Free Broken Saint, The by Mike Markel

would fuck this idiot. “Amber,
when was the last time you saw Maricel?”
    She put on a face like she was thinking. “I don’t
know, maybe ten days, a week. Saw her in a class.”
    “And Jared? How about you?”
    “Maybe last month. Don’t remember.” I’d call his
expression defiant, but defiance requires a little more energy than Jared was
putting out. Call it “assertive indifference.”
    Amber said, “Can you tell us what this is about?”
    “Maricel was found dead this morning.”
    Amber pulled back. “Oh, my God, what happened?”
    “Not sure yet. She was attacked.” I glanced over
at Jared, but his head was turned and I couldn’t get a read.
    “I can’t believe that,” Amber said. Her hand was
up to her mouth.
    “Can you help us with anyone who’d want to hurt
her?”
    She began to cry. “No, I really can’t.” She wiped
at her nose. “Oh, my God.”
    “Anyone else you know thinks she was a bitch?”
    “Listen, when I said that,” she said, crying more
now, “I just meant she wasn’t really my friend. I didn’t hate her or anything.
She just wasn’t a friend anymore.” She wiped at her eyes with the end of the
belt on her bathrobe. “You don’t think I killed her, do you?”
    “We’re just beginning our investigation, Amber,” I
said. “We don’t think anything yet.”
    I looked over at Jared. He was gazing at the
kitchen, scratching his stomach, like he wanted to get something to eat. “All
this murder talk boring you, Jared?”
    He looked at me. “What?” Then he figured out what
I’d said. “Just hungry, that’s all.”
    “That’s fine,” I said. “Go get yourself something
to eat.”
    He walked over to the kitchen, opened the
refrigerator, bent down and looked in. He started shoving things aside to see
what there was.
    “Amber, can you tell us about that shiner?” Her
left eye was bruised, a neon green, which was about a week old. Plus she had a
faint white line on her cheek about an inch long, from some kind of cut.
    She started to blush. “This?” Her hand came up to
her cheek, touching it gently. “I had a little too much to drink one night last
week, stumbled on the steps up to the apartment.”
    I nodded.
    Ryan said to Jared, “Having a problem with the
earring in that ear?”
    “Yeah,” he said. He had a slice of cheese in his
hand. “Got infected. I tried to stretch it out a little too fast, broke the
skin.”
    Apparently, Ryan had hit on a topic Jared considered
worthy of his participation.
    “Okay, Amber, Jared.” I stood. “Let me give you
both my card. You think of anything that can help us in this investigation, you
give me a call?”
    Amber nodded. I looked over at Jared, who was
chewing on the cheese.
    Ryan and I left the apartment. “You buy Amber’s
story about that shiner?” he said as we made our way to the cruiser.
    “Tripping and falling? I’ve done that once or
twice. Maybe ten times, tops. What about Jared and his earring?”
    “He could be telling the truth.”
    “What’s with those earrings?” I looked at Ryan’s
left ear to see if there was a closed-up hole in his lobe. Him being a
well-behaved Mormon, I wasn’t surprised that I didn’t see one. “Is the guy so
stupid he assumes he’s never gonna grow up and wanna get a job?”
    Ryan laughed. “Really can’t say. I saw on TV how
you have to get plastic surgery to get those big holes filled in. But I think
you’re right. Being stupid might have a lot to do with that decision.”
    “You believe Amber not knowing about Maricel
getting killed?”
    “Absolutely,” he said. “Otherwise she wouldn’t
have called her a bitch.”
    “And Jared? He hears she’s dead, doesn’t say a
thing. And he doesn’t even go over to Amber to comfort her? He just stands
there, scratching his stomach.”
    “I didn’t see much on his face,” Ryan said. “But
like you said, he doesn’t look like the most evolved primate, anyway.”
    “Yeah, what’s Amber doing with a moron