SIX

Champion stopped by the crime-scene lab to see if they’d taken anything off the vic’s desktop.

Arridondo, a crime-scene tech, checked his notes. ‘Nope. Nothing on top. Clean as a whistle.’

‘Is that weird?’ Champion asked.

Arridondo shrugged. ‘I think everything about this kid is weird, but then, I don’t like kids much.’

‘Hell, I don’t even like mine half the time,’ Champion said. ‘They’re teenagers,’ he said, which he figured explained it all. He thanked Arridondo and was on his way to check out the girlfriend – again.

Gretchen Morley was home the second time Champion knocked on her sorority room door. When she opened the door and saw him, her turquoise eyes got big and her full-lipped mouth puckered into a perfect ‘O’. Champion dug a fingernail into the palm of his hand to keep his mind on business. Damn, he really needed to start dating.

‘Need to ask you some more questions, Miss Morley. May I come in?’ he asked.

‘Oh, of course, Captain,’ she said, backing into her room.

‘That’s detective, ma’am, not captain.’

‘Oh!’ she said again, then smiled a soft, ‘I’m still in mourning’ kind of smile.

Champion was afraid he was going to draw blood, he was digging so hard with his fingernails.

‘I need to go over your statement about Graham Pugh and his behavior in the middle of the night,’ he said.

‘Excuse me?’ she said, tilting her head so that her blonde tresses covered part of her face.

Champion looked away, then back and said, ‘You told me that Bishop Alexander told you he’d wake up sometimes in the middle of the night and find Graham Pugh staring at him, and I quote, “If looks could kill …” End quote.’

‘Um-hum,’ she said. ‘That’s what Bish told me.’

‘When did he tell you this?’

‘When we were still dating.’

‘Yes, but could you be more specific? Actually when?’

‘You mean like the date? Gosh, I wouldn’t know!’ she said, her eyes big again and her mouth going for that ‘O’.

Champion was beginning to think the girl was doing that on purpose. She absolutely knew the effect she had on him – on all men, he could only assume.

‘You dated Bishop from when to when?’ Champion asked, getting out his notebook so as not to have to look at her.

‘Well, we started dating in October, right before Halloween. I remember because it was like our second date when we went to a Halloween party.’ She smiled prettily. ‘We went as Raggedy Ann and Andy.’ Then she teared up and grabbed a Kleenex to dab at her eyes. ‘It was such fun. We were so cute together!’

‘And when did you stop dating?’ he asked.

‘Well, we decided to stop seeing each other right after we got back from Thanksgiving break.’

‘It was a mutual decision to stop seeing each other?’ Champion asked, looking at the girl.

‘Oh, yes. It just wasn’t, you know, working out.’

‘Then why did you key his car and send him Ex-Lax brownies?’

She did the eyes and the ‘O’ again. He ignored it. Instead, he said, ‘Miss Morley?’

‘What?’

‘I asked why, if it was a mutual parting of the ways, you felt the need to key his car – not once but twice – and send him Ex-Lax brownies.’

‘I didn’t do that.’

‘Really?’

‘Well, not really. I mean, I may have sent him some brownies after we stopped seeing each other, just one friend to another, but I certainly didn’t put a laxative in them! That’s just awful! If he got sick from those brownies, maybe he was allergic to nuts.’ She brightened. ‘Yes. I put nuts in those brownies! That must have been it.’

‘Nut allergies, to my knowledge, don’t cause diarrhoea. What about keying the car?’

‘Oh, that was purely an accident! Really!’

‘Twice?’

‘Oh, no, it only happened once!’ She smiled. He was beginning to see her tells. She smiled meant she lied. Big eyes and an ‘O’ also meant she lied. Maybe, he thought, just being awake meant she lied.

‘Why did he dump you, Gretchen?’ Champion asked.

Gretchen Morley burst into tears, sobbing like her heart would break. Having witnessed this performance before, he was wondering if maybe she was a theater major.

Bobby Dunston opened the door at the first knock. He was not an attractive young man. He was about my height, five foot and eleven inches, and probably weighed close to four hundred pounds. Even though he couldn’t be more than nineteen or twenty, his hairline was receding, and to top all that off, he wore thick black-rimmed glasses and sported a nice crop of acne.

‘Pugh!’ he said on seeing Graham. ‘What do you want?’

‘Need to talk to you, Bobby,’ Graham said.

‘Well, I don’t want to talk to you!’ he said and started to slam the door.

