“You’re expecting I’ll pay you for that information?” I laughed. “Wrong. Besides, Naomi already told us.” I tossed the baited hook out, waiting for her to jerk on the line.
“Bullshit. How could she’ve told you when she don’t know his name?”
“What makes you think Naomi doesn’t know?” I paused a beat and feigned surprise. “Oh. Right. I’ll bet when you threatened her, she swore she didn’t know anything and didn’t tell us anything. And you believed her.” I shrugged. “I would’ve lied, too.”
“What did that bitch tell you?” she snapped.
“Sorry. Confidential information.”
Mackenzie whipped her cigarette down, not bothering to tamp it out before she stormed off.
I braced myself for more accusations when she stomped back.
“Since this is all so freakin’ confidential, you’ll keep my name out of it when you talk to Junior?”
I knew a Junior. Problem was, I knew several of them, including the teenage Junior who’d been part of the trio to discover Arlette’s body. “Of course. But Naomi didn’t tell me how you knew Junior.”
She slumped beside me. “We lived in the same trailer court for a while, until my stupid mom got us kicked out.”
“Which trailer court?”
“The Diamond T, outside of the rez.”
Goddammit. The Junior I was thinking of was Junior Rondeaux-who lived in that same trailer court with his dad and Verline. Now I was more than a little pissed that Rollie hadn’t mentioned his son Junior’s connection to Arlette Shooting Star.
A chill raised gooseflesh on my arms. Was that why Rollie had sought me out? To share his suspicion that his son was somehow involved in Arlette’s death?
No. He’d never tip off the feds, especially not when it came to family.
My silence must’ve been the signal for Mackenzie to talk.
“Look, I was just playin’ with Arlette, introducing her to Junior. She and Naomi were so freakin’… ridiculous about that Twilight shit. Talking about it all the time. Acting like it was real. I overheard them talking about wanting to meet someone like Jacob-a mystical Indian with family ties to the old ways. People around here whisper about Junior’s old man bein’ all-powerful, so I teased Arlette about knowing a guy like that. I didn’t expect she’d become obsessed with him. I strung her along for a while before I introduced them. But I didn’t know there was such bad blood between Junior’s old man and Arlette’s uncle.”
“Did Arlette’s uncle know she was seeing Junior Rondeaux?”
Mackenzie shook her head. “But Junior’s dad knew about Arlette and told Junior to break it off with her.”
“Did he?”