Walk a Crooked Line (Jo Larsen Book 2)

by Susan McBride

  “Please don’t tell me you’re the window washers,” he said with a polished Texas twang. “You’re not quite what I was expecting.”

  “Sorry to disappoint.” Jo almost smiled. She retrieved her wallet with her shield and ID and held it up for him. “We’re working a case, and we think your son might be able to help us answer some questions.”

  The fellow squinted at her credentials, then Hank’s, before they put them away. He looked even more disappointed, if that was possible. “So you’re telling me that my windows aren’t getting washed this morning?”

  Jo couldn’t decide if he was serious or trying to be funny and failing.

  Hank coughed, though she thought she heard him mutter “asshole” in the midst of it. She’d been afraid that Hank would want to take the lead on this one and fanboy over Trey Eldon, the blue-chip recruit, but obviously, he wasn’t going to fawn over Golden Boy’s father.

  Okay, enough, she thought.

  “Mr. Eldon,” she said, because even though he hadn’t told them his name, he sure looked the part of a software CEO with his tailored navy-blue shirt and peg leg pants, a clunky Rolex at his wrist. “Is your son here?”

  “Which one?” he asked, still not inviting them in. He crossed his arms, rocking on his heels, in no hurry to accommodate them.

  “The one that’s home sick,” Jo said, adding, “I was told by Helen Billings that he didn’t come to school today because he was under the weather. If he’s up to it, we’d like to ask him a few questions.”

  “Why?”

  Jo wondered if he was just being a dick or if he was nervous. “We need to talk to Trey about a girl from his school. She was found dead this morning—”

  “You mean Kelly Amster?” Robert Eldon interrupted, and his sleek eyebrows arched.

  “Yes, Kelly Amster.” Jo hated that the whole town seemed to know already that Kelly was dead, even before they could definitively answer why. “So you heard?”

  “Helen said Trey was going to miss an all-school assembly in the auditorium to tell the students that Kelly had passed away.” He shook his head and made a tsk-tsk noise. “What a shame. I feel for her mother. I truly do.”

  “Is Trey here, sir?” she tried again. She could hear Hank’s noisy breathing from behind her. He sounded like a bull ready to duck his head and barrel into the china shop. “Could we come in and talk to him for a few minutes? Unless he’s at the doctor’s office?”

  “No, he’s here. He woke up feeling a little sick to his stomach. I thought I’d keep him home a while, just to be cautious.”

  “I see. Should we go up then?” she asked, looking past him through the doorway.

  “No, no, that won’t be necessary. He’s getting ready to head back to school soon.” The man finally seemed to take them seriously. “If you’ll wait a minute, I’ll call him down.” He started to shut the door, and Jo put out a hand to catch it.

  “You’d like us to wait out here in the heat?” She glanced back at Hank, who wore a frustrated look on his face. Seemed like no one wanted to ask them in these days. “You think we could come inside?”

  They didn’t need tea and crumpets, just a place to wait that wasn’t approaching ninety degrees in the shade.

  “Yeah, sure,” Robert Eldon said without enthusiasm and pulled the door wide for them. “Wipe your feet on the mat, if you don’t mind. Then you can follow me.”

  He led them through a spacious foyer with massive beams and sunlight streaming in through uncountable windows. They went down a few steps into a living room with a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace. Despite the toasty temperature outside, the air felt about as cold as the department’s server room. Maybe that was why a fire crackled and blazed in the fireplace, though Robert Eldon grabbed a remote and switched it off in a snap, like he didn’t want to waste the effect on them.

  “I’ll be right back,” he said without inviting them to sit.

  He’d barely left the room when Jo heard him yelling, “Trey! Hey, Trey, can you come on down, please?”

  Within a minute, she heard a tread descending, the footsteps heavy enough to rattle glass, like a giant was taking the stairs two by two. Then Robert Eldon reappeared in the sunken living room with his arm around a younger man who, on first inspection, seemed very much like a taller, wider-shouldered, better-looking version of his dad. Jo knew from reading his stats online that Trey stood six foot two and 180 pounds. What she didn’t realize from all the photographs she’d viewed of him in his red-and-white uniform, tossing a football, was that he looked downright shy: chin lowered, eyes downcast, shoulders slouched. Adding to the effect was his pallor, although perhaps that was due to his not feeling well.

