Chapter 8
"Hang on, hang on. I'm coming." Through the closed front door, a young man's voice reached McTavish and Chin as they stood on the porch of the house on Broughdale Ave. It was supposed to be the location of the party at which Yvonne Redmond was last seen. From the looks of the empty beer cans tossed in amongst the bushes around the front porch, they had the right place.
"Yeah, yeah," the sleepy voice said as the door opened and a young man about twenty years old leaned against the door frame, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "What can I do for you?" He had long brown hair that fell to his shoulders, angular features and cheekbones that looked carved out of Mt. Rushmore. He sported about a three or four days growth of beard, the 'stubble de jour' typical of males of that age group. A stud pierced his right eyebrow, a gold hoop through the corner of his bottom lip. Bare feet, jeans, and a t-shirt completed his ensemble.
"I'm Detective McTavish and this is Detective Chin." The two detectives flashed their badges. "Are you one of the tenants here?"
"Uh, yeah," the young man said, eyeing the two of them warily now, becoming instantly alert once they'd shown their badges, like a light switch being turned on. "Is this about that girl that was here at the party a couple of nights ago?"
"Girl?" Chin replied, playing dumb.
"Word got around last night about one of the girls that was here at the party, that she'd been killed. I saw her picture on the news website."
"Would it be okay if we came in, uh?..?" McTavish said.
"Uh, Connor. Connor Sharrard. Uh, yeah, c'mon in." The young man pushed the door open and stepped back into the room. As McTavish and Chin followed, the young guy pulled his messy hair back behind his head and slipped a hairband around it, fastening it in a man-bun, stray tendrils not secured fell about his ears. "Yeah, come right in. Sorry about the mess," he said, scooping empty beer bottles up from the littered coffee table in the living room.
"Don't worry about that, Connor," McTavish curt tone drew the kid's attention. "If we could just have your attention for a few minutes?"
"Uh, sure," Sharrard said, setting the beer bottles on the kitchen counter in the next room and then returning, hands jammed into the pockets of his jeans.
"Are your other roommates here?" McTavish continued with the questioning as Chin slowly walked around the room. "I understand from the landlord that there are three of you on the lease?"
"Yeah, that's right, there're three of us that rent this place together. The other two, Eric and Joe, both have early classes today. They're over on campus. I actually don't have any classes until this afternoon."
McTavish produced the picture of Yvonne Redmond and showed it to Sharrard. "You said you've seen the news. Can you confirm that this girl was here at that party three nights ago?"
Sharrard was already nodding his head before McTavish had finished he question. "Yes sir. I remember that girl being here."
"Did you know her?"
The kid shook his head. "No sir. Look, there were a lot of people here-a lot of people. I think I probably knew only about a quarter of them-that's the way these parties go."
"Did you talk to her at all?"
"No. I saw her at one point talking with a group of girls, and I never thought much of it until I saw her face on the news. But that's all I remember about her. I uh?.I was a little wasted."
"Were people taking drugs here, Connor? Do you remember seeing her with anyone who was taking drugs?"
Again, Sharrard was shaking his head right away. "No, nobody was doing drugs. You've got to understand, these are pretty much just big drinking parties. A couple of people might have lit up a joint or two, but nothing heavier than that."
"So you never saw her with anyone doing something like that?"
"No. I remember she had a plastic drink cup in her hand, but pretty much everybody did."
"Do you know who invited her, or who she came with?"
"No. Like I said, there were tons of people, and I didn't know all that many. You know, word gets around, and people just show up. I have no idea how she knew about the party, or who she came with. Sorry, I guess I'm not being of much help."
"No, that's fine, Connor." Sharrard had pretty much confirmed what Ashley Devers had already told them. Yvonne Redmond's best friend had told them that they'd basically heard about the party through the grapevine, and a group of them had just shown up, running into other people they knew from the university. Nobody had specifically invited them. "Connor, can you remember anything out of the ordinary that might have happened during the party?"
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, I don't know. Did anybody pass out? Did anybody get into a fight? Were there any strangers that seemed like they didn't belong?"
"I don't remember anybody passing out, but a number of people did puke into the bushes outside-but that's pretty standard. There were a couple of shoving incidents, but that happens all the time too, especially when there are players from the football team there."
"So there were some players from the football team at the party?"
"Yeah. I'm in the music program, so the football players aren't usually in the circles I move in. They were pointed out to me by Joe though. Uh, Joe's one of my roommates."
"Got it." McTavish pulled out the picture of Bartolucci. "Do you remember this person being at the party?"
Sharrard's head quickly bobbed up and down as he pointed to the picture. "Fuck yeah. I mean, yes, he was here."
"You're sure?"
"That guy is pretty hard to miss-he's huge." Sharrard held his hand about a foot over his own head. "I think I remember Joe saying that his name was Rico, or something like that."
