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Dozer didn’t seem to like that idea, that other people would have seen them together at a specific place and time. Nick could count the man’s pulse ticking in his carotid artery on the side of his neck. He was pale beneath the flush high on his cheekbones, and a fine sheen of sweat was rising on his forehead.
“We went a couple places,” he said. “I don’t really remember.”
“You seem awfully nervous, Mr. Cormier,” Nick said quietly. “Why is that?”
“Me, I don’t like talking to cops,” Cormier admitted. “Y’all are always trying to trick people into saying things they shouldn’t.”
“I’m not trying to trick you, Mr. Cormier. I’m just gathering information. If you haven’t done anything wrong, then I shouldn’t be able to trick you into saying any wrong thing, right?”
Cormier looked at him like a deer in headlights.
“That’s not a trick question,” Nick said.
Dozer held still.
He was hardly the first person to react with nerves to being questioned. Nick knew not to read too much into it. People were wary of cops in general. He had learned to use it to his advantage.
“Let’s do this,” he proposed. “Why don’t you just tell me about the last time you saw Marc, what y’all did, what kind of mood he was in.”
“I told you, we went out for some beers.”
“Was that Saturday night?” Nick asked. “He’d had a fight with his wife…”
“Yeah, maybe. They fight a lot. She don’t like us going out.”
“Does Marc get pissed off about that—her dogging him for going out with his buddies?”
“Yeah, for sure. She’s always ragging on him. She’s not from here, you know. She don’t know how things are.”
“So was he in a bad mood that night?”
“For a while.”
“Did he ever talk about leaving his wife, getting divorced, anything like that?”
Dozer shrugged, his massive shoulders rolling. “Don’t they all? Married guys. They’re all the time bitching about their wives. I don’t know why they get married in the first place.”
“You’re single, I guess.”
“Yeah.”
“Did Marc ever say anything about just packing it in, taking off, starting a new life?”
“Who doesn’t?” Dozer asked.
“You didn’t take it serious?”
“No. Everybody talks like that sometimes. Don’t nobody ever do it.”
“Did Marc say anything about what he was doing the next day?”
“He was going hunting with Luc.”
“Did he ask you to go along with him?”
“No. Me, I don’t like Luc. He’s an asshole. I ain’t gonna waste a day off with that guy.”
“Why did you show up at the Corners, then, Sunday morning?”
