Jonas stared Alec cold in the eye, not interested in his indifference. It turned out that Dinah Lachappelle had been renting that studio in town under an alias for several years since her kids got older. Oil paint they’d found safe in a cabinet matched the fake Simone, and there was a partially charred work-in-progress in the studio–a reprint and the canvas she was using side by side. Dinah had also wired large sums of money into a European bank account.
Someone really wanted to erase the evidence. They’d doused the forgery and reprint and Dinah’s tools with paint thinner and lit it on fire, then sloshed the paint thinner around, hoping it would all, along with the now dead Dinah Lachappelle, go up in flames. Arson could be tough to prove, so Jonas was incredibly grateful the fire had been caught before all the proof disappeared.
Alec looked tired, which Jonas hoped might mean he’d be more compliant. “So,” Jonas said, “you leave here and now Dinah Lachappelle is dead.”
“I didn’t kill her,” Alec said flatly.
“We know she painted the portraits you tried to incinerate at the bonfire the other night. We found sketches in a notebook in her studio and her paint’s a match. I imagine you went to all the trouble to outrun the lifeguards for a reason.” And trying to outrun Belinda, Jonas added in his mind. He really needed to hang out with them more, just to witness these events firsthand.
“Why would I kill her?” Alec raised his hands in frustration. “It wasn’t my secret.”
“You stole the paintings from a crime scene and tried to destroy them because the secret had nothing to do with you? Not to mention the amount of cash we found stashed under your mattress.”
“What do you think the money was for? To keep the secret.”
“So you were paid to not tell anyone?”
Alec was slipping. Jonas could see it in his eyes. He didn’t want to say anything, but he was starting to realize he was running low on options.
Jonas laced his fingers on the table. “We have your prints all over Angie Chen’s studio, witnesses that you fought with Kevin and threatened to hurt him, and a cash box of money you don’t seem to want anyone to know about.”
“Would you? I’m in a house full of clowns.”
Jonas leaned back, unimpressed. “You look guilty.”
“Well, look harder. I…” He rubbed his face. “I posed for those paintings and I was paid very well to keep it secret.”
“Why?”
“How should I know?”
Jonas listed his head, not buying the ignorance act.
Alec gave him an exasperated look. “I don’t know why. She wasn’t painting them under her name or something. I thought maybe it had to do with Shelby.”
“Because you’re dating her?”
Alec shrugged. “No…maybe. I don’t know. I just did what she asked. Why shouldn’t I? She was paying me.”
“Did Dinah pay you to get the paintings from Angie?”
Alec hesitated, then said, “No. Dinah didn’t know about any of that. I saw the paintings when I went to Angie’s to help Shelby. After we left, I went back alone and took them.”
“And planned to dispose of them yourself?”
“Yeah. It was a lot of money. I didn’t want Dinah finding out and thinking it was my fault.”
Jonas leaned back and folded his arms. “Thinking what was your fault?”
“That Angie had the paintings in the first place. Angie confronted me about posing, and she threatened to tell Shelby. I told her I didn’t care if Shelby knew.”
“But you did care if Dinah found out.”
“Angie didn’t know about Dinah.”
“Are you sure?”
Alec glanced at him suspiciously. “I didn’t tell her.”
“Did you know Dinah was deep in the art forgery business?”
“No. Why?”
“It’s likely Angie learned Dinah was the artist and realized that the fake painting in Kevin’s possession was Dinah’s work.”
Alec’s eyes flitted to the side briefly, but he didn’t say anything.
“We understand you accused Kevin of stealing money from you,” Jonas said. It was hearsay, but worth a shot.
Alec shook his head. “Kevin didn’t steal from me. It wasn’t his style.”
“Then what did you fight about?”
Alec tapped his fingers on the table, like trying to figure out how much his secrecy was worth now. Three people he was connected to were dead; he might be worried he was next in line. “Kevin figured out what I was doing and he wanted in. I told him I couldn’t say anything.”
“You could’ve asked Dinah in his behalf.”
“Kevin wasn’t the type of model she wanted, trust me.”
“So Kevin got mad at you for not helping him out?”
“Yeah. And he was fine later. No hard feelings.”
“Are you sure? Angie told me you threatened Kevin, after the fight.”
Alec pursed his lips. “Angie was bitter because I told her to give it up. Kevin didn’t like her.”
“Did you threaten him later?”
“I couldn’t risk him telling anybody.”
“But he didn’t even know it was Dinah, did he?”
Alec crashed back into his seat, staring off to the side thoughtfully. If Angie knew about Dinah, Jonas had a feeling Kevin told her. Maybe out of spite. “Not as far as I know. But he had to understand he couldn’t say a word. It was too much money to lose.”
“So you pushed him around some more?”
“Didn’t have to. He was fine with it.”
Jonas shrugged. “Maybe Kevin wasn’t fine with it, threatened to tell, and you killed him to keep him quiet.” Jonas was thinking that didn’t explain the fake Simone tossed with Kevin, but he was attempting an angle that didn’t include that as a motive. Alec could’ve easily killed all three of them because of these paintings. Kevin might’ve told Angie, and Angie confronted Alec, then Alec killed both of them. If Alec really wanted the secret locked down, he would’ve killed Dinah.
“Why? I liked the money, don’t get me wrong. But it wasn’t my secret.”
“You were fine with people knowing you posed for them?”
Alec shrugged indifferently. “Why shouldn’t I be?”
As obnoxious and arrogant as that sounded, he had a point. There was really no reason for him to want to hide. “How upset was Shelby about it?”
“Not upset enough to kill for. Besides, Shelby isn’t forever. She’s leaving for college soon. This will probably be the last time I see her.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
Alec paused, then shrugged again. “Things change. She’s getting to be kind of a pain anyway. She was more fun last summer. Less uptight. Now…well, she reminds me of her mother.”
As much as Jonas wanted a reason to arrest this kid, it was looking less and less likely that Alec was the murderer. Jonas believed he could–and even would–do it. But in this case, the facts didn’t add up. Alec wasn’t their killer.