Change of Heart (22 page)

I told him what I knew: Billy had seen Wayne's car in the parking lot when he left the arena, but Wayne had told me he'd gone right home after seeing Billy.

“You think Wayne killed Sean?” Morgan said.

“That's crazy,” Colin said.

“Everything's crazy,” Morgan said. “It's crazy that Sean is dead. It's crazy that he was such a jerk. It's crazy that the police think that Billy did it. I wish I'd never talked to Sean.” She got out of the car and slammed the door behind her.

Poor Morgan. She seemed to have given up hope. I couldn't blame her. We were getting nowhere.

Colin scrambled out after her. As I reached for the door handle to follow them, my phone rang.

It was Billy.

“Are you okay?” I said. “Where are you?”

“W

here do you think I am?” Billy said. He sounded tired. “Your mom was just here with that detective. She arranged for them to let me call you. Can you come see me again, Robyn? Can you bring Morgan?”

“Charlie Hart was there?” I said. That was good. “What did he want?”

“He asked me about the car I saw in the parking lot when I left the arena. But I don't think he believed me.”

“Did he say anything to you about the head janitor?”

“No.” I wasn't surprised. Cops never talk about things like that. Especially not with someone they consider a suspect. “Why? What about him?”

“The janitor told me he left right after he saw you go into the arena. He said he went home. But you told me you saw his car in the parking lot. So that means he lied to me. I called Charlie Hart and told him. He said he'd look into it.”

“So that's why he was here,” Billy said. “He asked me about the car and why I hadn't mentioned it any of the times I talked to him.”

“What did you tell him?”

“That I didn't say anything about it because I didn't know it was important. They told me someone saw me go into the arena. I saw the janitor—I spoke to him—so I knew who they meant. They didn't make a big deal about whether he saw me leave, so I didn't either.”

“Did Detective Hart say anything today about whether he saw you leave?”

“He didn't say anything.” There was an edge to his voice. “He just asked me to describe the car. So I did. And I could see right away that he didn't believe me.”

I wondered why Charlie Hart wouldn't have believed him. Unless ...

“What exactly did you tell him, Billy?”

“What does it matter?”

“Come on, Billy.”

“That it was a dark-colored car, but I couldn't tell exactly what color. It was parked at the far end of the parking lot. Not under a light or anything.”

“Dark-colored?” I said. Wayne drove a white Camaro—I'd had no trouble making out the color when Morgan and I had gone to the arena the night before. “Are you sure?”

“I know what I saw, Robyn.”

“Did you see the license plate? Even part of it?”

“No.”

“Do you remember anything else about it?”

“You sound like that cop,” he said irritably.

The driver's-side door opened.

“Billy, the car you saw wasn't Wayne's,” I said. “It belonged to someone else. Maybe someone who went into the arena right after you left.”

“Well, tell that to your detective friend, because he didn't believe a word I said.”

Colin climbed in behind the wheel. I glanced around. Morgan was nowhere in sight.

“What else do you remember about the car, Billy?” I said.

“Nothing. If I'd known it was going to be important, I would have memorized every detail. But it was just a car.”

I glanced out the window again. Where was Morgan?

“Think, Billy. Can you tell me anything else about the car you saw? Anything at all?”

“It was dark, Robyn.” There was a long pause at the other end of the line. “I think maybe there was a flag or something on the back of it.”

“What do you mean, a flag?”

“I don't know. There was something sticking up from the back. A flag.”

“From the back?” I said slowly. “Maybe from a rear window?”

Colin turned to look at me. His car had a hockey banner sticking up above the rear driver's-side window. I reached for the door handle as Billy said, “Yeah. Maybe from a rear window.”

Colin grabbed the phone from my hand.

“Hey,” I said.

He started the car. The lock
tchonked
down. I fumbled to open it, but by then the car was screeching away from the curb.

We didn't go far, but it seemed like the end of the earth when we got there. Colin pulled his car to a stop at the edge of some bluffs that towered high above the waterfront. Far below was a park and, beyond that, the water. On a warm spring or summer afternoon, the park would have been filled with cyclists, walkers, picnickers, and people walking their dogs. Motorboats would have been skimming across the lake. But at this time of year the park was deserted. Colin and I were the only people at the top of the bluffs.

I fumbled for the door handle again. Colin grabbed my wrist and wrenched it away.

“What are you doing?” I said. “Why are we here? Why won't you let me out?”

“I can't,” he said. “I just can't.”

“Morgan knows I'm with you.”

“Morgan took off. She said she wanted to see her boyfriend.”

“She'll know you were the last person to see me.”

He stared sullenly out the windshield. His hand was like a vise around my wrist.

“Colin, you have to let me go.”

Just like that, he let go. I unlocked the door, and this time Colin didn't try to stop me. He sat rigid in the driver's seat, staring out over the water below us. I hesitated.

“Go on,” he said finally, without looking at me. “Get out.”

