“Who was raped?” he asked.
Olivia dragged in a breath and let it out.
For a moment he thought she wasn’t going to answer. Then she said in a low voice, “Angela.”
Max’s head snapped toward her. “And you didn’t think this was relevant information?”
“It may be relevant.”
“Who raped her?”
“She didn’t know.”
“Why not?”
“People drank out there, and someone must have put something in her drink. You know, like that date-rape drug.”
“But a bunch of people must have been around. Didn’t anyone notice who she was with?”
Olivia sighed. “She never said. Maybe she knew and didn’t want to go through what it would take to press charges.”
He thought about the explanation. And he could see it from the point of view of a teenage girl.
“And she told you about it later?”
“Yes. And later there was a rumor circulating that a girl was raped, but most people didn’t know who it was.”
“So she could have been lying about it.”
Olivia’s jaw tightened. “Why would she lie about something like that?”
“To get herself out of some other kind of other trouble?”
“How does rape get you out of trouble?” she snapped, unable to keep herself from reacting.
“Well, if she’d gotten pregnant and didn’t want to admit she’d been fooling around.”
“She wasn’t pregnant.”
“You’re sure.”
She took her lower lip between her teeth. “Well, I don’t know for sure, but if she was, she hid it pretty well.”
“Claiming you were raped would be a way to call attention to yourself.”
Olivia’s expression turned angry. “Listen, Max, give it a rest. The stuff you’re suggesting doesn’t make any sense to me. Angela was upset. She needed to talk to someone. I thought it was true. Can we stop talking about it now?”
He knew the conversation was upsetting her, which might mean that pressing her would draw out information she was deliberately holding back. On the other hand, he had to work with her until they solved the murders. And he needed her to trust him. More than that, he needed her to feel that it was safe to confide in him. He pulled back a little, taking the focus off Angela. “But somehow word got around?”
“Someone left a note at the hangout saying a girl had been raped.”
“Interesting. Who would that have been besides her? Or you? If nobody else knew about it.”
“The guy who did it.”
“What would be his motivation?”
“Maybe he wanted to have private parties out there, and he wanted to keep other people away.”
“That’s what you really think?”
“You asked me a bunch of questions, I was trying to come up with answers.”
Max felt the tension crackling in the car. He was sure there was more to the story—facts he’d have to drag out of Olivia.
He started with, “Let’s go see the place.”
“I haven’t been there in years.”
“But you know how to find it.”
“Yes.”
He started the engine. “Give me directions.”
“I’ll bet you know where it is,” she whispered.
“What’s that?”
“You might not have gone there, but you probably knew about it.”
He sighed. “Okay, yeah. But I never tried to find it.”
“Why not?”
“What would I have done there—hung out with the rich kids?”
“I guess not.” She swallowed hard, then said, “You know where Wilkins Dam Road is?”
“Yes.”
“Head that way.”
He pulled onto the blacktop and drove back to the Winters’ farm, where he turned around and headed toward the area where the Suburban Sanitary Commission had built a reservoir and a dam and then planted the woods along the reservoir with thousands of azalea bushes. In the springtime, people flocked there. It was a showplace bursting with the color of the blossoms that rivaled the National Arboretum in D.C. During the rest of the year it was a pleasant place for nature walks.
From the corner of his eye, Max saw Olivia sitting rigidly next to him. He pretended that he wasn’t watching her as he turned onto the two-lane highway that led to the dam, which had been built in the early ’40s. The road ran through a hilly area that had once been completely rural. But as more people had moved to Howard County, builders had taken advantage of the forested lots.
All the development made him wonder if the hideout had been abandoned in the wake of approaching civilization. Then they entered a wooded area with no houses that was probably part of the reservoir property.