Page 78 of Little Stolen Memories

“I’d say it was decent. My dad did the best he could.”

“I heard you may have been held back in school.”

“Yeah, it’s true. I was held back for two years. It was embarrassing, trying to fit in, knowing the rumors being spread about me. Everyone thought I was stupid. I wasn’t stupid. It just took me longer to learn things than it did for other people.”

I was pleased with our conversation so far.

He was opening up, responding to my questions without any pushback.

“Back when I was in school, when there was a student who seemed different than everyone else, we didn’t understand it like we do today,” I said.

“You’re around my age, aren’t you?”

“I’m older than you are. I turned forty-seven this year.”

Xander slapped a hand to his knee and said, “Whoa, you don’t look a day over forty.”

I appreciated the compliment.

“What I was trying to say before is that when I was in school, we didn’t speak about personality disorders the way we do today,” I said. “If we had, maybe the kids we went to school with would have been a lot more understanding of each other.”

“Maybe. What are you getting at?”

“You may not want to admit it, even now, but I bet you were angry about the way you were treated in school.”

He blinked at me, a wry grin forming on his lips as he said, “Angry enough to kill? It’s why you’re here again so soon, isn’t it? Are you looking for a confession? Do you think I killed them?”

“I'm not sure.”

“Be straight with me. I can take it.”

He said he could take it, but I wasn’t sure he could.

“All right,” I said. “Out of everyone I’ve looked at and talked to during my investigation, no one had a bigger motive to commit the murders than you did.”

Xander shook his head. “You have balls, I'll give you that. You come into my house, and you admit I’m the one you think committed the murders.”

“I said you have motive. I didn’t say you did it.”

“You don’t have to say it. You want it to be me. I can tell by the way you’re talking to me. What if I did murder my classmates? What if you're right? Do you feel safe now, alone in the house with me?”

The conversation was going in a direction I hadn’t expected. I didn't know what to make of it. Was he teasing me in some way by not admitting to the murders outright?

“Are you offering to tell me the truth?” I asked.

Xander smiled and burst out laughing. “I had you going for a minute, didn’t I? Of course I didn't do it. I was just riling you up.”

“It’s not a joking matter.”

“I know it isn’t. Can you blame me? Between yesterday and today, our conversations have been so heavy, I felt the need to lighten things up, even for a few minutes. I hope you catch the guy you’re after, I mean it. Those guys didn’t always show me kindness when we were in school, but they didn’t deserve to die.”

In some ways, it felt like we were playing a game, much like the game he’d played with Aubree. Speaking of …

“What made you decide to play the word game with Aubree?” I asked. “You must have known there was a chance she’d discover your identity.”

“I felt guilty about the calls. I knew it wasn’t right not to tell them who I was when we were talking. When Aubree pushed me to give her my name, I thought it might be time to come clean. I knew there would be consequences.”

“Consequences, yes. But I can’t imagine you thought it would lead to what happened in the park. You didn’t tell the police who assaulted you in the park that day. I still don’t understand why.”

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