"Yeah, I dunno, Dad," Dylan mumbled.
"It's important to get everything straight,” May explained, making sure to sound non-judgmental.
"She was a friend, but we were, like, moving to being closer. I knew her really well. Ask anyone, we spent a lot of time together. And I said girlfriend because I didn't want anyone to think I was the type of guy who'd casually fool around with a girl."
Mrs. McDowell nodded approvingly. "Our boy has morals."
May accepted this explanation. But it didn’t rule out that he could have been the killer, and it raised the question of whether he was the type of guy who would tell a bigger lie.
"W-will this take much longer?" Dylan asked, his voice sounding small and childlike.
“You have to understand, this is a serious matter, and we have to get everything straight. So I do have a few more questions,” May said. “Next, I need you to tell me about your movements around the time of the crime. You went back to the car to get a blanket. How long did that take?"
"I told you already," he said mutinously. He was starting to seem combative, and May knew that his parents were only making things worse by being so protective of him, and being so antagonistic toward her.
May had a suspicion that Dylan McDowell was replying in this aggressive way because he was lying.
But how far?
Was he covering up a crime of passion in which he had lost control, or was he lying about something more minor?
May decided she was going to look at the minor details first.
"Where did you go when you returned back to the parking lot? Did you go straight to your car?"
Now he looked down, staring furiously at the desk.
May guessed there was something about the timeline of his actions that was an issue here.
"Did you speak to anyone?"
"Yes. I spoke to my friend George for a couple of minutes. We - we did a dare. Downing shots."
May understood now. Dylan was torn up that he hadn't gone directly back to Alyssa. And she could not argue the fact that if he wasn't the killer and he had gone straight back, then she might not have been murdered. His presence there could have kept the killer away.
However, Dylan was clever enough to realize that and there was no reason at all to labor this point. The guilt was probably eating away at him already. Nobody could possibly have known this would happen, and Alyssa had not necessarily been left in dangerous circumstances.
And if Alyssa had been targeted personally and the murderer had wanted to kill her specifically, then he would have made a plan to try again.
"So you then got the blanket and returned to the woods?"
"Yeah."
Now she saw relief in his eyes. Relief that he wasn't being judged for having spent time with his friend.
"Did you hear or see anything on your way back?" she asked.
He narrowed his eyes and she could tell he was thinking, really thinking, about this.
"I think I heard a scream, but at the time I thought it was from the party behind me. I didn't realize she was screaming," he said. "But now, I'm thinking it might have been her."
"You didn't mention that earlier."
"Well, I wasn't sure."
"Did you see anything?"
"No."