Chapter Twenty-Eight #2
“Do you know what color the vehicle was?”
“The lights were so bright, it’s hard to tell because nothing about it popped in the fog . . . so maybe white? Gray?”
“That’s possible.”
“Or maybe it was a ghost car,” Cass whispered.
“We’re traumatized when we’re scared, and memory gets unreliable,” Durante said.
Harmony noted how differently he spoke to Cass—gentler, almost protective. Interesting.
“I’ve always been able to handle stress better than most people, but I think the continuation of being stressed twenty-four-seven is starting to get to me,” Cass admitted. “Maybe that’s messing with my head.”
“Do you know if there was one person or two in the vehicle?”
She thought a moment. “I really don’t know. I didn’t see anything but the lights. It happened so dang quickly.”
“Why do you think this happened to the two of you?” he asked.
Another shudder ripped through Cass. “Maybe we’re asking too many questions. Maybe we’re getting close and they want to shut us up.”
He nodded. “You might be right.”
Just then, Efrain walked into the lobby and stopped when he saw them. He looked exhausted. Durante turned immediately.
“Just the man I wanted to talk to,” Durante said.
Efrain’s shoulders sagged.
“How can I help?”
“The crime scene techs said no locks were broken, but the hangar was used to store Candy’s body until the killer returned. How many sets of keys to the hangar and storage sheds exist?”
Efrain thought for a moment. “There are four official sets, but that’s not something carefully monitored. There could be a couple of dozen out there.”
“So you’d have no idea if the wrong person got their hands on a set of keys?” Durante said.
Efrain hung his head. “Anyone could get them if they tried hard enough.”
“Was anyone asking you about keys?”
Efrain shook his head. “No.”
“Where are the extra keys kept?”
“In my office.”
“Do you keep it locked when you’re out?”
Efrain shifted on his feet. “I lock it when I’m done for the day, but, to be honest, when I run out here and there, I don’t bother. It’s not like there are a ton of people hanging out at the airport. It’s all those I know, people who wouldn’t think of taking anything.”
“Well, you’re clearly wrong, as our killer got their hands on a set of keys.”
Efrain didn’t argue.
Durante was finished speaking to him. He spotted Torie on the other side of the room, sitting alone beneath a window. He crossed to her.
“Have you thought of anything else?” he asked.
She stiffened. “No.” She took a deep breath. “Candy and I fought. Women fight, and they hold grudges. Life goes on. It doesn’t mean I want her dead.”
“Do you feel guilty about what happened to her?”
Torie scoffed. “I don’t need to feel guilty, just like I don’t need forgiveness, which is simply guilt wearing perfume. Candy liked to play a victim. Well, I guess she got her wish and gets to be one for eternity now.” She laughed, but it came out brittle.
“Why do you think she smiled at you before running off?”
Torie paused. “Probably because a person remembers a smile, and she wanted to be remembered.”
Durante nodded.
Tosh appeared, sliding an arm around Torie. Protective. “How many times are you going to question us?” Tosh asked.
As much as he and Torie fought, he was also being protective of her. Interesting.
Durante noticed the protective gesture, eyeing Tosh carefully. “You seem to move on quickly.”
“I’m always here for my friends,” Tosh told him.
“Do you have sex with all of your friends?”
Tosh didn’t blink. “Not all of them.”
“When people run from the truth, they’re hiding something,” Durante said.
“Then it’s good that I’m not afraid of the truth, and I’m not running anywhere,” Tosh said.
“We’ll see,” Durante replied.
“One of the saddest things about this is that Candy loved chaos, and she doesn’t get to be a part of this. I hope ghosts are real and she’s watching everyone unravel,” Tosh said.
Torie stiffened beneath his arm but didn’t pull away. Durante looked at them both for several moments. He then turned and walked out.
He found Zach sitting on a bench staring at the ocean, his expression unreadable. Durante lit a cigarette, standing there silently for a long moment.
“Do you know who was driving in the hills at two in the morning?” Durante asked.
“Not a clue,” Zach said, his jaw tightening.
“It seems you have a few new cuts.”
Zach laughed. “Murder doesn’t stop work. Old wood and tools don’t stop for grief.”
“You seem to have a lot of patterns, Zach. You get cut daily. You find bodies weekly. What else is a pattern?”
Zach rolled his eyes. “Bad luck seems to be a pattern lately.”
“Bad luck is simply timing we don’t understand yet,” Durante countered.
Zach raked a hand through his hair. “I didn’t kill anyone.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
“You’re sure as hell implying it.”
Durante puffed on his cigarette. “Sometimes a person sees things and doesn’t remember until later. The smallest comment can trigger a memory. That’s why we talk over and over again.”
Zach froze. Durante caught it immediately. He put out his cigarette and waited.
“Have you ever been in a situation right before something terrible happened and then wondered if you’d done something just a bit differently, maybe you could’ve changed it?” Zach asked.
“Many times,” Durante said, practically holding his breath.
“I do remember something. Candy walked past me, looking sad. She said, I’m okay, Zach. Some things finish themselves. Then she walked away.”
“What do you think that means?”
“I have no idea,” Zach replied.
Durante didn’t know either.
But it was one more sin.
One more secret Catalina refused to bury.
The problem wasn’t the lack of suspects. It was that there were far too many.
Across the lobby, Ciscel passed by the front windows, pausing for a second too long to scan the room. His gaze skimmed over everyone, but caught on Harmony like it always did, like a hook catching fabric. Then he moved on, but the tug remained.