Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 94220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
She breaks eye contact. “I’m not getting into those details with you, Zane. You can follow the news, same as everyone else. The only reason I mentioned any of this is because our attempts at discretion around this are what caused the confusion. Inadvertently done by one of my colleagues, in an effort to obfuscate the truth and keep anything from being made public early. That’s how this mess came about. And I’m sorry for that.”
Her apology sounds sincere, but… “I know you mean that, but it doesn’t change how it felt to see that article pop up on my phone.”
She gulps. “I know. But because of the nature of the crime, and the fact that we knew we were on the verge of a media frenzy, we managed to rush the genetic testing, and they confirmed what we already knew. It’s Kilbourne, not Mike. And the moment I was notified about the post, I called you. I really thought we only had to keep it together for another day.”
In some ways, it’s easier to breathe knowing the Gwinnett Daily Post got it wrong. But now I have very different worries.
That maybe they just haven’t found his body yet.
Or maybe he’s being held captive by a man who plans to kill him.
Nothing good.
“Well, I appreciate you telling me now,” I say, since I owe her that much. “Do you have any leads?” I press.
“That’s not your concern.”
“What do you mean that’s not my concern?” Now I’m back to being pissed.
“I’m not letting you Hardy Boy your way around this again.”
“Have you checked if Isaac Tolle has a connection to the place where the body was found? Maybe he used to work around there? He’d need to know the area to feel like he could dump a body without getting caught.”
“As I already said, I’m not getting into this with you.” She steps around her desk, as if using it as a physical boundary to make a point. As she settles in her chair, she says, “Now that we’ve gotten all that out of the way, there’s something else I’m interested in discussing. Something you’ve avoided since you stepped in here. Why are you dating the kid who was in my office a couple of months back, who told me you approached him about your brother’s case and a letter he’d received?”
“Well, look at where we are now. There’s a body. Someone did something with it. Doesn’t this mean there’s a possible serial killer who also took Mike, who’s maybe keeping him alive somewhere so that they can do this to him?” As soon as the words escape my lips, I feel like shit. Because a part of me can’t believe he’s being held anywhere. A part of me knows that he’s—
No, I can’t think that! I have to have hope. For him.
“Zane,” Roth says, her tone much gentler than when she brought up Leif. “I know a lot of civilians have this impression that there are serial killers running the country because of this obsession with true crime, but really, serial killers are so rare. You know how many people go missing? You know how many non-white people have gone missing in this town without making the news? Children being abducted by parents who can’t get custody. Senior citizens with dementia wandering off. People with drug problems who wind up in other states but can’t bring themselves to reach out to their families. Right now, we have two disappearances of guys around the same age, who happened to attend the same community college.”
“That sounds like more than chance.”
“It’s a college. If it were more than five thousand students, no one would think twice about it. The reality is, this likely got started on campus by kids who grew up on a diet of YouTube and podcasts and who have nothing better to do with their time. And not to belabor the point, but Leif doesn’t go to WCC. And so far, only one body has shown up. Even if we had another, we don’t jump to the conclusion that there’s a serial killer without evidence linking the crimes. Even with what you claimed before, there’s nothing to suggest that in a world where I believed a note was sent to your brother by the same person who sent something to Leif, that this in any way connects to Jason. You get that, right?”
The way she says it, she’s like a teacher trying to see if I grasped the content of her lesson, which is like a poker stirring my rage.
“Are you asking because you think I’m seeing some pattern that isn’t there? That maybe I’m predisposed to see that because of my mental-health issues?”
She raises her hands. “I didn’t say anything about that. I was talking to you, one reasonable person to another, asking you to draw a reasonable conclusion. Put yourself in my shoes. Even if I wanted to, at this point, now that the case has been elevated to a homicide investigation, I’m not calling the shots on my own. If I have a lead, it’s gotta be compelling. I have to justify every action I take to a team, and also to the politicians we rely on for funding.”