Private Affair(68)
“Actually, no.”
“Why not?”
Olivia cleared her throat. “Because the murderer had dark hair, and you don’t.”
Brian stared at her. “Are you saying you saw him? Then why don’t you know who it was?”
Olivia could see Max was struggling not to leap across the desk and strangle the guy. She watched him drag in a calming breath and put a hand on his knee.
Last time he had done most of the talking. This time she thought it would be better if she took the lead.
“We’re here because we need your help. And we’re going to tell you stuff that the cops want kept confidential. You’ve got to promise you won’t tell anyone else.”
Brian thought about it, then nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
Max looked at Olivia. “Tell him how you saw the killer but didn’t see his face.”
“He had on a gas mask,” she said. “So I couldn’t see his features at all. But I saw part of his hair.”
“A gas mask? Why?”
“Partly to hide his identity, I’m sure. But he also threw a smoke bomb through the window of my house before he came in and started shooting.”
Brian winced. “Holy crap.”
“So let’s cut to the chase,” Max said.
“But I wasn’t there last night. I can’t tell you anything. Why did you come here?”
“Because Claire’s murder confirms what we told you yesterday. So far, everyone who has been killed was at that party at your house. The same party where Gary Anderson shot at Craig Pendergast.”
“Christ, I never should have invited anyone over when my parents were out of town. I only asked a few friends, and then the news of the party spread around the school.”
“We all do stupid stuff when we’re teenagers. You know I did,” Max said, probably trying to reassure Brian that they weren’t blaming him for anything that had happened. “And you didn’t know anyone was going to end up dead.”
“You were going to get us a list of the people who were at the party. Did you start working on it, or did you forget about it?” Olivia asked, wondering if she and Max were playing good cop, bad cop, or alternating the roles.
Brian reddened. “I didn’t actually get to it. I mean, I didn’t think anyone was going to get killed last night.”
“Let’s try to do it together,” Olivia suggested.
Brian gave her a grateful look. “Good idea.”
She came around to his side of the desk, where she could see his computer screen, and he opened a notepad and started listing people. She added names, and it gave her the shivers to see how many of those people were dead.
“Is there anything else you can tell us about what happened that night?” Max pressed.
“Like what?”
“Something illegal. Something to do with sex or drugs? I don’t know, but I think there was something else going on”
Brian was silent.
“Do you know about kids going up to the cabin up by Wilkins Dam?”
Brian’s gaze swung toward Olivia, then away.
“So you know something about it?” Max asked in a hard voice.
“There was some talk.” Olivia waited, her breath shallow. Was Max going to ask, “Are you the guy who drove her there the day she was raped?” But he didn’t put the question to Brian, and neither man said anything specific about her.
“So maybe something happened the night of the party—something that maybe kept going up at the cabin where there was more privacy. Olivia said most people cleared out after the shooting at the party. Did anyone stick around?”
Brian swiped his hand through his hair. “Okay, there is something. After most people left, Troy and Tommy were still there talking about how Gary fucked up their plans.”
“Troy Masters and Tommy Larson,” Max said.
“Yes.”
“After the party broke up, they said they weren’t ready to call it a night. Because it was Cinco de Mayo. A night to celebrate. I think both of them had been hoping for some action.” He looked at Olivia again, then away.
“Troy wanted to give me and Angela a ride,” Olivia whispered. “I wonder where we would have ended up if we’d gotten into his car. Not at home, I’ll bet.”
“So what happened next?” Max prompted.
“Troy said he knew where they could get some women—down on Baltimore Street.”
“The Baltimore red light district,” Olivia said.
Brian nodded. “And they left.”
“And that was the end of it?” Max asked.
“Well, the next time I saw Troy, I asked him how it went, and he was evasive. I got the feeling something happened down there that he didn’t want to talk about.”