Page 49 of Body Count

With a smug little cock of his hips, Harvey added, “So, I told them the truth.”

“What?What do you mean?”

“I told them the truth.I told them about all those boys coming over.”And then, like he’d been waiting for it—which, obviously, he had—Harvey said, “This is a decent neighborhood.Decent people live here.You need to take your drama elsewhere.”

But that didn’t make any sense because I didn’t bring hookups home.Darnell and I had agreed: our home was our home.“What boys?When?”

Eyebrows arched, Harvey asked, “Darnell didn’t tell you?”

The cattiness felt so staged that it would have been funny if I weren’t on the brink of a heart attack.“Harvey, what are you talking about?”

“The other day, the day the police came,” he said, and he made that little, satisfied line with his mouth again.“Everyone saw it.They showed up in a cute little sports car.The blond onestayed in the car.And the brunet walked right up to the front door.”With the satisfied air of someone scoring a point, he added, “Mrs.Estes thought they were hired escorts.”

He was talking about Rory and Jordan; that much was obvious.They’d come to the house.My house.The same day that Tip’s body had been found here.They’d walked up to the door.

“Did they go inside?What time was this?Where did they park?What else did you see?”

My tone made Harvey shrink back, his eyes scanning me, one hand outstretched for the door.

“What time?”I said.

“Afternoon.I don’t know.Late afternoon.”

I’d been at work.And Darnell should have still been home, although that was another of my assumptions, because I didn’t know when he’d left to go wherever he’d gone.

“They parked on the street,” Harvey continued, still watching me like I might try something.Make an attempt on his virtue, probably.“I could see them from my office window.Notthat I was snooping.I couldn’t help it.If you want privacy, you should tell them—”

“What happened?They parked here.The dark-haired boy got out.What did he do?”

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting—some elaborate hoax that had allowed Rory to move Tip’s body inside.Maybe a wooden crate marked VENTRILOQUIST’S DUMMY.But they’d been in a little sports car, Harvey had said.Would they even have room for Tip’s body?

Some of the satisfaction came back into Harvey’s voice as he answered.“He knocked on the door.”

I shook my head, mostly because none of this was making any sense.

Harvey took it as disagreement.“He did.He walked right up there and knocked.And he was hardly wearing anything, just these little shorts that left his legs completely bare, and a tank top, and it was white, and it was very tight.”A hint of color crept into Harvey’s face, and he hurried on.“Darnell wasnothappy.”

“Darnell answered the door?What did Rory say?”

“I don’t know.”Some of that campy cattiness sharpened its claws again.“But hetouchedhimself.In public.Decent people shouldn’t have to see that kind of thing.Darnell practically threw him off the porch.”

What did any of that mean?Not the touching himself part—this was Rory we were talking about, so pretty much anything was possible.But why had Rory and Jordan come here?Because they’d heard something about Tip?But then, why had Jordan stayed in the car?And why would Darnell have gotten angry?Most importantly, why hadn’t he told me?

That, more than anything, told me the most likely explanation might be the correct one: Rory had shown up looking to trick, and instead, my boyfriend had answered the door.

But something else worked its way through the fog.“You told the deputies about this?”

“Of course,” Harvey said.“It’s my responsibility as a citizen—”

I turned and started back toward the house.This time, I didn’t feel the asphalt under my feet.The heat haze made everything shimmer.On our house, the glare of the sun made the windows spark and catch little white tongues of fire.I felt lightheaded.The heat.I had the strangest thought that the house was burning down.

As I went up the stairs to the porch, I emptied the last of my coffee over the struggling roses.

Inside, with the cool of the air conditioning locking down around me, I tried to focus.I tried to concentrate.Rory and Jordan showing up at my house wasn’t good, as far as the deputies would be concerned.Brother Gary and Red Alvin would see it as confirmation of further links between me and Tip, or between Darnell and Tip, or between all of us.

Why hadn’t Darnell told me?

A lot had happened in the last day.A lot had gone wrong.Maybe he hadn’t wanted to start another fight by asking why the college ass I’d trawled had shown up on our doorstep.Maybe, I thought with something between amusement and panic, he was saving it up.Ammo.For this fucking therapist.

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