Page 81 of ILY
He groans and throws his head back. “No. I’m horny as fuck. I had no idea I had a thing for you being competent at your job, but it’s making my dick hard.”
I feel heat creep up my neck. “I can take care of that for you after. But I really don’t want to call another agent in on this. Unless…you want that?” I feel a sudden burst of insecurity.
He shakes his head quickly. “No. I’ll be a good boy.”
“Leaf!”
He grins. Fuck. He knows what he’s doing to me. I can’t really get it up all the way, but I am definitely half-hard. “Sorry. I can do this. I’ll behave.”
I clear my throat, then start the recording again and wait for him to give his details before stating my name and badge number, then asking my next question. “When did you inherit this property?”
“Officially, three years ago,” he says, “but I didn’t move in until last spring. One of the neighbors had been taking care of it for me. He’s another former interpreter in the area, which is why I felt okay about moving in. His name is Salem. He inherited his place like I did, but he’s better at farming than me.”
I smile in spite of the situation. “I don’t think you’re a terrible farmer.”
“I was so bad he came and took all my chickens,” he says. “Not that I fought him on it. They were running free, and it was a whole mess.”
“Did Salem know your aunt?”
“No. He moved in about a year before me—his granddad left him his place, but he spent some summers there. He told me he’d only seen my aunt a few times. I think she was pretty reclusive at the end. I’ve met a bunch of people around town, and no one really knew her. Just one guy who delivered her groceries and the guy who takes care of the orchard. You met him.”
I make a mental note to follow up on the grocery man. The other guy, well, I’ll make sure to research him very thoroughly.
“And you weren’t close with her?”
Leaf shakes his head. “Not at all. I was close with her son. Rain is Deaf?—”
“Your cousin’s name is Rain?”
Leaf rolls his eyes. “Yeah. Don’t ask. Anyway, he coaches softball at a Deaf school in Maryland. He’s been living there since he graduated from Gallaudet. We were close growing up.”
“Is he why you got into ASL?”
“I got into ASL because I thought the class was going to be an easy A and keep me at a 4.0. Which it did. But then I got sucked into Deaf studies, and the next thing I knew, I was interpreting.”
I make another mental note to ask him about that, but for me. Not the case. “So why did you inherit the farm instead of Rain?”
Leaf makes a face and signs, ‘I don’t know,’ before remembering he has to speak aloud for the recording. “Not a clue. I asked Rain if he cared that it went to me, and he just laughed and told me he wanted nothing to do with his mom or her bullshit. I didn’t really know what that meant. I mean, he didn’t live with her all the time. He mostly stayed with his dad.”
I hum. That’s…interesting. “And did you ever visit?”
“A few times when I was a kid, and once when I was a teenager for Rain’s eighteenth birthday.”
That would have been well after the victims had gone missing. “Did you notice anything weird?”
“I mean, my aunt was always weird? But nothing out of the ordinary. She didn’t walk around cackling like a maniac, holding bloody knives or anything.”
I smile at him. “That’s not typically how serial killers work. Were there rooms that were off-limits?”
He bites his lip. “Well, yeah. The whole-ass house. The party was in a tent near the apple orchard, and she had a porta-potty put up instead of letting people use the bathroom inside. When I first got here, I thought maybe it was going to be one of those horrific hoarder situations where there was like mounds of urine-filled bottles covering the hallways or something. But itwas mostly normal.” He waves his hand. “Apart from all the bins and shit she left behind.”
That’s answering some questions, and I don’t think Leaf has any other leads himself. The rest will be me digging. I end the recording and look at him.
“So. Was it Aunt Lynda in the conservatory with the lead pipe?”
I burst into laughter. “It might be Aunt Lynda in the cellar with…I’m not sure what.”
“Something in that bin you keep looking at?” Leaf says.
