Crime of Privilege

It seemed important to him that I understand that.

“Can you tell me about meeting those girls? Lea

Jason drank more wine. He finished his glass and poured again. “I might have been mixed up about my sexuality in those days,” he said.

I didn’t think it was necessary for me to comment.

“I mean, you’re hanging around with the Gregorys, so there’s a lot of macho stuff going on. And we’d had this race and we’re feeling pretty good and we’re at the big post-race thingamajig in Hya

Once again, he seemed to be trying to explain things that were of no consequence to me. What did I care how he happened to be picked up by Lea

“Paul was just there. It was like, we were in a tent at this big table, and I think people recognized the Gregorys. Well, I’m sure they did. And I remember there was a whole crowd of guys around Cory, and I think she got a little freaked out and wanted to leave, and Ned, well, he wanted to get back to the house anyway, so he and Cory took off. And all of a sudden it was just Paul and me and I’ve got this redhead all over me and she’s got a friend, kind of short and dark, I remember, and Paul said we should bring them back to the Gregorys’ and have a party there.”

Jason stared into his wine and thought about it, and then told me what he didn’t think. “I don’t think Paul had any particular interest in the other girl, but she was there, you know?”

“What was Peter Martin doing?”

“I don’t know.”

It was hard to believe a man staring so intently into his glass. It was even harder when he emptied the glass in one gulp and then almost immediately filled it again.

“Jason,” I said, “this is the part where you get to save your own life, your own future. I know Peter met Heidi Telford at the Bon Faire Market that evening and I know she ended up at the Gregory compound later that night. I have to assume they got together at the post-race party in Hya

Jason shook his head.

I made things a little more difficult for him. “Heidi Telford was a wholesome-looking blonde girl with big breasts, wearing a blue dress with red rosettes.”

Jason looked to see if I had anything more to keep him from saying he didn’t remember.

“She was just twenty years old, Jason.”

He stopped looking.

“She came into the tent where you were sitting at the big table.” I was guessing now, playing his reactions. Even the smallest sign of acquiescence kept me going. “Peter saw her and jumped up.” Peter had excellent ma

“Jamie.”

“What?”

“Jamie Gregory was there.”

I had forgotten about Jamie. “Did he pick up a girl?”

Jason took his time answering. He placed his fingers on the base of his wineglass and then began moving the glass around in small circles, swirling the wine itself before he took another sip. Letting the wine go all the way down his throat before he answered. “No,” he said.

No. But he had mentioned Jamie’s name. There was something he wanted me to know.

“Did that cause a problem, Jason?”

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Then let me make things as clear as I can. Nine years have gone by, and as long as nobody talked, as long as nobody acknowledged Heidi was at the Gregorys’, everyone could just deny knowing anything about her death. Only now the story has cracked. You’re keeping a secret that not everyone else is keeping, Jason. At this point, I know she was there. I know she got hit over the head with a golf club and never made it home that night. And I know one more thing, Jason, and this is the biggest thing of all. I know the Gregorys will not take the blame, no matter what.”

I saw the color seep out of his face.

“First, they say it didn’t happen. If they have to, they go the next step and say if it did happen it wasn’t one of their people. Not the family, not the friends, not the hangers-on. Which one were you, Jason? Being a friend of Ned’s and all, coming up once a year to go sailing. What do you think happens when they have to go to the step after that, Jason? Who do you think gets sacrificed?”

Jason’s gaze suddenly went someplace behind me. His features twisted in surprise, alarm, possibly fear. I pictured big Toby standing in the doorway in his apron and shorts. I pictured him with a weapon in his hand: a cane, a hammer, a cricket bat. I debated whether I would look and decided nothing good would come of even acknowledging he was there.

“It’s not going to be one of the family, Jason, you know that. Which just leaves you, the two girls, and Paul McFetridge. They can’t blame it on the two girls, that just wouldn’t make sense. And between you and McFetridge, well, you’re the one who’s in hiding.”

“I’m not in hiding.”

“The Gregorys would certainly like people to think you are.”

Jason glanced past me again.

“If he’s supposed to be in hiding,” a deep voice asked, “how is it that you managed to find him?”

I had to answer this time, but I still did not look. “I’ve been searching for months. There are other people who supposedly have been searching for years. I believe, like me, they got misdirected.”

A silent message passed between the housemates.

“The misdirection isn’t quite so beneficial to you as you might think,” I told Jason. I was looking directly at him, compelling him to look at me. “What the Gregorys are doing is making us think you’ve run away. Let me ask you this. What would you expect to happen when we’re led to believe you’re someplace you’re really not?”

Jason lifted one hand and wiped his mouth. “Where do they say I am?”

“Costa Rica.”

“I’ve never even been there.”

“Pretty clever, then.”

Jason must have gotten some sort of sign from Toby, some sort of affirmation, because he said, “What is it you want from me?”

“Tell me what happened to Heidi Telford.”

“I don’t really know anything, because I was—”

“On the beach.”

Eyes to Toby. Eyes back to me. “I never so much as talked with her. So I don’t see how I could possibly have anything to say, even if I were put on the witness stand.”

I said nothing and Jason emptied his third glass of wine. He picked up the bottle and studied it. Then he looked at my glass with apprehension before pouring himself a fourth.

There was a big sigh behind me. Toby proceeded to walk past us, past me, through the room in which we were sitting and into the kitchen.

I was slouched in an armchair. I was holding my glass in both hands, holding it by the bowl because I wasn’t really interested in the Sancerre and didn’t care if it got warm.

“All I remember,” Jason said, “is that she came with us when we left. She was sitting in the front seat of Jamie’s Jeep while Pete and Paul and I were jammed in the back.” He squeezed his shoulders together, demonstrating.

“And the girls?”

“Had their own car. Met us there.”

“But there was no party, is that right?”

Jason drank. “Sometimes it was really kind of hard to say whether there was or not.” He seemed to be thinking about what he had just said. “I mean, the music was blasting out the windows and people were going in and out doors and the closest person to being in charge was Ned, who didn’t give a damn what anybody else was doing.” He glanced at me, did it quickly before going back to his wine.

“Because he was with the au pair,” I said.

He raised his eyebrows as if the fact another person had been present gave him new hope. Another possible suspect.