“I’m not kidding.”
“Then if you’re not kidding, you’re crazy. That shrink in Atlanta should have booked you for a few extra sessions.”
“Something’s up with your kid.”
“He’s slipping it to his English teacher! That would make him a little fidgety, don’t you think?”
“Is that all?”
“Isn’t that enough?”
“Did he do something to Millicent?”
“How can you think that? You’ve known him since he was born.”
“I’ve known you longer.” Dutch’s eyes narrowed. “Tell me the truth, Wes. Is Scott our culprit?”
“I’m not even going to honor that with—”
“Are you protecting him?”
“No!”
“I know you, Wes.”
“You don’t know shit!”
“You’re covering for somebody.”
“I’m covering for me!”
Dutch staggered back a few steps and gaped at his oldest friend with disbelief. His mouth went dry.
Wes blew out a gust of air, stared toward the tree line at the right shoulder of the road, then brought his gaze back to Dutch. “I was fucking her, all right?”
“I know you, Wes. I gathered that much.”
“Yeah, well.” Wes gave him a shorthand account of his brief affair with Millicent, and the consequences of it. “Scott wouldn’t have anything to do with her after that, so my plan to end their romance worked like a charm. What I didn’t plan on was Millicent up and disappearing.
“I didn’t have anything to do with it. Scott didn’t have anything to do with it. But I gotta tell you, pal, that this investigation into her disappearance has made me nervous, because assholes like Begley are looking at her life under a microscope, searching for secrets.
“It would be damned inconvenient to my way of life if our threesome became a public scandal. And that’s not the end of it. I wouldn’t want the feds, her folks, or anybody else to discover that one of us—or maybe even some other guy, who knows?—had knocked her up.
“Doesn’t matter who it was, it was me she came to whining about it and claiming the kid was mine. I had the fattest checkbook, see. And the most to lose if I didn’t pay up. Scott doesn’t even know about the kid. Thank God, she lost it, on account of the anorexia, before she could carry out her threat to bring it all out in the open. Scott, me, her, the whole shebang.”
“Jesus.”
“Right. It would have been bad enough if word of this had got out last spring. But can you imagine how much shit would hit the fan if it came to light now? Even if I escaped Ernie Gunn’s wrath—and he’s damned handy with a firearm—Scott and I would surge to the top of the FBI’s list of suspects.
“We’d eventually be cleared, of course, but the damage would be done. It would ruin my marriage and my coaching career. No matter how many district championships my teams win, the school board would frown on me screwing a cheerleader.”
“Millicent wasn’t the first.”
“Probably not the last either. I’m man enough to admit to my weaknesses.” He frowned with distaste. “But this one got out of hand. Millicent was also Scott’s girlfriend, she got pregnant and miscarried, and she’s missing. Which spells disturbing any way you look at it. That’s why I’m anxious to get this Blue case resolved and put an end to all this nosy probing into poor little Millicent’s life.”
He paused to take a breath. “That’s it, Dutch. That’s my vested interest in this matter, beyond wanting to help out my oldest buddy and best friend. Feel better now?”
Dutch shook his head and gave a sardonic laugh. “I should have known it was something involving your dick.”