Page 54 of Puzzle for Two

Flint listened, his expression changing rapidly from confused to alarmed to aghast.

“You gotta be fuckingkiddingme,” he said when Zach had reached the end of his recital.

Zach shook his head. “Flint, none of that happened. You were at the restaurant last night. You know noneofthathappened.”

Flint made a sound of disbelief. “Well, I should hope not! Jesus Fucking Christ, Zachariah.”

“I mean, the panties happened, but not me wearing them.” The panties that were now at the very bottom of his trash barrel—was that liable to look more or less incriminating if the sheriffs searched his property and found them? There was no DNA on the panties, so had it been a mistake to dispose of them?

“I don’t understand why you didn’t quit then and there?”

“I was hoping I wouldn’t have to! If he took no for an answer, well, then it was over.”

“He tried to bribe and coerce you into providing sexual favors!”

“But I saidno, and if he was willing to acceptno, then why would I quit?”

“Why would you— Were you born yesterday?” Flint was still staring at him like he thought Zach was insane.

“I needed the job. I thought he genuinely needed help.”

Flint stared at Zach, his expression hard and unfamiliar. “If there’s any truth toanyof this, you need to tell me now.”

Zach stammered, “T-There’s no truth to it. I swear to God. Theonlything that happened was he gave me those goddamned panties. I said I wouldn’t wear them. When he asked to meet me for dinner, I assumed he’d accepted my answer and we were moving on.”

Flint continued to regard him in that stern, steely way, and Zach said, “Flint, I get that you don’t know me well, but given what youdoknow about me, how likely is it I’d be stupid enough to send porn pics and vid to someone?Anyone.”

Flint was unbending. “The problem is, I’d have assumed you weren’t stupid enough to keep working for a creep who tried to bribe you into behaving like a two-bit rent boy. And I’d have been wrong.”

Zach felt himself freezing over, limb by limb, with hurt and humiliation. He tried to summon anger, but it was a feeble, flickering thing. He couldn’t help feeling Flint was partly right. Not completely right, because he knew damn well why Zach had been desperate enough to overlook Alton’s attempts to seduce him with dollar signs. But enough right that Zach wanted more than anything to get out of the Explorer and far, far away from Flint. Far enough that he never had to look Flint in the eyes again.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t like he could walk home or grab an Uber on Mount de Sello. He sat still and silent while Flint thought.

Finally, Flint said, “My friend at the sheriff’s office didn’t say a word about any of this.”

“If I’m really the prime suspect, maybe they’re keeping that information quiet.”

“No.” Flint gave a short shake of his head. “He’d tell me.” His gaze met Zach’s. “We’re more than friends.”

“Oh.”

The voice that came out of Zach didn’t sound anything like his own, but Flint didn’t seem to notice.

“They must not have had that information yet.” He glanced at Zach. “You should have received a call from the sheriff’s by now. They’re going to want to interview you as soon as possible.”

Zach felt for his phone. He’d muted the ring when his plan had been to scout out the estate, and after his chat with Chico, he hadn’t remembered to turn it back on. Sure enough, there was a message from Brooke as well as two other voice mails from unknown numbers.

He listened to the message from Brooke. She sounded about as rattled as he’d ever heard her.

“Yes,” he said. “They want to talk to me.”

Flint said flatly, “I’ll bet.” He started the Explorer and they bumped gingerly off the cement landing pad and onto the main drive.

Neither spoke. The only sound in all the world seemed to be the slow grind of the tires on the rain-littered pavement.

As they approached the front entrance, the stately gates slid open, and a black Subaru BRZ with tinted windows drove through, speeding past them up the drive.

“Who the hell was that?” Flint muttered, eyes on his rearview mirror.

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