“Honestly, Neil was a bit of a slacker and he smoked too much weed, but he was pretty harmless.”
“The papers said he was using heroin that night, the night of the murder,” Hannah put in. There had been pro-prosecution coverage in the media that focused on the fact that Dandridge’s story had been that he spent the night of the murder hanging out with Neil Prosper and using drugs, and that he had fal en asleep on Prosper’s couch.
The articles focused strongly on the drug use, saying that Prosper was Dandridge’s drug dealer and that Dandridge’s only defense was that he had been shooting up and was so strung out he couldn’t have committed the murder. The tone of the articles was consistently skeptical, and had not been the defense used at Dandridge’s trial.
Hannah had supposed that his attorney had realized that heroin use was not the most sympathetic of excuses.
Angie made a face. “No way,” she said. “I never saw Neil touch anything harder than an E tab. Besides, I was there that night.”
Hannah caught her breath. Camila sat up straighter in her chair.
“You were with Neil and Michael on the night of the murder?”
Hannah asked.
“Yes,” Angie said, simply. “Wel , I was with them from about seven P.M. until just after ten. Then I went home.”
“And you’re sure about the date?” Camila asked.
“Yes. I was supposed to go back to school the next day, and I wanted to spend the night with Neil. I wasn’t exactly thril ed to find Mike there when I got over. They were smoking and they were pretty wel baked. I hung out with them for a while. They ordered pizza. I final y figured out that Mike wasn’t going anywhere and Neil wasn’t going to make him, so I went home in a huff.”
“So you think you left at ten?” Hannah asked. How had Angie’s presence not come to light before now? Why wouldn’t Dandridge have mentioned her to his attorneys? Or maybe he had, and they’d decided her evidence wouldn’t help.
Angie nodded. “I’m pretty sure.”
“Wel , the time line suggests that the murder happened a couple of hours later,” Hannah said. “Can you think of anything that would suggest Michael might have left later? Did you ever talk to Neil about it?”
Angie raised her shoulders in a gentle shrug. “Honestly? I would have been surprised if Mike had gone anywhere that night. He often slept over on the couch at Neil’s. I think he was lonely. He didn’t seem to have many friends. And they real y weren’t in any shape to go anywhere that night. Apart from the weed, they were splitting a bottle of whiskey, listening to music. You know, they were settled in.”
This was al just opinion. It wasn’t proof of any kind. Whatever Angie said, there was nothing at al to stop Dandridge leaving the house as soon as Neil passed out. By her own admission Angie had been distracted by her boyfriend. It would have been easy for Dandridge to go with the flow, make it seem like he was drinking and smoking heavily while al the time letting Neil take the lion’s share.
“Did you ever confirm that with Neil?” Camila was asking. “Did he ever tel you how the night ended?”
Angie shook her head. “I went back to school the fol owing morning. And I was so pissed at Neil for not making an effort on my last night that I didn’t cal him for a few days. I kept waiting for him to cal me, and then when he didn’t, my pride wouldn’t let me make the first move, you know? Three weeks later, when Mike was arrested, I cal ed Neil then. I cal ed him maybe four or five times. But I never reached him. Next time I came home to Yorktown, I went over to his place. You know, I had the excuse of wanting to pick up my stuff—I had left a few books, a couple of sweatshirts at his place—but real y I just wanted to have a good argument. Get a bit of closure. But Neil wasn’t there. His landlord lived in the place upstairs and he told me that Neil just bounced. He didn’t even give notice, but because he’d paid a couple of months in advance, the landlord wasn’t complaining.”
“And that’s it?” Hannah asked. “You never heard from him again?”
“Never,” Angie said.
“What about his friends? His family?” Camila asked.
“Other than Mike, I never real y got to know his friends. There were other guys they hung out with, of course, but I only saw them if we al met up at a bar. And Neil had a sister. She’s older . . . I think they were close, but I never met her. It wouldn’t real y have occurred to me to reach out to anyone to try to get in touch with him. I guess I just figured if he didn’t want me, that was that.”