Beach Wedding(41)

“Mr. Rourke?” he said.

“Pleasure to meet you, Jeff,” I said as we shook and he let me in.

It was neat inside but smelled dank with an old basement smell that reminded me of kids’ games and sleepovers. Ping-Pong and Twister and Connect Four. He sat me down in his office. There were books everywhere.

Jeff’s file said that he had hooked up with the Suttons through his mother, who had been a beloved teacher of Noah’s at his New Hampshire boarding school. Jeff was just a year out of college at the time of the murder, and after Noah’s death, he’d been fired.

Since then, he had gotten out of the education business altogether. His LinkedIn showed he was a design director at a cutting-edge architecture firm that specialized in high-tech office spaces now.

“You mind if I take some notes?” I said as I took out a Moleskine.



54

“No, please go for it,” Jeff said as he sat behind his chrome-and-glass desk. “Xavier Kelsey. Wow. I’ve loved his books ever since I was in high school. I’m really glad you’re doing this. Writing a book, I mean. There’s so much stuff about all that happened that is just plain wrong. It’s high time we get the record straight. I felt so bad for Julian when his father was killed. The media circus and everything. I still do.”

“Tell me more,” I said as coolly and calmly as I could. I slowly took out a pen and clicked it.

“These rich kids. People don’t realize how isolated they are. Noah was nice enough, but let’s face it. Like most of the Suttons, he was pretty self-centered. And the new wife, Hailey. She just ignored Julian completely. Treated him like the furniture. Actually, she probably treated the expensive furniture better.”

“No one liked Hailey?” I said.

“No,” he said. “None of the staff. After the shooting, Julian went to live with his mother’s relatives, who he hardly knew.”

“Shifting a little from Julian, what was Noah like?” I said.

Jeff passed a large hand through his thinning hair.

“As a boss? Noah was cool enough, I guess. Wasn’t mean or anything. But he was distracted, you know. You get up at that level, you have a pretty packed social calendar. Lunch and drinks with these people and weekends here and there.

“New York people, Boston people, Washington people, Hollywood people. He even knew a bunch of people from London and was always going there. It’s pretty insane how busy their lives are when they don’t even have a job.”

Jeff folded his arms.

“He wasn’t just aloof with the staff either. His son, Julian, was a pleasant kid, earnest and friendly and completely cooperative. But Noah just looked right through him. Julian really liked Dungeons and Dragons. I was the one who told him about it. He’d never heard of it before. That’s how sheltered he was.”

Jeff looked down at the floor, remembering.

“I’ll never forget what a kick he got out of it.”

I was starting to like Jeff. He was open and almost childlike. I especially liked that he looked like a guy incapable of not answering a question fully, truthfully, and thoughtfully.

I clicked my pen again. A little quicker this time. Time to squeeze him like a ripe lemon.

“So, did you wake up that night, Jeff? Your room was on the east wing, right? Did you hear the shots? Did you see anyone? Did you know if Hailey was there? Please give me everything you can remember about that night.”

As he opened his mouth to respond, there was a sudden chime from somewhere in the house above us. Then a door slammed.

“Jeff! Hey, where the hell are you?” came a voice from upstairs a few seconds later. “Help me with all this crap.”

“My wife,” Jeff said with a comical grimace. “I’ll be right back.”

As I waited, I could hear a somewhat heated conversation.

No, please, I thought as I stared up at the dingy drop ceiling. I’m so close.

The heated convo ended after a minute, and then a moment later, I looked over and was crushed to see not Jeff, but a short, wiry woman with blond hair appear in the office doorway instead.

“Yeah, hi. Jeff had to run an errand. So I’ll see you out.”

No! I knew it was too good to be true!

“Sure,” I said as I pocketed my notebook.

When I stepped out the back door that she flung open for me, I turned.

“Please tell Jeff thanks a lot and that maybe we’ll talk some other time,” I said.

“Yeah, how about I don’t?” she said. “And how about you stop bothering people about some tabloid thing that happened a million years ago? I know how you jackals like to feed off unsuspecting people. It’s not right. Leave Jeff alone or I’ll call the cops. He’s a nice guy. Too nice sometimes.”

The little battle-ax definitely had a point in there somewhere, but I still couldn’t resist a final needling.

“But in the end, ma’am, don’t the people have a right to know?”

“You have two minutes to get off my property,” she said as she slammed the door in my face.

Well, I thought as I came back around the path to my car. At least she didn’t beat around the bush.

“So?” Viv said when she picked up the phone. “How’d it go?”

“Strike two, babe,” I said from my cell as I put the car in Reverse down the unpaved drive.