  The boy chewed on his cheek, glancing somewhere past Jo and then finally meeting her gaze with worried eyes. “What’s going on?” he asked. His voice sounded almost soft, far less abrasive than his dad’s. “Should I know you?”

  “Son, these are police detectives, here to talk to you about Kelly Amster.” Robert Eldon set a hand on his shoulder, the chunky Rolex fully visible. “I was telling them I’d heard about her death just this morning from Helen Billings. Such a tragedy.”

  “You want to talk to me about Kelly?” Trey said, his shoulders lifting out of their slouch. “I don’t understand. It’s not like we were close or anything.”

  Jo didn’t beat around the bush. “Did you have a party here the weekend before the start of school? I’d appreciate hearing the truth, as we can always talk to the neighbors to confirm it, particularly the ones who filed noise and parking complaints.”

  “Aw, hell.” Robert Eldon’s expression soured. “Go on,” he said. “Tell her what she wants to know.”

  Jo saw him squeeze his son’s shoulder and couldn’t be sure if he was trying to keep Trey from talking or encouraging him to do so.

  Regardless, the boy didn’t respond. He shifted on his feet, like he was hoping for his dad to leap to his rescue.

  And his father did exactly that. “Look, Detectives, Trey’s a good kid, but he was wrong to have his friends over while I was away. They got into my liquor, and I certainly don’t condone that kind of behavior. But my boy isn’t responsible for what that girl did to herself.”

  Hmm.

  Jo found it a pretty big leap for him to take—assuming they’d come to the house to accuse Trey of having something to do with Kelly’s suicide. It made her wonder if the father knew about what had happened to Kelly at the party. Had Trey told him that Kelly had been raped?

  She felt an itch to pounce on the matter, but she knew to step lightly. If she pushed too fast, she risked father and son lawyering up. “Look, Mr. Eldon, no one here is suggesting your son was involved with Kelly’s death,” she said, watching Trey’s face and the conflict of emotions. He was trying so hard to avoid her eyes. His mouth was a tight line, nearly a wince, probably from his father’s white-knuckled hold on him. “Let’s start over, all right? I’m just trying to confirm that Kelly Amster was here that night.”

  When Trey still didn’t speak, Robert Eldon cleared his throat. “As I understand it, Kelly badgered Trey for an invite. He can’t be faulted for trying to include her.”

  “Kelly badgered him,” Jo repeated. “Why on earth would she do that?”

  She found it hard to believe that a quiet girl who’d avoided attention most of her school life would suddenly beg the big man on campus for an invitation to his party. It seemed contrary to what Cassie had told her.

  “C’mon, Trey, be honest with me,” she pressed. “It’ll save us the trouble of coming back again if we find out you’ve lied. We’ll be less likely to believe you the next time.”

  Trey twisted apart from his father. His hands came out of his jeans pockets and curled to fists before they relaxed. For a moment, Jo thought he was going to tell her to go to hell. Instead, he replied, “Kelly was here that night. It was her choice. No one forced her.”

  “Did she come alone?”

  “Yeah, she was alone.”
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  “How’d she get here?” Jo asked. “She was fifteen. Too young to drive. Did someone pick her up?”

  Trey shrugged, looking down at his bare feet, so pale against the warm hardwoods. “How should I know? Maybe she Ubered.”

  Jo kept at him. “Why did she come at all if you weren’t really friends?”

  “No clue,” he said flatly, raising his hazel eyes. “You’d have to ask her that.”

  “You know we can’t.”

  “Right.” He sighed and gazed over Jo’s head toward the fireplace, just as he’d done after walking into the room. When he decided to look at her again, his eyes were focused. “I’ll be brutal here, okay? Kelly and I weren’t tight,” he said. “She wasn’t part of my squad. But, yeah, I knew her. Her mom took care of my mom when she was sick.”

