Maddox pointed out a tall man walking past. ‘Isn’t that James Gorman? The senator the Connecticut Youth kids worked for? Guess he and Kevin kept in touch.’
Brett squinted. ‘Well, he’s running for office. Maybe Gorman’s supporting him.’
When Brett checked Kevin’s Martini glass again, it was empty. ‘Another round?’ Brett asked, sweeping up to him.
Kevin nodded and took one willingly. ‘Good advice about drinking it cold.’ He inspected Brett, hopefully not noticing the high-water pants. ‘You look familiar. Do you work Sundays?’
‘Nope.’ Brett felt a nervous tingle but pressed it deep. ‘I’m here just for tonight.’
Kevin slung his arm around Brett’s shoulder. ‘Have one with me.’
Brett demurred. ‘I’m on the clock, man.’
Kevin pretended to seal his lips. ‘I won’t tell.’
Brett waited the obligatory few seconds. ‘Well, you twisted my arm.’ He selected a glass. ‘So I hear congratulations are in order.’
Kevin grabbed his Martini glass and took a long swig. ‘Thanks. I’m excited.’ He sounded anything but.
Maddox strolled up just then, widening his eyes at the drink in Brett’s hand. Brett clapped his shoulder. ‘This is my buddy. Mind if he has a Martini as well?’
‘Why not?’ Kevin said expansively, throwing open his arms.
Brett plucked a drink from the tray. Maddox seemed a little unsure at first, but after a few swigs, he relaxed. Attaboy, Brett thought.
‘I also heard you’re running for office?’ Brett placed his chin in hand as though he was truly interested.
Kevin launched into a description of his position as state senator and the platforms he stood for. Brett nodded like he was listening, but he’d zoned out. After Kevin finished, Brett stood back. ‘Wait, I know where I know you from. You dated that girl in high school, right? The one who vanished? What was her name?’
Maddox was giving him another look, but Brett ignored him.
Kevin placed his drink on the bar, his face clouding. ‘Uh, Helena Kelly.’
‘Right, right.’ Brett shook his head solemnly. ‘Man. What was that like?’
Kevin studied a portrait of a pudgy man behind the bar. The band in the other room started to play ‘New York, New York.’ ‘You a reporter or something?’ he finally asked.
‘No!’ Brett held up his hands. ‘Shit – forget I asked. I’m being nosy.’
There was a long pause. When Kevin picked up his drink again, the liquid sloshed out the sides and onto his sleeve. ‘She was a sweet girl.’
Brett gave him an incredulous look. Sweet girl? That was like something his grandmother might say. ‘Were you guys close?’
‘Yeah.’ There was a hitch in Kevin’s voice. ‘But …’ He trailed off.
‘What?’
Kevin waved his hand sloppily. ‘We weren’t that serious. It was a high-school thing.’
‘Love can be real in high school,’ Maddox piped up.
Kevin stirred his drink thoughtfully. A smile played across his face. ‘I guess it’s just that there were a few things in my relationship with Helena that weren’t real,’ he murmured.
Brett felt an excited flare inside him and cocked his head. ‘How do you mean?’
Kevin looked up and blinked as if he’d come out of a trance. For a split second, a dangerous look cut through the booze, transforming his features completely. Brett held his breath. Kevin tapped him on the shoulder. ‘I’m sure other people want drinks, don’t you think?’
And with a smile that could only be described as chilling, he turned his back on them.
CHAPTER 14
Aerin had been to fabulous parties in her day, and this one was pretty much like the others, with its floor-to-ceiling Swiss-chocolate waterfall, nine-piece swing band, and the usual suspects name-dropping, posing for the roving photographer, and trying very, very hard to act as perfect as possible. James Gorman, the Connecticut state senator, was here, which was an added touch of class. He had an Abraham Lincoln chin, a George W. Bush smile, and a Bill Clinton swagger. She could so picture his face on a coin.
She stood in a corner with Amanda Bettsworth, a friend who’d been at Tori’s party but had escaped the cops. Amanda, who was swilling a vodka tonic she’d told her mother twice was just ginger ale, nudged Aerin. ‘O’Neill’s checking you out by the shellfish yacht.’
