Page 63 of Little Buried Secrets

“You can’t stake a claim on a woman just because she’s single. Women aren’t pieces of property, Isaac.”

“I didn’t mean it like … look, all I’m saying is that from the first day we met, there was a vibe between us. She felt it too.”

“How did you know? Did she ever say she had feelings for you?”

“It’s one of those things you just know. I’m never wrong about these things. Besides, women are drawn to me. Some say it’s the hair, but I say it’s my dimples. Flash a smile, and they can’t resist. Works every time.”

I almost coughed out the word narcissist, but I didn’t.

“Tell me about the conversations you two had at the coffee shop,” I said.

“We didn’t always get the chance to talk. Depended on how many customers were there and who was working. When it was just us, we talked about all kinds of things. The more I got to know her, the more I started to see she wasn’t like other girls.”

“How was she different?”

“She was deep … in conversation, I mean. I could talk to her about any subject, and she could keep up. It impressed and surprised me.”

“Why?”

“I started to feel something for her, which was weird. I’ve never gone for her type in the past.”

“And what type would that be?”

He tapped a thumb on the beanbag, thinking. “Cute nerd, I guess.”

Isaac was doing a great job of digging his own hole so far.

I didn’t even need to provide him with a shovel.

“Did Margot know you started to have feelings for her?” I asked.

“I’m sure she did.”

“Did you tell her you liked her?”

“Not in so many words. We flirted here and there. I assumed she knew.”

He assumed she knew.

Assumptions like that were dangerous.

“How did you behave toward Margot when you saw her outside the coffee shop?” I asked. “I assume you ran into each other at school this year before you graduated.”

“She was a couple grades below me, so we weren’t in any of the same classes.”

“I doubt there are even two hundred students in the entire high school. Seems to me like you would have seen her just about every day.”

He didn’t seem to know what to say to my comment, and he went quiet.

I waited.

“Yeah, so maybe I didn’t talk much to her outside of the coffee shop,” he said. “I don’t think it bothered her. She never said anything about it.”

“Why didn’t you talk to her when you saw her at school? It seems to me like you were trying to keep the fact you were interested in her a secret.”

“Why are you giving me the third-degree here? She’s dead. What does me talking to Margot or not talking to her have anything to do with your investigation? None of it matters.”

It mattered because I was trying to establish a timeline for Isaac and Margot, starting from the day they met. If he didn’t speak to her at school, it told me he didn’t want people to know he was interested in her. At some point before Sebastian’s party, that changed.

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