“Let him talk.” Orlando’s voice was sharp. It echoed weirdly through the apartment.
“This is your chance, Wayne. This is your chance to show Orlando that you can be a good brother. Bail him out like you did after we found your shit under his bed. Tell him what you did. Take responsibility for it, and the craziness can end. Otherwise, the police are going to get a rifle with Orlando’s prints all over it. Are you going to let that happen to him?”
“Augs, what are you talking about? I thought you just told me I was the killer.”
“The last time things looked bad for you, Wayne stepped up. I thought he’d do it again if he knew how seriously in trouble you were. We made sure he got a front row seat to the accusation. Was I wrong, Wayne?”
“I knew it,” Orlando crowed. “I knew you didn’t really think I was a murderer!”
Wayne’s silence sent goosebumps crawling up Auggie’s arms.
“I’m going to handle this,” Wayne said in a dead voice. “Pee—Orlando, I’m not going to let anything happen to you. But I need you to help me. This is a family problem. We can solve it as a family.”
“Things would have been different if Deja had lived,” Auggie said. “Isn’t that right, Wayne?”
“Orlando, do what I told you.”
“She was coming to tell you the good news: she was signing with a big university. She was walking here from her house, carrying the letter of intent, to tell you, when she was shot and killed. She knew you and Cal would be happy; the university had been courting her, and there was big money in it for all of you. That’s what you and Cal had been fighting about for weeks, isn’t it? Whether Deja would stay local and play for Wroxall or go big and earn you both a lot of money.”
Wayne let out a broken breath.
“You loved her,” Auggie said.
“I didn’t care about the money,” Wayne said. His eyes were fixed somewhere past Auggie. “I didn’t care where she played. I wanted her to do what was best for her, for her career. She was the one who was talking about staying here so we could build a life together. Cal—Cal couldn’t see anything except the money. He was always broke. He was always hitting me up for a loan so he could score. He thought I was putting her up to it, thought I was forcing her to choose Wroxall and stay local, but I wasn’t. I just wanted her to do what was best for her.”
“Cal never touched Genesis, did he?”
Wayne shook his head. He was still staring at something invisible to Auggie. His throat moved reflexively. “I thought it was her. Deja. We did that sometimes, after a tournament. Messed around at SportsPeak. We didn’t have a lot of places we could be alone, and it was fun and hot. The lights were off. By the time I realized it was Genesis and not Deja, it was too late.”
“You did that to her?” Orlando said, his voice rising.
“I didn’t mean to! But it would have worked out. We would have figured out a way to handle it.”
“No,” Auggie said. “Cal was running your business into the ground. He couldn’t keep his head straight. He couldn’t clean up his act. His dealer was coming around, selling to your athletes. He was going to ruin everything.”
“We were going to—I was going to buy him out. It was the only way to save the business.” Wayne laughed suddenly and covered his mouth. “What the hell am I talking about? Let’s get this over with.”
“What happened that night?” Orlando said. “Don’t take one fucking step until you tell me what the fuck you did to Cal.”
Wayne’s shoulders dropped. “Deja called. She was upset because she’d had another argument with Nia. Nia was using. PED shit. Deja said that was the last straw; she wasn’t going to stay in Wahredua, couldn’t stand to stay here. She said she had good news. She’d changed her mind about Wroxall. She knew how badly Cal and I had been fighting, and she knew he’d want to know right away. I told Cal she was coming over to talk about it, that she was bringing the letter. Then she—” His voice broke, and for a moment, the grief in his face was infinitely deep. “She never came. And Cal thought I was lying. Or hell, who knows what he thought? He picked a fight again. I only hit him once, and he went down. For this one, awful moment, I thought it was a gag. I looked it up later; they’re called one-punch kills. They’re not even that uncommon.”
“And then you went to the basketball expo,” Auggie said.
“I had to. I didn’t know Deja was—I didn’t know what had happened to her. Then those girls came and knocked on the door. First Sadie, then Nia. Sadie went away, but Nia wouldn’t leave. She wanted to talk to Cal. Wanted to fight. And I was standing in the kitchen, with Cal on the floor, and it was like I was waking up. I started to realize what had happened, what—what Cal had made me do. I’d be finished. My whole world would come crashing down, just when I thought Deja and I could finally have a life together.”
“Your car was here. That’s the BMW Sadie saw: yours, not Genesis’s, not Orlando’s.”
Wayne nodded mechanically. “Nia finally left, but I knew she and Sadie had seen my car, seen Cal’s, and I knew, eventually, when people wondered what had happened to Cal, they’d start thinking about it. I drove out to the expo, checked in at the hotel, took pictures, posted a couple on social media, and drove back. I left my phone there so the cell records would look like I was in the hotel. Then I waited until it was late, took Cal to his car, and drove him out to that rest stop. I left him there. I ditched his car back in Wahredua, close enough to walk, and then I got in mine and went back to the hotel.
“The rest was like you said. I thought I could make people think Nia got shot by a Volunteer. And nobody would ask questions about that bitch dealer. I left the gun at Genesis’s house, but I wiped it down. I thought I did, anyway. And I was the one sending those emails to Orlando; I made up that email account and pretended to be Genesis. I knew I needed to get rid of some of Deja’s clothes, things she’d left in the apartment, but I couldn’t do it myself. It was going to kill me to do it. I asked Orlando to take care of it; I knew he’d do anything for her.”
“You son of a bitch,” Orlando shouted. “You son of a bitch! You killed Cal!”
He charged, bulling into Wayne and sending both of them stumbling into the hallway. For a moment, it looked like Orlando had the upper hand. Then Wayne twisted free, grabbed Orlando’s hair, and brought his knee up into Orlando’s face. Bone crunched, and Orlando collapsed on the floor, his nose and mouth bloody.
Wayne was breathing hard as he looked up at Auggie.
“Theo,” Auggie shouted. This had been part of the plan too, in case Wayne turned on them. Theo’s performance earlier had been the perfect reason to separate. Now he could come up behind Wayne and neutralize him.
But no one moved in the apartment.
“I already took care of your fuck buddy,” Wayne said with a grin that was all teeth.
Beyond Wayne, at the other end of the hall, the door to Wayne’s bedroom was open. No one moved inside.