Page 87 of Jon's Helter Skelter Cold Case

Huh. Now there was an interesting mix. I’d seen something like this before, when a man had been wholly rejected by a woman he loved, but…these two weren’t in love? Oooh bitch, I bet this was one-sided. Shit, I had a feeling I now knew the story.

Marc started us out. “Special Agent Marc Gonzalez is leading this interview. Date is August 1st, time 11:13 p.m. With me is consultant Jonathan Bane. Interview is in regard to the Evans abduction case. Jon?”

I loved how he said he was leading the interview, but I got the first question.

Still, I did have an idea of where to start.

I kept my voice steady and calm. “Tell me what started this all.”

Chad didn’t lift his eyes from the table. “Does it matter? She hates me.”

“But you love her.”

His eyes filled with tears, bottom lip trembling. “I love her more than anything.”

Called it. This stupid bastard. I was filled with disgust already. And he hadn’t even told his story.

“That’s what started this, I guess.” Chad blew out an unsteady breath. He kept fidgeting, leg jumping up and down as he jiggled it, too agitated to settle. “When we were all in college, I sawher in one of my classes. She’s sovibrant, y’know? Spunky and beautiful, and I just wanted to be with her. More than anything, I wanted to be with her. I tried to play the long game. I would sit next to her and be friendly in class, and I tried to get to know her. At first, that seemed to work. Then at the end of the semester, I asked her out, and she turned me down. She was nice about it, but…I just didn’t get it. Why had she been nice the whole semester if she wasn’t interested in me?”

I swear to you, this was why women were so leery of the “nice guys.” They were so quick to make assumptions just because you were polite and smiled.

“I thought maybe she was dating someone. You can be interested in someone else while you’re in a relationship, everyone knows that. So I tried to be patient. I stayed friends with her, and kept signing up for classes I knew she’d need for her major, and kept trying. But it didn’t seem to matter what I did. She still wasn’t giving me the time of day. She kept rejecting me. Then she told me she was aromantic, and I didn’t know what the word meant. I had to look it up. But I saw it for the excuse it was. She just didn’t want to be in a relationship with me, for whatever reason, and that was her go-to. She didn’t see how perfect we were for each other; otherwise, she’d never have said that to me.”

No, moron, she was really aromantic. Asexual, too. Wow, this man was past all saving.

I saw obsession in his lines. It wouldn’t have mattered how Tylesia rejected him, he wouldn’t have been able to accept it either way. Knowing this, I pushed him a little.

“So your first thought was…what? To kidnap her?”

“No!” He slammed both hands on the table with a sharpbang, then clenched his fists and forcibly calmed himself after that shouted word, but his voice was still rough. “No. I tried getting her to go on a date with me first. She wouldn’t even entertain thethought. Then I saw her around her brother. Didn’t know he was her brother at first. I just saw how she looked at him. Like he was everything to her. I wanted her to look that way atmebut she wouldn’t…she wouldn’t even entertain the idea of a friend date. I tried everything. But she just ignored me.”

Marc shot me a look like he was already over this man’s shit. Me too, brother. Me too.

“I had to make her see.” His eyes shot up suddenly, locking on mine, as if he was desperate for someone to hear him. To understand him. “I had to get her away from him long enough for her to realize she was just under his thumb. I’d be so much better for her. But she wouldn’t listen to me as long as he was around.”

“So you kidnapped her?”

“WHAT ELSE WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO?!” He slammed his cuffed hands against the table again, crying now. Ugly crying, too. Snot and everything. “What else was I supposed to do?”

How about taking the no? Seriously, when a person said no, that should be the end of it. My sympathy meter was at an all-time low here.

Marc pushed a little. “Did the plan to frame her brother come from the onset or…?”

“Oh. No. I didn’t mean to do that in the beginning.” Chad calmed a little. I could see from his lines he wasn’t lying. “No, I just wanted to take her away for a few days. Just so I could talk to her without him constantly interrupting. But the one time I tried to lead her away to my car, she threw my hand off and warned she’d call the police if I tried that again. And then her brother swooped in and grabbed her. I was so angry. So fucking angry with him for interfering AGAIN. I don’t think he even realized I was there, he was so focused on her.”

His story made sense to me because Dwayne barely remembered him. He hadn’t even thought of him as a suspect. Chad really hadn’t registered on Dwayne’s radar.

“I knew then I had to prevent him somehow from following after her.” Chad let out a bitter laugh. “What better way than to frame him for her murder? He’d be locked up tight, and finally, I could have Tye’s full attention.”

“Is that why you went through the effort of manufacturing all of the evidence? To make sure he was pinned for the crime?”

“Sure. It worked, too.” His lines abruptly went red hot with rage. “Untilyouentered the scene. How did you disprove all that?”

I pointed to Marc at the same time he raised his hand.

“That was actually me,” Marc said calmly. “I’m a Tracer.”

Chad’s expression fell. “Oh. Shit. I didn’t think you’d pull in a Tracer.”

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