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“Thank you, Sergeant Tobin,” Remy said. “One more question. Did any of your other classmates leave early?”

“Only French.”

“Do you know if any of those who returned to the barracks went out again before morning?”

Tobin laughed. “I don’t think we could have. Everyone was pretty shitfaced by then.”

“Did you notice anyone hanging around Ms. French earlier at the pub?”

“No,” Tobin said. “Hey, if you see French, tell her I hope she’s okay. We always treated her as one of the guys, but we knew she wasn’t. She was better than just one of the guys. She worked harder than any man to make it through and always had our backs. I don’t know what’s happened to her, but I hate to think we didn’t do enough to have her back in return.”

Remy thanked the Sergeant and ended the call.

Danny sat back in her chair and blinked back tears. “I always thought they hadn’t given me a second thought. But they had.”

Jacques reached for her hand.

Danny placed it in his. “They thought I was okay based on the response to Tobin’s text.”

“Do you remember sending the text?” Jacques asked, his hand curling around hers.

“No. My last memory was of going to the bathroom.” She closed her eyes and tried hard to recall anything else. She opened her eyes, her lips pressing together. “I don’t remember anything after that.”

“You might not have sent that text,” Remy said.

“Someone sent it for you.” Jacques’s jaw tightened.

Remy checked his calendar. “We have two more interviews. Do you still want to be here?”

Danny nodded.

The next two classmates had little more to offer. When the interviews ended, Swede pulled up the photo and zoomed in on the faces of Danny’s classmates.

Danny studied them and the pub. “I remember the pub. It was a Friday night, and the place was crowded. We’d taken up one end of the bar.” She stared at the bar and the people in the background. “That face looks familiar,” she said, pointing at a man sitting at the bar, his face turned toward their group as they took the selfie.

“Was he someone from the school?” Jacques asked.

Danny shook her head. “No. I know that face from someone more recent.”

Remy leaned closer, his eyes narrowing. “He’s a bit blurred. Is there a way to bring him into focus?”

“I’ll try,” Swede said.

The man’s face got blurrier at first, then his features sharpened.

“Son of a bitch,” Remy swore. “That’s Hale, the government contractor who arrived with Colonel Jeffries.”

Jacques’s hand tightened around Danny’s. “We need to talk to him and find out what the hell he was doing there that night.”

“He left with Jeffries and Beaumont yesterday,” Remy said. “I’ll see if I can schedule a video call.”

“There’s something else I ran across that may or may not pertain to Ms. French’s assault,” Swede said. “I found an archived news article about another attack near Fort Benning. The article alleged the woman had been drugged and assaulted in a hotel.”

Danny’s fingers squeezed Jacques’s hand. “When did it happen?”

“A few months after yours,” Swede said. “I’m working on identifying the victim. As soon as I get a name and contact number, I’ll see if she’s willing to talk.”

“Sweet Jesus, he did it again.” Danny pressed her free hand to her chest to ease the tightness. “I should’ve gone to the police, pushed harder and found him before he hurt someone else. It’s my fault he got to her.”