Page 28 of The Perfect Deception

“You familiar with Connor Donovan?”

He shrugs at Jay’s question.

I move in closer to Zeke, invading his space. “How about Ryder Beaumont? Gavin Kowalski? Tristan Dupont? Any of those names ring a bell?”

He shrugs again.

I shake my head and turn to Jay. “He doesn’t remember any of them. What are the odds?”

Jay smirks. “The odds are good that he’s our only suspect so far.”

“Hang on,” he growls. “Wait one fuckin’ minute. Suspect for what? Because I didn’t do shit.”

“Maybe,” I shrug. “Maybe not. But we have a bunch of dead bodies and right now you’re the only person alive that has any link to them.”

“Dead bodies. What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You told the judge that Nolan Petrovic was the reason you passed biology and chemistry.”

He swallows hard and his eyes slide shut. “Yeah, okay, fine.” His shoulders fall and his tone is full of resignation. “I knew those guys back in the day, but I don’t know ’em now and I didn’t kill them or anybody else.”

Jay shakes his head, giving me a grave look as he drops down on the sofa. “That’s what I’d say too,” he says, more to himself than to Zeke.

“Look Zeke, I’ll level with you. We don’t actually think you killed anyone,” I lie. “You don’t fit the profile. But like my partner said, you’re the only living person we’ve tracked down with any connection to all our victims. At best, it’s merely suspicious. At worst? Well, you might find yourself on the wrong side of an interrogation room.”

His eyes go wide, and he mumbles to himself before yanking an energy drink from the fridge. “Want one?”

I shake my head. “No, thank you.”

“I’d love one, but the girlfriend says they’re not healthy.” Jay grumbles underneath his breath. Sometimes he loves being the good cop a little too much.

“What do you remember about Hope House?” That’s as good a place as any to start. Background information.

Zeke shrugs again. “What’s there to remember? I was a kid. The place was shithole run by deviants. If you made it out at all, you were lucky.”

“It operated for a long time for a shithole,” I offer, hoping for more details.

“And? No one gave a fuck about us, especially the assholes who ran the place. There was never heat or air, the water was brown, and our mattresses were full of bedbugs. They let us do whatever we wanted and for most of us that meant getting into trouble.”

That’s new information we didn’t have, and I notice Jay jotting down notes. “But you never got into any trouble, did you Zeke? The only way I found you was because you went to help Adrian Sharma when he needed you.”

“It was no big deal. I owed him for helping me pass my science classes. Failing a class meant extra chores and less bonuses like computer time.”

“Still, you went on the record for him.”

“So? Like I said, I owed him. He tutored me and that’s about it. We weren’t friends and we didn’t hang out. I didn’t have any friends back then.”

“That had to be tough.” Jay chimes in with a dose of sympathy at just the right time.

“It was okay. Most of the time, they left me alone. When I left, I didn’t look back and I didn’t keep in touch, okay?”

That sounds like bullshit. “You didn’t look them up on social media? You weren’t even a little curious?”

He shakes his head, tucking a lock of hair behind his ear. “No. I mean, that time in my life was hell and I didn’t want to know anything about anyone from then.”

“And when their names popped up in the news as murder victims you weren’t even a little bit curious?”

“Or scared?” Jay asks. “I mean I’d be wondering what the fuck I might’ve done to land me on that exclusive list.”

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