By the time Tibbett arrived, the crime scene tech had dug the bullet out of the trim around his closet door and left. Paul was sweeping up the glass, wondering if he had any plastic or a board in his shed to cover the gaping window.
“Hey,” Tibbet whistled from the doorway. “Nice room.”
“Ha, ha,” Paul faked a laugh. “Hand me that garbage can.”
Tibbet brought the can and held it as Paul tossed the last load of glass into it.
“So what was the bet?”
“I said the crazy would go for you again. Get you out of the way so your girl was left unprotected.”
He let the “your girl” part slide by him. He hoped he could make it true.
“Yeah, so Marsden thought he’d go for Torie again? We both have someone watching her, right?”
“Yep, sitting in the lobby as we speak.”
“Great,” he said, and meant it. “Mine, too.”
Another officer came down the hall and spoke to Tibbet. “No luck, Detective. No casing, no nothing.”
“Smart bastard,” Tibbet muttered. “Too smart. He’s getting predictable. Pushing the time limit. He hardly gave it a day between shooting twice at you. That’s what we call an escalating tendency to violence.”
“Focused on me.”
“Right now.”
“Nice. But better me than Torie.”
“Yeah, thought you’d see it that way. So,” Tibbet paused, eyeing him, “were you schtupping the bride before the wedding? Is that why Peterson called it off?”
Paul stared for a moment. “Hell, no,” he protested. “She didn’t like me at all.”
“I’m not so sure about that. Why was she so hell-bent on keeping you away?”
“Because she didn’t like me.”
“Didn’t. Past tense, right? So, you had this thing for her for a long time? Did your friend know?”
“What? No.”
“Look,” Tibbet said, putting his notebook away. “Let’s talk here, off the record, as you’re so fond of sayin’. What’s more important, your pride or her safety?”
“Her safety, of course.”
“Then spill it.”
“Torie and I have a history.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” Tibbet snorted. “You’ve known her longer’n most people have known their wives. Just tell me what happened.”
“There was a fraternity party…” Paul started the story, and found he had to sit down to tell it. His knees were shaking. “We were all drinking, but Torie doesn’t drink that much. So suddenly she disappears.”
“You two were dating at that point?”
“Huh? Oh, no. I was interested in her, though. One of the senior brothers had invited her to the party, but he was off smoking a—” Paul grinned, realizing he was talking to a cop—“cigarette.”
“I’ll bet. So?”
“So I was watching to see if I could talk to her. I wanted to ask her out. But she was gone. When she didn’t come back in a few minutes, and her date was feeling no pain with a bunch of the guys on the deck, I went looking for her.”
“Altruistic of you,” Tibbet drawled.
“Not really, though she thinks it’s real white knight kind of stuff. I had a vested interest. So, I go upstairs, I ask around. Somebody tells me one of the brothers helped her upstairs, and that she wasn’t feeling too well.”
“I take it that didn’t sit right with you.”
“No. The frat was already on probation for violating policies about people sleeping over, and I knew she wasn’t with anyone.”
“Not a party girl?”
“No. Not that way. She enjoyed a party, but I’d never heard of her going for the wilder stuff. Anyway,” Paul said, remembering all too vividly how he’d found her, “I found her in an unused room, tied to the bed, naked and drugged. In the space of fifteen minutes, she’d gone from nursing one beer—to that. Whoever did it worked fast.”
“Not Todd then.”
“No, not his style. Besides, he was singing karaoke in the dining room with four of the other guys.”
“You didn’t tell him?”
“No, neither of us were dating her at the time, so it didn’t occur to me to tell him. I got her untied and dressed, and took her to my room. Stuck my finger down her throat and got her to throw up whatever shit they gave her.” The memory of her quaking body, miserable and shaking, nearly made him sick. “She refused to go to the health center, and I was too dumb and scared to insist. She was sick for an hour. I got her a washcloth, helped her get
