Page 72 of Our Daughter's Bones

“Quinn, we have a few questions for you. Please take a seat.”

Quinn avoided their eyes and slid down the chair lazily.

“When was the last time you were in contact with Erica?” Nick asked.

“He’s answered this several times before,” Nathaniel groaned.

“And we’re giving him an opportunity to change his statement, because he lied last time.”

“Son, you say the word, and our lawyer will be here immediately.”

Quinn shrugged him off. His lips trembled, and his eyes fidgeted. Mackenzie realized that he was used to hiding his face behind the long hair falling over his head.

“You’re not in any trouble,” she said gently. “Abby is missing. We’re on a schedule.”

“I had nothing to do with her being gone. I was at practice.”

“What happened with Erica?”

“I told you. We texted.”

“About?”

“I don’t remember.”

“We retrieved her texts,” she said, watching his face fall. “We know you were trying to get back together with her. Is there anything else you want to tell us?”

He sighed. “We talked on the phone that night.”

“Why didn’t you say anything for a year?” Nick asked.

Nathaniel answered instead. “He didn’t say anything because I told him not to.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t want him to get in any trouble,” he spat out. “He was getting into fights at school because he was upset over Erica. I was able to keep him off suspension, but Principal Burley warned me that one more strike and he would be off the team. The last thing we needed was for him to be a suspect in a murder investigation.”

“You derailed an investigation so that your son could playfootball?” Mackenzie snapped.

Nathaniel’s lips turned up in harsh smile. It made her shiver right through to the tips of her fingers. She had faced cold-blooded killers before, but they lacked the power Nathaniel wielded. “DetectivePrice, was it? What you callfootballis what will save this town. You’ll keep the streets clean and the criminals locked up. But it’s sports that builds and destroys cities; that lifts and crushes spirits. Sports have brought unity and war. Its power is insurmountable. Football isn’t agame. It’s a tool that teaches young people loyalty, honor, sacrifice, hard work, and strategy. People like you will always be the workers—publicservants. But people likeusare the leaders. We are the saviors of this damn town.”

She schooled her face to bare blankness. She knew what people like Nathaniel fed off—fear and intimidation.

Nick cleared his throat. “He would not have been a suspect, Mr. Jones. If he were, he would’ve been in the interrogation room right now.”

“When Quinn told me that he’d been begging Erica to take him back that night, I realized that he’d be a suspect immediately. He’d be seen as the ex-boyfriend who killed the girl after she repeatedly rejected him. His temper isn’t a secret. His only alibi was my wife and me. Everyone would think that we were lying to protect him. You remember how Detective Stephens was—he was in a rush to wrap up the casework and take off. I didn’t trust him. I was worried that he’d do a poor job and pin the whole thing on my son. That’s why I instructed Quinn to keep quiet and distance himself from this.”

“Erica is your best friend’s daughter.”

His forehead crumpled. “I know. Samuel’s like my brother. But I know that Quinn had nothing to do with what happened to Erica. My son was madly in love with her.”

“We just want to know if there’s anything else he didn’t tell us. Something that might help us.”

“She thought I cheated on her. She broke up with me because of some stupid rumors. She didn’t even let me explain anything. It was bullshit. I called her, but she wouldn’t listen. She told me that Abby heard it from someone. And we all knew how much her word meant to Erica.” Quinn ran his hands through his hair.

Mackenzie noticed bruises on his knuckles. He was still getting into fights.

“You must have hated Abby,” she said simply.