But I couldn't make myself move. A hundred different thoughts were colliding in my brain—the car Billy had seen in the parking lot when he left the arena, the way the killer had covered Sean's face, what Morgan had told me about Colin, the letter I had found crumpled in the back seat of the car.

“What happened that night at the arena?” I said.

Colin slammed his fists against the steering wheel and let out a howl of anguish.

“He was my brother,” he said. “It was my job to protect him. Take care of him. That's what my mother always taught us—the bigger ones take care of the little ones.”

“Jon told me that you protected Sean on the ice,” I said. “He said you kept Sean in the clear. You kept the goons away from him. He said that's why you were injured so often.”

Colin was clutching the steering wheel as if it was the only thing keeping him in the car.

“Was it because of this?” I held up the piece of paper that I'd scrawled Aaron's cell number on. It was a letter from Colin's doctor, stating that Colin should not be allowed to play hockey again. The risk of another concussion was too great, and another concussion could prove fatal. “Was it because you weren't going to be able to play hockey anymore and everyone said Sean was going to go pro?”

“My dad played professional hockey,” Colin said, still staring resolutely out the windshield. “Not for that long—two years. But he always said it was the best two years of his life. He said that nothing else even came close. He had us on skates practically before we could walk. First Kevin. Then me. Then Sean. But Sean was the best. Sean had real talent.”

His knuckles were white against the dark covering of the steering wheel.

“Mr. Charm,” he said. “That's what my mother used to call him. Everyone liked him. He could talk anyone into anything—Mom, his coaches, his teachers—anyone.”

I didn't say anything.

“I went to pick him up, just like I promised Mom I would,” he said. “I got there at ten—right on time. I saw that kid come out of the arena.”

“Billy,” I said.

Colin nodded. “Sean hated that kid—ever since peewee hockey. You have no idea how he could hold a grudge. Like an elephant. He never forgot. Never.”

“Tamara said that was one of the reasons Sean started going out with Morgan,” I said. “To get back at Billy.”

Colin glanced at me. “She's so pretty,” he said.

Morgan could turn heads, that was for sure.

“I asked her out a couple of times,” he said.

“She told me.”

“But she always turned me down.”

I waited.

“When Sean found out that Tamara was cheating on him, he went nuts. He told her he wouldn't do the documentary she was planning, even though it would have been good for him. He said he didn't care. All he cared about was making sure Tamara didn't get what she wanted. He said he wanted to make her see that she could be replaced just like that.” He snapped his fingers. “So he went after Morgan. Really turned on the charm.”

He was silent for a few seconds. “Sean knew how I felt about her. He knew I'd asked her out. But he went after her anyway. He brought her to the house. He made out with her on the couch while I was sitting right there watching TV with them. I could see she was embarrassed, but ...”

Mr. Charm
, I thought.

“When I went to the arena to pick Sean up, I saw that kid, Billy, leaving. I went inside and I saw Sean on the ice.

I held my breath. What he said next could make all the difference.

“I asked him what Billy had been doing there,” Colin said.

I exhaled. Colin had spoken to Sean. That meant that Sean was still alive after Billy left.

“What did he say?” I asked.

“He said Billy had come to beg him to leave Morgan alone. Sean just laughed. He said, ‘For that, I think I'll keep her for a few more weeks.' He didn't care about her. He just cared about making Billy and Tamara miserable.”

“Then what happened?” I said.

“Then I told him what I'd heard.”

“Heard?”

“Some of the guys on the team told me that Sean was going to blow off college. I asked him about it.”

“And?”

“He made a promise to our mom. Kevin and I—we never had the grades. Mom was really disappointed. But Sean promised. He was smart, and he promised.”

I didn't say anything.

“Our mother drove us to all of our practices. She had to get up at five in the morning to make us breakfast and get us to the arena on time, but she never complained. After my dad took off, she had to make a lot of sacrifices to make sure we had the equipment we needed. And the only thing she wanted in return—the only thing—was for Sean to get an education.”

“Maybe he thought he didn't need one,” I said quietly.

“A promise is a promise,” Colin said. “He had talent on the ice. He could have done okay in school, too, if he'd tried. But he thought he didn't have to. Sean was one of those guys who didn't realize how lucky he was. He was going to have it all. He could have been nice to people. But instead he just used them.”

“Did you show him the letter?”

“He was the only person who knew I had that doctor's appointment that day. You think he even asked me how it went?”

“Did you tell him?” I asked.

He nodded.

“What did he say?”

Colin stared out over the water and the park far below us.

“He said I would never have made it anyway. He said I was too much like Dad—all muscle and no skill.”

“Is that when you—?”

“Three concussions,” he said. “All of them from watching Sean's back. And that's all he could say to me? I lost it. I just lost it.”

I remembered how his temper had raged out of control when he found out that Jon had tampered with Sean's helmet—and he hadn't made that discovery until after Sean was dead.

“Why did you cover up his face, Colin?”

“He was my brother. And I knew if I didn't bring him home, my mom would eventually go looking for him.”

And she had. Sean's mother had been the one to find him.