Chapter 6

Chapter Six

William

I had been at the precinct for almost five hours and I still had no idea what happened last night. I didn’t know how long the police intended to keep me here. I didn’t know how long they legally could keep me here without arresting me. I thought it was about forty-eight hours, but I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know what Carlotta was telling them, and they refused to let me speak to her. All I did know for sure was that I was really damned angry.

I was angry at the police for interfering with my day this way, but deep down, I knew they were just doing their jobs and I was able to swallow away that anger easily enough. I wasn’t able to swallow down the rest of my anger quite so easily, though .

I was so angry at the women in my life. It was a raging anger that consumed me and made me feel trapped at the same time, like I was confined by it, and yet, I couldn’t let it go. It was like Carlotta and Candy had somehow conspired together to cause me the maximum headache possible without even knowing they were doing it.

There was no way they were working together, that much I did know for sure. Carlotta hated Candy and Candy hated her almost as much. And now I felt this burning anger inside me, this burning anger that could quite easily become hatred for both of them.

Why couldn’t Candy just take no for a damned answer? And why couldn’t she just leave me alone? What sort of fucking nut job turned up at the house of someone who had already rejected them, particularly in the dead of night?

And Carlotta. Why did she have to find out about Candy? And when she did, why couldn’t she just let it go? It seemed as though she had managed to do that easily enough in the past, so why not now? And then there was the fact that Carlotta stole my thunder on the docks project all those years ago and it mocked me continuously. Not to mention the fact that she earned more than I did .

It was starting to feel like she was going out of her way to emasculate me. Was this her final castration? Had she killed my ex-mistress to prove once and for all that she was the one who was in control of our relationship? Would she go that far?

The not knowing was making me crazy, but I did know for sure that I didn’t kill Candy. I wanted her out of my life, sure, but not like this. I wasn’t that stupid. I wouldn’t have killed her on my own damned lawn and invited all of this chaos into my own life. So if I didn’t kill her, then Carlotta had to have done it.

But I knew that no matter what I thought might have happened, I couldn’t just tell the police that Carlotta must have done it. They would want to know why she would do something like that, and if I told them about her jealousy over the affair, then that put the spotlight right back on me. It could make it look like I wanted to get rid of the problem that Candy had become in a permanent manner.

So far, I had told the police very little. I mean, I couldn’t tell them anything about last night, even if I wanted to. The last thing I remembered was an argument between Carlotta and me, although even the details of that were sketchy at best. I tried to imply that I didn’t know Candy at all, but it soon became apparent that wasn’t going to wash with them, and I had to admit to knowing her in passing. It wouldn’t take a genius to work out that I would know of her once they found out she worked for the same company as me. That was it, though. There was no way I was telling them I had an affair with her, and I’m confident Carlotta wouldn’t let that much slip, either. She wouldn’t like the cops thinking she was some stupid flake who stood by a cheater.

It wasn’t like she could really leave me for cheating on her, though. I only did it because she pushed me into it. Knowing that a young, gorgeous woman wanted me reminded me that I was a real man. A desirable man in my own right, not just Carlotta’s supporting act.

I knew in one sense that girls like Candy didn’t really see me. They saw the money, the power, the lifestyle. Or at least that’s what I believed until I ended things with Candy, and she turned into a stalker. She really couldn’t take no for an answer, and I was starting to think she really saw our fling going somewhere. I suppose if she were really that na?ve, then she probably did need to sleep her way to the top, because she definitely wasn’t clever enough to earn her way up the ladder .

I just wished I knew exactly what had happened last night. Getting so drunk was a mistake. I knew that now, but at the time, it seemed like a good way to block out Carlotta’s whining.

I somehow had to let all of those thoughts go. I couldn’t change the past, but I could still influence my future, and I had no intention of going to prison for something I didn’t do. I needed to focus.

The door to my interview room opened and Officer Stanford stepped in, followed by a man I didn’t know. The man seemed to be in charge. He nodded to Officer Stanford, and it was only then that she took a seat. But he looked far too young to be in charge of anything, let alone a homicide investigation. His open collar and the lack of a tie or a jacket told me that not only was he young, he was irresponsible as well. His lack of formal attire didn’t wash with me, and I had no confidence whatsoever that this kid could even come close to solving this case. Maybe that would be a good thing for me and Carlotta.

“I’m Detective Del Rey,” the kid said with a smile that looked anything but happy. “I just wanted to clarify a few things with you from your interview with Officer Dumont.”

He flicked through a pile of papers that he had placed on the desk in front of him. Papers I recognized as my initial statement. He scanned them, flicking back and forth between the pages, but something told me he didn’t need to do that. That he already knew exactly what he needed to clarify. He went up slightly in my estimation then. He knew enough about his job to know that making himself look a little less than efficient was a good way to get someone to relax and end up saying too much to him. Maybe the lack of a jacket and tie was all part of the ruse.

Detective Del Rey finally looked up at me. He was still smiling, but it was a smile I recognized. The smile you use when you want someone to cooperate with you but you’re finding it hard to hide the contempt you feel for them.

“You don’t seem to be too sure of your relationship to the victim, Mr. Alden. You started out by implying you didn’t know the victim at all, but later on in your statement, you admitted that you worked with her. Can you please explain that?” Detective Del Rey said.

I thought I could detect a note of amusement in his voice, like he was enjoying finding ways to trip me up. I bit my lip to stop myself from smiling. He was going to have to do better than that if he wanted to throw me.

“Initially, the name didn’t ring a bell with me,” I explained. “It was only later on in the interview that it clicked that I did know Candy.”

“You worked with her, but you didn’t immediately recognize her name?” Detective Del Rey pressed.

He raised an eyebrow, his expression clearly telling me he didn’t believe me.

“Do you know the name of every single person who works in this building?” I asked. I paused even though I knew Detective Del Rey wouldn’t answer my question. When I was certain he wouldn’t, I carried on. “The firm I work for is a large one, and I’m a very busy man. I don’t know the name of every single intern we have working with us. They only intern with us for a few months and I don’t even get to see half of them, let alone learn their life stories.”

“But you did remember Candy eventually, didn’t you?” he pressed me.

I nodded. “Yes,” I said.

“I’m a little surprised it took you so long. I would have thought by the fact you once sent her to your house to pick up some files for you that you in fact knew her pretty well.”

“I didn’t,” I said. “But I figured she had to have passed police checks to get a place at the firm. I didn’t think she was exactly going to scope my house out.”

“So you would say your relationship with the victim was strictly professional?” Detective Del Rey asked.

He kept his head down, seemingly focused on the paper in front of him, but I knew he would be watching me in secret, waiting for my reaction.

“I wouldn’t describe us as having a relationship at all, Detective,” I said.

That much was true at least. What Candy and I had was just about sex. It wasn’t a relationship, not by any stretch of the imagination.

“So tell me, William. What do you think happened last night?” he asked me.

“I think I drank far too much and consequently I have no idea what happened to Candy. I wish I did, but I don’t and I’m not willing to speculate on something so serious when anything I said would be pure guess work. With all due respect, it’s your job to come up with a likely scenario, Detective, not mine. ”

That caused Detective Del Rey’s insincere smile to falter a little and I knew I had at least won a tiny part of the battle. He couldn’t argue with my logic. It was his job, and me making a wild guess as to what might have happened wasn’t going to help anyone.

It was hard to keep the smirk off my face as Detective Del Rey and Officer Stanford left the interview room without another word.