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Leo and Sasha waited. They both knew that most people couldn’t stand silence.
After several moments, Brian sighed. “Paul was agitated.”
“Paul’s the guy who looks like a wrestler?”
“He is—was—a wrestler,” Brian confirmed.
“What’s his story?” Leo asked.
“Paul and Rex were roommates their freshman year, and they’ve been tight ever since. Usually, Paul is pretty happy-go-lucky. Always joking around. But not this weekend. He was on edge from the minute we got into the van to come here.”
“On edge, how?” Leo probed.
“He was just tense—that’s the only way to put it. He snapped at Leeza, which I’d never seen him do before. He’s been withdrawn, really quiet.”
Leo thought back to the confrontation with Paul at the farm manager’s house. At some point, withdrawn had morphed into agitated and combative. But, then, a dead body did have a way of changing the mood in a room.
“Is there anything else that stands out about the trip here or the first few hours?”
“Well, the Bickersons had their blow-up right when we got here.”
“The Bickersons?” Sasha asked.
“You know, like that old radio show about the bickering couple.”
She cut her eyes toward Leo.
“Bethany and Chance Galeton. The other couple who didn’t want to share a room,” he explained.
“They’re married?”
Brian replied, “They’ve been married five or six years now.”
“Do they generally get along?”
“Again, we don’t spend much time with them. But I’ve never seen them fight like this. They have a baby. Rowan’s probably seven or eight months old. This is the first time they’ve been away from him overnight, so I chalked the squabbling up to nerves. Maybe Bethany was anxious about leaving him with her mom. Or maybe Chance pushed her to go away without the baby before she was ready. I don’t know. I was surprised when they demanded separate rooms. I’m no expert. Annette and I don’t have kids. But wouldn’t you be looking forward to some alone adult time the first time you got out of your house?”
“Yes,” Leo and Sasha confirmed in enthusiastic unison.
He gave them a curious smile.
“We have twins,” Sasha told him, “believe me, there’s not much that Leo could have done to make me angry enough to want a separate room the first time we went away without them.”
“Right, that’s what I thought. So that whole thing was strange. I don’t know what they were fighting about, but they’re still on the outs. Even when we all found out about Rex’s death, they didn’t put it aside.”
“How do they know Rex?”
“Don’t quote me on this, but I think Bethany and Rex were in the same workgroup in one of their business classes their first year. After that, they worked on a bunch of projects together and got involved in a lot of the same organizations. They had the same major—entrepreneurship.”
“And Chance?”
“He wasn’t in the business school, but he and Bethany started dating in college. He was the school mascot. He asked her out on their first date wearing his costume. That’s pretty much all I know.”
“What do they do now?”
“Up until last year, Bethany was the primary breadwinner. She worked at Rex’s incubator until she had the baby. She was high up in the company, but I don’t know the details. After she gave birth to Rowan, she decided to stay home with him. So they’re living on Chance’s salary. He works in public relations for a semi-professional sports league. I don’t even know what sport, to tell you the truth. Maybe money’s tight; maybe that’s why they’re fighting. But that’s just conjecture.”
“Is anyone particularly close with the Galetons?” Sasha wanted to know.