Luna managed to put her size ten in the space before it closed. ‘Police, Mr Dunston,’ she said. ‘We need to talk.’

Bobby let go of the door. ‘If you’re the police, why haven’t you arrested him?’ he said, pointing at Graham as he backed into the room.

It was a single room, half the size of Graham’s, with only one twin-sized bed, one dresser and one desk. There was barely room for the three of us to join him.

‘Sit down, Mr Dunston,’ Luna said, her body language encouraging him to sink onto his bed. I let Luna have the one chair in the room while Graham and I held up walls. ‘I need to ask you some questions about Bishop Alexander,’ she said.

‘Well, I can certainly tell you who killed him!’ He looked at my son and pointed again. ‘Him!’

‘Jesus, Bobby! I didn’t do shit!’

Luna waved a hand at Graham. ‘Mr Dunston, do you have any specific reason for accusing Mr Pugh of this terrible crime?’

‘What the hell was he doing while Bish was being stabbed to death, huh? Sleeping, for God’s sake?’ The young man began to cry. ‘I mean, Bish never did anything to him but Bish said Pugh hated him and was always trying to do something to him!’

‘Hey, wait a fuckin’ min—’ Graham started.

‘Mr Pugh, please!’ Luna said, shooting him a look.

I grabbed his arm and pulled him toward me. If I had to, I could muffle his next outburst.

‘What kinds of things did Mr Alexander say Mr Pugh was trying to do?’ Luna asked.

Dunston jumped up from the bed. ‘Like he caught him going through his wallet—’

‘I nev—’ I clapped my hand over my son’s mouth.

‘And once Bish said he found dog crap in his bed! It was pretty obvious who did that!’

I could feel my son’s tongue on my hand as he struggled to defend himself. I stepped on his foot – hard – and he stopped.

‘And then there were the Ex-Lax brownies—’

‘Um iffin naw!’ Graham screamed from behind my hand.

‘I understood from other sources that Mr Alexander’s ex-girlfriend, Gretchen Morley, sent him those brownies. And keyed his car,’ Luna said.

‘Gretch would never do such a thing!’ Bobby said. ‘She loved Bish! She planned on marrying him!’

‘I thought they broke up?’ Luna asked.

He shook his head. ‘No, not at all. They were just taking a break. Couples do that all the time.’

‘Is that what Mr Alexander told you?’ Luna asked.

‘Well, he never went into detail about the break. Gretch told me.’

‘Did you ask him about it?’

‘Oh, no!’ Bobby Dunston said, sitting back down on his bed. ‘You know guys don’t discuss their relationships. It’s just not something we do,’ he said, a smirky kind of smile on his face.

‘Really?’ Luna asked.

‘Oh, yes! You know, we talk about sports, and hunting and fishing, and about schoolwork, some but not much, and, well, we do talk about the women on campus.’ He smirked again. ‘You know, the ones you want to – well—’

‘I get your drift,’ Luna said. ‘And did Mr Alexander want to you-know-what with a lot of different girls?’

Bobby Dunston laughed. ‘Oh, yes! He had his pick on campus!’

‘Even after he started dating Miss Morley?’

‘Ah, well, I don’t know,’ he said, looking down at the floor.

‘Surely he’d tell you if he was having sex with other girls. That’s what you said you two talked about. Not relationships but meaningless sex, right?’

‘Ah …’

‘So was he having meaningless sex with other women while he was having a relationship with Miss Morley?’ Luna pushed.

‘Ah, well, maybe.’

‘Maybe?’

‘Girls were always all over him!’ Bobby said, jumping up from the bed again. ‘It wasn’t Bish’s fault! You know, a guy can’t always control himself when it’s just out there like that!’

‘Do you know of any specific women?’ Luna asked.

‘Well, I know one he didn’t bang. Excuse me – have sex with.’

‘And who would that be?’

‘This girl Lexie Thurgood. She lives right down the hall from Bish. She threw herself at him a bunch but he always just laughed at her. I mean, she’s like seven feet tall or something.’

Luna and I, both close to six foot, took umbrage at that remark. But she was able to control herself. I, unfortunately, let my hand slip from Graham’s mouth.

‘You monumental fuck-up!’ Graham shouted and headed for the bed on which Bobby Dunston sat. Bobby jumped up as Luna grabbed my son’s arm.

‘Pugh, I’m going to make you leave the room if you can’t control yourself!’ she said between clenched teeth.

‘But all that he’s saying is bullshit! If Bishop told him that then he was lying through his teeth!’

‘Bish never lied to me!’ Dunston claimed.

