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Halifax, October 22
8:45 a.m.
“Thanks for coming in,” Audra said. “Have a seat.”
Dustin Marks sat at the table. He was the kind of man who belonged on the cover of a romance novel. You just had to cut off Fabio’s blond locks and brush it into a quiff hairstyle.
Audra shut the door to the interview room. “I have a few questions for you.”
“About that guy,” Dustin said.
“What guy is that?”
“The one Liam saw at the park.”
Audra tilted her head. “Oh, you were talking to Liam?”
“He called yesterday. Left a message.”
“What’d he say?”
“Said he was in to see you. He thinks he saw the guy who killed that girl. I don’t know why he gave you my name.”
“Did he describe this guy to you?”
Dustin shook his head. “That’s all he said. I didn’t call him back. I played your message right after his.”
Audra sat down and slid her chair in close to the table.
“You were at the park on Sunday,” she said. “Correct?”
Dustin undid two buttons on his pea coat. “I was.”
“What time?”
“It was early. Before seven.”
“How often do you go there?”
“Three, four days a week.”
“Do you go for a jog? A walk?”
“I walk my dog there.”
“Oh yeah? What breed?”
“Great Dane.”
“Big dog.”
Dustin’s eyes sparkled. “He’s a horse.”
“How old?”
“Four.”
“Still a pup, really. What’s his name?”
“Apollo.”
“Ah, cool name,” Audra said, smiling. “Do you ever go to the park by yourself?”
“No.”
“Did you see Liam there Sunday?”
“I ran into him before I left.”
“What time was that?”
“Around eight.” He shrugged. “Ten to. Five to.”
“In what area of the park did you run into him?”
“The Tower Road parking lot. Liam was just leaving.”
“Did you guys talk?”
“For a few minutes.”
Audra considered that. “You’ve known each other for a while?”
“Six years.”
“From the park? Or did you know him from elsewhere?”
Dustin licked his lips, blinked. Audra watched a flush creep across his face.
He said, “I...um...originally met him at Menz.”
Audra paused. She knew of the place. It was a popular nightclub among the gay and lesbian community.
“I gotcha,” she said.
She opened a folder and slid a copy of the composite sketch over to him.
“Does he look familiar?”
Dustin leaned in to the table, eyes narrowing on the sketch.
“Is this the guy Liam was talking about?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“And he had the hood over his head?”
“Yes.”
Dustin’s eyes lingered on the face a few moments more, then he sat back.
“No, no,” he said. “I don’t know him. But I’m not good with faces.”
“Were many people at the park on Sunday?”
Dustin shook his head again. “Hardly is at that time of day.”
“Think hard. How many do you remember seeing?”
Dustin stared up at the ceiling. “Well, there was the old couple by the container terminal.”
“Do you know their names?”
“No.”
“Who else?”
Dustin frowned, let out an exaggerated groan. “Another couple by the Naval Memorial. They were walking a small dog. A Border Terrier, I think.”
“Do you know them?”
“No.”
“Who else?”
Dustin threw his hands up in the air. “I caught glimpses of people on the other trails. But I paid no attention to them.”
“Steve Foster?”
Dustin’s eyes widened. “Steve was there?”
Audra nodded.
“Okay, I didn’t see him,” he said. “It’s a big park, you know.”
Audra remembered Steve Foster telling her that he hadn’t seen Dustin, either.
She asked, “You’re sure you never saw a guy in a hoodie?”
Dustin shrugged. “Sorry.”
Audra rolled her shoulders. She could feel tension settling in there, rising into her neck.
“I mean, I see people wearing hoodies there all the time,” Dustin said. “Just not then.”
“Did you know Kate Saint-Pierre?”
“I saw her at the park before.”
“Sunday?”
“I couldn’t even tell you the last time I saw her. I didn’t know her name until I read it in the paper. I recognized her picture. Said to myself, ‘Yeah, I saw her there before.’”
Audra took out her card and gave it to him.
“Just in case you remember anything else,” she said. “Or if you see this guy on your walks. Thanks again for coming in.”
After he left the room, Audra leaned her head back over the chair and shut her eyes. Frustration gnawed at her mind.
She took out her cell phone and called Allan.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” she said. “How’re things there?”
On the other end of the line, she could hear the rush of wind against the receiver.
“No one knows who this guy is,” Allan said. “What’s the word on Marks?”
“He never saw him.”
Allan breathed into the phone. “Figures. So far, Mr. Clattenburg is the only one who did.”
“Looks that way.”
“You sound discouraged.”
“Hard not to be,” Audra said. “Seems like we’re chasing our tails.”
“Someone else here might know him. Or saw him before.”
Audra hesitated. “Don’t know. You might be right about the composite, Al.”
“Oh?”
“Maybe it doesn’t look like anybody.”
“That’s just it. We don’t know.”
“Where in the park are you?”
“The Quarry Pond. You coming over?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I’ll give you a hand.”
“I’ll meet you in the parking lot.”
She hung up. When she left the room, she heard someone call out to her. Turning, she saw Captain Thorne coming down the hall.
“Morning, Detective,” he said. “Where’s Al?”
“Working Point Pleasant Park.”
“I put two officers over there on stakeout.”
“Good.”
Thorne leaned a shoulder against the wall. “I’ve been wanting to ask you. How’s Al doing?”
“What do you mean?”
“Emotionally. Professionally. Does he seem all right?”
Holding his eyes, Audra chewed on the inside of her lip. “You want me to talk behind Al’s back?”
“I know he’s your friend. He’s mine too.”
“Are you asking me as his friend? Or as his captain?”
“Friend, of course.”
Audra smiled.
Thorne waited for her a moment, then he matched her smile. “Your silence speaks volumes.”
Audra shrugged. “Not sure about that.”
“I can tell you’re not telling me something.”
“Maybe you’re getting paranoid in your old age.”
Thorne snickered. “Okay. You win. Good luck today.”
Audra watched him walk away, and her smile fell away. No, she thought, Allan didn’t seem all right.
He seemed distant at times. He shied away from painful situations. On Tuesday morning, they’d interviewed Abigail Brown, Kate Saint-Pierre’s best friend. She took the news of Kate’s death hard. When she broke into uncontrollable sobs, Allan excused himself from the room. After the interview, Audra found him outside, sitting on the porch steps.
He’d asked her if she would mind interviewing Kate Saint-Pierre’s family without him. He gave her the excuse of wanting to pull old case files of unsolved murders throughout the Maritimes.
No, Allan didn’t seem all right.
And that worried Audra.
