Page 19 of Absent Remorse

“Really?” Amber asked from the side. “But you don’t even know what we’re going to ask you about, yet.”

He didn’t, and the fact that he’d still run as soon as he saw the two of them was very suspicious. He obviously thought that there wassomethinggoing on that it was better to run rather than face up to, but what?

They sat him down in the reception area, with Simon keeping a careful eye on him in case he tried to run again. Amber was standing to the side, looking as if she were ready to try to tackle Parfitis if he got up.

“We wanted to talk to you about Alicia Greening, Rose Ferne, and Mandy Grieder,” Simon said. “They were all murdered in the last couple of days, and it turns out that you knew all of them, didn’t you, George?”

Almost to his shock, Parfitis actually looked relieved as Simon said that. Clearly, he’d been expecting this to be about something else.

“I’ve got nothing to say to you about those bitches.”

“Are you sure about that?” Simon asked. “Because if you keep failing to cooperate, we’ll arrest you and take you in for trying to assault a federal agent, if nothing else.”

“You think I care about that?”

He looked as if he didn’t, which was surprising. Either he didn’t know how much trouble he was in, or there was something else, something worse, going on here. Simon could guess at least part of it based both on Parfitis’s aggression and his physique. It was only a hunch, but maybe playing it out could actually get the other man talking.

“The thing is, when we take you in, we’ll also use that to get a warrant to search this place,” Simon said. “We’ll be looking for evidence relating to the murders, but my guess is that we’ll find plenty of other stuff here, too, right?”

He saw Parfitis swallow nervously. “You’ve got no right.”

“We’veeveryright, once we get the warrant.”

Simon saw Parfitis hesitate. “And if I talk to you now?”

“Then maybe we don’t have a reason to look any closer here,” Simon said. “Now, Alicia Greening, Rose Ferne, Mandy Grieder. You knew them, right?”

“They were all in my kickboxing classes,” Parfitis said. “I did private sessions with a couple of them.”

He was obviously trying to make it sound as if it were nothing.

Amber cut in then. “Alicia Greening’s husband says you tried to grope her in those classes.”

“Grope her?” Parfitis said. “I hit on her, that was all! What, a guy can’t ask a good-looking woman if she wants to spend time with him? You think half the women in my classes aren’t staring at my ass the whole time, wondering if they can get a piece of me?”

“But Alicia wasn’t interested in you,” Simon said. “Did that make you angry?”

“You think I killed her because she turned me down?” Parfitis snapped back.

“I don’t know. Did you?”

“No!”

“What about Rose Ferne and Mandy Grieder?” Amber put in. “Didtheyturn you down too?”

“I—yes. Both of them were too frigid to know a good time when they saw it. But if you think I killed them—”

Simon cut him off. “You have a potential motive. You knew all three victims. The killer struck swiftly. Have you done much training with weapons, George?”

“A little, but this wasn’t me!” Parfitis looked scared now, as if he didn’t know what he could say.

“Where were you earlier today?” Simon asked. “I want to know your movements for the whole day.”

He saw Parfitis relax a little. “That’s easy. I got in here about 7am. I’ve been here ever since.”

“You didn’t leave once?” Simon said.

Parfitis shook his head. “Not once. The cameras can back me up on it.”

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