Party Crashers Read Online Free Page A

beginning? I inherited this case, and I’d like to get some fresh notes now that we have a new lead.”
    Jolie shrugged, suddenly very glad for the coffee.
    “Your boyfriend’s name is Gary Hagan—H-A-G-A-N, right?”
    “Yes.”
    “When was the last time you saw Mr. Hagan?”
    “A month ago, September tenth.”
    “Do you remember what day of the week that was?”
    “Friday.”
    “What was he doing the last time you saw him?”
    “He dropped me off at my apartment around eight thirty.”
    “And was headed where? Do you know?”
    “To Buckhead. We’d had an early dinner near my apartment. He said he had a few things to take care of and that he’d call me the next day. He wasn’t specific.”
    “Was that typical, for him to go out after the two of you had had a date?”
    Jolie frowned. “I wouldn’t say it was typical, but it had happened a few times.”
    “Did he seem different to you that night?”
    “What do you mean?”
    Salyers shrugged. “Had he received a phone call that upset him? Was he overly tired? Had he been drinking?”
    She had replayed her last conversation with Gary so many times, looking for clues as to his frame of mind. “He seemed a little…irritable.”
    “Had you argued?”
    Jolie shrugged. “It was nothing, really. Gary was a bit of a slob, and I was picking up after him. He snapped at me.”
    “So he had a temper.”
    “I’d heard him raise his voice during phone calls, but he’d never lost his temper with me.”
    “Until that night?”
    Jolie nodded.
    “Did you break up?”
    She bit her lip. “No.”
    “Did you get the feeling that he wanted to stop seeing you?”
    Yes. “Maybe. He’d grown distant in the previous few days, and when he snapped at me for picking up after him…Well, I remember thinking it was the kind of nit-picking that couples go through when they’re on the verge of breaking up.”
    “Was he wearing a hat when you last saw him?”
    Jolie’s heart jumped. “Why?”
    “We found a man’s hat in the car.”
    “H—he liked to wear an orange ball cap, one of those rounded ones that fit close to the head, with a gray bill. Is that the cap you found?”
    “After that much time in the mud, it’s hard to say what the original color was, but the shape is similar.”
    Jolie covered her mouth, the image of Gary’s body submerged in the thick muddy water of the Chattahoochee too awful to imagine.
    “Ms. Goodman, what exactly was Mr. Hagan’s occupation?”
    Jolie squirmed—it was the one point of contention between her and Gary. “He was vague about what he did, but he called himself a services broker.”
    “A services broker?”
    “Gary had this incredible network of acquaintances. If a person wanted something special, they called Gary. He said he could arrange a ride in a traffic helicopter, or courtside seats for the Hawks, things like that.”
    Salyers nodded, making notes. “Did his services extend to supplying drugs or prostitutes?”
    Jolie winced. “What? No, of course not.”
    “Are you certain? If he were deliberately vague about what he did, maybe he was covering up.”
    Jolie didn’t know what to say, so she simply lifted a hand. “I suppose anything is possible.”
    “Did the two of you ever do drugs?”
    “ No .”
    “Were you aware that Mr. Hagan has a record for dealing coke?”
    She felt nauseous. “No. When?”
    “Eight years ago in Orlando.”
    “I didn’t even know he’d lived in Orlando.”
    The look that Salyers gave her made her feel stupid and susceptible. “Did Mr. Hagan own a gun?”
    Anxiety eddied in her chest. “If he did, he never mentioned it.”
    “You didn’t see a gun at his apartment, in his car?”
    “I only visited his apartment a couple of times, but no.”
    Salyers made more notes. “Okay, you said that Mr. Hagan left that night to go out—what happened next?”
    “I watched TV, then I went to bed. I got up the next morning and when I went out to run errands around nine o’clock, my car