The Artist and the Actor – 4

 

"Again, at the moment we have no idea," the chief replied. "The first question is, do you know of any reason why he would have been on Lookout Mountain at that hour of the night?"

 

"No. Or at least not that I can think of," Colin said. "We planned on going to a barbecue thrown by a friend of ours. Kenny called me, before I left the house, to say he might be late because he had something he needed to do." He barely smiled. "Me and my friends decided he was going to pick up a date. He had, well, at least a couple of girlfriends. Right?" He glanced at his father, who nodded. "When he didn't show up, we figured maybe they'd changed their minds."

 

"He didn't say who she was?"

 

"Hell, he didn't even say that was why he'd be late. We just… When he didn't show up. Well, you know…"

 

"Yes," the chief agreed. Turning to David, he asked, "Do you know the names of the girls he was dating?"

 

"A couple of them. He didn't live at home. He had his own apartment and a job at an accounting firm. That's what he went to college for. Maybe someone there would know?"

 

The chief asked for the name and address of the firm, saying he'd send someone to interview the employees in the morning. Then David asked if they could see…"Kenny's body, I guess. Damn it!"

 

The chief said they could as Kenny needed to be officially identified by a family member, and assigned an officer to take them to the county coroner's office.

 

The rest, until they arrived back at the house, was a blur to Colin. He remembered looking through the window separating them from Kenny's body and hearing him mother moan "No-o-o-o" before she broke down, sobbing, when the morgue attendant pulled back the sheet to reveal Kenny's face. Then, they were in the car, and what seemed like an eternity later, he was in the guestroom, listening to his father trying once again to console Nan, his voice filled with the anguish all of them were feeling.

 

Not bothering to undress, Colin threw himself on the bed and finally let the tears flow. He awoke several hours later when sunlight filled the room. Pushing back his misery, he got up, went into the bathroom and after stripping off his wrinkled clothes took a long, hot shower. It did nothing to relieve the emotional pain from Kenny's death, but at least he felt somewhat more human. After dressing, he went downstairs to be with his parents and face the days that lay that lay ahead.

 

Kenny's body was released the day Colin was due to head back to college. He stayed until the funeral, of course, and then took off that evening. According to what the sheriff and the chief of criminal investigations told his father during the weeks after that happened, their investigations had uncovered no motive for the murder, and no suspects. Eventually the case ended up in the Jeffco sheriff department's cold-case files where it had languished for the past ten years.