Coyle watched her. He wondered at this woman with her neat clothes, new apartment, and self-sufficiency. How did she have a friendship with Elise Durand, a woman struggling to find her ground, who gave Alvarez a window into an unrestrained life—and a murder? “Do you know the married guy’s name?”

“She called him Chris. Told me she was tired of being with a guy who wouldn’t take her out in public. And she said he’d done this thing to her, and it was the last straw.”

“What thing?”

“She didn’t say. But I think he hit her. Last Tuesday I bumped into her at a bar downtown. She had something on her sweater, and I asked her what it was. She wouldn’t say, but it looked like blood. It freaked me out. I was like, ‘Is that blood?’ She wouldn’t answer me. She just laughed.”

“You’re sure it was Tuesday?”

“Yeah, Greg had to work, so I met up with Elise.”

“Which bar?”

“Becker’s. The other place she hung out a lot was the 1285 Club.”

“Do you remember anything else she said in your last phone call? Any plans she had? Anything new in her life?”

“She told me this thing about a street buy.”

“A buy? Drugs?”

“Yeah. Elise always did pills. Downers mostly, and some rave stuff—DMAA, that whole scene. Anyway, she starts talking about this buy she and her friends made. I was like…whoa. I mean, it sounded super sketchy.”

“Did she say who her friends were?”

“No. I think she was protecting them.”

Coyle gave Alvarez his honest face. “If you know, you can tell me. We don’t care about the buy. But if it had anything to do with the murder, we want to know.”

Alvarez looked back. “Honestly, I don’t know.”

“Was it local?”

“I don’t know. But when you asked about anything new in her life, I thought of that right away.”

“Did Elise happen to say where she was going or who she was going to be with Monday night?”

“Monday? No, I don’t think so. Wait, I remember something else. She said she was breaking up with someone and was worried about how he’d take it.”

“Was it Chris or someone else?”

“I don’t know. She just said he was going to be pissed.”

Coyle stood to leave.

Alvarez wiped her eyes. “I hope you get whoever this is. You probably see these things a lot. But Elise never hurt anyone. She didn’t deserve this.”

They never do, Coyle thought.

(ii)

(WEDNESDAY, 5:30 P.M.)

Frames held up his phone for the rest of the VCI room. “This Christopher Bennett motherfuck is our guy. Just got a message. The evidence techs searched his car and found traces of blood on the front seat. Someone tried to wash it off but couldn’t get it all out of the seams.”