“No,” he corrected quietly. “She was supposed to make it look like Trent was her boyfriend, and then she was supposed to break off with him and torment him even more.”
Kate sat back and stared, her heart aching at such a nightmare. “So did you do anything worthwhile at university, or just prove what a prick you were?”
He flushed at that. “I’m not proud of everything I did,” Walter said. “But I had nothing to do with killing those people.”
“What about Trent,… the boyfriend?”
He flushed at that. “I didn’t throw him off the roof.”
“Yeah. No, of course not. That would have been Brandon, I’m sure.”
He nodded. “Exactly. It was Brandon. I wasn’t even there that night.”
“Lies, all four of you were there. And Paula? Did you just wait until she dosed Candy with the drugs? That much blood with no visible wounds means a nose bleed to me, and that goes along with the drugs. Then, after you put Candy somewhere safe, you hit Paula hard, so she couldn’t say anything to anyone. What’s the matter? Was she crying with remorse and making you nervous?” Kate taunted Walter. “And, when Candy didn’t OD, you took her out to the same intersection and dumped her and the bike and popped her one too.”
He flushed again but nodded slowly. “I didn’t hit Paula. That was Brandon. I want a plea deal.” He leaned forward. “I can help you.”
She nodded. “I can see you trying to figure out how to get out of this, but I’m here to tell you that there’s no chance. You’re too far in the hole. There are too many deaths. There is no forgiveness. But I’ll see.” And, with that, she got up and walked out. Outside, she was almost vibrating.
“Take it easy,” Rodney said, exiting the observation room.
“Take it easy?” She spun on him.
He held up his hand. “Come on. There’s more to be done. Let’s see what these other two have to say. Then we’ll go talk to Brandon.”
After interviewing Jonathan and Tony, and getting more of the same confirmed, they finally stood in the hallway, exhausted and sick at the unnecessary loss of life.
“Just one more, Kate,” Rodney said. “Just one more.”
She walked into the interview room, where Brandon and his lawyer had been waiting for a very long time. She slammed down her file. “Three counts of murder and we’re looking for more.”
The lawyer immediately jumped up. “Detective, you are mistaken. My client has done absolutely nothing to warrant a murder charge, much less three. I can’t believe you’ve wasted our time—”
“Oh, wait. I misspoke. Make it four. And maybe we should listen to what others who were present have to say.”
“It won’t matter what anybody else said,” Brandon replied in that lazy insolent voice. “Because it’s just their word against mine.”
“Unless they were observers of you committing murder.”
“If they were observers, then they were guilty too, weren’t they? So all they’re doing is trying to save their ass and pin it on me.”
“That is quite possible. But do you think we don’t have any evidence?”
“You’ve got nothing,” he said, with a sneer.
The lawyer hopped to his feet. “I’ll be taking my client out of here, Detective. You’ve clearly got nothing.”
“Yeah.” Brandon hopped up.
Kate noticed something in his pocket. “Rodney?” She motioned at her partner. “Wasn’t it nice of him to bring in the murder weapon?”
Immediately her partner stepped forward, one hand already gloved, and removed the item from Brandon’s pocket. Rodney held it up and nodded. “Forensics will love this. That along with the drugs in Candy’s system, that you used to keep her compliant. You parked on the boulevard, helped her onto the bike and into the center of the road, likely laughing the whole time. She collapses, and you pop her with this as a final coup.” He held up the ice-bullet gun.
“Hey, that’s mine,” Brandon protested, eyeing his gun the whole time Rodney had it. “You don’t have any right to that.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” Kate cajoled him. “I mean, you’ve got nothing to worry about, correct? You had absolutely nothing to do with any of those murders. You didn’t kill Candy. You didn’t kill Paula. You didn’t kill Candy’s supposed boyfriend, Trent. And you didn’t kill Sally, the woman in the red hoodie at the intersection. I guess Candy just couldn’t do the job, huh? So you had to prove to her that she was in it, whether she liked it or not.”
“The stupid bitch,” he said, with a sneer. “She was so weak.”