  “Barbara Amster took care of your mother?” Jo asked, realizing only then that she hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Mrs. Eldon, which did seem a bit unusual, considering how overprotective the father appeared. Jo hadn’t done enough digging online to find out about the mom, just the football-star angle regarding Trey and, inadvertently, a bit of a scoop on his entrepreneur dad.

  She found it very interesting to know there was a connection between the Amsters and the Eldons that went way back.

  “She was my mom’s private nurse,” Trey explained.

  “When she was sick,” Jo repeated.

  “Yes.” Trey’s gaze roved again, fixing somewhere past her head, and this time, she followed his eyes. “She had ALS, and it got really bad when I was in junior high.”

  He blew out a slow breath, staring at a large portrait of the family hung over the mantel, one that Jo hadn’t given much more than a cursory glance. She’d been paying attention to the fire burning despite the warm weather, not to anything above it.

  Now she took in the oversized image of the deliberately posed foursome: the delicate-looking blonde with a fragile smile sitting on a stone bench with her husband beside her, his arm around her; the pair flanked by their sons. The older and bigger of the boys was clearly Trey. The younger brother was the only one looking away, like he didn’t really want to be there.

  “How’s your mom doing? Is she okay?” Jo asked, glancing from son to father. “Is she around?”

  “Is she around,” Robert Eldon repeated and made a noise of disgust.

  Jo knew then she’d put her foot in it.

  “No, she’s not okay. She died almost four years ago,” Trey said, his voice rising. “Barb . . . Mrs. Amster . . . she basically lived with us at the end, so Kelly was here all the time. The kid used to follow me around like a puppy.”

  Had Kelly decided to start following Trey around again, Jo wondered, maybe as a way to find the popularity she craved?

  Whether she’d begged to go to his party or not didn’t matter to Jo. What did matter was what had happened there that had ultimately led to Kelly landing on her front yard in bloody underwear.

  Jo felt in her bones that Trey Eldon had the answer.

  “So I guess you and Kelly have a history,” she remarked. “Had y’all been in touch since your mom passed?”

  “No,” Trey said sharply.

  “You didn’t date?”

  “Me and Kelly?” Trey smirked. “Is that a joke?”

  “Not at all,” Jo said, feeling defensive. It wasn’t like Kelly was repulsive. Quite the opposite. But she let it go for now.

  Though Hank remained silent, she could feel her partner’s eyes burning a hole in her back. She tried to calm down the noise in her head, the little voice crying out, Danger, Will Robinson! Alien land mines ahead!

  “I’m really sorry about your mom,” she said, connecting the only way she could, understanding what it meant to go through any amount of time without the love and support of a mother. “That’s harsh.”

  “Yeah, it was.” Trey nodded.

  She stared at the years-old portrait again, this time focusing on the slighter boy, the one who seemed to favor the mom’s more delicate looks. “Where’s your brother?” she asked. “Does he go to Plainfield High, too?”

  Trey opened his mouth, started to say, “No,” but Robert Eldon quickly began speaking over him.

  “John’s been at boarding school in Virginia since Mary passed,” he said, and Jo detected a tightness in his voice. He hadn’t gotten over her death, either. “They were very close. He didn’t handle the loss of his mother well and had some emotional issues that I wasn’t prepared to handle.”

  “Does he visit much?”

  “No, although we take vacations together. Sometimes, he’s here on long breaks.” At Jo’s raised eyebrows, he added, “Going away was his choice, not mine. He needed a fresh start, somewhere that didn’t remind him of what he’d lost. He has a hard time being in this house without Mary, so I don’t force it.”

  “I can understand,” Jo said. Dealing with facts was easy. Dealing with emotion was rough. “Was he in town for the party?”

  “He was here for a while this summer, yes. But I flew him back to school that very day,” Robert Eldon replied with a glance at his fancy gold watch. “We took my private jet. If I’d been here, Trey would not have had a party and disturbed the neighbors.”

  “So you’re at fault?”

  “Sure, if you need someone to blame.”

  Jo swallowed down her frustration. The guy was good at deflecting. But she wasn’t surprised. Folks who’d made names for themselves in business usually didn’t get there because they were nice guys. They knew how to play the game, and sometimes that game involved lying through their teeth.

