Chapter 8

The family was seated at the table enjoying brunch. The sisters filled their parents in on all that had happened at the dance, from the drama with Gina Cosgrove, to the fun and silliness of everyone dancing.

Pictures of the Brute Squad conga line looked hysterical, and the ones of the girls with their dates, dancing, looking romantic.

Felicia’s phone chimed. “Hello?”

“Good morning. My name is Detective John Hornberger, with the Tempe Police. Is Felicia Marquez available?”

“Speaking.”

“Miss Marquez, it’s my understanding that you were witness to a situation last night at the Corona del Sol homecoming dance. Is this correct?”

“My sister and I, along with our boyfriends, were there.”

“I see. Would it be possible for you to come to the station to give a statement on what you saw last night? It shouldn’t take much time.”

“Please talk to my father.” She handed the phone to Hector.

Two hours later, the family was escorted to a conference room at the police station. They were greeted by three people. “Good morning, everyone, I’m Detective Hornberger. I spoke with you earlier. Thank you for coming in to speak with us today.” He nodded to his companions. “With me is Detective Elise Farragut, and Officer John Ayers. We are part of the Tempe Special Victims Unit. The SVU gets involved when there is an investigation into charges of sexual assault. We want to make sure we have all the information available, to present a strong case for a prosecution. Does anyone have objections to this conversation being recorded?”

“Before we continue, how is the girl?” Sylvia asked.

“We’re really not at liberty to say, but I will acknowledge that she is doing well and will soon be released to her parents’ care.”

The girls let out a sigh of relief. They had seen how disoriented Gina was when they were with her in the bathroom, waiting for the EMT people to show up.

“I want to start with asking everyone here to introduce themselves for the recording.” Once that was done, Hornberger continued. “Can someone start with telling us what happened? A time-line of events? We can take turns as needed.”

“I’ll go first,” Scott began. “We were at the dance and saw Merced and Gina come in and sit down with his friends at another table. They danced together for a few songs and then all the girls were called up for a special ‘ladies only’ dance. Gina went back up onto the dance floor. While the girls were dancing, I looked over towards the table where Merced was seated. He was laughing with his friends and then he pulled a small bottle out of his jacket pocket and poured the contents into Gina’s drink. The other guys at the table all saw him do it.”

The three SVU members nodded and were busy making notes on tablets. “Please continue.”

“The song ended and Gina came back to the table. I guess she was thirsty because she grabbed her cup and drank the contents in a fast gulp.”

“A question,” Officer Ayers interjected. “Did you try to stop her?”

“It all happened so quickly, there was nothing I could really do.”

“Can you state how you know the accused?” Ayers continued.

“I met him on this past Thursday. I’m visiting from California and was allowed to attend classes with Karmen at her school. During lunch, he asked her to go to the dance with him and she declined.”

“Would you say that your relationship with him is adversarial?”

“There’s no ‘relationship’ at all. May I continue?”

Ayers nodded, not catching the scowl building on Hector’s face.

“After seeing Gina drink whatever was in her cup, I asked Karmen to go over to the table where Felicia was seated with her boyfriend and have them come back quickly. I told them what I had seen, and the girls all went to take Gina to the bathroom and call 911 for help and we guys sat with Merced and his friends to stop them from doing anything stupid.”

Karmen spoke up. “While that was happening, we were in the bathroom with Gina. Felicia had called 911 to request assistance. She told us that she was feeling very disoriented, like she was floating.” “Did she say how she knew Merced?” Detective Farragut leaned forward.