At Verraday’s request, he and Maclean met in his office at Guthrie Hall instead of at the café to review the evidence. Between the previous evening’s confrontation with Bosko and the photos of the trophies in North’s apartment from the murdered women, he wasn’t in the mood to deal with anybody’s bullshit. He was feeling pretty jangled, though he took pains to hide it from Maclean.
He poured some strong dark roast coffee and milk from a thermos into two cups and handed one to Maclean. She took a sip. He noticed that she closed her eyes for the briefest instant as she tasted it. This was a woman whose life only allowed for fleeting pleasures.
“Mm, this is good. Thanks.”
“So? What’s the score?” asked Verraday.
“They’ve got the champagne chilling down at headquarters, all set to pop the corks. The captain of homicide and the chief say they’re both ready to hand the case over to the DA if I am.”
“What do you think?”
“I think it would make a lot of people happy. But we never did turn up any evidence connecting Cody North to Alana Carmichael. So it doesn’t get Cray off the hook. And it doesn’t expose Fowler as the fraud that he is. Unless I’m wrong, and the Alana Carmichael case isn’t related to this one.”
“Why are you suddenly doubting yourself?”
Maclean absentmindedly rotated her coffee mug on the desk, a nervous reaction that Verraday noticed was extremely unusual for her.
“I’m wondering why we only found trophies from Rachel Friesen and Helen Dale at Cody North’s apartment. None from Alana Carmichael. What if Cody North didn’t kill her? What if I’ve blinded myself to that possibility, lost my objectivity because I hate Fowler so much? And swayed you as well. Plus Fowler would love for me to be wrong. If I don’t have all my ducks lined up, and soon . . .”
“I know what it will mean,” said Verraday. “And you know what I think?”
Maclean stared into her coffee. He didn’t wait for her to answer.
“I think you’re a good cop. And a decent person. And because you’re a good cop and a decent person, you’re questioning yourself and your motives. But you have good instincts, and you’re one hell of a detective from what I’ve seen. Your gut is telling you that something’s not adding up here. And I think your gut is right.”
She looked up from her coffee, but didn’t speak.
“So, Detective, what are your instincts telling you right now?” asked Verraday.
“That it’s very strange that we haven’t found any trophies related to Alana Carmichael.”
“Putting your feelings about Fowler aside, do you think she could have been killed by someone other than whoever killed Rachel Friesen and Helen Dale?”
“It’s possible, but I’d say it’s unlikely. I agree with your assessment of Cray, your profile of him, and I still don’t think he killed Alana Carmichael. Plus there were no other murders with this MO. I just can’t figure out why, if Cody North did it, he would want souvenirs of Rachel and Helen but not of Alana. As a psychologist, can you think of a reason a murderer would have one particular victim whose personal effects didn’t interest him?”
“No. I can’t.”
“Then why would we find trophies from two victims, but not from all three?”
“To determine that, you also have to determine what Rachel Friesen and Helen Dale have in common that’s different from Alana Carmichael.”
“They have almost everything in common. All three are of the same type physically and aesthetically, and they all traveled in the same circles. There’s only one thing different that I can think of: as far as any member of the general public or even the police department knows, there’s already a suspect in custody who’s confessed to killing Alana Carmichael. And that the only thing standing between that suspect and a conviction is the trial coming up next month.”
She paused.
“James, only you and I know that we’re looking for somebody who also killed Alana Carmichael.”
“So whoever the real killer is, he thinks he’s off the hook for the Carmichael murder. He’s only worried about getting caught for killing Rachel Friesen and Helen Dale,” said Verraday.
“Yes, and that would mean that he did it by framing Cody North, killing him or having him killed, then making it look like a suicide to tie a ribbon on the whole thing,” Maclean continued. “But why frame Cody North? Why choose him?”
“Because whoever did it was smart enough to realize that Cody North had the right profile to be believable as the killer. And that it was also believable that he’d commit suicide rather than go back to prison. Who do you know who would know all that about North?”
“Son of a bitch. Griffin sponsored Cody North and brought him to Seattle just before Alana Carmichael was murdered!” exclaimed Maclean.