Heart-Shaped Box (Claire Montrose Series) (14 page)

“
Is that so?” Tyler made a note, then looked up. “What about you dating her, as was referenced tonight?”

Richard flushed to the top of his high forehead. “That was only once, and a very long time ago. I doubt she remembered me.”

“
I didn’t get that impression. The way I remember it, she was leading a cheer for you.”

“
She was just showing me a little of one of the new routines she’s working on for her business as a cheerleading consultant. I guess we were the last people to ever see her cheer.” He pushed the hair out of his eyes. “God, what a waste. A woman like that, cut down in her prime.”

“
What did you talk about with her tonight?”

“
We exchanged a few words. She seemed very interested in my line of business, wanted to know how things were going, how many units we were selling, things like that.”

“
Things like that,” Tyler echoed, not bothering to hide the sarcastic spin to the words.

Richard set his jaw and looked Tyler straight in the eye. “I found she evinced interest in everyone. We all knew her, didn’t we? Or at least we wanted to. I was surprised to see her with her husband with her tonight, but she told me she had only asked him to come along because she was nervous. Nervous! As if she had any reason to be nervous.”

Tyler looked up, his face alert. “What do you mean, you were surprised to see her husband her tonight?”

“
I’d heard that they were in the process of getting a divorce.”

Tyler started. “A divorce? Where did you hear this from?”
Richard looked down at his narrow white hands. He laced his fingers together, then lowered them to his lap. “I don’t really remember. I guess it must have been a rumor.”

Tyler made a note. “Did you see her arguing with anyone tonight?”

“
There may be one person you ought to be talking to. Sometime in the latter part of the evening, I went to the restroom. And when I came out, Cindy was standing near the door talking to Wade Mertz. You know, the man who was on the football team? She seemed angry. And he was holding his cheek, and I saw a red mark on it. Like she had slapped him.”

“
Could you hear what either one of them was saying?”

“
No. Her tone was too low. But it was intense. Intense and angry.”

“
And Wade? Was he angry, too?”

Richard’s tone couldn’t mask his disappointment. “No. No, he wasn’t. He appeared to be laughing. And that was just making her angrier.”

“
Were you aware of anyone leaving the bar after, say, ten p.m.?”

“
To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to who was in the bar and who wasn’t. There were a lot of people. It was kind of overwhelming. Everyone had a lot of questions about Simplex.”

“
How about Logan West? Did you talk to him or see him leaving at any point?”
“Is he a suspect?” Tyler let the long silence stretch out. “I suppose you can’t answer that. I remember in eighth grade we had a lot of the same advanced classes together, but by our senior year, Logan was ... broken. Now that you mention it, I might have seen him go in and out a couple of times. But then again, he is a smoker, isn’t he? Although maybe he wasn’t there during the last part of the evening. I can’t be sure, though.”

“
And did you yourself leave the bar at any time tonight?”
“No. No, I didn’t. Not until” - Richard’s voice broke for the first time - “not until I saw Cindy lying on the ground.”

Chapter Thirteen

From the interview with Jessica McFarland

“
Take my picture?” Jessica was already pulling a compact and a tube of lipstick from her purse. “Give me just a second.”

“
This isn’t for publication, Jessica.” Tyler drummed his pen on the desk. “It’s just in case we turn up witnesses. I don’t need someone telling me they saw Cindy when it turns out they saw you.”

Jessica’s words were muffled as she pursed her lips to meet the scarlet wand. “But I’m brunette and Cindy is - I mean was - blonde.” Slipping the cap back on the lipstick, she gave her reflection a satisfied smile. Then she remembered the occasion for her primping. She looked up at Tyler, her eyes widening as she suddenly began to blink back tears. “I still can’t believe this has happened. It is beyond belief. Cindy was just so full of - life! When I saw her lying there, alone, cold, violated.... I wanted to cry out - where is the justice? Why has someone so alive been taken from us?” A tear spilled down her cheek. “Quick - take the picture before my mascara starts to run.”

The camera whirred and spat out a picture. Tyler put it face down on the desk. “You and Cindy ran in different circles in high school, right?”

“
There was still this connection between us.” She thumped her cleavage with a closed fist. Tyler’s gaze lingered on the gentle sway of her breasts.

“
A connection?”

“
At Minor, we may not have run in the same circles, but we admired each other’s work, you know? We both knew excellence when we saw it. Cindy was born to be a cheerleader - and I was born to tread the boards, as we say in the theatre world.” Seeing Tyler’s blank expression, she added, “That means I was meant to be on stage.”

“
Did you talk to Cindy tonight?”

“
A little bit. She wanted to know what it was like to work with people like Nikki Kidman and Kevin Spacey.” If she was hoping for a reaction from Tyler, an acknowledgment of these famous names, Jessica didn’t get it. “Then she told me a little bit about her experience being on ESPN judging the national cheerleaders’ competition.”

“
What kind of mood would you say she was in?”

Jessica shrugged her shoulders. “Good. Cindy always liked being able to talk about herself. I’m sure you remember that from high school.” Tyler scribbled something in the notebook, and she leaned forward. “What are you writing down, anyway?”

He flipped the notebook closed and pulled it back. “Sometimes the smallest clues can catch a perp.”

“
So you’ve worked on this kind of case before?”

He gave her a curt nod.

“
It must be especially complicated because you know everyone involved.”

“
I’m a professional. I’ve learned how to separate my emotions from the facts.” He flipped open the notebook again, although now he held it closer to his body. “Did you see Cindy arguing with anyone tonight?”

Jessica was already shaking her head. “No. But I did see something else you might be interested in.”

“
What’s that?”

