Free Boneyard by Michelle Gagnon Page A

him. And it wasn’t cheap, let me assure you. He lived here until about a month ago.”
    “So what happened?” Monica asked.
    “I had to go to Manhattan for a show—I own a gallery there. My assistant generally manages things in the summers, but we had an artist emergency.” He waved a hand in the air and started pacing. “When I got home, Randy had clearly had other…guests here. That was one of my rules, no company when I was out of town, I’d made that clear from the beginning. Anyway, I threw him out.”
    “Huh. He must’ve liked that,” Monica said.
    “He was extremely upset. We’d discussed having him come to New York with me in the fall, perhaps going back to school…” Sommers’s voice trailed off.
    “Did he become violent?” Kelly asked.
    “Randy? No, he was hardly the type. He begged for a second chance, but…you should’ve seen the state the house was in, not to mention what they did to the Mapplethorpe…no, it was truly unforgivable. He left reluctantly, but quietly. I changed the locks the next day and haven’t seen him since.”
    “And this was…”
    “Ah, let’s see.” He tapped a finger against his forehead. “The opening was on the seventeenth, it must have been the twentieth of July, sometime around then.”
    “Anyone we can verify that with?” Kelly asked.
    “You can speak with my maid, she’ll be here tomorrow morning, or you can try her at home. Here, I’ll get you the number.” He went to a credenza in the corner of the room and slid open a drawer, flipped through an address book and scrawled a number on a scrap of paper.
    Kelly accepted it. “Anything else you can let us know about Randy? Friends he might have had, or where he went after he left? Or did he leave anything here?”
    “No, nothing. And as far as I know, Randy had no other friends. He was a lonely boy, a sad case, really. He ran away from home when he was thirteen, and from what little he told me I gathered that his family situation was not ideal. Now, unless there’s something else…” He moved toward the front door.
    “You won’t be leaving town anytime soon, will you, sir?” Monica asked as they followed him out.
    His shoulders tensed again. “Why, am I a suspect? Because if so, I can also get you the number of my attorney.”
    “Please just let us know if you decide to head back to the city,” Kelly interjected. She’d like to keep pressing him for information, but without more evidence linking him to Randy she didn’t have grounds, plus he was already threatening to lawyer up. Better to come back once she’d dug further into his background.
    The door closed behind them with a slam. As they walked back to the car, Kelly heard a raised voice coming from the backyard. They both stopped to listen. It sounded as though Sommers was dressing down Jim.
    “Someone’s got a bit of a temper, huh?” Monica said in a low voice.
    “Sounds like it. I want a full workup on him, see if he’s got a record here or in New York. We should also try to find out who some of his other charity cases have been, and if any of them are still around. Also, let’s confirm the dates of Randy’s departure. Would you mind calling the maid?”
    “Nope, if you drive I’ll try her on the way. I’d like to catch her before Sommers does,” Monica said. “Be an interesting coincidence if more of his boys have gone missing.”
    Kelly looked at her watch. “We should head back to the office, see if Doyle has dug up anything else.”
    “Doubtful,” Monica snorted. “Best he can do is give you an update on the doughnut situation in the break room. What about this Club Metro?”
    “I was thinking the same thing. Tomorrow night is Wednesday, we’ll go see what we can turn up. If Randy was turning tricks there, someone might have seen something.”
    “Are we taking Doyle?”
    Kelly smiled slightly. “Northampton is in his jurisdiction. I’m sure he’d be offended if we didn’t invite him.”
    “Oh boy.”