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“Is that why you wrote your name on her shoulder? Because you were ‘hitting it off?’” It was a bluff. All Alexa knew was that his number was one of a hundred possible phone numbers. But she saw by his expression that she’d beencorrect.
He shrugged, laughed a little. “Yeah. It was a joke. See, I wanted to give Jeanette my number, but her phone was dead. So…” He shrugged. “She was sitting right next to me. I wrote her on her back instead. She didn’t mind,” he hastened to add. “She was laughing,too.”
“So the two of you were getting along.” Alexa was in no mood to prolong this conversation. “You must have been surprised when she didn’t come back to thetable.”
Something shifted slightly in his expression before he blanked it. Alexa had the feeling that surprise hadn’t been the emotion he’dexperienced.
“I was worried about her when she didn’t return,” he said piously, reaching outa
hand to lean against the red-brick front. “It was pretty crazy in there. The lines to the restrooms were ridiculous, and I didn’t see her in them when I checked. But then I ducked out theback—”
“You went out the backdoor?”
“Yeah. It says it’s alarmed, but it isn’t.” He gave her a smile that was meant to be charming. “Most of them aren’t. Guys sometimes skip the queues and use the alley around back to ah…relievethemselves.”
“So that’s what you did when you didn’t seeLawler.”
“I said I didn’t see her in line,” he corrected her, reaching up with his free hand to smooth his gelled hair. “I was in a sort of in a doorway, behind the Dumpster, taking leak. And when I looked up, I saw her in the alley, hanging all over some otherguy.”
Everything inside Alexa stilled. “Anotherman?”
“Yeah.” And this time, he didn’t attempt to keep the disgust from his expression. “I mean, I’m not saying she owed me anything just because I bought her a few drinks, but it was still pretty shitty for her to leave with someone else and not even tellme.”
“Did they seeyou?”
“I don’t know. Didn’t seemto.”
“Did you tell your friends about what you’dseen?”
“I don’t remember. When I got back, they were ready to leave, so I went withthem.”
Alexa bent and got the sketches of the UNSUB from her bag and showed them to Owens. “Is this the man she waswith?”
“I didn’t see him from the front. And hey, this guy isold.” He shook one of thesketches.
“We think he was wearing a wig in that one. What did you mean when you said Jeanette was hanging onhim?”
It was the wrong question to ask. Owens took the opportunity to demonstrate, leaning heavily on her, one arm thrown around her shoulders. “Sort of like this.” Alexa gave him an elbow jab that had him dropping his arm and stepping away, but not without a self-satisfied grin on his face. “She was pretty drunk. I suppose he could have been helping her to thecar.”
The blood began to pound in her veins. “A car. Not avan?”
“What? No, it was a car. Toyota Camry, I think. Black or navy…hard to tell in thedark.”
“But you could see well enough to know themake?”
“I drive a red Camry so I recognized it. I can tell you it had a light interior, though. Saw it when the dome light wenton.”
“Which door did heopen?”
Owens thought a moment. “Back driver side. Which is weird now that I think about it. Unless she was so drunk, he was just going to have her lay…” His eyes widened. “Hey, you don’t think…that couldn’t have been the killer, couldit?”
Handsome, Alexa thought again. But maybe not too bright. “Yes. I think that’slikely.”
* * *
The last pastor had spoken.The people in the park were holding candles high, singing a hymn and swaying to the music. Ethan supposed it would be a moving sight, had he not been on the watch for akiller.
A fruitless effort sofar.