Page 132 of What She Saw

Taggart opened the file and glanced at Cassidy Rogers’s face. “Tell me about Cassidy.”

“Is she behind all this? That bitch has been gunning for me for a couple of years.”

The veneer slipped for a moment before Colton caught himself and sat back. “What do you want to know? We went out a few times, and, yes, we had sex.”

“You never tried to strangle her?”

He leaned forward. His hands strained against the cuffs. “The sex was always rough between us. She liked it. She asked for it.”

“She filed assault charges against you.”

“It got kinky between us that last time. In the morning, her roommate showed up unannounced. I’m there in my underwear drinking coffee with Cassidy.”

“That so?” He didn’t believe a word.

“Yeah.” Colton looked a little outraged at the challenge. “The roommate saw Cassidy’s bruises and freaked out. Cassidy was ashamed that her roommate got a glimpse of her darker side. They kicked me out. Next thing I know, the cops are arresting me. And those charges were never proven. Cassidy dropped them.”

There had been a lack of evidence. Colton’s lawyer had brought forward several men who testified that Cassidy liked rough sex. It became a case of he said / she said.

Taggart worried this case would follow the same route. He had trinkets, not bodies. And any good lawyer would suggest Taggart had planted them. He pulled Patty’s picture out of his file. “Tell me about her.”

“Patty? I didn’t know her beyond the festival.”

“You met her before, right?”

“I saw her at the diner for a few seconds. I was hanging up posters for the festival.”

“Did you suggest the Depot have a booth there?”

“That was Buddy’s idea. He saw an opportunity to sell a ton of burgers. And he did.”

“Patty did the work at the festival. Buddy showed up at about ten p.m. to restock the booth, but he got stuck working the tent when she vanished.”

“I never saw him.”

“Did you talk to Patty at the festival? Did you chat her up?”

“Sure. She was cute. Fun. Good sense of humor. I backed off when I realized she had a kid. I don’t do chicks with kids. Don’t want the complications.”

“When’s the last time you saw Patty?”

Colton leaned forward. His eyes were strained with the first hints of panic. “I didn’t kill Patty.”

“I didn’t say you did.”

“She’s one of the missing girls, right?”

“When is the last time you saw Patty?”

“I don’t know. At the burger stand. The event was bigger than I’d imagined. I was putting out fires.”

“What kind of fires?”

“Band stuff. Equipment failures. Power surges. A drunk guitarist. It’s standard for an event like that.”

“You’ve done many similar events?”

“Yeah. Across the state. Not as big but similar.”