“I am adventurous,” she said in a voice that sounded a little squeaky and not at all like herself.
“I’m sure you are.”
“I never saw him trying new things.”
“Hypocrite.”
“I hate men.”
“Understandable.”
He finished with the tape removal and stood up. “Anything else you need?”
She looked around, shrugged.
“Are you ready for the adventure of a lifetime?”
“A killer with humor. Just my luck.”
His eyes narrowed.
“I know. I know. You’re not a killer.” She grabbed a small blanket and a pillow from the bed, gave him a stoic look, and said, “I’m ready.”
Chapter Five
The first few hours of their drive across the United States were blissfully quiet. But then Angela Chack must have grown tired of looking out the window because she turned the radio volume down and directed her gaze on him. “So,” she said matter-of-factly, “who do you believe killed your partner?”
Jason thought about it for a minute. His inclination was not to talk to her at all, but there were three reasons he decided to go ahead and respond. One, he knew she wasn’t going to stop asking him about the event that led them here until she had answers. Two, they had a long road-trip ahead of them. And three, they both knew he wasn’t going to throw her inside the trunk. “It’s complicated,” he began.
She snorted, an unattractive sound coming from any other woman. “We have plenty of time for you to explain, and maybe I could help you somehow?”
“Why would you want to help me?”
“I have no idea. Crazy, I know, but you seem like an okay guy.”
Now she’d gone too far. “I might not have killed anyone, but that doesn’t mean I’m a nice guy.”
“You called Rob a dick, which I appreciated.”
“That’s because he is one.”
“You didn’t put me in the trunk and you must trust me just a little because you didn’t tape my wrists together.” She did jazz hands in the air between them.
“You shouldn’t mistake a little leniency to mean anything more than it is.”
“Fine. Forget I asked.” She turned to stare out the window again.
He sighed. “Years ago,” he began, “right out of college, me and a couple of friends started a software company. Within a year we had two employees working for us. Within three years, we were making more money than any of us had ever envisioned. We had a difficult time keeping up in the beginning. We moved the business out of our apartment and into a warehouse in Sacramento. By the time we hit the five-year mark, our business was off the charts. It was an exciting time. Colin, Dirk, and I worked well together. We were young and we thought we were invincible.”
His fingers tightened around the steering wheel. “It was just another ordinary week when I discovered an offer had been made to buy our company. We were growing way too fast to even think about taking a low-ball offer. Not only that, I had no interest in selling.”
“What about the others? Did they want to sell?”
“I thought we were all on the same page but I was wrong. At the end of the week, we met for drinks. I got the impression that Colin wanted to sell. Dirk was harder to read. He had full custody of a small boy from a previous relationship, a kid with special needs that translated to heavy expenses. We agreed to think about it for a few days. But by the time Monday morning rolled around, Dirk was found dead in his office.”
“How was he killed?”
“Stabbed more than once. It wasn’t pretty.”
“What sort of evidence did they have against you?”
“An easier question to answer would be what didn’t they have on me? My DNA was all over the place, including fingerprints on the murder weapon. After we all left the bar that Friday night, Dirk and I had walked back to the office, had a couple more drinks, and talked about a few things.”
“What sort of things?”
“Mostly, he talked about Sophie.”
“Sophie?”
“Sophie was the director of human resources. Dirk and Sophie had dated for two years before she broke up with him. He missed her and had a lot of regrets. He’d been trying everything he could think of to get her back. Overall, he seemed stressed, had a lot on his plate. After he broke down and cried, I left.”
“You left him alone in his time of need?”
“I had never seen him like that. I figured it was the scotch making him emotional and I thought he could use some privacy.”
“What about other people in the office?”
“Everyone had left hours before.”
“Where did you go after you left him?”
He inhaled. “I met with Sophie.”
“Dirk Taylor’s girlfriend?”
“Ex-girlfriend.”
“You were dating your friend’s girlfriend?”
“Not until they broke up.”
“But they had a child together.”