The Competition

28

Evan’s house was a single-story ranch. It was smaller than Caleb’s, but it was nicely maintained, and there were multicolored ice poppies lining the front of the house. Evan’s mother answered the door. She was petite and dressed in a spandex workout outfit that showed off a well-toned body. Her blonde hair was gathered up in a tight ponytail. Her makeup was subtle and flawless. If not for the crow’s-feet and a few laugh lines I’d have thought she was in high school herself. Bailey made the introductions.

She dipped her head. “I’m Mikayla, please come in.” We followed her into the living room, which was sparsely furnished in beige and cream. The room was immaculate. There was very little in the way of ornamentation. No flowers, no framed photos. One silver Nambé-style bowl sat precisely in the center of the coffee table, and two matching beige ceramic lamps on the side tables-that was it. We sat on the couch. Mikayla perched on one of the loungers, feet together, hands on her knees.

“Do you know Logan Jarvis, ma’am?” Bailey asked.

“Yes. He and Evan became friends shortly after we moved here. I heard what they’re saying about him on the news, but from what I know, he’s a lovely boy. Kind of on the shy side, but very sweet.” She gave us a tight “I’m trying to help” smile.

I could tell from that smile alone that we wouldn’t get anything useful from her, and after a few more minutes Bailey came to the same conclusion.

“We’d like to see Evan now, Mrs. Cutter,” Bailey said. “And I hope you don’t mind if we speak to him alone.”

She’d kept her head down, made only sporadic eye contact before, but now she looked up at Bailey with alarm. “He’s not in trouble, is he?”

I shook my head. “No, not at all. It’s just better-less distracting-if we talk privately.”

Mikayla nodded. “I understand. I’ll go get him.”

Evan looked surprised to see us. He gave us a nervous “Hey” and took his mother’s place on the lounger.

“I’d like to go back over the morning of the shooting,” I said. “I’m sorry, I know it’s upsetting, but we don’t want to miss anything.”

He nodded and dipped his head. Just like Mikayla. “Sure. I get it.”

“Did you see Logan the morning of the shooting?” I asked. “I mean, before school.”

He gripped his knees. “Uh, I don’t remember.”

Yes, you do. “Evan, I don’t want to scare you, but it’s a criminal offense to withhold information.”

Evan looked down at his lap and picked at the knee of his jeans. After a few moments, he spoke. “I saw him for, like, a minute. He was in the parking lot, standing by his car.”

“Did you speak to him?”

“Yeah. Just for, like, a second.”

“Who spoke first?” I asked.

“I did. I said, ‘Hey’ and ‘What’s going on?’ and, like, that.” Evan pressed his lips together.

“And what did he say?” Bailey asked.

“Said he was waiting for someone.”

“Did you ask him who he was waiting for?” I asked.

“No. I saw Otis heading over so I took off. He can be kind of a blabber sometimes, and they make you pick up trash around the school if you’re late.”

But that wasn’t the whole story. “What else happened, Evan?”

He pulled at a thread on the arm of the lounger. I saw his Adam’s apple bounce. “I told Logan I had to get to class.” Evan licked his lips with a dry tongue. “He told me I should cut and not come back.” Evan finally made eye contact-a brief apologetic look-then dropped his gaze back to the floor. “I’m sorry. I guess I should’ve told you before. But I knew it would sound bad. And I didn’t want to believe…any of it.”

And he didn’t want to be another brick in the wall of mounting evidence against his friend. “It didn’t sound bad at the time?” I asked.

“No. I just took it as him saying ‘Dude, fuck school.’”

“Did you leave after that?” Evan nodded. “So you didn’t talk to Otis at all?”

“No.”

“Where did you go?” I asked.

“Homeroom.”

I’d get that verified, though I had no doubt it would check out. It was too easy for us to bust a lie like that.

“Did you notice anything in his car?” Bailey asked.

“No, but I wasn’t looking. The whole thing took maybe ten seconds.” He glanced up briefly and gave us another apologetic look. “I really am sorry. I sort of told myself it wasn’t important. But I guess I just didn’t want to be talking bad about a friend.” Evan shook his head. “Stupid, I know.”

Not so much stupid as typically teenage. Or maybe just typical, period. After all, who does want to think their friend, son, brother is a mass murderer? “Did Logan ever talk about guns?” I asked.

Evan frowned, then shook his head. “Nothing sticks out in my mind. If the subject came up, he sure didn’t say anything that made me go ‘whoa.’”

“Did you ever see him with guns?” I asked. “Either in person or in photos?”

“Logan? Never. That’s why this whole thing with him is so…bizarre.”

“Can you think of anyone besides Otis who might’ve been in on this with Logan?” I asked. “Anyone else Logan was hanging out with who seemed like trouble?”

Evan frowned. “No. And to tell you the truth, I don’t even really believe Otis was in on it. I know I said he was a loser and all. But after I talked to you guys, I got to thinking about it. Otis was kind of annoying, and he was a weird little dude, but he wasn’t that kind of weird.” He went back to picking at the arm of the lounger.

