“This is Nix Knight. Interview starting at twelve thirty-seven. Please state your name for the record.”
I stared at him for a second, then took a breath. “Shane Nickel.”
“Did you know Erin Mills?”
“Yes.”
“Explain your relationship.”
“We didn’t have a relationship. I’m friends with Lucas Mills, her brother. She is… was a few years younger. Just like you, I spent time at their house, so I saw her there. Also around town. Skiing. At a summer festival or something, but we never went together.”
“You never had any kind of personal relationship with her?”
“You mean did we date?”
“You describe it.”
I liked Nix better when he wasn’t being a fucking detective. “I did not date Erin Mills.”
“A fling then.”
I thought of Eve and how she’d wanted no strings.
“No fling, no dates, nothing. I don’t think I was ever alone with her.”
“So you didn’t have sex.”
I glanced up at the ceiling tiles, took a moment. “I never had sex with Erin Mills. I never touched her with her clothes on, her clothes off or anywhere in between. As I said, I don’t think I was ever alone with her.”
“For the record, you never had sexual intercourse with Erin Mills.”
I widened my eyes and stared at Nix. Really? How many times could I answer the same question.
“No.”
“When was the last time you saw Erin?”
I paused, considered. “Maybe over the summer at one of my sister’s parties. Only in passing. I didn’t speak with her, and that’s why I can’t remember exactly.”
“That’s about six months or so?”
“Yes. Okay, I answered your questions, now tell me what the hell is going on.”
“We have video of you and Erin Mills having sex.”
“Impossible.”
“More than once.”
“Again, impossible.”
“You offered her a spot in one of your father’s movies in exchange for sex.”
I sat up, set my forearms on the table, looked really closely at Nix so he could understand. “There is no way I would have offered her a spot in an Eddie Nickel film.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because I’ve never done it. Not once. Never. I hate my dad. I wouldn’t send anyone I knew his way. Especially a woman.”