Page 12 of Bait and Switch
“We figure they want you take the fall for this, so maybe don’t antagonize him. It will be much easier for us to try and find out who really did this if you’re not behind bars. I’m serious, Gabriel.”
There’d been no time to argue with Elton that there was no “us” in the finding-out equation.
Now Spurring hitched his uniform slacks up before taking the remaining chair across from Gabriel. He didn’t bother to introduce himself, but Deputy Eagan took a second to verbally note that Chief Deputy Spurring had joined the conversation.
“How did you know the victim?” Spurring demanded bluntly, sitting forward so his face was inches from Gabe as he spoke. He had bad breath.
“Peter and I had been partners, but that was over.”
“Partners exactly how?”
A muscle in Gabe’s jaw flexed and he forced himself not to flinch at Spurring’s proximity. “We were business partners, and in the beginning, we were bed partners.” He could not bring himself to utter the word lovers. They’d never been lovers, and the word annoyed him anyway.
“Bed partners,” Spurring repeated with a sneer.
“Do you have an issue with that?” Gabe was curious if the man would rise to his bait.
From the tic at the corner of Spurring’s eye, he did in fact have a problem with same-sex relationships. Gabe wondered what the cop would think if Gabe told him that he was bi. He briefly imagined the top of Spurring’s head popping off and smoke billowing out of it. It was very satisfying.
“We’ve done a background search on you,” Spurring said, changing the subject and dragging Gabe back to real life.
“I figured you would. Isn’t that one of the things cops do when they’re investigating a murder?”
Beside him, Deputy Eagan shifted in her seat.
“There are gaps in your employment history and home addresses. Can you explain them?”
“Do my past jobs or addresses have anything to do with Peter’s murder? If they do, please enlighten me.”
Chance …
Right. Do not antagonize the zoo animals.
“Please, just answer the question, Mr. Karne,” Deputy Eagan said.
“I’m largely self-employed and, as far as changes of address…” Gabe shrugged. “Maybe I didn’t always notify the state, but that’s not a crime.” He had no idea if it was or wasn’t. Maybe it was when it came to paying taxes.
“How did you and the victim first meet?” Spurring sneered the question.
Oh boy. Gabe’s resolve not to antagonize him was crumbling. It would be so easy. He could tell the man suffered from a bad case of fragile masculinity; it wouldn’t take much for him to shed his thin veneer of pleasantness.
“We met at an LGBTQIA+ business networking event. As one does.”
Gabe had attended to see if he could make some “business connections,” but instead he and Peter had met and hooked up that night. It was only later that they’d realized they had similar “business” interests.
And one thing had led to another, as these things sometimes do.
The questions continued in the same vein and same condescending tone. Spurring seemed determined to trip Gabe up in a lie about his and Peter’s relationship, but there was nothing for Gabe to lie about.
The small room was growing warmer by the minute, and the stench of body odor also increased the longer the three of them sat there. Was it a special scent they piped in from somewhere? He was trying to take shallow breaths, but he was starting to feel nauseous.
Eventually, he had enough of the questions. He realized that Eagan had stopped taking notes half an hour earlier and Spurring was repeating himself, his face gradually turningdeeper shades of red until Gabe worried the man was going to have a stroke then and there.
“We know that you had a relationship with the victim.”
“Are we back to that again? We already established that Peter and I had—operative word is in the past tense—a relationship. I don’t know why he was on Heartstone, and I don’t know what he wanted to talk to me about because he never came back.”
“Why did you end your relationship?”
