Page 54 of In the Bones
“No.”
“How can you be sure, if you were that drunk?”
“I didn’t even know where the door to the basement was. It felt weird enough lying down in one of Mikko’s beds. I wouldn’t have gone snooping around for no reason. The guy was my business partner.”
“Have youeverbeen in Mikko Helle’s basement?” Valerie pressed. “Before that night, or since?”
Woody said, “No. That was the only time I’ve ever been in that house.”
“And after that night.” She arranged her painted mouth in a frown that made Woody flush red. “Did you ever try to contact Angelica?”
Again, Woody told her no. That was the last thing he wanted to do. “I didn’t even have her number. I didn’t even know her last name. They were both going back to Syracuse the next afternoon, and I was hungover as hell. I just wanted to forget the whole thing happened.”
“It’s important that you’re honest with us, Woody.”
“I am being honest. That’s all I remember, I swear.”
Tim set down his pen. They’d been with Woody Durham for more than two hours, and what did they have to show for it? A vague account from a guy who’d admittedly been drunk off his ass. Woody had confirmed that there were dozens of people at the party, and Tim and the team would have to find them all. Question them about what they’d seen, and whether they knew what had happened to Angelica. Tim had beenhoping Woody’s account would disentangle the mystery of Angelica’s death, but it had only left him more confused.
“Hang on.” A memory was trying its damnedest to surface, punching its way to the forefront of Tim’s mind. It had something to do with talking to Shana after identifying the victim as Angelica, and what he’d heard second-hand about Mac’s knowledge of that night.
“Woody,” Tim said, leaning forward. “If you don’t remember what happened upstairs, after you took Angelica to the bedroom, how can you be sure that you had sex with her?”
Woody lowered his head, and his shoulders began to quake. “Stacy saw us,” he said. “She walked in on us, and she saw.”
“She told you this?”
“Not me,” he said. “Nic. She told Nicole the very next morning.”
“But you have no recollection of sleeping with Angelica?”
He shook his head.
Tim’s heart fluttered inside his chest. “Did you see Stacy Peel at the party?”
“Not once. I didn’t even know she was there, not until she called Nicole. I didn’t expect anyone I knew to be there. There were so many people,” he said, “and I spent most of the night in a corner, talking to Angelica.”
Tim leaned back in his chair once more. Stacy Peel was one of the first people they’d found who had access to the house around the time of the murder. He hadn’t seen a motive of any kind, but then, he hadn’t known Stacy and Angelica were together the weekend Angelica died. Stacy was a close friend of Nicole’s, and she’d claimed that she’d seen Woody with the victim. He needed to sit with that information. See if there was any meat to pick from its bones.
“Let’s switch gears for a second,” he said. “Talk to us about Mikko Helle. Do you trust him?”
“Do I trust him?” Woody popped his jaw in a way that raised all the hairs on the back of Tim’s neck. “We’re partners,” he repeated, though his voice lacked conviction, and Tim suspected Woody knew it.
“Is that a yes, or a no?”
“Yes.” There was another pop as his jaw clicked into place. “It’s a yes.”
“Woody, do you think it’s possible that Mikko Helle could have killed Angelica?”
This time, Woody didn’t hesitate. “No,” he said. “No way. Come on, why would he do that? He didn’t know her. He barely even talked to her that night. It doesn’t make sense.”
It was Woody’s frenzied, desperate tone that made Tim think he was trying to convince himself that Mikko was innocent. Tim could understand why. Against his wife’s wishes, Woody had emptied the family’s savings account and gone all-in with a stranger on a redevelopment project that relied entirely on an athlete’s personal brand. Without Mikko Helle, there would be no Rivermouth. If Mikko went to prison for manslaughter, the project was done.
“Here’s where I get lost,” said Tim, and meant it. “If you didn’t kill Angelica, and Mikko didn’t either, then who did?”
“I swear to you,” Woody said, shaking his head. “I honestly have no idea.”
The room went silent. It was Valerie who said, “You have a tell.”
