The Invitation(8)
“And you think that Ken Myers knew that was going to happen?”
“Yes I do. Why else would he take the keys out of the ignition?”
“Did you ask him?”
“Both of us did.”
“What did he say?”
“He said he thought he heard something cracking.”
“Did that sound plausible?”
“Not at all.”
“Why not?”
“We were in the car. The windows were rolled up. It was raining. The motor was running. We didn’t hear anything.”
“What did you do?”
“We called the State Police, and told ̓em what happened, then we turned the car around, and turned on our four way lights to warn others until the cops came.”
“And then?”
“Mike called his parents to let ̓em know he was okay, and then we drove back to campus.”
“You didn’t make it to your friend’s house that weekend?”
“No way, we were spooked. We didn’t want to cross any bridges in the dark, not that night. We went straight back the way we came. I was pretty shook up. Seeing that river was unnerving.”
“Sounds like a harrowing experience,” Colby says.
“It was. I couldn’t sleep that night.”
“What was Ken Myers reaction?”
“Completely unaffected. Mike and I were still jittery when we got back. We asked him to come with us to get something to eat, but he just wanted to get back to his books, and that’s what he did.”
“Did you ever make the trip again?”
“We did, several times.”
“But not Ken Myers?” Agent Colby asks.
“He wasn’t interested. Mike asked ̓him to come with us, but it never happened. It was bizarre. For the entire time I knew Ken Myers, and granted it was only three months, but still, the only time I heard him express any interest in going anywhere for any reason was that night when the bridge collapsed.”
“So you’re saying Ken Myers had some kind of foreknowledge about the bridge collapse.”
“I’m thoroughly convinced of it. I’ve thought about it a lot. When I introduced Mike to Ken Myers, he had a strange reaction to him.”
“Myers had a strange reaction.”
“That’s right, before Mike said a word it was like he was in, some kind of heightened state of perception. It’s hard to explain.”
“By the time this happened, you were already in the habit of observing Ken Myers, weren’t you? At least discreetly.”
“That’s correct. And sometimes not so discreetly.”
“What do you mean?”
“I transferred to another school after my first semester, so I knew we would be parting company fairly soon. I was curious about this guy from the start, but after the incident with the bridge collapse, I was beside myself trying to figure ̓em out. I mean, wouldn’t you be curious?”
“I suppose I would be. What did you do?”
“I, uh, did something that most people would consider ethically questionable.”
“What was that?”
Hearing no response, Agent Colby reassures Phillip.
“Mr. Garrett, nothing you say here will expose you to any future legal jeopardy. I assure you the FBI is not trying to build a case on something that happened between two college freshmen twenty-six years ago.”
“One night I told him I would be gone for the night, which was not unusual. I had a friend who had a house off campus. That afternoon when Ken was not there, I placed a hidden camera on the shelf, and recorded over four hours of him sitting alone, as usual.”
“Was he reading?”
“He was. What I did was, just to make sure he’d be sitting there, I got a book from the library, not just any book. I got the Yale version of ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare’. I don’t know if you’ve ever read Shakespeare in the original but, uh, it’s not what you’d call light reading. The book is nearly fifteen hundred pages long. He read it in less than three hours.”
“You recorded this?”
“Yes”
“Do you still have the recording?”
“I have both the original DVD and the recording equipment I used. Please take all of it. Your technicians will have an easier time confirming its authenticity.”
“That would be great if you could do that.”
Rising, and walking to the hallway closet Mr. Garrett takes a medium-sized cardboard box from the top shelf and hands it to Mr. Colby.
“Here, take it with you. See what you think it means. I’ve watched it dozens of times. I don’t know what to make of it.”
“I can assure you I’ll do that.”
“Mr. Colby, I want to say this. I am not in the habit of recording people without their knowledge. I have never done so before or since.”