A baffled laugh. "Me?"
"Yeah, I was wondering if you got involved with her." I could see the color come and go in his face, so I ad-libbed a line. "Actually, someone told me you dated her. I can't remember now who mentioned it, but someone who knew you both."
He shrugged. "I might have. Just briefly. I never dated her steadily or anything like that."
"But you were intimate."
"With Jean?"
"Dr. Poletti, spare me the wordplay and tell me about your relationship. We're talking about things that happened seventeen years ago."
He was silent for a moment, toying with the plaster jaw, which seemed to have something on it he had to pick off. "I wouldn't want this to go any further, whatever we discuss."
"Strictly confidential."
He shifted in his chair. "I guess I've always regretted my association with her. Such as it was. I'm ashamed of it now because I knew better. I'm not sure she did."
"We all do things we regret," I said. "It's part of growing up. What difference does it make after all this time?"
"I know. You're right. I don't know why it's so hard to talk about."
"Take your time."
"I did date her. For a month. Less than that. I can't say my intentions were honorable. I was seventeen. You know how guys are at that age. Once word got out that Jeannie was an easy lay, we became obsessed. She did things we'd never even heard about. We were lined up like a pack of dogs, trying to get at her. It was all anybody ever talked about, how to get in her pants, how to get her in ours. I guess I was no better than the other guys." He shot me an embarrassed smile.
"Go on."
"Some of 'em didn't even bother going through the motions. Just picked her up and took her out to the beach. They didn't even take her out on a date."
"But you did."
He lowered his gaze. "I took her out a few times. I felt guilty even doing that. She was kind of pathetic… and scary at the same time. She was bright enough, but she wanted desperately to believe someone cared. It made you feel sheepish, so you'd get together with the guys afterward and bad-mouth her."
"For what you'd done," I supplied.
"Right. I still can't think about her without feeling kind of sick. What's strange is I can still remember things she did." He paused for a moment, eyebrows going up. He shook his head once, blowing out a puff of air. "She was really outrageous… insatiable's the word… but what drove her wasn't sex. It was… I don't know, self-loathing or a need to dominate. We were at her mercy because we wanted her so much. I guess our revenge was never really giving her what she wanted, which was old-fashioned respect."
"And what was hers?"
"Revenge? I don't know. Creating that heat. Reminding us that she was the only source, that we could never have enough of her or anything even halfway like her for life. She needed approval, some guy to be nice. All we ever did was snicker about her behind her back, which she must have known."
"Did she get hung up on you?"
"I suppose. Not for long, I don't think."
"It would help if you could tell me who else might have been involved with her."
He shook his head. "I can't. You're not going to get me to blow the whistle on anybody else. I still hang out with some of those guys."
"How about if I read you some names off a list?"
"I can't do that. Honestly. I don't mind owning up to my own part in it, but I can't implicate anybody else. It's an odd bond and something we don't talk about, but I'll tell you this-her name gets mentioned, we don't say a word, but we're all thinking the same damn thing."
"What about guys who weren't friends of yours?"
"Meaning what?"
"At the time of the murder, she was apparently having an affair and got herself knocked up."
"Don't know." *
"Make a guess. There must have been rumors."
"Not that I heard."
"Can you ask around? Somebody must know."
"Hey, I'd like to help, but I've probably already said more than I should."
"What about some of the girls in your class? Someone must have been clued in back then."
He cleared his throat again. "Well. Barb might know. I could ask her, I guess."
"Barbara who?"
"My wife. We were in the same class."