I know Corbin a little bit, and I’m friends with Kate, Corbin’s cousin, who’s now living in his place. She told me she’d met you. How long did you know Audrey?”
“Since college, but we fell out of touch. We reconnected when she moved here. When she moved to Boston.” Jack blinked several times, as though the wind had blown something into one of his eyes.
A car pulled around the corner, moving slowly, as though the driver were looking for a specific address. Jack watched the car as it departed down the street, then turned his dark, questioning eyes back to Alan. “So are you going to tell me what you want? You did follow me from the building, didn’t you?”
“What were you doing there?”
“Doing where? At Audrey’s apartment? That’s not really any of your business.”
“So you were in Audrey’s apartment?”
“Again, that’s not really your business.” Jack’s words were aggressive, but his manner really wasn’t. He still had that frozen, wolflike grin on his face. Alan felt himself struggling to remember his reasons for following Jack.
“Fine,” Alan said eventually. “Then you won’t mind if I report that I saw you to the police.”
“Please, go right ahead. I’ll tell them myself, if you want. I have nothing to hide.”
Alan, his embarrassment growing, said, “Look, I’m not accusing you of anything. But there’s been a murder in my building, and then I saw you lurking around . . .”
“No, I understand. Sorry to give you a hard time. Feel free to tell the police you saw me there. I was just going, because . . .” He trailed off, and Alan watched as his eyes turned glassy and wet.
“Sorry, man,” Alan said.
Jack turned his head away, into the wind, and rubbed at one eye with a knuckle. They stood quietly for a moment, Alan trying to conjure up something to say that would end the conversation.
Jack finally said, “Have you heard anything from the police? Are they bringing Corbin back from England?”
“No, I haven’t heard anything. You think Corbin had something to do with this?”
The puzzled expression returned to Jack’s face, as though Alan had just asked a simplistic, obvious question. “Yeah, he did it. Audrey told me all about their relationship, how he wouldn’t let them go out in public, how he was always lying.”
“You told the police this?”
“Yeah, I told the police this, and I told that girl living in his apartment now. She better get out of there before he comes back, because when he does . . .”
“You think he’ll come back.”
“I guess not,” Jack said. “I mean, yes, he’ll be back because the police will bring him back, but I doubt he’ll come back on his own. I wouldn’t. If he does, I’ll be waiting for him. I don’t really care who knows, but if he comes back I’m going to kill him myself. I’m not even joking.”
The odd, humorless grin was back, and Alan thought that Jack looked more like a young suburban dad telling a mildly dirty joke at a cookout than someone in a murderous rage.
Chapter 23
It was late afternoon by the time Kate was alone again in the apartment. After she’d shown Detective James and the FBI agent the storage unit, and the slashed poster she’d found, they’d sent her back up to the apartment. She’d waited in the living room, looking at her laptop while the two officers upstairs had thoroughly searched each and every room.
“Is it okay if I continue to stay here?” Kate had asked Detective James before she left.
The detective looked Kate directly in the eyes and said, “Like I said before, Corbin Dell is a serious person of interest. According to Audrey’s diary they had a relationship that didn’t end particularly well. When we spoke with Corbin he told us that he barely knew her. Obviously, that’s rung some bells around here, and since we don’t have another suspect, he moved up on the list. That said, Kate, there is nothing else—no real evidence—to link your cousin to what happened next door. If Corbin were on his way back here, and he’s not, then I would be the first to let you know. He can’t use his passport without us knowing it. So I would say it’s okay for you to stay here, as long as you don’t mind staying in the apartment of a murder suspect.” Detective James smiled, just enough to show a small portion of her very white teeth.
“Why do you think he’s claiming he didn’t