Page 61 of Random in Death

“Oh, well, um, we don’t talk about exes much.”

“Do you all go to the same school?”

“Yes.” Steadier, Nikki gave Moses a modified eye roll. “Um, Dawn graduated, but we did. And yes. Before Moses, she and Wes Burke went around for a couple months, but they weren’t totally locked, right? She decided if she was going to be with somebody, it should be a lock, so she told him to go on and keep seeing other girls, but none of them would be her.”

“How did he take that?”

“He said, ‘Fine, your choice.’ He’s a total cruiser, so it wasn’t a bfd for him. Before that, she went out with Aaron Kowosky for about ten minutes. Then his dad got transferred to Atlanta or someplace, so move on. She dated some other guys, but none of them locked. Not like with Moses.”

“Anyone you know who wanted to date her and she didn’t?”

“There was Zeke, but that was back freshman year. He was a total wheeze back then. He completely pined for Arlie. Then he made the swim team, and whoa! If I went for guys, I’d go for Zeke. But he’s abso-nutso for Sharleen. They’ve been locked for like a year.”

Trying to finesse details, Eve took them through it again.

“Okay. Arlie didn’t plan to go home tonight, did she?”

Moses blushed to the roots of his white-blond hair. “Ah, well. We were sort of planning go to my place. My parents are out of town till Tuesday.”

“Her mother was aware?”

“No.” Nikki spoke up. “I was covering for her. We said she’d spend the night with me. Do you have to tell her mom? I hate for her mom to know she lied to her.”

“Not unless it proves relevant. Detective Peabody’s going to arrange for all of you to be taken home. You’ve been very helpful.”

“I didn’t want to say before because it’s, like, lame, but…” Dawn looked at the other two. “We saw the vid, didn’t we?”

“I read the book, too,” Moses said. “Both of them.”

“Moses is a big reader.” Nikki struggled to smile. “I guess we’re hoping it wasn’t all bullshit.”

“The part about the detective and me, and everyone else involved in this investigation, doing everything we can to find who did this to Arlie and seeing they pay for it? That isn’t bullshit.

“If any of you think of anything that might help, contact me or Detective Peabody.”

“If you’ll wait here a few more minutes,” Peabody told them, “an officer will come and drive you home.”

“Wasp,” Eve said when they stepped out. “Arlie thought wasp, Jenna thought jab. And they both brushed it off so they could keep having fun. Why wouldn’t they? And it wouldn’t have mattered,” Eve added. “I guess a couple more minutes of fun’s better than more panic.

“I’m going to check with Roarke, see if there’s anything we can use on that vid feed.”

“I’ll get that transpo.”

“When they’re on their way, come get me. We have to notify the next of kin.”

Before she headed to another tent, she saw Roarke sitting on the edge of the stage, studying his PPC.

He glanced up. “Fresher out here. I have the original of the vid. This didn’t please the operator.”

“It’s evidence. Anything on it?”

“It’s a great deal of video. A pan at about the twenty-one hundred mark caught the victim.”

He cued it up. “The closest one to her in this pan is a tall boy with short, nearly white hair.”

“That’s the boyfriend.” She studied the screen, watched Arlie wave her arms in the air and laugh.

“He came up on the left side again.”

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