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Delacroix didn’t let up. “You’re single, right?”
His jaw tightened. “Yeah.”
“But you’ve been through several girlfriends?”
“So what?” He lifted a shoulder.
“Starting with Ashley McDonnell.”
Owen waited, but he was silently seething, his eyes narrowing on Delacroix.
“What happened there? Why’d you break up?” she asked.
“What? What’s this got to do with . . . ?” Irritated, Duval threw up a hand. “We were kids. We dated, we broke up. It happens all the time and it was, like, a million years ago.”
Wells said, “I don’t see what this has to do with anything.”
“And you dated a girl named Maria Coronado, isn’t that right?” Delacroix asked.
“A few years back when I Iived in Atlanta, yeah—hey, wait!” A vein started to throb near his temple. “What the hell is this?”
“She had you arrested for domestic violence.”
“What the—no! That . . . it was all a mistake. Blown way out of proportion.” He looked to his attorney for help but kept talking. “We got into a fight, that’s all. She thought I was cheating on her.”
“Were you?”
“No, but she was batshit crazy jealous. As I said, we got into it. Harsh words and then she hit me with a goddamned metal spatula. Split my lip. She was screaming and yelling and the neighbors called 911. The cops hauled me in, but it was all a big mistake. Nothin’ happened. She didn’t have a scratch on her and she dropped the charges!”
“Okay . . . let’s get back to the day you were supposed to be looking after your sisters,” Delacroix suggested, and Duval, already agitated, started to bristle. “So you left in your car and went to pick up Ashley,” Delacroix prodded.
“No, no, no. Are you kiddin’? What is this? Do you think Harvey would trust me with the Taurus? No way! I walked the girls to the theater and jogged over to Ashley’s. Harvey and Mom took the car to look at the open house. Ashley’s folks were out, so we hung out at her place. I already told you all this!”
Again—his story was just as he’d previously said. Unshaken. Despite Delacroix’s best efforts. She’d watched his interviews and read the transcripts. She knew that he’d walked his sisters to the theater. She was just trying to rattle Owen, Reed guessed, to try to shake him from his story. The play hadn’t worked.
In twenty years, his story hadn’t changed. Not one iota. But he was irritated, his face red.
“Look.” His gaze was laser sharp on Delacroix. “I don’t know why you all think I did it. Why? Why would I kidnap my sisters? And how? God, I just told you I didn’t even have a car!”
“Did Ashley have access to one?” Delacroix asked.
“I don’t know! Holy shit!” Owen glanced over to Wells. “I told you this would be a waste of time. I don’t know why I even agreed to do it in the first place. They”—he hooked a thumb toward Reed and Delacroix—“don’t listen. After all this time. It’s pointless. I can’t tell them anything I don’t know.”
“He’s right,” the attorney cut in suddenly. Looking directly at the detectives, Wells, no longer affable, said, “My client’s cooperated over and over again to the point that he’s nearly being harassed.” Before they could argue, he held up a hand, palm toward Reed. “I think we’re done here.”
Reed glanced at Delacroix. “We got what we came for.”
“Good! I need a break.” Owen shot to his feet and without a look over his shoulder walked out the French doors, reached into his jeans pocket a
nd withdrew a crumpled pack of cigarettes and a lighter. His hands shook as he lit up. Through the glass Reed watched him inhale deeply, pacing back and forth in front of the panes, water in the swimming pool shimmering behind him. He was shaking his head, his lips moving as if he were having a conversation with himself.
Wells stood and rounded the desk. “He didn’t want to talk to you, thought it was a bad idea, but I convinced him to cooperate once more. I don’t think I can do it again, and really, I wouldn’t want to. He’s told you everything he knows.”
Reed silently agreed, though Delacroix seemed about to argue.
“If he thinks of anything else,” she said, handing Wells her card.
“I’ll let you know.” This time his smile was a little colder as he escorted them to the front door. “But I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.”
