in the process, yourself for being at that party?”
It was an easy answer, but it did not make it any easier for Kate to accept. “He still live around here?” she asked.
“Just outside of town, yeah. Ironically, from what I understand, he’s teaching on one of these online classroom deals. But why the interest in him? Even if he was buying kids beer, it certainly doesn’t make him a killer.”
“It doesn’t,” DeMarco said. “But we have an employee at a school who was surrounded by rumors of inappropriate behavior with young girls. And it’s the same school these three victims all attended, a year or so before he was eventually let go. Even if he’s not the killer, it’s a hell of a good place to start.”
Kate couldn’t have said it better herself. She closed up the file on Jonathan Bowen and placed it back on the table. “Can you get us the address for Howard Schuler?”
“Sure,” Gates said, getting up and taking the Bowen file with him. Before he left, he turned back to them and, after a deep sigh, added: “By the way, the medical examiner called just before you got here. Your hunch was right. No evidence of sexual assault on Vanessa Fenton. Just the scrapes on her face and whatever he’s using to strangle them.”
His face seemed to contort for a moment and he suddenly had to look away.
“You okay, Sheriff?” Kate asked.
“No. Actually, I’m pretty fucking far from it. I just hope…” Again, he paused and struggled with emotion.
“What is it?” Kate pressed.
“I just hope the two of you are the ones to find this guy. Because if I find him first, I’m afraid I might end up losing my job.”
With that heavy comment, Gates left the room. Kate knew it was just her own stretched emotions, but she thought she could actually feel the tense and chilly sensation of the sheriff’s rage settling down over the room.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
It was 1:35 when DeMarco parked their car in Howard Schuler’s driveway. It was a relatively nice house, sitting on the edge of a small picturesque neighborhood. Kate knocked on the door and when it opened, she was a bit surprised by the man who answered. She remembered Robinson saying that some of the high school girls had experienced little crushes on Schuler. She hated to think of people in such a way, but seeing Schuler for the first time made it rather hard for her to see a teenage girl finding him attractive.
Schuler looked to be nearing forty. He had a receding hairline that he tried to make look more natural by having his long hair pulled back in a messy surfer-type ponytail. His beard, though well-maintained, looked odd and out of place on his face. When he saw the two professional-looking women on his porch, he tried to seem aloof. He took an exaggerated step back and widened his eyes.
“Good afternoon, ladies,” he said. “What can I do for you today?”
DeMarco once again took the lead, showing her badge and showing she was not at all impressed with his carefree attitude. “Agents DeMarco and Wise, FBI. We’re investigating a string of recent murders in the area. Young women who were recent graduates of the high school you were fired from two years ago.”
“Wow,” Schuler said, any hope of playing the remainder of this meeting as a carefree guy now dashed. “You just go right for the jugular, huh?” He sighed and then stepped to the side, waving them through the doorway. “Come on in. I have, of course, heard the news. Two girls, right?”
“It’s now three,” Kate said.
“Jesus.”
He closed the door behind them and Kate found that Schuler kept a clean little bachelor pad. The surfer ponytail made sense, as most everything in his home had a grungy sort of beach or island vibe to it, right down to the surf contest print on his living room wall. In looking around, she also spotted the two beer bottles on the coffee table, one of which was empty. The little water ring around the half-full one told her that it was a recent one.
“When you were a guidance counselor, did you know Kayla Peterson or Mariah Ogden?” DeMarco asked.
“I knew Kayla, yes. She wasn’t sure if college was right for her or not, so we had several meetings to try to figure it out. That would have been her junior year, I believe.”
“What about Vanessa Fenton?” Kate asked.
Schuler seemed to actually think quite hard about it