me that when they were together he was paranoid about being seen in public with her, that he always wanted to stay in. It’s because he didn’t want to be associated with her, because he knew he was going to kill her. But then she started to see me, and wanted nothing to do with Corbin anymore, and that was why he killed her. It’s him. I know it.” Jack scratched at some raised welts on a reddened arm.
“You okay?” Alan asked.
“Hives, I think. I hate the spring.”
“Have you gone to the police with all this?” Alan asked.
“I will. I promise. But I want to get all my ducks in a row. He’s not getting away with this.”
Alan knew that he hadn’t gone to the police because he was playing amateur detective, maybe even hoping to get revenge on his own.
“I think you should go to the police. They’ll probably know if there was ever a link between Corbin and this Rachael person.”
“Another thing that he always told Audrey was that he wasn’t any good for her, almost like he knew what he was going to do. You want to get something to eat? It’s lunchtime.”
Alan had already finished his Coke, and agreed to get lunch. Jack waved the waitress over and they both ordered cheeseburgers. Jack asked for another beer, and Alan decided to have one as well.
“Jack, how often did you see Audrey?” Alan asked, after they gave their orders. He was hoping to get some information on why he’d never seen him before through Audrey’s windows.
“About once a week,” Jack said. “We’d get together for coffee or for drinks. I think at first she thought I was trying to date her again.”
“But you weren’t?” Alan asked.
“I don’t know. Yes. No.”
“I never saw you at the apartment building. Were you ever there, or . . . ?”
“A couple times.”
Alan thought he was lying about being in Audrey’s apartment. He guessed that in Jack’s mind, the friendship with Audrey—maybe a couple of coffees, a few text messages—was much more important than it had been to her. The beers came and Alan took a sip. It was so cold it made his teeth hurt.
“Just this one beer and then I should go to the office,” Alan said. “It is a Tuesday.”
“Thanks, man,” Jack said. “Thanks for spending time with me. It’s nice to talk with someone who doesn’t think I’m crazy. You don’t think I’m off the rails about Corbin, do you?”
“I don’t.”
“So you agree with me?”
“I agree that Corbin had a motive, and he probably had a key to Audrey’s place, and he left town right after she was murdered.”
“Why do you think he had a key?” Jack asked.
“Just thought it was probably likely. They went out. They lived next to one another.” He didn’t want to mention what he’d learned from Kate. He wasn’t exactly sure why, but somehow he wanted to keep her out of it.
“I can see that,” Jack said.
The food came and Alan listened as Jack explained, again, the reasons he was sure that Corbin had killed before. Everything he was saying made sense.
Alan and Jack stayed at St. Stephen’s till late afternoon, each drinking several more beers. It had been a strange few hours. Alan found himself telling this man all about his relationship with Quinn. He almost found himself telling him about the previous night with Kate, but stopped himself just in time. Why was he talking so much? He went to the bathroom, stared at himself in the mirror, and didn’t like what he saw. Why was he drunk in a bar with a stranger on a Tuesday afternoon? He decided he needed to leave.
As they stood outside the bar, saying goodbye, Jack’s eyes filled with tears. “Thank you, thank you, for hanging out with me. I know . . . I know it wasn’t . . .”
“It was nice,” Alan said, and put a hand on Jack’s shoulder.
Jack removed his gloves and wiped at both eyes, then held out his hand to shake Alan’s. Alan was relieved that there had been no hug; the handshake, long and aggressive, had been enough. “Which way you headed?” Jack asked, and Alan, suddenly desperate to escape, tilted his head east, since Alan was already taking a step down the hill back toward Charles Street. They parted ways, and Alan walked through a residential neighborhood he had never walked through before. The wind had died down a little, but the tops of the trees still