Tessa Stark: Desert Heat

Chapter Twenty Seven

It wasn't until the third try that Nathan Rutherford finally answered her Facetime call, placed from Etty's cell phone. "Etty, what in hell do you want!" the scratchy, thick voice demanded as Nathan appeared on the screen. "I told you to leave me alone for a while for fuck's sake!"

Nathan Rutherford, lying among heaps of white pillows and looking mussed and stubbled, barely had one eye open as he looked at the screen. He didn't even seem to realize that he was not looking at Etty Montrose.

"Mr. Rutherford, its Special Detective Stark," she said, using enough of a tone to cause him to pry both his eyes open.

For a second, he stared at the screen, bleary and confused. "Tessa? Is that you? I-I thought you were Etty," he rasped.

"Its me," she replied. "Are you awake enough to talk for a minute?"

"Yeah. I'm awake," he croaked, swiping a hand over his face and trying to blink his eyes clear. "Are you using Etty's phone?"

"I am."

"What'd you do? Wrestle it away from her?" Nate wondered, giving his head a shake to clear the cobwebs.

"Not exactly. Are you there alone?" she asked as he moved around in bed, flipping over onto his back and scooting up to a half-sitting position.

"No. Uh...uh...I have...someone here with me," he told her, clearly struggling to dredge up the name of that someone. "But, she's still out cold."

"I need to ask you something, Nathan, and I need you to be honest with me, alright," she told him.

The young man's cloudy eyes widened. "Alright."

"Where were you between eleven thirty and midnight last night?"

His eyes went a fraction wider and she could see his mind trying to catch hold of the details of the previous night. "I'm pretty sure I was...at a nightclub downtown. Cherry, I think. I...can't be sure about the time, but I know I met...this girl...and we had some fun in the employee bathroom and then...we...went back to her place?"

It was a question as he looked away from his phone and glanced around, obviously trying to get his bearings.

"And that's all you remember? You don't remember going outside the club on your own at any point?" was her next question.

He gave his head a tentative shake. "I don't think so. I...do remember that it was raining when we left, but I'm pretty sure I didn't go out before that. Why? What's happening?"

"He's telling the truth," a sleepy, feminine voice mumbled as a slender arm appeared, draping itself across Nathan's chest, but the face was lost in the pillows and covers. "We went into the employee bathroom at eleven thirty and...I'm pretty sure...we've been together since then. And my name is Brandy."

She appreciated Brandy's attempt, but any prosecutor worth his salt would have her drunken telling of events brought into question in less than a minute flat.  Though, for her part, she actually believed the girl.

"Tessa, what's happened?" Nathan repeated. "Why does it matter what I did last night?"

"Nathan, it matters because Etty Montrose was found in her car outside Cherry. She'd been killed.  Murdered, actually," she said, gauging his reaction.

Hearing her words, his expression went slack and he stared at her for the space of a long moment, as if he couldn't comprehend what he'd just heard. "Killed? She...she can't have been.  She...no.  She can't have been."

"I'm really sorry, but Etty has been killed," she stated matter-of-factly.  "And I need you to walk me through your interactions with her last night.  I know you and she were having an argument..."