Chapter 20: Vindication

MR. ROBINSON WAS speechless when I showed him the images. “Where did these come from, Christopher? Who gave them to you?”

“Is it important, really important, to know that, Mr. Robinson?”

He looked at me as though I’d grown a second head.

“Absolutely. The police and prosecutor will want to know. They’ll want to go directly to the source.”

“Jeff. He was there. He filmed it at Dale’s request. I guess they thought they were going to go into porn production somehow, but Jeff said he never saw anything anywhere else. Maybe they decided it was too dangerous. It’s like Dale to have something to hold over Ellie, anyway. That’s probably what he wanted the most.”

“Does Jeff have the originals? I mean, does he have the video?”

I nodded. “He’s got copies, he deleted the originals on Dale’s phone and laptop. He’s got backups, too, I think.”

Robinson didn’t have to ask me about Dale. I knew what Dale’s reaction would be. “Does Jeff understand what’s going to happen?”

I explained about the move Dale had made on Jeff’s little sister and what Jeff’s motivation seemed to be.

“I imagine he’s going to deny or refuse to admit he did anything other than film the thing. Is that going to wash? I mean, the cops have a pretty solid open-and-shut case as it stands, don’t they? Dale or at least someone with Dale’s exact scar pattern fucking Ellie, right?”

Robinson nodded. “We also need to think about getting an image of Dale. That shouldn’t be too hard. I’ll get a meeting with the district attorney tomorrow.” He stood up and extended his hand. It’s a terrible situation, Christopher, and I doubt it’s going to lessen Ellie’s pain about what happened, but it will at least clear you. That should mean something to her, won’t it?”

I nodded. “I hope so.” To myself, I wasn’t entirely sure.

I guess something wised Dale up. His family’s lawyers, probably. They were nothing if not realists and it was clear Dale had no case. They tried, according to Mr. Robinson, to finger Jeff as the real perp, or at least an accomplice, but they couldn’t make anything stick. Jeff flatly denied having touched Ellie. There was no evidence of more than one assailant, and no witness to the rape. Even that was kind of incredible, given how many kids were around that night.

“He’s got a plea deal,” Mr. Robinson told me. “He’s getting a little more time than you got, because of the filming, but it could have been worse for him. Five years. He’ll probably be out in three, if he doesn’t get himself killed inside. Killed for being a jerk.”

“What about Jeff?”

“Looks like nothing. He didn’t distribute the film and no one can prove that he had any part in the rape except for filming it. Dale’s side tried to claim he’d raped Ellie but he denied it and there was nothing to prove otherwise.”