“You know what you sound like, Butler? When I was a kid, I got into a fight at school. My stepdad said I needed to strike back at the bullies. So I did, and do you know who was sent for counseling? Not those bitches. Me. You sound just like my counselor. I’m sorry you feel that way, Jen. You’re mistaken, Jen. I understand your frustration, Jen.” She curls her lip. “Sanctimonious bitch.”
I walk over and add more logs to the fire.
“I gave you a chance,” she says. “I tried to help. You shit on me.”
I turn and look her in the eye. “I’m sorry you feel that way.”
She takes a swing at me. I duck it, grab her arm, and wrench it up, forcing her over the desk.
“Sorry,” I say. “But you walked into that.”
She struggles beneath me.
“You didn’t give me a chance, Jen,” I say. “If you feel like you tried to reach out and I smacked you down, then I am sorry. Maybe I should have been quicker to ask for your side. But I was still investigating the possibility you were involved, and I needed to do that before I spoke to you. I will interview you when I’m ready.”
“Bitch.”
“Yes. I am. But I’m a bitch with a murder case to solve and an innocent woman to free, so unless you can help with that—”
“I’m not sure anyone can help you with that. You’re screwing up this case so badly, I have a better chance of solving it.”
“Awesome,” I say as I release her. “Go solve it.”
She shakes herself. “Do you know why else I was waiting for you to come talk to me, Butler? Because I have information that’ll blow your case wide open. A suspect you haven’t even considered.”
I turn on her. “And you were just sitting around, waiting for me to prove myself by coming by and earning your tip? While Nicole sits in a—”
“No,” she says. “I just figured it out, and when you didn’t come to me, I came to you.”
“Okay.…”
“Shawn Sutherland.”
“What about him?”
She stares at me and then shakes her head. “You really are thick. He’s your killer. Shawn Sutherland.”
“You’re serious?”
Her jaw sets, telling me she is.
“You’ve been here almost three years,” I say. “That means you got here before Victoria disappeared. But Shawn arrived after. Long after.”
“Well, duh, he didn’t take them, obviously. That’s a whole separate case. He just took Nicki. This is why you are a lousy detective, Butler. You get hung up on a presumption—in this case, the presumption that one guy is responsible for all three women.”
“We have proof.”
“Then your proof is wrong.”
“It isn’t. So that’s your big revelation? That you think Shawn—the guy who was taken captive—is secretly the killer?”
“He told me he taught school down south. I asked what grade, since that’s what I used to do, too, and he blew me off, changed the subject.”
“You were a schoolteacher?”
“Are you listening to me, Butler? He wouldn’t even tell me what grade he taught, like it was some kind of state secret.”
“Because he probably didn’t teach. People lie here, Jen. When you said you were a teacher, he realized he wasn’t going to get away with his story, so he changed the subject. How exactly that makes him a killer—”
“He attacked that Roger guy to shut him up. Why is that not obvious to anyone but me?”
“Because you weren’t there. You don’t know what happened, and even without that, the timing doesn’t fit.”
“No, Detective, you’re just too stupid—”
“Ah, Jennifer,” a voice says as the door opens and Isabel walks in. “Never graduated from elementary school, did you? Still stuck with those playground insults. I’m sure Casey is terribly hurt when you accuse her of stupidity. What did Beth say your IQ was again, Casey? I can’t quite recall, but whatever it was, I think you can spare a few points for poor Jennifer and make all our lives easier.”
“Bitch,” Jen says and walks out.
Isabel sighs. “Someone really needs to teach her a wider vocabulary of insults.”
“Did you know she was a schoolteacher?”
“I try to forget it. I might not have much use for children, but I still shudder to think of their ordeal, learning under that one.”
“The first time I met her, that’s actually what I thought she looked like.”
“Then she started punching you, and you decided you must be wrong? Sadly, no. Now let’s forget Jen as quickly as possible and move on to less dismal subjects, like murder. Eric says you wanted to speak to me. I was popping in to tell you to come by the Roc when you have a minute. I’ll be working in the back.”
* * *
Have I considered Sutherland as a suspect? Yes. The thought had flitted through my mind, back when I theorized we might be looking at multiple perpetrators. But I’d had far more likely suspects, and then the evidence proved the same man who took Nicole also murdered Robyn and Victoria, which meant it could not have been Sutherland.
Yet I can’t seem to dismiss the idea. Maybe it’s the lack of other suspects. Maybe it’s the fact that my self-confidence isn’t quite where I’d like it to be, and someone like Jen can poke holes in it.