Page 36 of So Normal

“I agree,” Faith said with a smile.

They sat at a table a little removed from the other diners so they could talk in relative privacy.

“So,” Brandon said, “you’re here to talk about my father.”

“Yes,” Faith said. “We apologize for taking so long to get to you.”

“I understand,” Brandon said. “You had that other body to deal with.”

“Yes,” Faith said. “How did you know about that?”

“It’s all over the news,” Brandon said. “They’re calling him the Subway Vampire. People are claiming he drains the blood from his victims and leaves their exsanguinated corpses for passengers to find.”

Michael rolled his eyes. Faith chuckled softly and said, “Well, the truth is only slightly less dramatic, but you know all about that.”

“Yes,” Brandon said, his hands tightening around his mug. “Yes, I do.”

“Mr. McIlhenny—”

“Please,” Brandon said, “that was my father. I’m just Brandon. Or Brandy.”

“Brandon,” Faith said, “I hate to ask you this, but can you think of a reason why someone might want to hurt your father?”

Brandon sighed. He sipped his coffee and tapped the table with his finger. “My first instinct is to say no, but … well, I suppose if he pissed off the wrong person, then yes, someone might want to hurt him.”

“Did your father often get into arguments with people?” Faith asked.

Brandon chuckled. “Well, yeah, I suppose you could say that,” he said, “at least when I knew him. He had a real mean streak. Arealmean streak. That’s why we don’t talk to him anymore. Didn’t talk to him.”

“You and your brother and sister?”

“Yes,” Brandon said. “He used to belittle us almost constantly. Mostly over our career choices, but he used to be very hard on Elizabeth. She married a man who owns a gas station franchise. According to my father, that was beneath her.”

“I see,” Faith said. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“So was my sister,” Brandon said.

“Did you have any contact with your father at all after your mother’s death?”

He shrugged. “Well, you know, text messages on birthdays and Christmas. A phone call here and there. Not much. Nothing since last year. He was on the jury for the Hornfeldt case, so he didn’t talk to us. He took his civic duty very seriously.”

“So, you don’t know of anyone specifically who might have disliked him?”

“No,” Brandon said. “And to be fair, I don’t even know if anyone disliked him anymore. For all I know, he was perfectly pleasant to anyone who wasn’t his family. Have you tried his coworkers?”

“We’ll try them next,” Faith said. “Thank you.”

They tried his coworkers and got the same information. Had a mean streak, very judgmental. No, no one in particular wanted to kill him. No one missed him all that much, but they didn’t hate him enough to do anything about it.

They reached the hotel just in time for a dinner as joyless as their lunch. To occupy himself, Michael verified alibis for the people who worked in Chester’s department. As expected, they were all solid.

“Wonderful,” Faith said. “Back to square one.”

“Not exactly,” Michael said. “We know that both of our victims were jerks. If our killer is opportunistic and he does work at the terminal, then he could be targeting people who are rude to him.”

“Possibly,” Faith said.

“It’s worth a shot, at least, Faith.”

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