“That must have been tough on Todd,” said Odelia.
“Yeah, well, he seemed to handle it just fine.”
“Would you happen to know where Todd’s phone is, Aisha?” asked Chase.
Rosa was surprised.“He didn’t have it with him?”
“We haven’t found it yet,” said Odelia.
“Maybe it’s in his room,” Tilton suggested.
Aisha got up.“I’ll go check,” she said, and quickly disappeared.
“Todd never told me he was dating Layla Walcott,” said Rosa. She looked to her husband. “Why didn’t he tell us, Tilton?”
“Because he was a teenager, honey. Boys Todd’s age don’t confide in their parents, especially about the girls they like.”
“But Todd never kept any secrets from me before—he knew he could tell me everything. Always.”
“I think it’s not unusual for kids not to tell their mother about the girl they’re dating, Rosa,” Odelia said softly.
She nodded, tears trickling down her cheeks.“He could have told me. He knew I would have listened.”
Aisha entered the room again and shook her head.“It’s not in his room. I checked.”
“I’m sure we’ll find it,” said Chase.
Chapter 22
I would like to say that Odelia and Chase went full steam ahead with their investigation into Todd’s death, but they both looked pretty bushed, and that was only to be expected. It had of course been a long night for them, and they hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep. Still, they had a job to do, so onward they went, with me and Dooley in tow.
Harriet and Brutus had opted to stay home and engage in one more valiant attempt to teach Scarlett the finer points of the feline language. Though I could see that their initial excitement had already waned to a great degree. I think the experience had instilled in them a newfound respect for the teaching profession, though. Imagine how hard it must be to teach a group of young ruffians the finer points of algebra, math, or grammar?
I was glad I was out and about, instead of being cooped up inside, acting as a private tutor to Scarlett. And so when we arrived at the house where Todd Bond had drowned last night, I was ready for any fate, and to discover what could possibly have gone wrong that this young man had met such an untimely death.
In the drive over, Chase and Odelia had offered all kinds of theories as to what could have happened, but none of them seemed satisfactory in explaining the tragedy that had befallen the Bond family.
The first person we talked to was Layla Walcott. The girl still looked properly impressed by what had happened, but she was composed enough to answer our questions with dignity and honesty—or at least I hoped she was. One never knows if people are telling the truth, of course, and a feline lie detector, unfortunately, I am not.
Still, there is a great deal one can glean from facial expressions, mannerisms and tone of voice, and Layla struck me as fundamentally cooperative.
“Yes, Todd and I dated for a while,” she admitted. “But we broke up about a month ago, which made his staying here pretty awkward, I can tell you.”
We were sitting out on the terrace, even though this was the place where the tragedy had occurred. But the crime scene people had done their jobs, and nothing about the swimming pool area gave any indication of the drama that had taken place there the night before.
“You broke up?” asked Odelia.
Layla nodded. She was dressed in a light summer dress, and if she was bowled over by the death of her former boyfriend she didn’t look it. No Romeo and Juliet scenario here. “Yeah, we both agreed it was too weird, with my brother being his best friend.”
“Your brother knew about it?”
“He did, and he didn’t like it one bit. In fact he was the one who told me to break it off.”
“And you did.”
“Not because he said so, but yeah, we felt that the relationship had run its course.”
“How long had you been an item?” asked Chase, jotting down the odd note in his little notebook.
“Um, about four months,” said Layla.
“That’s not long,” said Dooley.
“At her age four months is an eternity, Dooley,” I said.
“Did you notice anything unusual about Todd last night, or the last couple of days?” asked Odelia.
Layla frowned and rubbed her nose.“Yeah, actually I did. He seemed moody, and distracted. His grades had been dropping, too, which was weird, since he’d always been an ace at school. And now all of a sudden he was neglecting his studies.”
“Did you talk about it with him?”
“No, not really. Things had been a little weird between us, ever since we… you know.”
Odelia nodded.“So he didn’t confide in you about what was troubling him?”
“No, but I think it probably had something to do with his dad.”
“His dad?”
“Yeah, he didn’t get along with his dad, or at least that’s what he told me when we were still seeing each other. Said Tilton was very strict, and wouldn’t let him go out if his grades weren’t good enough.”
“And he didn’t like that.”
“No, especially since Tilton wasn’t even his real dad.”
“Did he ever talk about his real dad?” asked Chase.
Layla shook her head.“Only that he met another woman and had left them. Which had been hard on his family.”
“Did he say anything about wanting to go look for his real dad?”
“I don’t think so. But like I said, we hadn’t really talked since the split.”
“Was he seeing some other girl maybe?” asked Odelia.
“I doubt it. I would have heard. But maybe you should ask my brother. He and Todd have always been really close. Maybe he’ll tell you more.”
Contrary to his sister, Scott seemed reluctant to divulge his best friend’s secrets to us. He looked a little sullen as he sat there, his hair hanging in front of his eyes, and more lying in his chair than sitting. “I don’t know anything, all right?” he said in response to a question about a potential new girlfriend.
“So he didn’t confide in you about what was going on in his life?” asked Chase.
Todd shrugged. He glanced to the pool, then looked away again.“My parents called. They’ve decided to cut their trip short.”
“Where did they go?”
“The Bahamas. They go there every year. They sounded pretty upset when I told them what happened.”
“It’s not your fault, Scott,” said Odelia.
He shrugged.“Try telling them that.”
“So let’s go over this again, shall we?” said Chase.
Scott sighed deeply and swept his blond fringe from his eyes.“Look, I already told you everything I know: I went to bed, Layla had already gone up earlier, and Todd said he was going to stay up for a while. He said he needed to think.”
“Think about what?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t want to tell me what was going on. But it had something to do with his family.”
“Did he mention getting in touch with his real dad?” asked Chase.
Scott hesitated.“Not last night. But he said something about it last week.”
“What did he say?”
“Just that he wanted to find his dad, and ask him why he left.”
“Did he mention arranging a meeting? Traveling to see him?”
“I don’t think so. But something was definitely going on. He kept looking at his phone all evening, as if he was expecting a call or something, or a message.”
“Maybe he was just worried that his mom would come look for him,” Odelia suggested.
“Yeah, could be. Though they can’t have been too worried, cause last time he went missing, he also spent the weekend with us.”
“What did your parents have to say about that?” asked Odelia.
“They weren’t happy, I can tell you that. Todd’s mom and dad came over and had a talk with my mom and dad, and of course they blamed the whole thing on me. They ended up grounding me for two weeks, and taking away my internet privileges for a whole month.”
“And still when Todd dropped by you didn’t tell him to go home?”