Forty-Six
Nashville 6:00 p.m.
T aylor saw Ariadne safely out of the building, then joined Marcus to talk to the Howells. The Norwoods already had counsel present and were making noise-there was no sense in forcing them to wait too much longer. But Taylor needed to ask Theo Howell a question before she went any further.
He and his parents were sitting calm and quiet in their interrogation room. Blake Howell was a well-built man, clean shaven, wearing a black suit, white shirt and orange silk tie. His wife was equally decked out, a beautiful spice-colored Turkish pashmina draped across her shoulders. Her blond hair was carefully highlighted and shellacked into place; his was salt-and-pepper, with the salt winning the race. They both stood and introduced themselves when Taylor entered the room.
“Mr. and Mrs. Howell, it’s good to meet you. Thank you for being so patient with us this afternoon-we have a lot of ground to cover, as you can imagine. I only have a moment, and we’ll be right back to you. But I need to ask Theo a question.”
Mr. Howell took his seat. “Wait just a second, Lieutenant. Is Theo in any sort of trouble? Do we need a lawyer here?”
“That’s certainly your right, sir. But we’re not seeking charges against Theo at this time. We just need some information.”
“It’s okay, Dad.” Theo turned to Taylor. “I’ve already told them everything we discussed last night. I’m grounded.”
“I’ll bet,” Taylor said. “Okay, I need you to think about something for me. Do you remember Jerrold King and Brandon Scott having a fight last week?”
Theo creased his brow for a moment, then said, “Oh, yeah. They got into it before practice. I figured they were arguing over Letha.”
“Letha King, Jerrold’s little sister?”
“Yeah. She and Brandon had dated earlier in the year. She broke up with him, though, beginning of October. Said some pretty raunchy things about him, too. He went back and called her some names, they had a little war online, saying nasty things back and forth. But it stopped weeks ago.”
Weeks ago. Ah, how quickly time flies to the young.
“So why would they be fighting now?”
“Like I said, Letha said some…things about Brandon.” He glanced at his parents, tips of his ears red. “She called him a faggot.”
“Was Brandon a homosexual?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. He went with a lot of girls, was really popular, but never seemed that into it, if you know what I mean.”
“Are there any boys that you know he might have dated?”
“Well, not really. That’s not the kind of thing we all talk about openly, you know?” He began fidgeting in his chair. Theo Howell wasn’t a very accomplished liar.
“Is there any chance that Brandon and Jerrold were dating?”
Theo laughed. “No way. Jerry was very much into girls. He was furious that Brandon was using Letha as his beard.”
Evelyn Howell touched her son’s arm. “Theo,” she said, the note of warning enough for him to start talking again.
“Sorry. Definitely not Jerry. But he might have gotten together with this guy Schuyler a couple of times. That’s what the rumor was, anyway. But Schuyler doesn’t go to Hillsboro anymore. His parents sent him to reform school or something, up in Virginia, a couple of semesters ago, so I have no idea. And it was only gossip.”
Mrs. Howell’s eyes popped open. “Schuyler Merritt? That’s who you’re talking about? Jackie Merritt’s boy?”
Theo nodded.
“Why, I had no idea. The Merritts are friends of ours, Lieutenant. They sponsored some of the events at the bookstore. Or they used to. They split up last year. The divorce was just finalized a few months back. Jackie remarried lickety-split, the ink was hardly dry on the forms, you know. Her new husband is a marine, was shipped off just a few weeks after they got back from their honeymoon. Sky Senior took it all hard, started drinking. He hasn’t been worth much these past few months. Hard on the kids too, they split them up.”
“The kids?” Taylor asked.
“Schuyler has a sister. She’s still at Hillsboro, right, Theo? What’s Jackie’s new married name, Blake?”
“Let me think. At-something.”
“Sky’s sister’s name is Fane,” Theo said helpfully. “Gorgeous girl, at least she used to be. She and Sky were close. It tore her up when he was sent away. She started hanging with the Goths, wearing all that crazy makeup.”
“Fane Atilio?” Taylor said. Her voice sounded hollow in her ears.
“That’s it. Atilio,” Evelyn Howell said, smiling.
“Son of a bitch,” Taylor said. “I mean, sorry. Excuse me.”
“Was it something I said?” she heard Mrs. Howell ask her husband, their tones growing lower as they realized something was going on. Taylor let the door shut behind her. McKenzie was waiting for her in the hall.
“We need to go have another chat with Fane Atilio.”
Fane smiled winningly at McKenzie, then shot Taylor a hateful glance. Taylor was having none of it. She walked around the table, jerked the back of Fane’s chair, making the metal screech along the linoleum floor, then sat down right next to her.
“Fane, you have a brother. Schuyler. Where is he?”
Fane looked down her nose at Taylor, then looked away. “Virginia.”
“We need his number. Right now.”
“I don’t know it. It’s at the house.” She managed to look bored. Her makeup was flaking off. She’d obviously been crying at some point since they’d been gone. Black smears ringed her eyes. Her skin, pale as an opal, blanched further.
“It’s not on your cell?” Taylor asked.
“No. I wasn’t allowed to call him there.”
“Is Schuyler really in Virginia? Or is he here in Tennessee?”
The eyes clouded. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t seen him.”
“You’re lying, Fane. We called your mother’s work. They said she’d been out sick for a couple of weeks. She wasn’t at your house. Where is your mother? We know your step-father is overseas, but where’s Jackie?”
Fane bared her fangs at Taylor, then licked her lips.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she said, then shut down, arms crossed, eyes closed.
Taylor let her sit that way for a moment. She had a bad feeling about Jackie Atilio.
Something Ariadne said popped into her mind, about the coven. The bond these children had was strong, no doubt about it. Divide and conquer, that was the way in. Turn them against one another, let them think the others were talking. That was how she was going to reach into their minds and draw out the truth, not through threats or cajoling or promises. She stood up, cleared her throat. Spoke softly.
“Fine. We’ll just go talk to Thorn again. Between him and Ember, we have most of the story anyway. We know all of you participated in the murders.”
The effect was immediate, violent. Fane lunged upward, out of the chair, hand raised like she was going to slap Taylor.
“Liar,” Fane screamed. “They would never betray us. The penalties are too steep.”
Taylor grabbed her by the arm and twisted, forcing the girl back into the chair. Fane was panting in her fury. Taylor could see her starting to unhinge.
“I beg to differ, little girl. How about you tell me about the movie you and your boyfriend made. The one of the murders?”
Fane looked at the floor, breath coming in short gasps. “What movie? I don’t know anything about a
