‘But Kristen, she was really something. She was so on it. She had all this energy and was always coming up with crazy schemes. She was just so alive . . .’ He looks away across the yard and cusses under his breath. Turns back to Rick. ‘I can’t believe she’s . . .’
Rick tries to keep his tone light. Doesn’t want to spook the kid. ‘What sort of schemes?’
‘The money-making kind. She was always telling me I needed to think big. That I could be something, you know, with my music.’
Rick says nothing. He doesn’t know about the music, but wants the kid to stay focused on Kristen, not divert into talking about his hobby.
‘We just needed to get to Nashville, that’s what Kristen said. Then everything would happen.’ Mikey looks past Rick into the distance. He smiles, as if reliving a memory, then wipes his eyes with his hand again. ‘She was real clear that we’d need a wedge of money to help us get set up there, what with it being a fresh start and all, but then we’d make ourselves some luck and I’d play my music and get discovered, and then we’d be like Johnny Cash and June.’
‘Did she ever tell you how much money you needed?’
‘No, but it was quite a bit from the way she talked. Five, maybe ten thousand.’ He rubs his eyes. ‘We fought about it. I said let’s go now, we can sleep in the car if we need to before we get started, but she wouldn’t have it. She said she wanted to do things right. Have a little style.’
‘Did you fight like that on Seahorse Drive one night earlier this week, around midnight?’
Mikey shrugs. ‘Probably. Like I said, we argued about it a lot.’
‘Is that why you think she didn’t meet you two nights ago? You’d had another fight?’
‘No, we hadn’t been fighting that day. She suggested we meet up that evening. Said she had something to tell me and that I was going to be all kinds of excited. I tried to get her to tell me on the phone, but she wouldn’t. I called her, and sent a bunch of messages, but she held firm the whole day. All she’d say was that after that night our money problems would be over and we could be in Nashville by the end of the week.’
Rick thinks about the money floating in the pool beside Kristen’s dead body. What were you up to? he thinks. What did you do that got you killed?
Mikey’s looking at him, head cocked to one side. ‘You think you know what happened?’
Rick thinks about the burglaries. They started around the time Mikey showed up. Sure, people do bad things for love, lust and money, and there’s at least one or two of those things going on here, but it doesn’t seem that Mikey would be behind the thefts; the thefts on his sheet were stupid things – school trophies, not house burglaries. Betty’s right, he’s just a kid trying to find his way in the world, not a criminal. And unless he’s the most talented actor Rick’s ever met, he really doesn’t seem to have it in him.
But Kristen, on the other hand, she could have known something or even been involved – the make-money-quick schemes and the desire to get out of Florida are both interesting factors. It doesn’t quite fit right, though. There’s something, a puzzle piece, that’s missing. He meets Mikey’s gaze. ‘Not yet, but I mean to find out. You’ve been real helpful.’
‘I just want you to get whoever did this to her and make the asshole pay.’
‘Amen to that,’ says Rick. ‘And with a bit of luck it’ll happen.’
‘Not luck.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘Kristen always said luck and fate are bullshit. She said people make their own luck.’ Mikey gives him a sad smile. ‘I hope you make yourself some luck in this investigation.’
‘Well, I’ll—’