“Why not?”
“I figured she’d tell me if she wanted me to know. Both of us were busy, and we were going to sit down for a long chat when I got here.” As she said the last part, her chest tightened.
“Sorry,” he said.
“We’re never going to have that chat.”
“I know. Death makes you think about what you regret not doing.”
“You have regrets?”
“Some.”
“What?” she asked.
“People I should have made time for. There was a guy who mentored me. He’d called me and suggested that we go to dinner, but I was studying for exams and asked if we could wait until the next week. Then he died of a heart attack, and I wish we’d gotten together one last time before it happened. I mean, maybe he had a premonition that he wasn’t going to be here much longer.”
Maybe she shouldn’t be pushing for information, but she couldn’t help herself. She wanted to know about him—to feel closer to him. “You said people.”
“Yeah.”
“Who else?”
He didn’t answer for a long moment. “My mom.”
“She passed away too?”
“Yeah. She had a tough life. I tried to make it easier for her when I had the money to do it. I got her a nice apartment and some furniture.” She saw his Adam’s apple bob. “But I didn’t visit real often.”
“I didn’t visit my dad either.”
He raised one shoulder. “You didn’t get along?”
“He always had his own ideas about how I should live my life. Since I didn’t agree, I didn’t give him a lot of chances to carp at me about it.” She raised one hand, turning it palm up. “It was easy to block him out. But there was plenty I couldn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“Over the past few years, I’ve spent too much time doing stuff I didn’t want to and not enough time doing things I wanted to do.”
“Why?” he asked
“To get ahead. You didn’t do the same kind of stuff?” she challenged.
“If you mean police work, I guess that’s right.”
Again, she couldn’t stop herself from pushing beyond what would be normal boundaries. “You were in an organization where discipline was important. Did that ever get to you?”
“Yeah.”
“And you could have waited out the desk assignment, but you quit.”
“Right. I guess I’m with Rockfort Security because I reached the decision that I wanted to do things my way.”
“You’re lucky.”
He laughed. “It took a long time for me to find the right balance.”
She wanted more insights into what made Max tick, but he switched the subject to her again.
“Is this going to change the way you live?”
“What do you mean by—this?” she asked in a voice she couldn’t quite hold steady.
“The murders.”
She took a moment before answering. “I think it will.”
“What if your being down here makes you lose that job you were talking on the phone about?”
“I guess I’ll have to let it go.”
“Did you ever let a job go before?”
“Like I said, I’m reevaluating my priorities.” She stepped into the hall, hoping that the tone of her voice made it clear that she didn’t want to discuss her business decisions with him. Or anyone else—because there wasn’t anyone who could give her the counsel she needed. Certainly not Jerry Ellison.
Apparently he picked up on her determination to close the subject because he said, “What about Angela’s mother? Would Angela have said anything to her about her problems?”
Olivia thought about that as they stood in the darkened hallway. “Her mother’s in a nursing home. I’m betting Angela wouldn’t have bothered her with anything negative.”
“But we could talk to her tomorrow.”
“You want to do that?”
“I want to follow up whatever leads we have. And I didn’t feel like I got much tonight. Most people at the reunion meeting were on their best behavior. They were trying to project how successful and well adjusted they were.”
“Well, except for Tommy Larson trying to kick you out.”
He laughed. “Yeah. Was he always so aggressive?”
“He was a football player.”
“Right.”
“And you think that person on the property changed things?” she asked.
“Don’t you? I mean, don’t you think someone coming here brings the investigation closer to you?”
She wished she could deny it, but she could only nod in agreement.
“I have the name of the nursing home in my notes. We can go over and see her tomorrow.”