McTavish put the picture back into his pocket. "What about anyone else? Like I said, was there anyone else here who didn't fit in?" McTavish knew that with the care their guy seemed to have shown with Yvonne Redmond's body, that the typical profiling would indicate someone older, likely between the ages of 30 and 40-not someone who'd easily fit in with a group of 20-year olds.
"Well, Professor Drummond was here, but I wouldn't really say that was a surprise."
"Professor Drummond?" Both McTavish and Chin were all ears now.
"Yeah, I don't know his first name. I think he's a professor in the sociology department."
"How old is this Professor Drummond?"
"I don't know, probably around 40. He doesn't look as old as my dad, so yeah, probably around 40."
"And why did you say it wasn't a surprise that he was here?"
"I've seen him at a couple of other parties around campus." Sharrard paused, his eyes flicking to Chin before going back to McTavish. "Word is that he apparently has a fondness for young female students."
McTavish reached up and scratched at his ear, turning his head casually to look at Chin, their eyes meeting knowingly. He turned back to Sharrard as Chin started to casually stroll around the littered room. "Connor, I want you to take your time now-at any time during the night, do you remember seeing Professor Drummond talking to Yvonne Redmond?"
Sharrard paused, scratching at his stubbly beard. "No, not that I can remember. I saw him speaking with some other girls a couple of times, and like I said, I saw her standing in a different group talking, but I never saw them talking together."
"Did you happen to see him leave? Do you know if he left with anyone?"
"I never saw him leave, but I don't remember him being here really late either. He must have left fairly early, like probably by midnight."
"Okay, Connor. Was there anyone else that you can think of that didn't really fit in?"
"No. Nobody else really comes to mind, but like I said, I'd had a fair bit to drink."
"Whose coat is this?" McTavish and Sharrard turned to see Chin holding a brown leather coat in her hand.
"I don't know. We found it the day after the party. I think it's a girl's coat, right?"
"It looks that way," Chin said, looking at the designer's label.
"Some girl probabl
y got plastered, took a cab home and forgot her coat. It's not the first time that's happened at one of our parties. She'll probably remember where it is and be back for it in a day or two."
McTavish and Chin looked at each other again, remembering that the brown leather coat was the only thing from the description they'd been given of Yvonne Redmond that was missing when her body was discovered. McTavish could see the suspicion in Chin's eyes. He turned back to Sharrard, subtly sliding his hand down the side of his jacket, checking for his sidearm clipped to his belt. "Connor, would you mind showing us around? Maybe if you walk us through the place, something might jog your memory. You know, even something you don't think is very important could help a lot."
"Uh, sure. There's not really much to see. I have to warn you though, the place is a mess." He held his hands out, knowing he was stating the obvious as they looked around at the cluttered living room, beer bottles and pizza boxes everywhere. "Uh yeah, I guess that's not really gonna come as a surprise either. Okay, well this is the kitchen."
McTavish and Chin peered into the tiny kitchen, nothing to see there other than dishes stacked in the sink and on the counter. Sharrard turned and led then down a narrow hallway off the living room. "This is the bathroom. This is Joe's room." They paused and looked inside, clothes strewn all over the floor, a blanket tacked over the window acting as a curtain. There was an unmade double bed, a crappy-looking dresser and a small desk with a computer on it. Typical.
They moved onto the next room. "This is Eric's room. He's kind of a pig." This room was almost identical to the one they'd just looked in, but with plates of half-eaten food on the floor next to the bed.
"And this is my room," Sharrard said, opening the door to the room at the end of the hall. Again, it was the same as the other two rooms, only not quite so cluttered.
"That's great, Connor. Thanks. Would you mind if we take a look in the basement?" McTavish asked once they got back to the living room.
"The basement? It's just an unfinished basement. There's a TV down there that we sometimes play video games on, but that's about it. Nobody would have gone down there during the party."
"Would you mind if we took a quick look? Just to make sure we leave no stone unturned."
Sharrard shrugged. "Okay, sure. But there's not much to see." He stepped through the kitchen and opened a door that led to the basement. He flicked a light switch and they followed him down the narrow wooden stairs, both of them with their hand close to their hip. "Watch your head, there's not much room there."
McTavish and Chin both ducked as they got to the bottom of the stairs, a big steel beam running the length of the old house. The basement was dingy and damp and some wet spots were visible around the perimeter where the floor slab met the foundation walls. Splotches of mold were growing up from the bottom edge of the damp walls. It was totally unfinished with exposed floor joists above and bare concrete walls. Three bare light bulbs lit up the space. There was a bunch of empty boxes from their computers and TVs piled in one area, along with some snow shovels and a bag of salt. At the other end, they'd set up an old TV with some kind of gaming system, a futon and a beat-up easy chair sat opposite the TV. A single lamp sat on an upturned milk carton next to the futon. Sharrard had been right-this basement definitely wasn't something out of Architectural Digest.
It also set McTavish's and Chin's minds at ease. Whatever had happened to Yvonne Redmond-it hadn't happened here.
Every Breath You Take Page 11