Aerin peeked from behind her drink. Sure enough, Brian O’Neill, a wild-haired, dark-eyed kid in a crisp white shirt and striped tie, was peering at her from behind a mizzenmast made entirely of Dungeness crab legs. Aerin had showed him her bra in the locker room in ninth grade, and he’d never gotten over it. For months after that, Brian had sent her love letters via text, her phone pinging ten times in a row for him to fit in all the characters.
Sometimes Aerin regretted being so forward and willing.
Amanda nudged her. ‘Who are those kids you came with? I recognize Madison. That’s her stepbrother, right? Isn’t he practically an Olympian? Are they your friends?’
‘I guess,’ Aerin answered, not knowing what else to call them. But maybe friends wasn’t that bad a label. She’d warmed to Seneca, and she’d always found Madison bigger than the sum of her I-love-Hello-Kitty parts. Brett wore his heart on his sleeve, but she was kind of tempted to take him to Sparrow, Dexby’s best boutique, and see what he picked out for her. She even appreciated that Maddy had grown out of his awkward, dorky phase into someone vaguely hot and interesting. And practically an Olympian? Impressive rumor, even if it was exaggerated.
So yeah, they were friends. And if she thought about it, the Case Not Closed group knew more about her, cared more about what really mattered to her, than anyone else here. People she’d known her whole life.
She felt a tap on her shoulder and winced, fearing it might be yet another blast from her hook-up past. Marissa Ingram beamed at her. ‘Aerin! What a lovely surprise!’
Marissa wore a green silk dress and a choker with jewels so huge and bulbous it was a wonder her scrawny neck didn’t snap under its weight. Skip stood by her side, swirling a brownish drink. His bow tie was cinched too tightly, giving him a choked look, but he managed to give Aerin a warm smile after a beat. And then Heath appeared behind them, dressed in a well-fitting black suit and a gray tie. ‘Aerin, hey!’ He pecked her on the cheek. ‘Long time no see!’
‘Hi,’ Aerin answered awkwardly. It was especially weird seeing Heath – he, Aerin, and Helena used to be tight. She wanted to ask him what was with the stuffy outfit – he used to show up to formal Country Club events in dirty khakis and loafers with holes. She’d respected that.
Marissa scanned the crowd. ‘Is your mother here?’
‘She, um …’ All at once, Aerin couldn’t take the overpowering scent of beef at the carving station. ‘I have to go,’ she mumbled, and darted away, giving Amanda a half-wave, too. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the Ingrams. Being here, fake-hobnobbing, just wasn’t her style.
She stepped out onto an empty terrace. Down the hill was a very familiar white gazebo that was a favorite for Dexby hook-ups. It was known as the Pube Cube, for reasons Aerin was all too familiar with.
There was a whisper behind her. Hair on her neck rose; it felt like someone was watching. But when she turned, it was only Macie Green whisking by in a cloud of Coco Chanel. A cell phone was pressed to her ear, and her voice was gummy, like she had been crying. ‘You wouldn’t believe who’s here. I’m going to kill him.’ Aerin strained to hear the rest, but the wind shifted, carrying her conversation elsewhere.
This was the weirdest engagement party ever.
‘Aerin?’
A familiar guy with close-cropped hair and prominent cheekbones stood by the doors. It was Thomas Grove, Aerin realized. The cop from Tori’s yard … and the Easter Bunny party.
‘Hey.’ Thomas walked over to her. ‘I was wondering if you were coming to this. All of Dexby is here, huh?’
Aerin blinked at his pierci
ng blue eyes and well-proportioned face. He was way cuter when not arresting people on her friend’s lawn. Not as gangly. Not as pale. She also didn’t remember him standing almost six inches taller than she was – and she was five foot eight. ‘Are you here as a guest?’ she asked.
‘Nah, I’ve got a side job as a valet. You wouldn’t believe the tips these people give.’ He winked, kind of adorably. ‘You look really nice, by the way.’
Aerin stared down at her dress and blushed. Everyone kept saying how great she looked. As if she usually looked like shit. Assholes.
‘Wanna go back in?’ Thomas asked. ‘I’m on a break. We could hit the buffet. The shrimp is awesome.’
She winced. ‘Actually, I’m in hiding. These people make me break out in hives.’
