“This gym was…”
“Hard-core free weights. It even got to a point where I said enough.”
“Sophie went there because…”
“She read a Yelp rating or something. She looked kind of lost. Wearing these dance-type leotards that showed off her body. Very slim but no muscles.”
I said, “You got a good look at her body and decided to meet her.”
“It wasn’t that,” said Heck. “I wanted to help her.”
I kept silent.
“Okay, sure, she’s good-looking, why not? But let me go on record again: I didn’t kill her, there’d be no reason.”
I said, “What’s a good reason for killing someone?”
“I—that’s not what I’m saying, sir. There’s no good reason, never, not ever. But Sophie and I, we got along great, there were no fights, it didn’t get complicated, no nothing. We just decided to end it. Actually, she did.”
“Why?”
“She said it was just wanting to be friends,” said Heck. “I figured it was another guy. Which is fine, plenty of fish in all the seas. So I made it easy for her.”
“You made it easy for Sophie by…”
“By letting her do her thing. Talk about what she wanted. Women love that, talking it out.”
He sat up straighter. “I just thought of something. If therewasanother guy, you should be looking at him. Because obviously I’m innocent.”
Milo wrote.
Heck, unsure how to interpret that, stared, frowned, looked for a hint on Milo’s face. When he didn’t get one, he sighed.
I said, “You and Sophie had the talk.”
“Friendly talk,” said Heck. “Like I said, plenty of other things going on.”
His eyes shot to the right. Concealing something.
I said, “Things being…”
“Dates. Chicks.”
“From Tinder.”
Reluctant nod.
I said, “Including Bettina.”
“Her when she decides to booty-call me.” He shrugged. “What can I say, I like women and they seem to like me. And she can be pretty…you know.”
“We don’t.”
“Passionate.”
I said, “You like women and let them express their feelings.”
“Well,” said Heck, “I’d like to think it’s more than that.”
