“Her behavior on Friday night was out of character?” Morgan probed.
Piper nodded, her face thoughtful. “Now that you mention it, she was louder than usual too.”
“She’d been drinking,” Morgan suggested. “Maybe the alcohol loosened her up.”
“Haley isn’t a big drinker.” Piper’s head tilted. “She’s usually the designated driver. She tries to downplay it, but she has to take care of herself or she gets sick. She usually limits her alcohol intake to a drink or two.”
Morgan circled back around to the night of the murder. “Did anything else unusual happen at the club?”
“Unusual?” Piper looked up from the chicken, the knife poised over the bit of flesh that connected the carcass to the meat.
Morgan rolled her hand in the air. “Fights, arguments, weird behavior from someone besides Haley . . .”
Piper looked to the ceiling, as if replaying the night in her mind. “I don’t remember anything specific.”
“Did you know anyone else who was there that night?” Lance asked.
“A couple of people. Noah and his friends. I’ve seen them around before. There aren’t many clubs in this area. Beats is the newest and most popular. You run into the same people every weekend.” Piper’s chin lifted. “Wait. Haley’s ex was there. That was unusual.”
“Haley has an ex?” Morgan’s interest piqued.
Piper nodded. “His name is Kieran Hart. I forgot he was there. The police only asked me if I’d seen anyone angry with Noah. Kieran didn’t even talk to him.”
“Was their breakup volatile? Who broke up with whom?” Morgan noted the ex’s name in her phone.
“Haley broke up with Kieran.” Piper used the point of the knife to sever the whole rib cage from the rest of the flesh. “I don’t know why. He treated her so good. He opened doors. He sent her flowers all the time and took her to really nice events, but then Haley is rich too. I guess those things don’t mean as much to her.”
As they would to someone like Piper . . . Did she have a crush on Haley’s ex? Was she jealous?
Piper set the carcass next to the rest of the bones. “He called Haley for weeks afterward. But all that was over more than six months ago. She hasn’t heard from him recently.”
Or if she did, she didn’t mention it to Piper.
“Did they talk at the club?” Morgan wondered if Kieran was really over Haley.
“He said hi, but Haley ignored him. She didn’t want to lead him on, considering how hard he’d been to get rid of.” Piper shrugged, but her face pinched in disapproval. “But when he saw her hanging out with Noah, he got all annoyed and left. I felt bad for him. I was pretty irritated at Haley too.”
“You thought Haley treated Kieran badly?” Morgan asked.
“She was kinda rude, just walking past him with her nose in the air.” Piper’s sniff was more judgmental than sad.
“What time did Kieran leave?” Morgan asked.
“Maybe a half hour before I left.” Piper used her hands to pull out a few remaining bones.
Morgan noted the time that Kieran left Beats as approximately ten thirty. “By any chance, do you have Kieran’s contact information?”
“Kieran didn’t even interact with Noah,” Piper protested, her back straightening and her tone becoming defensive, almost as if she were protecting Kieran.
“We’re trying to talk to everyone who was at the club that night.” Morgan waved a hand in the air. “You never know what someone might have seen.”
“Oh, OK.” Piper washed her hands thoroughly. Then she removed her vinyl glove, opened her phone, and read Kieran’s full name, address, and mobile number.
“Thanks for talking to us.” Morgan entered the information into her own phone. “We might have more questions.”
“OK. Just call me. I’ll do anything to help Haley.” Piper gave Morgan her cell phone number, then walked them to the door.
Back in the Jeep, Lance said, “Piper was very nervous.”
“She said she suffered from anxiety.” Morgan lowered her window an inch.
Lance tapped a finger on the steering wheel.
“You don’t believe her?” Morgan removed her legal pad from her tote.
“I don’t know. She was so anxious during the whole interview that I can’t pinpoint what she seemed most uncomfortable discussing.”
“I found it hard to read her as well.” She began making notes on the interview while it was still fresh in her mind. “But we did learn several things. One, she was mad at Haley for ignoring her on her birthday. Two, Haley has an ex who might also have been angry that night. Three, Piper has feelings for the ex, and four, Haley was behaving out of character that night, less reserved than usual, more social.”
“Alcohol lowers inhibitions, especially for those who can’t handle it.”
“True.” Morgan had no tolerance for alcohol. Since she preferred not to be stupid in public, one drink was her limit. “Date-rape drugs also lower inhibitions.”
“We can’t prove someone drugged Haley.”
“I know.” Morgan drummed her fingers on her notepad. “Let’s get background info on Haley’s ex.”
“I’ll call my mom and get her to add him to the top of her list.”
“And I’ll go through the police reports again, but I don’t remember any mention of Haley’s ex-boyfriend.”
“Me either.” Lance put the Jeep in gear. “We learned one other thing in Piper’s interview. She has crazy knife skills.”
“She certainly does.”
His phone vibrated with a text. He picked it up and read the screen. “Sharp says they’re leaving the jail with Haley, and the place is crawling with reporters and protesters. He wants me at Eliza’s house to play bodyguard in case there’s trouble.”
“Protesters are there already?” Morgan used her phone to access a network news station’s website. “Oh, no. The case made the national news.” She turned up the volume.
“We’re outside the county jail, where a crowd has gathered to protest the release of Haley Powell on bail. Ms. Powell is being charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Noah Carter.” The reporter went on to relay the gory facts of the case. “Haley is the daughter of Eliza Powell, the owner of Wild, a hugely successful cosmetic company.”
The reporter detailed the evidence the police claimed to have and the wealth of Haley’s mother. He then approached a young man carrying an enlarged photo of Noah Carter. “Why are you here today?”
The young man shook his sign. “That crazy bitch butchered Noah. She shouldn’t be out on bail. We want justice.”
The feed went to a commercial. When the news returned, a different reporter stood on a rural street. The picture panned away from the reporter to an upshot of a house. Eliza’s house was a mansion, and the camera angle made the structure look even bigger and more imposing that it was. All glass and cedar, it perched on top of a foothill, no doubt commanding multimillion-dollar views.
The reporter said, “This is the Powell residence, where Haley Powell will be on house arrest until her trial for the murder of Noah Carter.”
When the segment ended, Morgan closed her laptop. “I don’t like the attention. Not one bit. They’re treating her like some sort of spoiled celebrity. We won’t be able to find a single juror who won’t walk into that courtroom with a predisposed opinion of Haley as a privileged rich girl who thinks she can get away with anything—even murder.”
“What do we do?” Lance asked.
“I don’t know yet. But I’d better think of something fast, or Haley will be found guilty before her case ever makes it to court.”
Lance’s phone buzzed again. “Let’s go. Sharp says Haley just received her first death threat.”
“With this amount of publicity, she’ll receive more of those before this is over.” Angry, Morgan jammed her notepad into her tote. “And thanks to the media, everyone now knows exactly where she lives.”