Page 33 of Dead Man's Hollow
“My day was interesting. Maisy Farley and her producer stopped by.”
He pauses, the knife still on the bread. “I didn’t know you were planning to see them today. Did they come to record your interview?”
“No, Kristy’s up next.” She pauses. “But they did record our conversation.”
The knife clatters to the tray. “Why would they do that? What were you talking about?”
She pops a grape into her mouth. “They got a tip. Someone contacted them to let them know Heather was talking to a boy from Allderdice, and, that at the end of the night, a fight broke out with the kids from Allderdice.”
She takes another sip of her drink and watches him process the news.
He presses his hands flat against the counter. “Did they say who the tipster is?”
“No, in fact, Maisy asked me if I had any idea who it could be.”
“Do you?”
She pauses. She doesn’tknowwho contacted Maisy, but her hunch that it was Michelle and Lynn is strong enough that she gave the podcaster their names. Something stops her from sharing her suspicion with her husband.
Instead she says, “No. You know I don’t really keep in touch with anybody from high school. I wouldn’t even know who’s following the podcast.”
This elicits a short, humorless laugh. “More like, who isn’t?”
Richisin touch with their old classmates. As the senior class secretary, he organizes the reunions. He also has a standing monthly card game with several of the guys from their class.
“You’d know better than I would. Who do you think reached out?”
“No clue.”
“Well, who was there when the fight broke out?”
He flicks his eyes toward her but doesn’t answer. She’s not sure why he’s been holding out on her for thirty freaking years. But she has to put some of her cards on the table and hope he’ll level with her.
“Look, you were there at the end of the night. If there was a fight, I know you know about it. I’m not sure why you didn’t tell me or your brother and why it’s not in anybody’s witness statement.”
He runs a hand through his hair, then drains his glass in one gulp. “Because it’s not relevant, Aim.”
She raises an eyebrow at that. She supposes she should be glad he isn’t pretending he doesn’t know what she’s talking about.
“Don’t you think you should have let the police decide that?”
“No, I don’t. Think about it. It had nothing to do with Heather. It was just a stupid fight. People were drinking, there was a lot of testosterone. It wasn’t even a real fight. A couple guys were fronting and talking smack. Maybe a few punches got thrown. It wasn’t a big deal, and it broke up pretty fast because by that point the cops were on their way.”
“If it was no big deal, then why not mention it?”
He’s shaking his head, frustrated. “Some of the guys had already turned eighteen. If anyone decided to make a thing out of it, they would have been charged as adults. It was a stupid fight that had nothing to do with Heather’s disappearance. So why stir up trouble for people?”
“The tip Maisy got says the guy she was talking to was an Allderdice student. How can you be so sure the fight wasn’t related to that?”
“Because it wasn’t,” he insists.
“Nobody told the police they saw her talking to him, either.” She laces her voice with suspicion.
He turns her accusation around on her. “If nobody talked to the police, that means you didn’t either.”
“That’s right. I didn’t,” she says in a quiet voice.
“Why not?”
