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“Yeah, his parents? You know, since his mom and dad both go
by Charlie, we called them Charlie-squared. It was our private joke.”
His voice trailed off and he was quiet again, thinking. When he spoke
next, there was a tightness in his voice as though he was physically
restraining emotions. “He was trying to get me into a rehab program.
They’re very expensive.” As though he really wanted her to understand,
he said, “It’s hard to quit crystal meth. You can’t just take methadone or
something. None of that works.”
“AJ has taken it upon herself to get you help,” Yoshi reminded
him.
“That’s great. She’s gonna get me arrested, confined to a program,
and force me to go cold turkey while they hold me here.”
“Give her a break. She saved your life.”
“You mean she will have, once I get clean.”
“No. Last night. You almost died. She was the one who performed
CPR and saved your life.”
“I didn’t know.” He sounded embarrassed. As he should. “Sorry.”
“I have to ask, where were you the night Jeff died?”
“Screw you.”
“It is a simple, routine question. I need to isolate anyone known to
Jeff who does not have an alibi for the night of his disappearance.”
He still didn’t answer.
“Maybe you simply cannot recall. Is that it? Were you too high
to know where you were?” She had it. “You were with another man,
weren’t you?” She wished she could see the truth on his face. She
could not. When she listened carefully, it sounded like his breathing
had changed. She would bet his heart rate had gone up as well. “Do you
even know his name?”
“I only knew his screen name,” he growled and spelled it out:
“hard4u.”
“Where did you meet?”
• 144 •
BLIND LEAP
“Online.” She could almost hear his eyes rolling at her
obtuseness.
“I meant IRL.” Yoshi used instant-messaging terminology. “In
real life? Did you go to your place?”
“No! I never brought men to our apartment. His place.”
“The address?”
“On Seventeenth Street.”
“You can do better than that, Tyrone.”
“Something like 1420 or 1430.”
“Wouldn’t Jeff wonder where you were?”
“No, our arrangement was I just had to be home by eight p.m. on
weeknights.”
“Is there anyone besides Theresa and Isabelle that you can think
of who might have reason to harm Jeff?” Yoshi lobbed another question
before he could have time to prepare, hoping to get his gut reaction.
“No.”
“Tell me about Chase Devlin,” Yoshi requested. “I heard the two
of you had an affair.”
Tyrone flinched, physically, as though she had threatened him. “It
wasn’t an affair.” He spat the word out.
“All right, what was it, then?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.”
“Chase Devlin does not have affairs,” Tyrone replied. “He has
acquisitions.”
“Can you explain what you mean by that? Acquisitions?”
“When Chase wants something he doesn’t just get it, he acquires
it. He owns it in this incredibly intrinsic way. The way he talks about it
is bizarre, as if he chases down whatever he wants like he’s some kind
of lion.” He made a sound Yoshi took for a snort. “Guess that makes me
that one stupid gazelle that wandered off from the herd, huh. More like
I walked right up to him thinking, ‘Aw, what a cute little kitty cat,’ then
‘Roar,’ and I’m down with my neck broken and my guts hanging out,
wondering what the hell just happened.”
“In what manner did he acquire you?”
Tyrone sighed. He seemed to be tiring of their conversation.
“Let’s just say that my ‘participation’ was not voluntary.” He waved a
hand, the movement of it sending a light breeze toward Yoshi’s face.
• 145 •
DIANE AND JACOB ANDERSON-MINSHALL
“In a manner of speaking, he raped me. In another it might be more
appropriate to say I was acting. I am an actor, you know.”
Before Yoshi had a chance to delve further into his enigmatic
answer, a nurse came in from the hall and informed her that Tyrone
needed his rest. Yoshi wondered if he had summoned the nurse by
prayer or the touch of a silent panic alarm. Whichever it was, she was
sure Tyrone was relieved to see her depart.
• 146 •
BLIND LEAP
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Jshe could tell Yoshi wasn’t in. Rock music blared from small
computer speakers. Bud was chillin’, flipping the pages of a Guns &
Jugs. Tucker was grooving to the music, swaying and bouncing her
booty in her chair like some sorta white girl sit’n dance move.
“What up?” AJ asked.
“It’s Wild Strawberries,” Tucker said like she thought AJ had
asked about the band.
“Can y’all turn that down?” AJ hollered, illustrating her request
with a knob-turning motion.
Tucker replied with a few mouse clicks. “Hey, AJ, how’s it
going?”
“Yoshi ain’t in?”
“Nope.”
Bud put down his girlie mag. “So, you like that Tyrone fellow for
this so-called murder?”
“Naw, I think he’s clean.”
“Really?” Bud sneered. “I heard he’s a user.”
“That’s right,” Tucker piped in. “We found meth at his apartment,
and he’s been in porn.”
“So what? Y’all think anybody who does drugs or pornos is a
murderer? Maybe Tyrone ain’t a totally stand-up guy, but my gut says
he ain’t no murderer, neither.”
“Your gut, huh? Is that all you got?”
Bud was still butting heads with her like one of them young buck
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