Waking Hours by Lis Wiehl Page B

his hand across the top of his close-cropped head and scratching behind one of his large ears.
    “You ever drink hard liquor before?” Casey asked.
    Liam shook his head.
    “Did you drink hard liquor at the party?”
    Liam nodded. “But I had too much,” he said. “I thought I was going to throw up.”
    “That’s not why we’re here,” Casey said. “You understand that, don’t you? I don’t care if you did or didn’t drink alcohol as a minor. That’s nothing anybody has to worry about.”
    “I understand,” Liam said.
    “So what happened after you all got drunk?” Casey continued.
    “I don’t remember,” Liam said. “Honest to God, I don’t remember. I passed out.”
    “You don’t remember anything getting a little crazy?” Casey said. “A little out of hand? Somebody got mad at somebody? Or somebody wanted to go do something stupid? That’s part of the fun of being drunk, isn’t it?”
    “I don’t know. I guess,” Liam agreed, scratching his ear again.
    “So what happened?” Casey said. “What aren’t you telling me?”
    “I don’t know,” Liam said. “I don’t remember anything.”
    “I don’t think you’re telling me the truth,” Casey persisted.
    Liam said nothing.
    “Okay,” Casey said. “In that case, I’m going to show you some pictures. I’ll show you what happened, and then maybe you can tell me what the pictures mean.”
    Dani rose from her chair, crossed to where the detective was standing, and whispered in his ear. Casey looked annoyed, and then the two of them left the room.
    “What do you suppose that’s about?” Claire asked Tommy.
    “No idea.”
    A moment later Dani returned to the conference room alone. Tommy had seen the good-cop/bad-cop gimmick played out a thousand times on television. This bore a resemblance, but he assumed Danielle Harris was more sophisticated than any stock TV character.
    “Detective Casey had to make a phone call,” she told Liam. “He’ll be back in a minute.”
    “Okay,” Liam said.
    “You don’t much care for Detective Casey, do you?”
    “He’s scaring me.”
    “Maybe we can get this over with before he gets back,” Dani said. “Here’s the deal, buddy. There was a terrible crime committed last night. A girl was murdered. And the only clue the police have is that they found your cell phone near the body.”
    In Room 2, Claire gasped.
    Liam said, “They did?”
    Dani nodded. “Do you remember what you did with your cell phone?”
    “I lost it,” Liam said.
    “That’s true,” Claire told Tommy. “I asked him this morning if he had it, and he said it was lost.”
    “When was the last time you used it?” Dani asked.
    “Before the party,” Liam said. “To call Terence to come pick me up.”
    “What time did you get home last night?”
    “About three, I guess. I walked home.”
    “You got drunk at Logan’s house and passed out, and then you woke up at Logan’s house?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Was anybody else there when you woke up?”
    “I don’t know. I was on a lounge chair by the swimming pool,” Liam said.
    “What woke you up?”
    “I was cold. It got windy. I didn’t go back inside. I just went home.”
    “When did you notice your phone was missing?”
    “This morning,” he said, “when my mom asked me if I had it. I called it from the landline so I could find it, but I didn’t hear it ringing.”
    “Okay,” Dani said. “Let me see if I can go find Detective Casey to see if he has any other questions.”
    “Danielle,” Liam said, and she paused. “Are you going to tell the others that I gave you their names?”
    “We won’t,” Dani said. “But you did the right thing. Now we know where to go next. That’s going to work in your favor.”
    She disappeared off camera, and a moment later Tommy heard a knock on the door.
    Dani stuck her head into Room 2. “Why don’t you go in and sit with him for a second?” she said to Claire. “I think we’re finished, but I have to