River watched Juan as if trying to decide if he would continue to talk to him. Eventually, he liftedone shoulder. “Well, let’s see… once Maxwell was drugged enough that I knew he wouldn’t be able to fight me, I moved him to the house in the desert.”
Clamping my jaw, I tried not to think about how scared and confused Maxwell must have been.
“How did you move him?” Deputy Juan asked.
“In the back seat of his car.”
Deputy Juan frowned. “So you drove him to that house in the middle of nowhere in his car, but your car was also there. How did you manage that?”
“I drove both cars.”
“How? You couldn’t drive two cars at once. Did you have an accomplice?”
River laughed. “No. The only person I’m truly close to in town is Lucas, and he’d never have gone along with my plan.”
“Then how did you do it alone?”
He leaned forward on his elbows. “I drove Dr. Thornton to the safe house in his car, and I rode back on a bike to get my car.”
Lifting his dark brows, Deputy Juan looked puzzled. “It was over an hour’s drive in a car. How the heck would you manage that?”
Scowling, River lifted his chin. “I’ll have you know I’m in excellent physical condition. I used to ride cycling marathons all the time when I lived in LA. I even won a few over the years.”
“But that was such a long distance.”
River lifted one shoulder. “Deputy, where there’s a will, there’s a way. Plus, exhausting or not, I had no choice. I had to move Maxwell’s car from in front of my house ASAP. I knew Royce would come looking for him.” He scowled. “Sure enough, Royce arrived right on schedule.”
“So you expected him to show up.”
“Of course.” He rolled his eyes. “Those two are glued at the hip.”
The more River talked, the less I wanted to go easy on him. I had to admit though, the more he talked, the more I also suspected Lucas was right that he was mentally ill. He seemed unable to understand that what he’d done was wrong. His tone was almost bragging, like a clueless child might be. His reckless actions could have gotten Max killed, but mostly he just seemed put out that he was even being questioned about it all.
Deputy Juan scribbled some notes. “Once you had Dr. Thornton at that house, what was your plan?”
“To get him to admit his mistake.” River stared up at the ceiling. “As I expressed to you earlier, that’s the only reason for any of this. Once I realized he was a horrible person, I had to take matters into my own hands. Otherwise, he was going to get off scot-free after killing my sister. I couldn’t have that. Trust me, if you’d gone through what my family did, you’d have done the same thing.”
“You feel no remorse?”
River’s smug expression flickered. “Well, I didn’t plan on Maxwell escaping. The whole sinkhole thing did take me by surprise,” he murmured. “I simply wanted him to admit what he’d done, and then I was going to let him go.”
“Just like that? Didn’t you worry he’d go to the police?”
River’s face darkened. “No. I… I knew he would. I knew he’d run straight to Royce.”
“But you were still going to just let him go?” Deputy Juan studied River. “Knowing you’d be arrested?”
River’s mouth turned down. “I didn’t plan on going to jail.”
I frowned.
Deputy Juan went still. “No?”
Pressing his lips tight, River shook his head.
“Were you going to make a break for it?” Deputy Juan nudged.
River said, “I don’t really see myself as a person who could live on the run. I like nice things too much.”