Thomas raised an eyebrow. ‘In that case, I have somewhere even better you could hide.’
‘Oh yeah? Where?’
‘It’s a surprise. I promise you’ll like it, though.’
Aerin hesitated. Last winter, an instructor at the local ski mountain had given Aerin that very same line when convincing her to check out his cabin. The surprise was – surprise! – his penis. He’d stripped off his long underwear the moment they’d gotten inside. Total skeev.
Then again, she had a feeling Thomas Grove couldn’t be skeevy if he tried.
‘Check it out,’ Thomas whispered, unlocking a low-slung red Ferrari 458 Spider – Aerin only knew the name because Thomas had just reverently whispered it about six times. The car was parked at the very back of the country club lot; the only other vehicle around was the groundskeeper’s golf cart. The owner, Mr. Levine, liked it parked far away, Thomas explained, so he knew the car wouldn’t get dinged.
Thomas slid into the tan leather driver’s seat and gripped the steering wheel, making revving sounds like a three-year-old. Aerin snickered. ‘Since when do cops go on joyrides?’
‘I’m not.’ Thomas shook the keys. ‘But there’s no rule against us sitting in it. I can tell Mr. Levine we’re just making sure it doesn’t get hurt.’ He patted the passenger seat. ‘C’mon.’
Aerin liked how Thomas was okay with bending the rules. She walked to the other side of the vehicle and maneuvered into the passenger seat, which had an image of a rearing stallion stitched into the top. Even the seat belt was race-car-like, a five-point harness that held every part of her in.
‘This thing’s got 549 horsepower,’ Thomas said reverently. ‘It goes from zero to sixty in like three seconds. I’d kill to have one.’
Aerin chuckled. ‘I think you’re in the wrong line of work to afford this, officer.’
He sighed. ‘I know. But there’s always the lottery. Or marrying rich.’
‘True.’ Aerin was afraid to touch anything in the car; it was all way too leathery and pristine. Her father had never had a ride this nice.
They fell into a silence and stared at the golf course. The sun sank over the green hills, and a lone cart wound down the path. Aerin peeked at Thomas, but he seemed totally comfortable with not talking. It was nice, for a change.
After a while, she cleared her throat. ‘I’m actually kind of crashing this thing.’
Thomas ran his finger along the stitching on the steering wheel. ‘Funny you came at all, considering rich people give you a rash.’
‘Hives.’
‘Right.’
Aerin sighed. ‘I’m looking into my sister’s death actually.’ She eyed him, contemplating explaining the dead-end case, but that was probably asinine. Everyone in Dexby already knew.
Thomas looked intrigued. ‘Have you found out anything?’
‘I’m suspicious about Kevin Larssen. His alibi for the weekend Helena disappeared is a little thin. There are no pictures from the event, but a report says he didn’t show up for a speech he was supposed to give.’
A hard-to-read look crossed Thomas’s face. ‘Huh.’
Aerin straightened her spine. ‘“Huh” what?’
Thomas stared into the middle distance. With the sun shining on the angles of his face, he was suddenly and alarmingly handsome, his eyes big and extra blue. He had an almost buzz cut, which accentuated his small ears and a tiny scar on his forehead. Aerin could easily bend over and kiss him. She pictured it for a second, her heart beating fast. It would feel a lot better than talking about Helena, actually dealing.
But before she got up the nerve, Thomas cleared his throat. ‘I’m just thinking of something I read in Helena’s file about him.’ He looked sheepish. ‘After I saw you a couple of days ago, I looked through it.’
‘What did it say?’
Thomas smiled apologetically. ‘I can’t tell you.’
‘Can you at least tell me if he’s guilty?’
He didn’t meet her gaze. ‘I don’t know.’
‘What do you mean, you don’t know?’
‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have even brought it up.’
He shrugged, and it hit her: Thomas, as a cop, had access to a lot of stuff. What else was in that confidential case file?
Thomas turned to her. ‘Want to go out with me sometime?’
Aerin stared at him. ‘What?’
His eyes twinkled. ‘I’m sure I could find a good place that serves Cream of Wheat.’
‘Ha, ha.’ Aerin couldn’t believe he remembered that. She pointed to the controls, deciding to change the subject. ‘Start this up. Just for a minute.’