  “So that’s it?” Robert Eldon jerked his chin toward Trey, who looked even paler than when they’d arrived, if that was possible. “You can go back upstairs and finish getting ready for school. I think we’re done with our little conversation.”

  Trey turned to go, but Jo stopped him.

  “Um, no, we’re not done yet,” she said.

  When Robert Eldon opened his mouth, Hank stepped in, clearing his throat.

  “If you’d rather, Mr. Eldon, we can move this to the station,” he said. “You can bring Trey down this afternoon, if it’s more convenient.”

  “The police station?” Trey turned around. His wide eyes held panic. “Dad, I’ve got practice . . .”

  “No, no,” Mr. Eldon said. “That won’t work.”

  “Okay, then, we’ll keep talkin’ now, son,” Hank said to Trey, working his good ol’ boy vibe, which Jo could never do without a sex change. “Just give us a handle on what happened with Kelly at your shindig. Did she drink too much? Did y’all take advantage of her? That little girl’s dead,” he pressed. “Why don’t you man up and give us some answers?”

  Trey swallowed hard, Adam’s apple jumping.

  Jo decided to go for broke. “Kelly called her best friend at five the next morning, crying and saying she’d been dumped on her lawn without her keys and with her underwear rearranged. Did you and your buddies drop her off when you were through with her?”

  Trey did his best deer-in-headlights look and whined, “Dad . . .”

  “It’s a simple yes or no answer,” Jo insisted.

  “What the hell is this?” Robert Eldon skimmed a palm over his jet-black head. “You sound like you believe my son committed some kind of horrible offense against that girl. I can assure you that he didn’t.”

  “You weren’t at the party,” Jo reminded him. “You were flying back to Virginia with your other boy.”

  “But I know Trey. I know my son,” the man said, punctuating each word with a jab of his finger.

  “It’s okay,” Trey started to say. “I can speak for myself—”

  “No,” his father snapped at him. “It’s not okay for them to try to pin something on you when you had nothing to do with that girl’s death. Nobody did.”

  Was that a roundabout way of telling Trey, “Shut up before you get yourself into real trouble”?

  “Was she drinking?” Jo asked, figuring it was an easy
enough question.

  Trey looked at his father.

  “Did she get drunk?” Jo went on, hating how passive the young man seemed, how unwilling to step forward and cop to whatever the truth really was. For a hardcore jock who let himself get pummeled by defensive linemen every week, he sure lacked nerve. All beef, no moral fiber. “Did someone slip her something in a drink? Did you see her go off with anyone? Or did she leave with someone?”

  Hank stood right beside her, his arm brushing hers, as though to remind her he was there if she needed backup.

  But Jo didn’t want to let go.

  “You invited a fifteen-year-old to your party, a shy girl who knew you from back when her mom took care of your mom. She must have trusted you. She came alone, and yet you have no idea what she did while she was here or what happened to her after?”

  Trey’s face flushed, the first bit of color that had come into it since Jo had met him. “I didn’t hurt her,” he insisted, giving a quick look at his father before he added under his breath, “It wasn’t me or my friends. They were trying to look out for her when she got sick—”

  “Boy,” his father cut him off sternly. “You don’t need to say another word.”

  Jo ignored him. “Give me a list of their names. Tell me who attended the party so we can interview them.”

  Trey turned to his father. “Dad?”

  “Not another word! I said we’re done here,” Robert Eldon declared, his voice loud, like a blast of a car horn, meant to shut them all up.

  “What are you so afraid of?” she asked, feeling Trey’s unease, wondering if it was because of his father. “Kelly was a pretty girl, and all she wanted was to be popular. Did you promise her you’d help? Did things spin out of control? She told her best friend she had proof she was assaulted, so what exactly went on while your dad wasn’t here?”

  “Hey!” Robert Eldon snapped. “You’re way out of line. My son’s not that kind of boy. He’s played by the rules his whole life. He’s this close to signing with one of the best college football programs in the country. He’s sure as shit not gonna throw that away for a crosstown girl like Kelly Amster.” He shook a finger at Jo while he continued blustering. “So if you want to accuse him of something, you’d better have more than say-so from a dead girl’s silly friend. Now, please leave my house.”