“Did Logan ever talk to you about a girl named Amanda?” I asked.

He looked up at me. “Amanda? Where’d you get that name from?”

“So he didn’t talk to you about her?”

“No.”

“Did he mention any other girls?” Bailey asked.

“What, ever?” Evan looked incredulous. “Yeah. Of course. But not in a ‘love’ way or anything.”

“Did you ever meet Logan’s brother, Luke?” I asked.

“Yeah, once or twice.”

“What was your impression of him?” I asked.

Evan shrugged. “I don’t know. He seemed okay, I guess.”

“When did you last see him?” Bailey asked.

“Not that recently. He and Logan didn’t really hang out. At least not from what I saw.”

“If Logan was looking for a place to hide, where do you think he’d go?” I asked.

“No clue. He’s got cousins in Colorado, I think. But I don’t know where.”

“Was there someplace you two used to hang out when you didn’t want to be in a crowd?” I asked.

“Just his house or mine.”

“Did he ever talk about friends or relatives he was close to? Maybe who lived outside Los Angeles?” I asked. These were all questions for Logan’s parents, and either Bailey and I or a uni would ask them. But given how little Bonnie seemed to know, and how little cooperation we could expect from Brad, I didn’t hold out much hope for those interviews. Evan was my best shot.

Evan shook his head. “Not that he ever told me.”

I’d had the impression he and Logan were closer than what I was hearing. “How long did you say you’ve known Logan?” I asked.

“Since we moved here. About a year ago.”

“You move a lot?” I asked. Evan nodded. “What’s your dad do?”

“Works for an oil company based in Texas.”

We weren’t getting anywhere. And if Evan picked at the thread on that lounger any harder, he’d unravel the whole damn thing. “Okay, thanks, Evan. That’s all we’ve got for now.”

We stood up to go, and Evan jumped to his feet, looking visibly relieved-and a little frightened. Was he just glad to be off the hot seat? Or was it something more? The tattoo was the most incriminating piece of evidence we had so far. But Logan’s warning to Evan that morning was a pretty damning piece of the puzzle too. Was he afraid Logan might remember that and come after him? It was hard to believe Logan would risk coming back to shut him up. But then again, as Bailey said, who knew what these psychos would do?

“Evan, I want you to know that whatever you tell us is going to stay under wraps until we have the suspects in custody.”

Evan nodded, but wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Okay, thanks.”

“Are you worried about…anything?” I asked.

“N-no.” Evan swallowed and stuck his hands in his pockets.

“Because if you are-”

“I’m not. Really. It’s just…this is pretty strange. That’s all.”

I didn’t believe him. But I also didn’t think he was in any real danger. And if I kept pressing him, I’d only make him think he had good reason to be scared. We told him we’d be in touch and to contact us if he thought of anything else about Logan or the day of the shooting, then headed for Bailey’s car.

“I’m probably being paranoid, but can we try to get some extra patrol on his house?” I said as I belted up. “Just in case.”

“Yeah.” Bailey pulled out her cell phone. “I can’t believe Logan would come back for him, but the kid did look nervous. And while I’m at it, I’ll see if we’ve heard back from the bank about Logan’s cash flow.”

“What about setting up a visit with the brother…Luke?”

“I’ll check on that too.”

While Bailey made the calls, I revisited the possibility that Logan might come after Evan. Logan had to know that we’d figure out he wasn’t one of the dead bodies in the library and land on him at some point. Evan’s information was good stuff, but it was hardly a smoking gun. On the other hand, I was being rational, thinking like a lawyer. Logan was smart, but rational…not so much. And if there was a second shooter, who knew how unbalanced and paranoid he was? Evan didn’t know yet that Otis was dead. But he’d find out soon enough. And when he did, he’d realize he didn’t even know who to look out for. Now that I thought about it, Evan had more reason to be nervous than even he knew.

Bailey ended her call. “Valley Division’s putting extra patrols on Evan’s house starting tonight.”

“Good. And the bank?”

“Logan wiped out his checking account a month and a half ago. Apparently it’d been dwindling steadily for the past year, but he still had about five hundred dollars in it until his last withdrawal.”

“Did it sound like he had enough to pay for the arsenal they had?”

“No. I’m getting copies of the statements so we’ll be able to see exactly what the cash flow was, but from what I heard, I’d say the other kid had to have kicked in his share too.” Bailey wore a grim look.

“So they’ve been building up their cache for, what? A year?”

“Give or take.”

I told her my theory about why Evan seemed to be so nervous.

“Hell, yeah, that makes sense,” she said. “Me, I think the kid could just be feeling guilty about not warning anyone and snitching on a friend. But you’re right. Evan might have good reason to be worried. And remember, he was in that gym too. It didn’t look to me like those shooters were being all that picky about who they fired on. It was just dumb luck he didn’t get killed. So much for his great friendship with Logan.”

I nodded and checked my cell, saw I had a message. I hit play and listened. “That was Sonny Barney. They can meet with us now.”