Nightwatcher (Nightwatcher #1)(45)

“Tell me about Kristina’s ex-boyfriend.”

She drags her attention away from the pencil. “His name was Ray. I don’t know his last name, but—”

“We’ve got it. We’re already checking him out. Did she have any contact with him lately?”

“Not that I know of. But—I mean, it’s not like I talk to her all the time. We’re just neighbors, really.”

“Not friends, then?”

“Kristina is the kind of person who talks to everyone about anything and everything, so . . . it’s kind of hard not to be friends with her.”

She watches Detective Manzillo write something on his pad. The damned pencil lead is almost flat. Fixated on it, she shudders.

“How long have you known Mr. MacKenna?”

Startled by the shift in topics, she looks up. “A few months—ever since he moved into the building—I think that was May or June. But I didn’t know him well at all until the last day or two.” She explains about Mack’s wife; about how she’s been trying to give him support.

The detective writes it all down as if he’s hearing it for the first time, but she doubts that’s the case. The first officers to arrive at the scene separated Allison and Mack. They called for backup, then ushered Allison into her apartment to be questioned and Mack into his.

She has no idea where he is now. If they brought him down to the precinct, too, she hasn’t seen him.

“How would you describe Mr. MacKenna’s behavior today?”

“What do you mean?”

“You spent time with him this afternoon. How did he behave?”

Her temper flares at the absurdity of the question—unless no one told him about Carrie, which seems unlikely.

“You know his wife is missing, don’t you?”

“I know. How did he behave when you were with him?”

“How do you think he behaved?”

The detective is silent, watching her, waiting.

“He was upset,” she tells him, not bothering to hide her irritation. “That’s how he behaved.”

“Upset.”

“Yes.”

More silence. Clearly, he’s waiting for her to elaborate.

“You know—upset—distracted, and worried about his wife.”

“Did he mention Kristina at all?”

Grasping where he’s going with this—disturbed and perturbed by where he’s going with this—Allison shakes her head. “Mack never brought her up. I did. I was worried because I hadn’t heard from her and I asked if he had.”

“Why would you think he might have?”

“You mean why would he have heard from her? Because they’re neighbors. We’re all neighbors. You check in on your neighbors when something like this happens.”

Something like this . . .

Nothing like this has ever happened before. Who’s to say how people can be expected to behave in the aftermath of a terrorist attack of this magnitude? This is uncharted territory.

Which means you probably shouldn’t assume anything, Allison tells herself. About anyone.

Earlier she had speculated that there might be something going on between Mack and Kristina. Now she wonders what Mack told the cops about their relationship and whether there was, indeed, anything to tell?

But of course, no matter what happened between them, he had nothing to do with her murder. Allison is a hundred percent certain about that.

A hundred percent? Really? Why? Because he seems like a great guy? Because you feel sorry for him?

What if her instincts about him are completely off?

For all she knows, he’s a cold-blooded murderer in disguise.

A murderer whose wife happened to fall victim to a terrorist attack just yesterday? And then, what? He just snapped and killed his mistress?

Anyway, Kristina wasn’t his mistress. Allison had dismissed that theory when she got to know Mack today.

Yes, you know him so well. You got to know him in . . . what? A couple of hours in the middle of a crisis?

Assume nothing, Allison. If you’ve learned anything in the past few days, it’s that nothing in this world is ever one hundred percent certain, ever.

“What did Mr. MacKenna tell you when you asked if he’d heard from Ms. Haines?” Detective Manzillo asks.

“That he hadn’t. That was pretty much it.”

“Pretty much?”

This guy is relentless.

Well, of course he is. That’s his job. Allison wants him to do his job and find Kristina’s murderer, doesn’t she?

“That was it,” she clarifies. “That was all he said about Kristina.”

Although . . . was it? She thinks back, wishing she’d been paying more attention to the details. But her concern about Kristina wasn’t exactly the primary topic of her conversations with Mack today.

“Was she seeing anyone now, do you know?”

“Seeing? You mean dating? I have no idea.” Allison hesitates. “If she was, she didn’t say.”

“Then you never talked about your love lives?”

“No, we did. But there wasn’t really anything to say.”

He rests his chin on his fist and stares hard at her. “What is it that you’re not telling me?”

Allison bites down hard on her lower lip to keep it steady and forces herself to look him in the eye as she shakes her head.