“It wasn’t an affair. She came over to Greg’s house and I was there. Greg had to go to work and…one thing led to another.”

“How long did your affair last?” Decker repeated.

“We did it like maybe six times. It was real casual. Crystal got around.”

“And the last time you were intimate with her was about two months ago?”

“Maybe even three.”

“Why’d you stop having sex with her?”

“We didn’t stop officially…the opportunity just didn’t come up. It’s not like I made booty calls to her. Once in a while, we’d find ourselves together and it would happen.” He rubbed his face. “Honestly, I haven’t seen Crystal in at least a couple of weeks.”

“Okay,” Decker said. “Tell me what you did yesterday. Recount your day.”

“I got up around seven…went to work.” A shrug.

“When do you go to work?”

“Around eight.”

“Go on.”

“I was at work all day. I came home around five. I ordered in a vegetable pizza from Muncher’s. I left to go to Wild Card around eight-thirty.” A pause. “That’s it.”

“Did you call anyone while you were home?”

“I called Greg. I called Garth again, but got no answer. My mother called. Like the usual stuff.”

“On your cell phone or on your landline?”

“I only have a cell.”

“Can I look at those records?”

“Sure. Absolutely.”

Decker said, “How do I say this? It seems to me that you have a lot of casual sex—with Adrianna and now with Crystal Larabee.”

“Why not?” The boy’s face was absolutely guileless.

“You weren’t bothered by screwing Garth’s girlfriend?”

“It was a casual thing…like when Garth wasn’t around…which was a lot. He spent a lot of time in Vegas.”

“Without Adrianna.”

“Yeah, without her, yeah. It was weird.”

“In what way?”

“That she financed his Vegas trips without her. I mean it’s not like she liked it. She complained about it. I asked her why she kept doing it.”

“What’d she say?”

“She said you can’t keep guys pinned down. They get resentful, which is true…So she did it and then she’d get resentful. When we’d have sex, she’d say things like, ‘I wouldn’t do it except that Garth’s away so much.’ She messed around a lot. I know I wasn’t the only one.”

“Who else did she mess around with?”

Aaron realized that he had just put his foot deep down his throat. “I mean she told me she messed around a lot.”

“You didn’t answer my question. Who else did she mess around with? And please don’t bullshit me.”

Aaron threw up his hands. “Yes, she screwed Greg. She loved screwing Garth’s friends. I guess she thought it gave her some kind of revenge.”

“Did Garth know about it?”