“I didn’t kill him.’
‘Hey I’d have killed him. Any one of us would have — and that’s why none of us looked real hard into finding him. It just sucked that it had to be you. And none of us wanted to hear you say it. What would have happened if over a few beers one night you told me what you’d done? What then? No, none of us could call you, Tate. It was the only way. It was safer. And not just for you, for us.’
I don’t answer him. I’m not sure if he’s made a valid point or whether he’s just made up an excuse that sounds believable. I guess if I were in his situation I’d have done the same thing.
We sit in silence for a few minutes, eating our pizza and getting through our Cokes. The Coke tastes different without bourbon added to it.
‘Tell me something,’ I say, finishing one slice and getting ready to start another. ‘Bruce Alderman. Did you ever look at him for the murders?’
‘We looked at everybody’
‘Yeah, but how much did you look at him?’
‘Not as much as his Father.’
‘Which father?’ I ask.
If you’re trying to get at something, Tate, just spell it out.’
“I didn’t mean his priest.’
He sets down his pizza. ‘Who told you?’
“That Bruce and Sidney weren’t related? I’ve known from the beginning. Do you know who the real father is?’
He picks up his slice and starts back in on it. ‘Tracey told you, that’s what I think. Probably recently too. Maybe today’
‘How’d you figure it out?’ I ask.
‘Probably the same way you did. You want to share first?’
‘Come on, Carl. You wouldn’t have come around unless you had something for me.’
And you need to stop reading things into situations that aren’t there. I don’t have anything for you. I came around to check in on you.’
“I appreciate that,’ I say, ‘but come on, just give me that one thing. You know we fucked up two years ago. You know we could have stopped this, and three more girls would still be alive for it. I can’t let it go.’
He sits his pizza back down. “I’m surprised it took you this long to play that card,’ he says.
I don’t answer. I just wait him out and he carries on.
‘Like I said, we were looking at everybody, right? A case this big, all those girls — we’re gonna run all the DNA we can get hold of. Absolutely we’re gonna do that.’
And Alderman agreed to that?’
‘No, he didn’t agree. He didn’t even know. He came down to identify his son’s body. When he took a swing at you, he hit the wall, right? That gave us his blood. We threw it into the database we were building.’
And?’
‘And the results are still out on DNA. Come on, Tate, this shit still takes a couple of months to get back to us. Nothing has changed there. But blood tests proved the two Aldermans weren’t biologically related.’
‘Why’d you test?’
‘Like I said, all that stuff just gets done, right?’
‘What about Father Julian? You checking to see if his DNA shows up anywhere it shouldn’t?’
“how did I know you were going to ask that?’
‘Well?’
‘You’ve had plenty of opportunities to tell us about Father Julian, Tate. You kept refusing. But, like I say, we’re still waiting for DNA results.’
‘Father Julian was Bruce’s real father, wasn’t he?’
‘What makes you say that?’
I think about what Father Julian said about Bruce being like a son to him. A hunch.’
‘Don’t know. It’s quicker to disprove parenting through blood comparisons, which we’ve done. But it’s going to take longer to confirm. We’ll know soon.’
“How soon?’
‘We’ll know when we know. That’s just the way it is.’
I wish testing was as quick as it is on TV It’s not. It’s about eight weeks of sitting around waiting while the specimens are sent out, tested, re-tested and sent back.
‘You’re going to compare the DNA you’ve been collecting against the samples found at crime scene in the church?’ I ask.
‘Gee, why didn’t we think of that? Christ, I didn’t realise the impact of you leaving the force.’
“Yeah, good one, Carl.’
Tou fucked up,’ Schroder says.
‘What?’
‘This whole thing. You fucked up. And it’s only a matter of time until we find Sidney Alderman.’
‘When you do, can you ask him about Father Julian? Maybe he knows something.’
“Yeah, I’ll make sure I do that. He wrap his hands around a crystal ball. See if that’ll help the conversation. It sure has to be better than this.’ He swallows the last of his drink, then stands up.
I walk him to the door.
On the step he turns around and faces me. ‘You know his wife died in an accident, right?’
He knows I do. I found the article online and printed off a copy It was pinned to my wall with all the others.
‘What of it?’
‘With everything that’s going on, some bright spark had the idea that maybe there was something more to her death.’