“You’re sure it was those two?”
“As sure as I can be after a few beers,” he said. “But don’t get the wrong idea. I could hold my liquor back then. Still can.”
“I’m sure,” I said.
“Anne laughed a lot,” he continued. “Loud and pitchy. Seemed to like attention. Didn’t strike me as shy.”
Aiden’s description of her didn’t match Wendy’s.
Or Rosemary’s.
“Everything was going fine that night, and then Tilly couldn’t keep her trap shut,” he said. “Ruined the entire evening. Everything went to hell after that.”
“What did you do?”
“Sat back, watching everyone tear into each other. I did what I could to stay out of it. Someone had to keep things from getting worse.”
That was an interesting way to think of it.
“Would you say you stayed the longest?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’d say. Oh, and Anne was still there when Vaughn left the first time.”
“The first time?”
“He’d stormed off after Tilly’s confession because he couldn’t handle it. Tilly went after him. He came back later. Just him though, not Tilly.”
Vaughn and Tilly hadn’t mentioned that fact to me.
And Tilly had said they didn’t return.
Was she lying?
Or hadn’t she known that Vaughn went back?
“When did Vaughn return to the bonfire?” I asked.
“Later. After things had settled some. He’d broken things off with Tilly, and he wanted to keep drinking.”
“And you’re sure Anne was still there then?”
“I think so. At some point, she left.”
“Alone?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so. I don’t remember.”
“So, you remember her talking to Vaughn and Gabriel, but not who she left with at the end of the night.”
“That’s what I just said.”
“It seems a little convenient,” I said.
His posture stiffened. “You accusing me of something?”
“I’m saying it seems to me like you’re steering the story in the direction you want it to go.”
“Or maybe I’m the only one who’s being honest with you.”
