"Where were you?”
"I was here.”
"All day?”
"For most of it, I think. I went out in the afternoon to get something to eat, and I had a beer at the Salty Dawg, then I cameback here. Why?" he asked in the most innocent voice he could muster.
Luther had an innocent quality.
“Can you tell me about the altercation you got into with the Easter Bunny at the mall?"
"I didn't get into an altercation with the Easter Bunny."
"I've seen the security footage.”
Luther frowned. "That's not the Easter Bunny. That’s the devil,” he said with fire in his eyes and conviction in his voice.
"The devil?"
Luther gave an emphatic nod, his crazy eyes still unflinching.
"Is that why you went up to the mall and killed him?” I just threw it out there to see if it would stick.
Luther's brow wrinkled with confusion. "I didn't kill anyone.”
"Well, the Easter Bunny is dead. His name is Cody Griggs."
A confused expression tensed Luther's face. He shook his head. "No. That's not possible.”
"Why not?"
"Because I still hear the voices," he said, looking into my eyes with a grave expression.
It was spooky.
Isabella had tracked his phone. She told me it was at the houseboat at the time of the incident. It didn’t prove anything.But if he did kill Cody, Luther was smart enough to leave his mobile device at home. She told me a few other things, too.
"I take it you don't watch the news," I said.
Luther shook his head. "I don't own a TV. The devil broadcasts across all frequencies. It will corrupt your mind.”
There was a lot of junk on TV, that was certain. Watch too much of it, and it might rot your brain.
"You know a woman named Evelyn Ellington?”
Luther shook his head.
“Are you sure?”
He hesitated. “Yeah.”
“That’s not exactly true, is it?”
His brow wrinkled, and his nervous eyes flicked between the two of us. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve made a few calls to her phone. And your device shows up near her apartment at odd hours.”
Luther swallowed hard.
