Chapter 28: The Interrogation (Fragment 7)

February 20, 2014, 7:54 PM
Case #: 124.678.21-001
OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPTION OF POLICE INTERVIEW

~~START PAGE 6~~

INTERROGATOR: Does the name Blair Duncan mean anything to you?

THORN: It does now.

INTERROGATOR: Have you and Blair Duncan ever met before today?

THORN: Not that I know of.

INTERROGATION: Have you ever, at any time, been in communication with Blair Duncan?

THORN: No.

INTERROGATOR: Were you and Blair Duncan acting together?

THORN: No, of course not. That's what I've been trying to tell you. Stop wasting time talking to me, and go talk to that Blair person.

INTERROGATOR:We're talking to everyone involved. We're just trying to disentangle the truth from the fiction here.

THORN: OK, well, I had no idea that Blair Duncan even existed before today.

INTERROGATOR: Do you have any idea what may have led this individual to show up in Midland?

THORN: Presumably because of the whole thing with the meet-and-greet.

INTERROGATOR: Tell us about the "thing with the meet-and-greet," as you put it.

THORN: It was supposed to happen right after sound check.

INTERROGATOR: Back up a few steps for me, if you don't mind. Let me see if I have my facts correct. You were scheduled to perform a private concert tonight at the Trail Dust Honky Tonk Saloon for a corporate sponsor. BioZorb Pharmaceuticals. Is that correct?

THORN: Well, basically.

INTERROGATOR: Basically?

THORN: Yes, that's correct.

INTERROGATOR: Were you going to correct something? Go ahead.

THORN: I mean, just that BioZorb Pharmaceuticals is a crock of shit. You know that, right?

INTERROGATOR: By all means, enlighten us.

THORN: There is no BioZorb Pharmaceuticals. No such company. It's just a name my manager made up.

INTERROGATOR: Your manager?

THORN: I wanted to make a tour stop in Midland, so we kind of rigged it to look like some company hired me to do a private show.

INTERROGATOR: You and your manager rigged it?

THORN: Just so my label wouldn't get their panties in a bunch.

INTERROGATOR: So BioZorb Pharmaceuticals was a shell company set up by your business manager, Maury Gilman, under direction from you?

THORN: Don't tell me now that's illegal. It's not, is it? Listen, I paid my private performance fee out of my own pocket. Half a million dollars for an hour-long set.

INTERROGATOR: Let me make sure I have this right. You paid your record label half a million dollars of your own money in order to come play a show in Midland, Texas for a non-existent company?

THORN: Yes.

INTERROGATOR: You must really have a thing for Midland.

THORN: No. I have a thing for Tessa.

INTERROGATOR: You set the whole thing up as a ruse to meet Tessa Hart.

THORN: Come on, man. A ruse? It was supposed to be a grand romantic gesture.

INTERROGATOR: I see. And was Tessa aware of this romantic gesture?

THORN: Yes. I mean, no. Not exactly. She thought she was coming to the show to meet Taylor. She thought Taylor worked for that company, BioZone or whatever. That was the story. Taylor worked for a pharmaceutical company and convinced his boss to hire Eric Thorn for some big corporate bash in Midland.

INTERROGATOR: Wait a minute. Are you saying now that there is an actual person named Taylor? The person running the @EricThornSucks Twitter account was not, in fact, you?

THORN: No, no, no. It was me. Seriously, it's not that complicated. You can't follow this?

INTERROGATOR: You'll have to excuse me. It can get a little murky when people start referring to their own multiple aliases in the third person.

THORN: You really don't like me very much, do you?

INTERROGATOR: Let me ask you this, Eric. Now, this might sound like a stupid question, but I have to ask. Why all the subterfuge? Why didn't you simply tell Tessa that the person she'd been talking to was you?

THORN: I was going to. That's why I staged this whole thing. I wanted to tell her in person.

INTERROGATOR: Why?

THORN: It's complicated.

INTERROGATOR: I'm going to need you to explain.

THORN: I should've done it months ago. That's what I should have done. Before I got in so deep.

INTERROGATOR: Why didn't you?

THORN: You don't understand what it's like to be famous.

INTERROGATOR: Go ahead. Help me understand.

THORN: It's terrifying. OK? It's scary as shit. It means looking over your shoulder everywhere you go, every step you take, forever. For the rest of my life, probably. It means every single person I meet, online or offline, I have to look at them and wonder if they're some kind of psychotic stalker lunatic who's going to try to murder me in my sleep.

INTERROGATOR: Murder you?

THORN: See, that sounds kind of paranoid, right? Kind of crazy. Except it's not. It's my reality. It was Dorian Cromwell's reality too. His murder just brought it into focus for me. Do you know there's an actual psychological syndrome? It has a name and everything. Erotomanic Celebrity Worship Syndrome. Celebrity stalkers who genuinely believe their victims are in love with them. They used it at the murder trial. Some expert witness diagnosed her.

INTERROGATOR: You lost me again. Who are we talking about right now?

THORN: I'm saying, the fan girl who killed Dorian Cromwell. Did you follow the trial coverage at all? She was totally delusional. Apparently, he touched her hand one time at a concert, and she somehow talked herself into believing that Dorian was her boyfriend. Like they were in a secret relationship that no one else knew about. She truly believed it. She thought he loved her. And when it became clear that it wasn't true, she couldn't handle it, and she hunted him down and killed him.

INTERROGATOR: I'm sorry, Eric. How exactly does this relate to the crime we're investigating here?

THORN: You asked me why I didn't just tell Tessa who I was from the beginning. But I couldn't. I have to be incredibly careful about giving my fans any kind of personal attention.

INTERROGATOR: You were concerned that Tessa might misinterpret your interest in her as romantic. You considered her a threat to your personal safety?

THORN: Not Tessa specifically. Just all my fans in general.

INTERROGATOR: I see. So you felt it necessary to adopt an alias in order to protect your anonymity.

THORN: Yes! Thank you! That's exactly it.

INTERROGATOR: But now you no longer consider Tessa a threat?

THORN: No, not at all. Now I actually am in a secret relationship with her. That's why I came here to meet her.

INTERROGATOR: And you never revealed your identity to her over Twitter because-

THORN: Because I've been lying to her for months at this point, and I thought it would be better to come clean in person.

INTERROGATOR:  Hence the meet-and-greet.

THORN: Exactly.

INTERROGATOR: The meet-and-greet was your idea? Or was it hers?

THORN: Actually neither.

INTERROGATOR: Neither?

THORN: I'm pretty sure it was Nev's idea. Or maybe Max's.

INTERROGATOR: Nev and Max?

THORN: Nev Schulman and Max Joseph. The guys from Catfish. You know, from MTV? Tessa contacted them a few weeks ago. Didn't you see the DMs?

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