Page 64 of Pure Silence

“Mr. Lass. The man who went under the truck.”

Goldie grimaced.

“I believe that’s why he was so aggressive with you and Mr. Hanley. Many others are very eager to find it. I would not advise holding on to it, if you catch my drift.”

“Nope, can’t say I do.” Goldie scowled, and his grip on the phone tightened. “Maybe you wanna try that one again, Detective?”

“Don’t be stupid enough to keep cash dropped by a criminal,” Alvarez retorted bluntly. “His associates will come looking for it.”

Goldie scoffed, realizing now that Alvarez thought he had this mysterious envelope or whatever it was. “Yeah. Thank you, Detective. I appreciate your concern.” He really wanted to get off the phone now. “Anything else?”

“Just one more thing. How did Mr. Hanley get Mr. Parker to leave?”

“Excuse me?” Goldie’s blood froze.

“You said Mr. Parker was armed when he threatened you. How did Mr. Hanley get him to leave?”

Goldie heard a distinctcrackechoing in his ears, and he replied hastily, “He’s very convincing.”

“How so?” Alvarez pressed.

“Day got a little rough with him,” Goldie said before thinking better of it. “It’s why we didn’t want to call the cops, all right? Michael was threatening me, and Day caught him from behind, and—” Broke his fucking neck like a twig. “—he messed him up a little. I was afraid Michael was gonna try and press charges on Day because hey, you know that kinda shit happens, and we just didn’t want any more trouble, all right?”

“And what exactly were you doing during all of this, Mr. Nash?”

“Huh?”

“I think Mr. Hanley is covering for you,” Alvarez said pointedly. “I find it hard to believe that you simply sat back and watched this man, a man with whom you’d already had one violent altercation, threaten you—”

Shit, shit, shit.

Alvarez didn’t believe him.

Why hadn’t Goldie asked for a lawyer?

Why did he think it was a good idea to call Alvarez back?

Fuck, fuckity fuck-fuck-fuck.

“I was handcuffed at the time,” Goldie blurted out.

“Pardon?” Alvarez coughed.

“I was handcuffed at the time,” Goldie repeated, more sure of himself. “Michael happened to break in while Mr. Hanley and I were being intimate. I was physically unable to do much of anything since I was quite literally tied up.” He could taste Alvarez’s discomfort, and he decided to keep going, happy to have the upper hand again. “I was naked, of course, and Day had just so happened to leave the room to get ice cubes or lube or something, I’m not really sure—”

“Thank you for clearing that up, Mr. Nash,” Alvarez said quickly. “If I have any other questions, I’ll be sure to reach out.”

“Thanks so much, Detective. You have a lovely evening.”

The line clicked.

Goldie chugged his beer.

Well, shit. That could have gone a little better, but at least he was able to throw Alvarez off the scent of “oops, maybe Day is actually a murderer.”

Goldie went to the fridge for another beer and finally replied to Florence’s barrage of text messages.

Florence really wanted Goldie’s gear and memorabilia.