Chapter 75
THE TEENAGE GIRL sprawled across the California king. She was thin, with translucent skin and dark, messy hair. She raised herself on one elbow, looked sleepily in the direction of the open door, said, “Could you…turn up the music?”
The two kids were drinking and stoned, but still awake.
Justine crossed the room, opened all of the windows. Then she went to the side of the bed, picked up a cotton pullover and a pair of jeans from the floor, said to the girlfriend, “What’s your name?”
“Jess. Ica.”
“Jessica, put these on, please.”
“But. I just took them off.”
Charles Boyd lurched toward the bed and took a menacing stance between the girl and Justine.
“Leave her alone,” he said.
Justine gave Boyd a little shove. He lost his balance and toppled sideways onto the mattress. The teens giggled, clutched at each other, and rolled around, ignoring Justine and Scotty entirely.
Scotty said, “Are you guys insane?”
He picked up an open bottle from the floor, capped it with his thumb, shook it up, then showered the kids with beer.
The girl shouted, “Hey. What? Are you doing?”
Scotty plucked a blanket from the floor and tossed it at the girl, saying, “Cover up.” Then he brought a chair over to the foot of the bed and sat down.
“We’re not the police,” said Scotty. “We’re private investigators. If you help us, we’re gone. If you don’t help us, we’ll call the cops, who will charge you with possession. Then they’ll interrogate you for three days until they get everything they need to charge you with murder.”
Scotty had taken a direct approach, riskier than befriending the kids and teasing it out of them, but it was a safe bet that they’d never been confronted by law enforcement before. Justine thought Scotty’s method might work.
Justine said, “I’d listen to Investigator Scott, Charles. If you play this the wrong way, your life—all of this—will be over. Understand?”
“No,” Boyd said.
Scotty said, “No?”
Scotty pulled his cell phone out of his back hip pocket, started tapping in numbers. Boyd rolled onto his back. He said, “I plan on going to Northwestern next year.”
“That depends on what you do in the next five minutes,” said Scotty.