‘Again, bullshit! Bishop lied to everyone, especially you! He kept you around as a yes man, somebody to wipe his ass—’

‘He did not!’ Dunston shouted, lumbering toward Graham.

Luna managed to get herself between my son and the four-hundred-pound yes man. ‘Enough!’ she shouted, one hand on each boy’s chest. ‘Mrs Pugh, please take your son out of the room.’

‘Oh, you brought your mommy?’ Bobby Dunston smirked. ‘You’re not going to the principal’s office, Pugh! You’re getting the needle!’

Graham lunged for Bobby while Bobby lunged back. I got Graham around the waist and hauled him out the door. I’m not sure what Luna did with Dunston but I kind of wished for some bruises.

She met us in the hallway a few minutes later. She punched Graham in the shoulder. ‘Hey!’ Graham said, frowning and fisting his hands.

‘Listen up, kid!’ Luna said, anger sounding in her voice. ‘You are out of this if you do anything like that again! You got it?’

‘But he—’

‘I don’t care if he crapped in your oatmeal! You don’t talk! You don’t say shit! Do you understand me?’

‘But—’ Graham started but I interrupted.

‘He understands,’ I said, slapping my son on the back of the head. ‘Right?’ I asked him.

He sighed. ‘Yeah. Right. Whatever.’

‘We’re going to the girlfriend’s room next. If you so much as sneeze, you’ll be in the hall, got it?’

‘I said I did!’ Graham said. ‘Jeez!’

We all stared at each other, let out almost simultaneous deep sighs and headed out of McMillan Hall on our way to Gretchen Morley’s sorority house.

Champion knew the girl was lying. There was no doubt about that. But what exactly was she lying about? What she claimed Bishop Alexander said to her about the Pugh kid? Or just the crap about the break-up and her supposed innocence when it came to the keying of the vic’s car and the Ex-Lax brownies? Or maybe everything. It wasn’t the first time he’d had the fantasy of picking a witness or suspect up by the heels and shaking them like a piggy bank until all the truth, like dimes and nickels, came falling out.

He was about to call it quits and head back to the station when there was a knock on the girl’s door. As she was still sobbing her little heart out, Champion said, ‘Want me to get that?’

She replied by nodding several times without stopping the sobs. Champion got up and opened the door. He was shocked but not exactly surprised to see Elena Luna, the Pugh kid and his mom standing there. ‘Well, Elena, I see you made it. Didn’t expect to see you right here, though.’

‘Sorry, Nate. Didn’t mean to butt in. We just wanted to talk to Gretchen Morley for a minute. We can come back later,’ Elena said, taking the two Pughs by an arm each and preparing to lead them away.

‘No, no. You’re here. Come on in. Maybe y’all have some questions I didn’t think to ask,’ he said, smiling what he considered his best smile. Others often deemed it his shark-like smile.

The two women looked at each other – as if looking for signals – then slowly walked in the room, the kid trailing behind.

Gretchen looked up. ‘O-M-G!’ she said. ‘What is he doing here?’

‘People actually say that?’ Luna asked the mom. ‘In initials?’ The mom didn’t answer.

‘Miss Morley, this is Detective Elena Luna from another jurisdiction. She’s here as a consultant. Could you answer her questions, please?’

Gretchen looked from one to the other of them, studying each face. ‘No. I don’t think so. I think I want a lawyer.’

‘That’s your prerogative, Miss Morley,’ Champion said, ‘but once you have an attorney then we can no longer help you in any way. I’m afraid I’ll have to treat you as a suspect after that.’

‘A suspect?’ she screeched, jumping up and dropping used Kleenex all over the floor. ‘How can you say that? Bish was my … my friend!’

‘I’m sorry, Miss Morley, that’s just the way this thing works. If you have an attorney representing you then we must go on the assumption that you have something to hide and are therefore a viable suspect in our investigation.’

The girl sank back down on her bed. ‘I’m not a suspect!’ she whined. ‘I’m not!’

‘Do you want to answer some questions now or do you want to call your attorney?’

Champion noticed that her eyes weren’t red like someone who had been sobbing her heart out only moments before. He had to admit he hadn’t seen any actual tears. So maybe not a theater major – maybe just another sociopath. He’d met so many in his career they were becoming boring.

Gretchen sighed. ‘Whatever,’ she said. ‘Ask away.’ She leaned back against the wall, her legs stretched out before her across the width of the bed, arms folded across her chest. Champion figured this wasn’t going to go very far.

