Page 119 of Fire and Bones

“Look. Detective. We own a business that operates in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. We move around, our vehicles move around. Occasionally I allow a friend or employee to drive the Camry. What can I say?” Spreading upturned “what can I say” palms.

Roy and Ronan gazed at us across the fake fur and fake hide, faces innocent as those of scouts selling cookies.

“Can you think of any reason your vehicle was in that area at that time?”

“Maybe we were working a job near there?” Roy looked to Ronan for help.

Ronan shrugged.

“We don’t bring our work calendar home with us, but I’d be happy to check,” Roy said.

“Do that.”

“First thing tomorrow morning.”

“Where is your business located, Mr. Stoll?”

“T Street. It’s no big deal, just a small garage in the back of a very large building. But it’s perfectly situated for our little operation and we’ve been there for years. We keep some tools, our books, a work van there.”

“Let’s try an easier one, now. Where were you on the evening of Thursday, May twenty-second? After work hours?”

“Seriously?” Nervous chuckle. “I hardly remember where I was last night.”

Not a twitch of a reaction from Deery.

Again, Roy turned to his brother, brows, hands, and shoulders raised in entreaty.

Eyes performing another theatrical roll, Ronan pulled a smartphone from a breast pocket of his shirt. Lips pursed, he scrolled with one skeletal finger, presumably checking his calendar app.

“Roanoke, Virginia.”

“You’re saying you were out of town, sir?”

“From late afternoon that Wednesday until midmorning the following Friday.”

“Can someone corroborate that?”

“Our grandmother.”

“You went on a road trip to Roanoke with your granny?” Skeptical.

“Our grandmother wished to visit her sister. We took her.”

“Did you drive there in your Camry?”

“We did not. We felt the Camry would be uncomfortable, so we borrowed a cousin’s SUV. They’re roomier, you know.”

“Where was the Camry?”

“We left it with my cousin.”

A beat, then,

“Perhaps you’ll have better recall concerning the evening of May twenty-eighth. Last Wednesday.”

“That’s easy,” Roy said. “My brother and I have dinner every Wednesday with our grandmother.”

“You two are very good to your granny.”