The Silent Wife (Will Trent #10) - Karin Slaughter Page 0,145
and pushed Miranda farther along the bench until she was effectively trapped against the wall.
Will made the introductions, because Faith had taken his usual position of being the silent, unpredictable one. “I’m Trent. This is Mitchell.”
Miranda studied his ID. Her hands were still trembling. “Is this real?”
Faith slapped her business card on the table. “Call the number.”
Miranda picked up the card. She stared at it. Her eyes were wet with tears. He could see her jaw working as she gritted her teeth back and forth.
The card went back down on the table.
She took a French fry, dipped it into each of the six ketchups, then shoved it into her mouth.
Will looked at Faith while Miranda silently chewed. He guessed the woman had decided to pretend like they weren’t there until they gave up and left her alone.
Will said, “We’re here to talk to you about Gerald Caterino.”
The chewing paused for a second, but she six-dipped another fry and stuck it into her mouth.
Faith reached over and Jenga-like pulled one of the fries from the pile.
Miranda gave a forced sigh. “I know my rights. I don’t have to talk to the police if I don’t want to.”
Will channeled his inner Faith. “Did you learn that at the police academy, Detective Masterson?”
Miranda stopped chewing. “It’s not illegal to adopt an online pseudonym.”
“Debatable,” Will said, putting his own spin on Faith’s irritated tone. “But it’s illegal to impersonate a police officer. Even a retired one who never existed.”
The news clearly startled her.
Faith put her arm along the back of the booth. Her jacket hung open. Her gun was visible to anyone who looked down.
Miranda looked down.
She swallowed so hard that the sound carried.
“My dog got sick,” Miranda said. “She needed surgery, and then my car broke down.”
Will asked, “All of that cost $30,000?”
“I worked for free for a whole year before I asked for anything. And then I had to keep charging because—” She realized that her voice was too loud. “I had to keep charging because it would look suspicious if I didn’t.”
“Smart,” Faith said.
Miranda’s eyes cut in her direction, but she told Will, “The Masterson persona gives me validity. No one would listen to me if they knew I was a woman. You have no idea how hard—”
Faith pretended to snore.
Miranda said, “I’ll pay a fine. I’ll return the money. It’s no big deal.”
“You’re a CPA, right?” Will waited for her to nod. “Did you pay taxes on that income?”
Her eyes went shifty again. “Yes.”
Will said, “I need a copy of your private investigator’s license, your Love2CMurder business license and your federal ID number or social security number so I can verify—”
“The money was paid out over two years. That qualifies for a gift tax exemption.”
Faith blew out a stream of air between her lips.
Will used one of Faith’s favorite lines. “Can we cut the bullshit?”
Miranda’s jaw tightened. “I don’t have to talk to you.”
“We can arrest you on the catfishing alone.”
She pushed away the tray. “Look, okay, I accepted Gerald’s gift money, but I was really helping him. Do you think that dinosaur knows how to do a deep dive on the internet?”
Faith couldn’t stay silent. “Is thirty K the going rate for setting up a Google alert and cutting out some articles?”
“I did a heck of a lot more than that. Hours more. I crunched the data. I showed him patterns.” She reached into her purse.
Faith clamped her hand around the woman’s wrist.
“Ow!” Miranda winced. “I was just getting my phone. It’s in my bag.”
Faith took the plastic fork off Miranda’s tray and poked around the feed sack. Finally, she nodded.
“Jeesh.” Miranda retrieved her phone. Her thumbs started sliding across the screen. “You’re right. I sent Gerald the Google alerts that highlighted articles that reported similar attacks to the one Beckey suffered. Have you seen the pictures of her? She nearly died. A lot of women are dead. I’m not just investigating a string of murders. I’m hunting a freaking serial killer.”
Will wasn’t going to indulge her. “What patterns did you show Gerald?”
Miranda worked her phone as she talked. “The cases I sent him, all of the women were abducted in either the last week of March or the last week of October. All of them disappeared in the early morning hours between five and noon.”
He saw Faith stiffen, because the time of the women’s disappearances was a detail she hadn’t been privy to.
Will said, “We already know about the dates and times. What else?”