“
Well.” She drew the word out as she leaned closer to him. “I could be wrong. I only caught a quick glimpse. I was looking for Sawyer to ask him about how his campaign was going. I couldn’t find him, so I pushed open the doors to go look at the casino, see if he was maybe out there. And you know who was out there?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Belinda and Kevin. He was leaning over that table. And I don’t think they were just talking. I saw the look on her face. I think they might have been kissing.”

Tyler raised an eyebrow, his expression alert. “Kissing? You saw them kissing?”

Jessica reluctantly shook her head.

“
Touching?”

Another pause, another shake of the head. “It was the way they looked. They looked guilty and out of breath. As an actress, that is just how I would portray someone who had just been kissing.”

“
But you didn’t actually
see
them kissing.”

“
No.” Jessica pushed out her lower lip. “But I know what I saw.”

“
Uh huh,” Tyler said dubiously. “One last thing. I need to ask you about this box Cindy was holding. How was she holding it in relation to the rest of her body?”

“
Cindy was lying on her back and her arm was stretched out next to her side. At first, I didn’t really notice the box because her fingers hid most of it.”

“
Why did you pick it up? You know it was a very stupid thing to do, disturbing a crime scene like that. There’s a chance your fingerprints destroyed the perp’s.”

She dropped her gaze. “I’m sorry. I was just so startled to see that Cindy was holding a box that looked the same as the one I had gotten.”

“
Did you get it when you checked in, like the other girls?”

“
Yes, in a manila envelope with a printed label with just my name on it.”

“
If you still have the envelope, I need that, as well as the box. We’ll dust everything for prints and see if we get lucky.”

Jessica shifted in her seat. “They’re both in my hotel room. I’ll have to get them for you later.”

“
Who do you think is behind these boxes?”

“
I have no idea. I can’t even think of why the six of us all got them. We really don’t have anything in common that I can think of. We weren’t all friends in high school. We didn’t hang out with the same group of people. We don’t really look alike. We have different careers, different interests. We don’t live in the same towns now. About all we have in common is that we graduated from Minor High twenty years ago. And maybe one other thing.”

“
What’s that?”

She looked up at him, her blue eyes wide. “Maybe someone wants all of us dead.”

Chapter Fourteen

From the interview with Wade Merz

Wade looked at the photo Tyler had taken of him, then slid it back across the desk. “Not the most flattering photograph I’ve ever seen.”

Tyler looked down at Wade’s square, pudgy face, which nearly filled the photo, and then back at the real Wade. His blond hair, streaked with gray, was tamed back into ripples with hair gel. The skin around Wade’s blue eyes was swollen, his face ruddy. Refraining from comment, Tyler flipped to a new page in his notebook.

“
How well would you say that you knew Cindy?” Tyler paused, pen poised.

“
You do know that’s kind of a silly question, don’t you, Tyler?” Wade sighed and tugged at the front of his tailored lightweight denim shirt, which was pulled taut across the bulk of his abdomen. “We started going out right at the beginning of senior year. I was in hog heaven that fall.” He smiled, his voice soft with reminiscence. “There I was, the big man on campus, right, and I had my arm around Cindy Weaver, the most beautiful lady I had ever seen. If you would have asked me twenty years ago, I would have told you we were going to get married.” He made a sound like a laugh. “Just like I thought I’d have a career playing pro ball. But things didn’t work out that way, did they?” He shrugged, then looked down at his hands, open and empty in his lap. “I’ll have to admit it felt a little strange to see her tonight. Cindy is still a very attractive-looking lady. Twenty years and it’s like nothing’s touched her.” There was a pause. When Wade spoke again, there was a catch in his voice. “It was quite a shock, I’ll tell you, to see her like that out in the parking lot. It made me literally, physically sick. Just a few minutes before, I’d been thinking about how things used to be between us, and then to see her like - like that.”

“
Did you leave the Hoe-Down Room at any time before Cindy’s body was discovered?”

A shake of the head. “No. I was there the whole time until Belinda ran in screaming.”

“
How about anyone else? Did you notice anyone who was gone for more than a few minutes?”

“
I’m afraid I can’t help you there. The only person I really had my eye on was the waitress. I can tell you for sure that she didn’t go any place.”

Wade’s attempt at levity met no response. “Did you see Cindy having any kind of argument or disagreement tonight?”

Wade was already shaking his head before Tyler finished his question. “Nothing like that. Cindy was just having a good time, talking to everyone. Nobody in particular. Well, maybe a little more to people she thought it might benefit her to know. Cindy always had an eye out for that kind of thing. That’s just how she was.”

“
We’ve had reports that the two of you were seen arguing.” Tyler kept his voice deadpan, but his hand - which was drumming the pen nervously on the edge of the desk - betrayed him.

Wade started out out of his chair. “What are you talking about? What are you thinking?” Tyler drew back when Wade raised his balled hands. Just as soon as it had begun, the rage subsided. Wade fell back into his chair, uncurled his fingers, and put his hands over his face. He finally broke the long silence.

“
Are you crazy, huh, Tyler, are you crazy?” He dropped his hand and looked at Tyler with an expression of disgust. “Do you think I would be so mad at her for dumping me twenty years ago that I would strangle her now? Do you think I could forget about what she used to mean to me and just stone-cold kill her?”

“
Someone said they thought you left the bar with her.” Tyler didn’t have long to wait for Wade’s reaction to this fiction.

“
What is this all about? I like women, I’ve never denied that. Ask any of my ex-wives or girlfriends. Lord knows there are plenty of them around. All of them will tell you that I’m an asshole. That I drink too much. That I like to go to Vegas and lose all my money. And that I played around on them. Every one of them will tell you that. That I slept with ladies I met in bars, in restaurants, in airports. That I have sold cars to ladies and then sealed the deal in the backseat. But I have
never
hit a lady in my life.”