Part 16 (1/2)
”Its a Wonderful Life. Black and white and deadly boring.”
”I liked it.”
”You would.”
”And Jason?” Winters asked, cutting off Robs reply. ”What did he do?”
”Went out,” Jeremy said. ”Soon as we got back. Took the car.”
”Where did he go?”
The three boys exchanged glances.
Smith moved away from the wall.
”Didnt say,” Alan said, at last.
”But you can guess,” Winters said.
Jeremy spoke first. ”Hed picked up a local girl. She was here the previous night, testing out the mattress. I a.s.sumed hed gone to meet her.”
”Jason and Ewan were sharing a room, right?”
”Yeah.”
”Ewan didnt have a problem with the mattress being tested in his room?”
”I dont know what Ewan had a problem with and what he didnt,” Rob said.
”Come on, Rob. I bet this cops been around the block more than a few times. Probably even with that young constable, eh?” Jeremy leered at Smith.
Smith kept her face impa.s.sive; only the veins in her neck moved.
Good thing Lucky Smith had left the room, Winters thought. Otherwise shed no doubt want to contribute to the conversation at this point.
”Tell me about the relations.h.i.+p between Ewan and Jason, Jeremy.”
”They got on well 'cause when it came to girls they were opposites. Ewan liked the prowl. Back alleys, back yard sheds, back bedrooms, back streets. Hed do it anywhere. With anyone. Whereas Jason liked to find a girl and keep her close, for a while. Less work that way. They were never allowed to spend the night, because Ewan would be coming back at some time. Except when he didnt.”
”You really are a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, arent you?” Rob said.
”Hes telling it like it was,” Alan said. His boyish smile had gone and his handsome face had turned dark. He tossed a glance at Sophie, and she studied the polish on her fingernails.
Winters filed that reaction away for later, and spoke before they could start exchanging insults. ”We know Jason went out after dinner, in the rented SUV. You a.s.sumed he was going to meet a young lady.”
”If thats what you want to call her.”
”He didnt return?”
”I didnt see him.”
Alan leaned up against the fireplace mantel and Sophied taken a chair at the other side of the room where she spent her time picking up the Christmas Village ornaments, one at a time, and turning them in her fingers. ”Alain and I,” she said, ”came down around half-past eleven. In my family also we celebrate on Christmas Eve. Mrs. Carmine gave us supper. We waited for them for a long time, but Jason and Ewan, they did not come. Only,” Sophie pointed at Smith with her chin, ”she came. With the bad news.”
Mrs. Carmine dabbed her eyes with her handkerchief. Overhead a floorboard creaked. Lucky Smith listening from the top of the stairs.
”This girl Jason had supposedly set up with,” Smith said. ”Do you know her name?”
”Of course,” Jeremy said. ”Lorraine. The one Wendys always in such a kerfuffle about.”
The front door opened with a gentle creak. Light footsteps sounded in the hallway. They hesitated and then went into the kitchen. Winters jerked his head toward Smith, but before she could take a step, Mrs. Carmine shouted. ”Kathy, get in here.”
The girls head popped into the common room.
”Hey,” Jeremy said, ”Come on in. The more the merrier.”
She took small, hesitant steps forward, eyes locked on the floor.
”Where have you been?” Mrs. Carmine shouted. ”Gone for the whole day. I had to finish all the ch.o.r.es myself. And with my back.”
”Sorry,” Kathy mumbled into the carpet.
Smith stretched a kink in her neck and happened to look at Rob Fitzgerald. His face was beet red and he also was examining the carpet as if the secret of life were to be found therein.
Kathy Carmine stood in the doorway, s.h.i.+fting from foot to foot, looking like a dog that had peed on the carpet, while Winters asked if shed seen Jason after hed left on Christmas Eve. She mumbled something that sounded like ”No.”
Winters glanced at Smith. She gave him a slight nod to indicate, she hoped, that she knew what was going on. And it didnt have anything to do with the case. Of course, she was a raw recruit to this interrogation and secret signal business; she might have just told him that Kathy was a ma.s.s murderer.
Winters got to his feet. ”Thank you for your help, everyone. Thats all the questions I have at this time. If you think of anything else that happened the nights in question, no matter how minor it appears, Id appreciate it if youd let me know.”
He placed several business cards on the coffee table and walked out.
Smith followed.
Mrs. Carmine started shouting at her daughter. ”I had to make all the beds myself, and with my bad back.”
Kathy burst into tears and darted out of the room, almost knocking Smith into the wall. Rob Fitzgerald was heading equally fast for the stairs.
This overly decorated B&B was a proper den of iniquity.
It had snowed while they were inside and the van was covered in the white stuff. Smith switched the wipers on to clear the windows.
”Impressions?” Winters said, as she pulled into the street. ”What about the last scene? That girl looked to me like shed been up to something.”
”Kathy Carmine? Up to something with Rob Fitzgerald, all right. Ill take a guess and a.s.sume it didnt go well.”
”He propositioned her?”
Smith laughed. ”The opposite, Id say. Youre a man, John; you cant begin to understand how incredibly humiliating it can be for a girl to offer herself to a guy and be turned down.”