‘Detective Luna,’ he said, his arm outstretched toward Gretchen Morley. ‘The floor is yours.’

Luna shot him a look that he decided wasn’t one hundred percent friendly and said, ‘Miss Morley, I know you’re grieving and I hate to disturb you, but I do have a few questions.’

‘Whatever,’ the younger woman said.

‘I have concerns about the purported Ex-Lax brownies and the keying of the victim’s car,’ Luna said.

Gretchen sighed. ‘I already told him,’ she said, pointing at Champion. ‘I didn’t do it. I think he was allergic to the nuts I put in the brownies. There certainly was no laxative in them, for heaven’s sake! And as for keying his car, it was an accident.’ She looked up quickly and said, ‘I only did it once. If it happened again, it was somebody else. Maybe him!’ she said, pointing at Graham.

‘I nev—’

Luna shot him a look and Graham clamped his mouth shut. But then he moved forward and whispered something in Luna’s ear. Luna nodded her head and looked back at Gretchen.

‘According to his roommate, there were no nuts in those brownies,’ she said.

‘Well, he would lie, wouldn’t he?’

‘I understand someone actually saw you purposely key the victim’s car,’ Luna said.

Gretchen Morley jumped up from her bed. ‘Did he say that?’ she asked, pointing at Graham. ‘Because it’s a lie! He wasn’t even in town when I—’ She stopped herself, then said, ‘When that happened.’

‘No, Graham Pugh is not the witness,’ Luna said.

The young woman fell back on the bed, crossing her arms over her chest. Champion decided the pout on her face was definitely losing its appeal. ‘Well, whoever! They’re lying!’

‘Seems everybody but you lies, is that it, Miss Morley?’ Champion cut in.

‘Well, I don’t know about everybody,’ she said, sitting up straight with her hands on her hips, ‘but somebody sure as shit is!’

Champion looked at Luna. ‘Do you have any more questions, Detective?’ he asked.

‘No, I think I’m through with this one for the moment, Detective,’ she said. ‘But I may need to talk with you again, Miss Morley, after I’ve had time to confer with Detective Champion and the other witnesses.’

‘What other witnesses?’ Gretchen yelled, jumping up.

‘Thank you for your time, Miss Morley,’ Luna said and ushered the kid and his mom out of the room, Champion following behind.

Once outside the sorority house, Champion asked, ‘OK, so who said they saw her key the vic’s car?’

Luna shrugged. ‘Me. I lied.’

‘Damn,’ he said. ‘I was hoping …’

‘We did talk to the vic’s bestie, Bobby—’

‘Dunston,’ Graham supplied with a sigh.

‘Right. Bobby Dunston,’ Luna said. ‘And he reported that some girl named …?’ She looked at Graham to fill in the blank.

Again, he sighed. ‘Lexie Thurgood. Why don’t you write these things down?’

‘Hush,’ Luna said to him and turned to Champion. ‘What he said.’

‘Yeah, Lexie Thurgood. I already talked to her. Lives in his’ – he said, pointing at Graham – ‘building. Tall chick. Overheard a fight between him’ – again pointing at Graham – ‘and the vic.’

‘So she’s the—’ Graham started but Luna interrupted.

‘Shut up,’ she said.

‘So what did this Bobby say about Lexie?’ Champion asked.

‘That she came onto the vic repeatedly and the vic shot her down in public.’

Champion and Luna both noticed at the same time that Graham’s arm was in the air and he was waving it about.

‘What?’ Luna said.

Graham lowered his arm. ‘I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in anything Bobby says. He was so far up Bishop’s ass he couldn’t see daylight. And there’s Fuchs!’ he said, obviously getting excited.

‘Fuchs?’ Champion said, raising an eyebrow.

‘Gaylord Fuchs,’ the mom said. ‘Bishop’s student adviser. There was some drama with Fuchs’ wife and he took a swing at Bishop.’

‘And missed!’ the kid added.

Champion drew Luna away from the mother and son and said softly, ‘You know, Elena, I’m not real comfortable having these two tag along. The kid’s my prime suspect, you know.’

‘I know you think so,’ Luna said, also speaking softly, ‘but it’s crap. Looks to me like that little twat we just talked to had more reason than anybody to do in the vic.’

‘I’m not saying you’re wrong on that count but I need to follow-up on the information you just gave me about Lexie Thurgood and that Fuchs guy. I don’t mind you coming along. But not them.’

Luna nodded her head. ‘OK, we can deal with that,’ she said, left him and walked over to mother and son.