“I’m trying to understand, but I’m not sure what this has to do with your father’s murder,” Candace said.
I made room for Merlot, who wanted to squeeze in next to me on the chair. “I think I get it. It explains why Professor VanKleet was in Mercy,” I said.
“Okay. That’s true.” Candace looked at Evan. “Please keep connecting the dots for me.”
Evan said, “My dad was still obsessed with his research idea, whatever it was. Said he could make it without the college lab.”
“That scared you, didn’t it?” I said. “You knew he wasn’t well enough for real research without his medication.”
“Definitely, and the next thing I know, he’d disappeared. A mentally ill man with an obsession fell off the face of the earth. And Mom and Brandt couldn’t have cared less.” He sighed. “That’s why he came here. To continue his research without Big Brother watching.”
“That much I get,” Candace said. “But there’s something else that you didn’t talk about at the station. You’ve had your own problems, right?”
“Brandt said you’d know all about it,” Evan said. He’d lifted his chin, and the hostility was back. “But what exactly do you know?”
Candace leaned toward him, her arms folded on her knees. She said, “I know you got arrested and kicked out of school, but I don’t know the details. Your father gets in trouble, then you. That’s what I’m seeing-a pattern.”
Evan rested his head back against the sofa, eyes to the ceiling. “We’re both criminals, huh? That’s what you see?”
“She’s got to explore the possibility, Evan,” I said. “If you’re telling us what you believe led up to your father’s death, you should tell it all,” I said.
“Like she said, I don’t see how it’s connected to his murder,” Evan said tersely.
He was shutting down. I had to get him back. I wanted to see that vulnerable, caring young man again. “Maybe it’s not connected, but you want the killer caught. That means you have to trust Candace to figure it out.”
“She thinks the bad boy of the family did it. I can see it in her eyes,” Evan said.
“Then you’re not reading these eyes too good, Evan,” Candace said. “I’m a police officer. A victim’s advocate. Your dad was a victim, and it sounds to me like you are, too. But if you’re not straight with me, I can’t help.”
He stared at her, his defiance slowly fading. “Okay. Here’s the deal. When my dad disappeared, I went a little nuts. Even thought I might be bipolar, too. I started drinking to kill the fear, made friends with a bunch of kids. They probably thought I fit right in, but they were frickin’ weird. And just so you know, they found me; I didn’t find them.”
“I don’t understand,” Candace said.
“Here’s how it happened. I got caught by a campus cop one night passed out in front of my dorm. He woke me up, filled me with coffee. He seemed like a nice guy, said he wanted to help me out. He didn’t arrest me, just told me I needed to get my act together. The next day he introduced me to this girl Rosemary-said she was a great girl who had this rep for helping people out. Helping kids like me who didn’t have any social skills and couldn’t make friends.”
“And of course Rosemary had plenty of friends?” Candace said.
“Yeah. Lots,” he said. “It was all their idea, the thing with the truck. But they ended up with a reprimand. I got arrested and thrown out of school.”
“Tell me about the thing with the truck,” Candace said.
“They were protesters-or thought they were,” he said. “After my dad got canned, everyone started talking about the lab and the ferrets. They decided the ferrets needed to be freed. And I decided that since I’d been worried about those cats, why not the ferrets, too?”
“Tell me about the truck,” Candace repeated.
Evan’s eyes were downcast. “We chained ourselves to a big campus truck. We were carrying signs about freeing the ferrets. We planned to stay all night, but I got rowdy and the whole thing came to an end pretty fast.”
“You got arrested that night,” Candace said.
“Yeah. Just me; none of the others.”
“That doesn’t seem fair,” I said.
His hands were clenched at his sides. “Yeah, it was. I was drunk and they weren’t.”
“So you went to the Denman city jail? And your mom had to bail you out?” Candace said.
Evan’s throat had red blotches that were spreading up to his face. “ Douglas bailed me out. I don’t think Mom had the money, and since she’d taken a job at the college, I think she was super-embarrassed about what I’d done.”
Candace said, “So your new friends were some kind of animal rights activists?”
“Not really. They wanted to stand out. Be heard. But they weren’t hard-core, bomb- making idiots. They were just holier-than-thou idiots. They should’ve done a spot on Sesame Street about taking care of pets and it would have been more effective.”
“But you were the only one who got hauled off to jail,” I said.
“Yeah, a real bummer, and you know what the irony was? The guy who took me there was the same one who told me Rosemary could help me. Those campus cops are a bunch of doofuses.”
“This campus officer who helped you find these so-called friends took you to jail?” I said, incredulous. Not such a nice guy after all. And pretty suspicious. I wondered whether Candace was thinking the same thing.
“This was a public incident,” Evan said. “He didn’t have much choice.”
“Rosemary’s last name?” Candace said.
“Why do you want to know?” Evan said, looking cautious.
“Because I’m going to talk to her and find out exactly how unradical this girl is,” she said. “Did you ever get the sense she knew about your father, knew about the cats in the lab? That she set you up because of what your dad did?”
Evan sat straight up, and this made Syrah leap from his lap and scurry into the kitchen. “Rosemary? That’s crazy.”
“She could have been more of an activist than you realized. Maybe she discovered where your dad went after leaving Denman,” Candace said.
“She got close to me to find out about him? No way. She never even asked me questions about Dad,” Evan said.
“Maybe I’m wrong,” Candace said. “Lots of leads turn out to be dead ends, but we have to go down those roads, following the evidence.”
But though Rosemary might be a lead, I was still stuck thinking about that campus cop. He seemed way too involved, and this whole “Let me lead you to some friends” thing seemed pretty contrived to me, even though Evan obviously hadn’t thought so.
“Please don’t bother Rosemary. She’s just a weird girl who has nothing to do with anything.”
Candace stared at him. “Prove to me you want to help us.”
He hung his head. “ Bartlett,” he said. “Rosemary Bartlett.”
“Now,” Candace said. “Besides Rosemary, were there any other new friends who-”
But the sound of the back door opening made her stop. I was hoping it was Kara, but Candace wasn’t taking any chances.
She stood and put a finger to her lips and reached into her waistband for her gun.
Twenty
Evan’s eyes grew wide when he saw Candace’s weapon. Meanwhile, my stomach tightened as it does every time she pulls that thing out.
But I already knew who was at the back door. I was sure Candace did, too, which was why I was so bothered about seeing that gun appear. It had to be Kara.
And it was.
But she wasn’t alone.
I was relieved to see that by the time she and Brandt VanKleet walked into the living room, Candace had already hidden the gun.