“Ross takes after my side of the family,” Clementine commented, as if reading Alvarez’s mind. Ross snorted, “He’s not in the family.”
They talked for a little while about the Long family and Alvarez learned little more than she already knew. Then Clementine said, “Mr. Hubert, he’s near death, I heard.” She sketched a quick sign of the cross over her chest. “And now, Mr. Brady is gone. I’m wondering if I even have a job left. Who will own this place?” She lifted her hands in a sweeping gesture to take in all of the house and surrounding acres.
“I don’t know, but I imagine someone will call and let you know.” Alvarez turned her attention to Ross. “You go to community college, right? And work around here. Can you tell me what you were doing yesterday morning?”
He stared at her. “You think I popped Brady?”
“Ross!” Clementine hissed and looked like she might faint.
“That’s what she’s getting at.” His eyes glittered, as if he had figured out Alvarez’s game. “Isn’t it?”
“Just keeping track of everyone he knew,” Selena said.
“I was at school. You can check with Jamie.”
“Who’s she?”
“He’s my friend. I pick him up.”
She took down Jamie’s number, made a note to give him a jingle.
“Either one of you know Regan Pescoli?”
“Another cop,” Ross said derisively.
“My partner.”
CHOSEN TO DIE
353
“She’s missing, isn’t she?” Clementine asked and shook her head. “I saw it on the news.”
Ross lifted a shoulder. “I met her a couple of times. I know her kid. He’s cool.”
“Is he?” She asked a few more questions, but it seemed the connection between Ross DeGrazio and Jeremy Strand was a thin one at best. Acquaintances. Not friends. There were a couple of years between them.
“I heard she was doin’ Santana.
”
“Oh, stop it!” Clementine looked about to die.
“I’m so sorry,” she apologized.
Alvarez leveled her gaze at the kid. “Seems as if Ross here has a problem with authority.”
“I just don’t like cops.”
“Because of your old man?”
“Because I don’t like ’em.”
Alvarez asked a few more questions, didn’t get any more information, and decided she’d learned all she could. Whether he knew it or not, Ross DeGrazio was still, in her mind, on the suspect list, along with Cort Brewster.
But the kid seemed too green to pull off something so intricate. It just didn’t quite fit. Just like Brewster; as much as she disliked the man, and as much as some pieces of the Star-Crossed puzzle fit his profile, she couldn’t quite see him as a coldblooded killer who had spent years planning this series of brutal slayings. She supposed smart-ass Ross could be stupid enough to get caught in some kind of gang killing, but even then she didn’t see him as the trigger man. He had a problem with authority, yeah, but Alvarez would bet that Ross DeGrazio would rather run from the police than provoke, taunt, or toy with them. He just didn’t have the 354
Lisa Jackson