Underwood listened to them then said, “What if the roommate was more than a just a roommate, or wanted to be? It could explain a lot.”
Tate thought about that. “Jonah was fixated on Mario. But why kill Jonah, why not go after Mario instead if what you’re thinking is actually the case?”
“Easy enough, because the roommate came on to Jonah and he was rejected,” Underwood replied.
“And knowing Jonah, if he’d been drinking at all when that happened he’d have done more than just say, ‘Sorry, I’m not interested,’ Mario said softly.
“Good point,” Tate agreed. “It would be interesting to find out if this roommate has any bruises on him.”
“It would,” Underwood agreed, “but even if he becomes a focus of police interest now, there’s no way they can legally force him to show them whether he does or not if they aren’t visible. I’d presume he’s not sporting any bruises on his face.”
“So working on this theory the roommate gets pissed at Jonah when he’s turned down and decides to off him but obviously doesn’t want to be a suspect.” Tate drummed his fingers on the table. “He knows, possibly, that Jonah’s stalking Mario. He figures the cops would believe that Mario might want Jonah gone…dead, so he points the finger at him.”
Mario nodded slowly. “And when you show up and Jonah goes totally ballistic on your ass outside the bar that’s just fine with the roommate who takes advantage of it.”
“A decent enough scenario,” Underwood told them, “but hard to prove.”
“And it doesn’t explain the second killer,” Tate said.
“Why does there have to be two people? If the roommate’s clever enough to take advantage of you being around,” Mario replied, “and moved on it fast, he could also be smart enough to beat him to death with whatever was at hand as well as the bat and make it look like the two of us did it together.” He shivered. “It was bad enough Jonah was stalking me, that at least I could explain, but to have this dude trying to frame me for murder because, I guess, he was jealous, that’s downright terrifying.”
“All of this is conjecture at this point,” Underwood pointed out. “You two, for now at least, are off the police radar. Whether they do focus on the roommate is up to them.”
Mario bit his lip. “If they do what’s to keep the roommate from manufacturing more evidence to make them look at us again?”
“Nothing,” Underwood admitted. “However the police aren’t stupid no matter how you may feel about them at the moment.” He looked sternly at Mario and Tate. “So let them do what they’re paid to do and do not get any ideas about ‘helping’ them. Understood?”
“Yes, Mitch, understood,” Tate replied with a laugh.
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OOC: I'm a guest at Mahalia Levey's blog - http://mahalia2010.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/edward-kendrick-is-in-my-house/ - E.
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