Page 103 of The Homewreckers
“You’re crazy,” he said. “I never…”
“You need to come with me right now,” Mak said. “Or I can call the station and request a couple of cruisers to respond to this address with lights and sirens.”
“Unbelievable,” Creedmore muttered, shaking his head. “I had nothing to do with this shit.” He was tucking his polo shirt into his pants. “Hang on. I need to find my phone. I need to call my lawyer.”
Makarowicz gestured toward his cruiser. “Later. Right now we need to take a ride.”
“You know I’m gonna sue y’all for false arrest, right?” Creedmore said, as they walked into the station house.
“Who said anything about an arrest?” Mak said. “We’re just talking.”
He ushered Creedmore down the corridor into a small interview room. He indicated one of the three chairs in the room and Creedmore sat, his back rigid. Makarowicz sat across from him at a smalltable. He placed his phone on the tabletop and tapped the record button.
“I’m Detective Allan Makarowicz of the Tybee Island Police Department, it’s nineA.M.on May twenty-sixth, and this is an interview with Holland Creedmore Junior.”
Mak crossed his legs and leaned back in his chair. “So, Junior. Tell me how a snot-nosed nineteen-year-old manages to seduce a married, twenty-five-year-old English teacher.”
“Didn’t happen,” Creedmore said. “I don’t know who you’re listening to, but those are just old, bullshit rumors.”
“I listened to a woman who saw Lanier Ragan with you, in your vehicle, late at night, after a football game ten weeks before she went missing,” Makarowicz said. “On the date of November twenty-seventh, this witness saw Lanier emerge from your vehicle, laughing, adjusting her clothing, before getting into her own car and driving away.”
Creedmore’s eyes flickered. “What woman? Tell me her name. She’s a liar.”
“I don’t think so,” Makarowicz said. He leaned forward. “Lanier was supposed to be tutoring you in English. But who got schooled? How long had it been going on?”
“Didn’t happen,” Creedmore said.
“Her husband knew she was having an affair that fall,” Makarowicz said. “Whispered late-night phone calls, mysterious ‘meetings’ at school. Only the meetings were with you, weren’t they, sport?”
“Nope.”
“Okay,” Makarowicz said. “Explain to me how her body got in that old septic tank on your family’s property. Nobody knew that manhole cover was there until yesterday, when a dumpster crashed down into it. And that’s where we found her.”
Creedmore stared down at his hands, which were clenching and unclenching.
“Who else knew about that abandoned septic tank?” the detective asked.
“I don’t know.…” Creedmore’s voice cracked. “I was just a little kid when my granddad had it pumped out.” He wiped at his nose with the back of his hand.
“Lanier went to meet you that night,” Makarowicz said. “Snuck out of the house after her husband and daughter were asleep. Met you out here at your family’s beach house, right? What was it the other football players called it? The hookup house? Did your parents know what was going on?”
“I don’t…” Beneath his unnaturally tan complexion, Creedmore’s neck and cheeks were blooming a deep red.
“She was wearing a purple ski jacket, which her husband identified as hers. We found her wedding ring in the zipped pocket of the jacket. He identified that, too. And her sneakers. That was all that was left of your lover. Also, her skull was bashed in.”
“Christ,” Creedmore whispered. His forehead was slick with perspiration. His clenched hands left damp spots on the knees of his lightweight khaki slacks.
“I have enough right now to charge you with homicide,” Makarowicz said. “But I’d like to hear your side of things. What made you kill her? And throw her into that septic tank?”
“I didn’t,” Creedmore said, his voice little more than a whisper. “I never would have hurt her. Never.”
He stared straight at Makarowicz. “It had to have been Frank. I didn’t do this.”
“Talk to me,” Makarowicz said. “I’m listening.”
Creedmore licked his lips and looked around the room. “Okay, so yeah. We were, I mean, it wasn’t a hookup. Not to me. I really loved her. I couldn’t believe someone as beautiful and smart as Lanier would be interested in me. The first time, I thought, okay, this is just sex. And it was amazing.”
“How long did it go on?” Makarowicz asked.
