Cooper growled beneath his breath.
“Don’t worry. She didn’t give a shit. You know what she said? She said, ‘Go ahead. We’re getting married. Do your worst, asshole!’ That just burned. I wanted to kill her myself. I really did. But I didn’t touch her. I was so pissed at her and I still am. I know she’s compromised now. Really messed up. I’m just telling you how I felt . . . how I still feel. I’m being fucking honest, okay? Everything on the line. Make of it what you will. Give me a lie detector test. When I left her that night, she was fine. Still laughing at me.”
Cooper said angrily, “If you’d told the truth at the time, the investigation would’ve turned toward this boyfriend. There would have been a more concentrated effort in that direction.”
“They coulda looked for him anyway.”
“Her mother and her sister and her friends . . . nobody thought she was seeing anyone. Only you heard it from her lips.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about her friends. . . .”
Cooper stared at him, wondering if he was trying to shift blame. He wouldn’t put it past him. “Who was the guy she was seeing?”
“Shit, I don’t know. I think I saw her with him, maybe at Jake’s Grill once, in Portland. I knew it was her. I told her that night, that I saw her, and that scared her a little. She denied it up and down. Then she turned around and called me an asshole. ‘Do your worst, asshole.’ That’s what she said.”
“Would you recognize him?”
“Twenty years later, man? Come on. And anyway, I just saw the back of him.”
“What do you remember?” Cooper asked, not giving up.
Dug shook his head, then looked down at the desktop. “A guy in a gray suit. Exec type, I thought. Dark hair. Maybe some gray in it . . . I remember thinking, ‘Who’s the old dude with Emma?’ She was really tuned into him. Just . . . ripe, you know? It was obvious.”
Cooper didn’t like the way Dug talked about Emma, but he pushed his own feelings aside. “She planned to marry him?”
“That’s what she said. She didn’t know that I didn’t really see him. I was just jabbing her, but then . . . then she said that and slammed the door on me. I left there really mad, but I didn’t touch her.”
“You told Race?”
“Uh-uh. I told no one. You think I don’t know what would’ve happened to me? The cops would’ve blamed it on me. That detective . . . Corliss? He wanted it to be one of us. There was no coming forward about it without consequences. I’m sorry about Emma. I really am. That should’ve never happened to her, and yeah, find out who the bastard is. But she was a bitch in those days. That’s a fact.”
He was still nursing a hurt from twenty years earlier. Cooper didn’t even try to hide his disgust. Did he believe Dug? Up to a point. He still wasn’t sure about Emma’s secret lover, but he saw that Dug was.
“The doer might’ve been caught by now if you hadn’t been so worried about your own skin.”
“Well, find him now, then. ‘Do your worst.’” His smile was hard. “I’ve told you all I know.” Dug moved from behind his desk, indicating his patience for the interview was over.
Cooper got to his feet. “Did you see a guy in a ski mask?”
“Like Race? No.”
The sound of a car pulling into the garage was unmistakable. “That’s my lovely wife. I’d rather we didn’t talk about this in front of her.”
“The truth emerges, Dug.”
“Fine. Let it emerge. Just not right now. Okay?”
Cooper left without another word. He didn’t want to run into Teri right now either, or Dug’s son, Greer. He looked to see how long it had been since his second call to Ryerson. An hour. He held himself back from trying again, and instead put in another call to Nadine Ryerson. Once again the call went straight to voice mail, where he left a second message.
* * *
After a heartfelt, teary conversation with Camryn, Jamie actually felt more human. She was mixing up mozzarella, ricotta, and Parmesan with an egg when Harley cruised into the kitchen. She had her earbuds in and was listening to something on her phone, but she casually pulled them out as she sat down on one of the barstools.
“What is it this time?” she asked, viewing Jamie’s workspace.
“The manicotti Emma asked for.”
Harley grunted, then slid a glance over to the pasta cylinders that were waiting to be stuffed. “I’m kind of sick of pasta.”
Jamie said, “I’ve made a salad that’s just waiting to be dressed. You can have some of that.”
“I’d, uh, rather go to Deno’s for pizza.”
Jamie said, “Same flavor profile.”
“Well, yeah, but it’s not pasta. Maybe I can just cruise over there.”
Jamie lifted her head from what she was doing and gave Harley a hard look. “By yourself?”
“It’s only a couple of blocks away. We all walked there the other night.”
“Harley . . .” Jamie was almost speechless. “Your friend was chased by an intruder with a knife, and Bette Kearns is in the hospital, and Gwen . . . You think I want you walking by yourself, even a couple of blocks? It’ll be dark soon.”
“Well, I don’t have a license yet,” she snapped. “Or a permit. All I’ve got is walking unless you want to drop me off.”
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing! Don’t make a big deal of it!” She slid off the stool and stomped off.
“I’m not.”
“You act like I’m five!” she yelled over her shoulder as she bolted up the stairs.
Emma, obviously hearing their escalating argument, came down the stairs, glancing back a time or two to where Harley
