Page 82 of Three Girls Gone
Trent had his tablet out and was working on it.
“And did he share anything at all about his life with you?” Amanda was certain that he would have lied about most things, but some gem of truth could have made its way in there.
“Hmm. Come to think of it, he flipped any question I asked back on me. He also doled out a lot of flattery.”
“Who paid for the meal?” Trent asked, likely considering tracking a credit card, if he’d used one.
“I did. He acted all embarrassed saying he forgot his wallet. No cards in his phone case or stored on his phone either, he said. Which was weird, because who relies on an actual walletthese days? But he said he’d cover the check next time. I made a joke of that in a text he never replied to.”
Amanda agreed that relying solely on a wallet was increasingly unusual. But Wilson clearly had a ready excuse, and Mara had said he was charming. “Did he pick you up for your date?”
“Uh-huh. He was driving a gray Kia K5. It was a few years old.”
It was an unlikely coincidence that Susan Butters saw a gray car near the park. “Is there anything else you can remember?”
Mara shook her head and stopped. “We went for a walk after dinner and passed by a house in the throes of a party. He grabbed my hand and said it looked like fun, and we should crash it. But that’s not who I am. He tried to convince me to go, saying he’d done it a million times and that it was fun to pretend to be someone else sometimes. I didn’t think much of it. Maybe I should have.” Tears fell, and she pressed her palms to her cheeks.
Grief messed with a person’s mind, but what Mara had just said clung like a burr.It’s fun to pretend…If this was the man they were after, he’d pretended to be a server at the Scoop, but what other roles had he played? Mara had described him as quirky yet charming, which didn’t align with their killer’s profile of someone who was socially awkward. He must be able to put on an act. But all this sparked a theory, and she needed to talk it out with Trent. She stood. “Detective Stenson, we should go.” She was at the door when she called back a “Thank you” to Mara.
She started talking while she and Trent headed for the parking lot. “There was something that Mara said in there that got me thinking. We know the killer is someone who can be charming and manipulative. Learning that he likes to play different roles or put on personas isn’t much of a stretch.”
“Okay, I’mfollowing so far.”
“Well, Mara said this guy wanted to crash a party. The Gilberts held a party the night that Julie was assaulted and killed.”
“Right, but Katherine reached out to everyone she knew attended and cleared them.”
“Everyone she knew about. It was an open-invite kind of deal, though.”
“Shit, so you’re thinking the killer wasn’t a guest, but an outlier, a party crasher?”
“That’s exactly what I’m thinking.”
“All right, but even if that’s the case, how would we go about finding him?”
“I don’t have all the answers, but maybe if we revisited the people we know about, someone will remember this guy.”
“A man with brown hair, brown eyes, dimples, and a scar on his lip? Even that seems a stretch.”
Her enthusiasm dampened. “You’re right. It’s not reasonable, but this might be a new angle that Katherine hasn’t considered.”
“Though it’s possible, there won’t be a trail for us to follow.”
“I disagree. The only reason he’s resurfaced, even calling Katherine out, is he must have been aware she was poking around in the fall. Either directly or he’s still in touch with someone who was backstage. We reach out to those people again and see if they remember a person of his description.”
“If we don’t talk directly to him. On another note, I’m pretty sure this guy’s real name isn’t Wilson.”
They got into the car, and Trent keyed into the onboard computer. A few seconds later, he confirmed. “No gray Kia K5s registered to any Wilsons.”
“Not much of a surprise. I’m calling Katherine.”
“I thought Malone wants her off this now.”
Amanda shook her head. “He said he told her to go home. I doubt he stated explicitly she’s not to touch this anymore.”
“I feel that was the implication.”
“Fine, I’ll run this past Malone.” Amanda got into the car and shared what had transpired in their conversation with Mara Bennett.
