Chapter 79
1074 Words
“Because I never trusted them to take care of her. They seemed… unprofessional and lazy. Uninterested. I’d send them information and never get confirmation that it had even been received. I’d tell them about some texts or pictures she’d been sent, and Greg never seemed all that worried.”
“Were you worried?”
“Of course!” Nigel exclaimed. “And I know you were, too. Liv told me about your talk at the hospital. That was the first moment I thought that maybe I wasn’t crazy – that maybe I was right to be as freaked out as I was. You were the first person who reacted in what I thought was an appropriate way.”
Dallas smiled. “You must know that you were originally our strongest suspect as her stalker.”
Nigel sighed. “Yes. I can see that.”
“Where were you on Friday night after the party?”
“I went home.”
“Alone?”
“Yes. I was exhausted and Liv told me to go. She walked me out, and I assume she set the door code. I went straight out to my car and went home. I showered and fell into bed.”
“Did you see Mr. Castell that night?”
“No. We were supposed to meet up, but he had to cancel, he said.”
“And where was he after the party?”
“I don’t know,” Nigel said. “I guess at work. He’s a security guard, so he sometimes works weird hours and gets called in on short notice.”
Hmmmm, Dallas thought. A security guard. Interesting.
“And did you leave your building again that night?” Dallas asked.
“No.”
Dallas regarded Nigel and finally took it down a notch. “Yes, we have the security footage from your apartment building. We know what time you came home, and that you stayed all night. You weren’t the one.”
“The one what?”
“The one who sent Olivia threatening texts from her own living room after the party.”
Nigel stared. “What?”
Dallas explained fully, and by the time he’d finished, Nigel was the color of parchment.
“Is she OK?” he whispered.
“Yeah. She’s fine.”
Nigel was quiet for a few seconds. “What do you need me to do?”
Dallas studied him, and his cool tone and body language completely disappeared. “I need you to give me and my staff full access to your life.”
“Why?”
“Because even though you’re not her stalker, the person who is may be gaining access through you.”
“How?”
“You know everything about Olivia, Nigel.” Dallas’ eyes were gentle. “You know her schedule, her life, her friends. You’re her right hand. Who do you talk to about your job?”
“Well, Abe, of course. Some friends. My Mom, occasionally.”
“How much detail do you go in to?”
“Oh, not much at all. It’s part of my contract: I have a few clauses that clearly outline what I can't discuss with anybody. They include specifics about Liv’s schedule. Things like which hotel she’ll be staying in when she travels, flight information, the address of the shoot. Stuff like that, things that make it easy to find and follow her.”
“OK.” Dallas thought for a second. “Tell me about Abe.”
“Abe? Well, we met about six months ago.”
That caught Dallas’ attention.
Six months ago. The time that Olivia’s stalker showed up in her life.
“Has he met Olivia?” Dallas said.
“Yes, just briefly.”
“Does he ask lots of questions about her? Show any interest in her whereabouts?”
Nigel shook his head. “No, he’s ever asked anything, really. And never asks where she is.” He shrugged. “He respects the terms of my contract.”
“So can I get full access to your life, then?”
Nigel looked at Dallas. “Dallas, let me explain something to you about my life.”
Surprised, Dallas nodded.
“I'm a gay man, and as such, I’ve had quite a few… shall we say, escapades… that I don’t want people to know about. Not Olivia, not Abe, certainly not my mother.” He swallowed hard. “I’ve done some things that I’m not proud of. I want to help, and I will. But I need to know what will be done with anything you find out about me.”
Dallas’ voice was soft. “Let me explain something to you now, Nigel.”
“OK.”
“Nobody’s life would stand up to intensive scrutiny. Trust me on this, OK? Nobody’s. If a highly-trained team dug into mylife? They’d find some family secrets and boatloads of questionable redheads picked up at bars.”
Nigel laughed. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Dallas grinned back. “I’m the king of the one-night-stand, and for all I know, some of those women may have been married, even if I had no idea. They may have criminal connections, they may be heiresses and being with me may have been a serious security threat. You get me? Nobody’s past is lily-white, so yeah, we’re going to dig up some dirt on you. I get that. But here’s what happens: anything that is not relevant to this case is destroyed, or I can hand the originals over to you, and you can destroy them personally. Your choice.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I’ll show you what we find – no judgment on my part, OK? – and if it’s irrelevant, it’s all yours.”
“You promise me?”
“One hundred percent.”
Nigel nodded. “OK. What do you need from me?”
Dallas handed him a piece of paper. “Everything there. Can I get it all by tomorrow morning?”
Nigel glanced down the list: it included full access to all his social media, his bank accounts, his phone records, his e-mails. They wanted to clone his cell phones; they wanted to come to his house and check for bugs; they wanted a full account of where he’d been for the past six months. He blinked.
“Nigel?”
Nigel looked up. “Yes. Tomorrow morning. No problem.”
- Writer
