“Were you alone?” He asks.
“I was. And the party was still raging, so I put on my noise canceling headphones to be able to fall asleep.”
Deputy Moss clears his throat. “Right. Thank you for confirming that, Mr. Belkin.”
“You can call me Nash.” I say, like I did the first time he interviewed me the day after the party. “Is there anything else Ican help you with? Not to sound rude, but you already asked me these questions before you allowed me to leave the state.”
The deputy sheriff sounds demoralized when he speaks next. “I hope you can. We’re just interviewing everyone again, hoping that we missed something the first time around. Are you sure there isn’t anything else of importance that you might have remembered in the meantime? Like for example, did you see the victim with anyone in particular?”
Last time they didn’t ask me that question when I told them that I spent most of the party playing beer pong in the basement with the football team. They didn’t care about giving me the cold shoulder like my own teammates, so I only went back up when I decided I had a decent enough buzz.
I open my mouth to tell him that I saw him with Taryn, but I hesitate.
I’m pretty sure I did see Tim and Taryn dancing together at some point when I was going back upstairs.
“You’re mistaken. I wasn’t at that party. I was packing my apartment that night, ready to set off first thing in the morning.”
Taryn’s words right after we hooked up echo in my ears. I was pretty sure that I saw her with Tim.
Or am I? In all honesty, I had a little more than a buzz. I was pretty shit faced. Could it be that I saw Tim speaking to another blonde the night he was murdered, and I thought it could have been Taryn? Could I have seen them talking some other time? It’s more than possible.
“Not really, sorry. I had a lot to drink that night. You know, we were all celebrating the end of the academic year.”
The disappointment is clearly evident in the cop’s voice. “I guess it was worth a shot. Sadly, everyone we spoke to was very inebriated that night. And to top it all off, the school was in the process of updating its CCTV system, and the area around thefraternity house had old cameras that were out of service. So we have to rely solely on eyewitnesses.”
That sounds inconvenient, but it isn’t surprising. Hemlock Beach wasn’t as affluent as Star Cove, where everything is top-notch.
“I’m sorry, I can’t help you more, Deputy.”
I can hear the cop’s sigh on the other end of the line. “Thank you anyway. I’ll keep going through the endless list of that party’s attendees. Hopefully, we can jog someone’s memory. Your friend hooked up with someone the night he was murdered. We found a condom on the floor, and the preliminary toxicology report we got from the coroner indicates the presence of a cocktail of powerful narcotics in his system. There’s a chance that the person who hooked up with him could have something to do with his untimely death. If not, it’s possible that she was lucky to have escaped with her life. Either way, we’re eager to speak to the person whose DNA is on that condom. Right now, all we know is that it’s a woman, and that she doesn’t match anyone in our database, so she was never arrested.”
“So you’re going to test every woman who was at that party to find a match?” It’s probably a stupid question.
“We’re getting started with that. We’re asking people to come forward voluntarily for now, and we’ll be getting warrants if we don’t get a match.”
I don’t tell the deputy that if the person who had sex with Tim is the killer, they aren’t going to be stupid enough to offer their DNA on a silver platter.
“Thank you for taking this phone call, Nash. Please remain available in case I or someone else from the sheriff’s department needs to ask you any more questions. And if you remember anything else, no matter how small, that you think might be of interest, don’t hesitate to call me on this number. Or youcan reach the main switchboard of Hemlock Beach Sheriff’s Department if I’m off duty or otherwise unavailable.”
I put my phone back in my pocket once the phone call ends.
“That sounded interesting.”
Gen’s voice makes me literally crawl out of my skin.
“What the fuck, Gen? I thought you were gone. You scared the crap out of me.”
She pouts for half a second like she’s wounded by my words. “If I didn’t know better, your reaction would make me think that you’re annoyed to see me here.”
No shit. Of course, I don’t say that. But I don’t get why Gen would think that I would want to spend any more time with her since I just declined to go on a date with her. “I just thought that we were done with our conversation when my phone rang. And I know you’re a very busy woman.”
She plays with the ends of her long, dark ponytail. “That’s so true. I’m trying to be an influencer, and growing my followers is a full-time job, I swear. Of course, the tryouts helped a lot. Once I’m team captain, it’ll be even better.”
“Yeah, I bet. Anyway, I should go eat something. I’m starving.”
My tone conveys that this is a goodbye, but Gen isn’t done.
“You have a healthy following on social media. You haven’t been very active since your injury. But think about how much you could grow if you were dating the right woman.”