Thomas reared back. ‘No way!’
‘Come on,’ Aerin teased. ‘You could always tell Mr. Levine we were just making sure it was still in working order.’
Thomas pulled his bottom lip into his mouth. ‘What if someone sees?’
‘If you were really worried about that, we wouldn’t be sitting in here, would we?’
Thomas fingered the start button for the ignition but didn’t press it. ‘Pussy,’ Aerin said, leaning across him. Her shoulder pressed against his chest. She could smell his sweet, fruity shampoo – she was almost positive it was Herbal Essences. She pressed his finger down over the button, and the car roared to life so enthusiastically that they both jumped. All sorts of lights came on. Alerts marched across a center screen. The radio had been up loud, and a Led Zeppelin song blared through the speakers.
Thomas pressed the gas. The car growled. He pressed it again, and the RPM needle jumped. They exchanged a naughty smile. Put it in reverse, Aerin mouthed over the loud music.
Thomas’s hand inched toward the gearshift when something caught his eye out of the rearview. With a start, he stabbed at the ignition button, shutting the car down. Aerin swiveled around. A police car was driving slowly down the main road that paralleled the country club.
‘Get down,’ Thomas whispered, pressing her lower in the seats. Aerin did as she was told, his hand hot on her shoulder, hardly daring to move until the car was a good distance away. Then she burst out laughing.
‘And I was just starting to respect you as an officer of the law,’ she whispered.
They pushed open the doors and awkwardly climbed out. Just before Thomas took off across the parking lot, he gave Aerin one last look. ‘I’m serious about that date.’
Aerin shrugged. ‘Maybe when you get one of these bad boys,’ she said, patting the car’s hood. Then she sauntered off, shaking her hips exaggeratedly. She hoped Thomas was watching.
Just as Aerin stepped back into the foyer, Brett and Maddox went skidding past. Brett stopped short and flagged her over. ‘We were looking for you!’ he cried. ‘Have you seen Kevin?’
‘Uh, no.’ Aerin gestured outside. ‘But I did see his fiancée crying.’
Maddox pulled Aerin down an auxiliary hall. ‘We almost got Kevin to admit something, but then he got squirrely. When we went back to the room he was hanging out in, he was gone.’
Seneca and Madison caught up with them, too. The guys filled them in about Kevin’s strange comment about things in his relationship with Helena not being real. ‘What do you think that means?’ Madison asked.
‘I
don’t know,’ Maddox said. ‘Maybe he was talking about love, like his love for her was real, but her love for him wasn’t. That could indicate she was seeing someone else.’
By now they were at the end of the hall. They peeked into a smaller bar area – a bunch of guys were gathered around a hockey play-off game – and then another dining room, and then a huge room with a piano and a harp. No Kevin. More rooms swept by: one had a lot of hunting trophies, another had a billiards table, another was filled with hardcover books and reading chairs. The hall was dim at this end – one of the grand overhead chandeliers was missing a few bulbs. Aerin squinted uneasily at the glow of the exit sign at the end of the hallway. ‘Let’s go back to the dining room,’ she suggested.
But then, as she whirled around, she slammed into someone tall and solid. ‘Oof,’ she said, backing up. When she looked into the man’s eyes, her nerves snapped under her skin.
Kevin. Here he was.
CHAPTER 15
Maddox’s heart pounded hard. Kevin Larssen stood over them, the only light on his face the spooky red glow from the exit sign. As his vision adjusted, he realized that there was a door on one side of the hall marked Men’s.
As if on cue, the door swung open again. Everyone stood back to let a second man pass. Maddox recognized Senator Gorman by his salt-and-pepper hair and flag pin. The senator glanced up and saw them, giving the group a bland, diplomatic smile. Maddox caught a whiff of strong cologne as he passed. It was an old-school smell, something he’d never wear.
Kevin was about to go, too, but then peered at the group. His eyes widened at Aerin, and he gave her a look like he didn’t understand why she was there, but then he just nodded and started down the hall. ‘Wait,’ Aerin blurted. ‘Was Helena cheating on you?’
Kevin stopped. ‘Helena … your sister?’
‘Do you know anyone else named Helena?’