, right? Writers don’t make those kinds of choices. I’ve had to explain that to Emma many times.”
Ballard turned slightly toward Maddie and gave her a single nod. Her turn.
“What about Rodney Van Ness?” Maddie asked. “Was he one of the odd fellows?”
Todd paused for a moment to search her memory.
“Rodney—no. He was two years ahead of us—a senior,” Todd said. “Odd fellows didn’t cross lines like that. You stuck to your own grade.”
“He took Mallory to his senior prom.”
“If you two already know everything, why come here?”
“We need to know more. Did you go to the senior prom when you were in the tenth grade?”
“I never went to the senior prom, even when I was a senior. Wasnever asked, and the patriarchy did not allow the girls to ask the guys back then.”
There was an undertone of bitterness to that answer that could not be missed, a resentment that had not gone away even after all these years.
“How did Rodney Van Ness know Mallory if they were two grades apart?” Maddie asked.
“The older boys were always checking out the younger girls,” Todd said. “I don’t think he knew her that well when he asked her to the prom.”
“Was she excited to be asked?”
“Sure.”
“Did she tell you about the prom afterward?”
“No, she wouldn’t talk about it.”
“How come?”
“Because—as I’m sure you know because you already know things—something happened.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. I just said she didn’t talk about it.”
“Did her behavior change? What was the tell?”
“The tell?”
“That something had happened at the prom.”
“I don’t know if there was a tell. She wouldn’t talk about it, that’s all. Emma and me, we thought it had just been a really bad date. There were only a few weeks left of school at that point. And then she was gone and I never heard from her again.”
“What about when she died? How did you find out about it?”
Todd thought for a moment.
“You know, I can’t remember,” she finally said. “I think maybe Emma told me. But that’s when we started to think that something really bad had happened. Maybe at the prom.”
“But you have no idea what that was?” Ballard pressed.
“Well, the obvious thing is that she’d had sex with Rodney and it was her first time and it didn’t go well. Or she’d been coerced into having sex. Or even worse. But like I said, at the time I just thought it had been a bad date. Mal gave no indication it was anything else.”
Ballard nodded but didn’t say anything, waiting for Todd to continue, but she didn’t.
