Page 110 of Liar's Point

“All over.” He gave a shrug. “But I’ve been living here ever since my wife and I split.”

“And how long has that been?”

He sighed heavily. “A year and a half. At first I was staying here at the beach house until I could get my own place set up. But so much of my work is remote, I just decided to base here. I like it better than Dallas.”

Emmet glanced at the wall of windows overlooking the water. “I can see why.”

Kinney watched him, his expression guarded. “So, have you guys determined what happened? I heard a rumor she was strangled?”

“We can’t get into details at this time,” Emmet said. Strangled? Had he just thrown that detail out as a distraction or had he really heard that? Emmet studied the guy’s face until he crossed his arms over his chest and seemed to get uncomfortable.

“So, like I told the officer yesterday,” Kinney said, “I flew to Dallas Saturday afternoon. My flight was at two fifteen. I can pull up my ticket if you want to verify it with the airline.”

“We already did.”

His eyebrows shot up. “You did?”

“I’d like to know more about Aubrey’s state of mind on Friday. You spent the night with her, correct?”

“Right. We went to a meeting and then decided to grab dinner.”

“Where’d you go?” Emmet asked.

“The Shrimp Hut. They were pretty busy, so we got our food to go and came here.”

“And when did Aubrey leave?”

He looked at his feet and rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know. Probably around ten thirty? I took her back by the church to pick up her car. She said she had a bunch of errands to do that day.”

Emmet watched him closely. So far, everything he was saying fit with what he’d told Adam. And it also fit with the facts they had already gathered.

“What about her demeanor?” Emmet asked.

“Demeanor?”

“Yeah, did she seem upset to you? Distracted? Stressed out about anything?”

“Well, no. I mean, we’d just come from an AA meeting, so there was the usual baggage.”

“Such as?”

“Ah, God. How much do you want to know? I mean, she had shit with her parents, like everyone. Also, she lost her brother to drugs a few years back, so she’d been through some depression.”

“What about problems with an ex-boyfriend?” Emmet asked. “She mention anything to you or maybe in the meeting?”

“No.”

“Anything at all?”

He shook his head.

“What about financial problems?” Given the timing of her asking for a raise at work, Emmet was wondering if Aubrey owed someone money.

“She never said anything. I mean, I paid for everything whenever we were together, and she seemed cool with that. She had a crap job, so...” He shrugged.

“So... no money issues, that you know of? No guy problems?”

“Well, no boyfriend problems. She might have had some guy stuff.”

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