“I don’t know!” he shouted at me. “H-He told me if I didn’t follow directions, he’d throw me in jail!”
I looked up when Quinn took a step forward, but she didn’t speak. Instead she nodded at me to continue. I could say whatever I wanted to Luther. I wasn’t a cop. If he freely talked to me and two detectives overheard it all, versus him clamming up and demanding a lawyer when they asked….
“Who told you?”
Luther shook his head and looked down. “A cop,” he muttered. “He said he was a cop, anyway.”
“A cop… threatened you to threaten me?”
Luther shrugged his big shoulders and then nodded.
“Who was he?”
“He didn’t tell me his fucking name!” Luther shouted, staring back at me. “You dumb son of a—”
“Hey!” Calvin said, shutting Luther the hell up. “Watch it.”
Luther’s face was starting to sweat. “I saw him once. I swear. Then I only got text messages.”
“Telling you what to do?”
“Yeah. But it wasn’t—I never did anything illegal.”
“You broke into my store just now,” I pointed out. “How’s that not illegal?”
“I’m the landlord!”
“You still need to ask me!”
“Fuck you, Sebastian! God, you are such an arrogant little queer!”
Calvin moved beside me, using his towering height and build to put the fear of God into Luther. “One more word about him,” he said in a calm, calculating tone, “and you and I are going to have a problem.”
Luther swallowed compulsively, and I feared he’d choke on his tongue. He looked back at me, away from Calvin’s terrifying glare. “He only told me to drop something off here.”
“And?” I prodded.
“And—and I was supposed to pick up some chick on Wednesday.”
“You killed her.”
“I didn’t kill anyone!” Luther argued. “I picked up some fucking stripper and brought her to the damn history museum. My text message said to bring her to the whale exhibit and then leave. That’s all I did! She’s not—is she dead?”
“Yeah,” I answered. “Someone shot her in the chest.”
Luther moved instinctively to grab a tissue from his pocket, but his hands cuffed behind his back halted the motion. He tried to wipe his face on his shoulder, which was just awkward. “I didn’t. I swear. I just didn’t want to go to jail!”
I shook my head. What anidiot. “Who was the cop?”
“I told you I don’t—”
“What did he look like?” I pressured.
“Like, I don’t know. No one special. A guy.”
“Luther!”
“He was just a guy!” Luther shouted. “Kind of tall, but not that big. And about your age, you shit.”
