to make excuses for her. His fatal flaw was that he could understand why she did the horrible things she did. None of Lena’s mistakes were committed out of malice. She honestly thought she was doing the right thing.
Which brought to mind one of the most important lessons Amanda had ever taught Will: the most dangerous cop on any investigation was the one who always thought he was right.
Faith said, “I think you should tell Sara about Daryl Nesbitt.”
Will’s head swiveled like a gun turret.
Faith shrugged. “You’re right. We shouldn’t keep this from her. She deserves to know.”
Will debated whether or not to confess. “You seemed really sure of yourself back at the prison. You actually said you agreed with Amanda.”
“Yeah, well, I talk a lot of shit for somebody who can’t stay awake past nine thirty.” Her phone dinged again. And again. And again. She opened the text. “Amanda. Still no word on Nesbitt’s correspondences, so no joy on the friend who sent him the newspaper articles. Sara just started the preliminary exam on Alexandra McAllister. Amanda wants us to keep her updated on Lena. Gee, Mandy, thanks for the reminder. It never occurred to me to tell you what happens.”
Will heard the pecks as she typed out what he assumed was a more measured response.
Faith said, “Seriously, you should tell Sara. We need to stop for gas anyway. I’ll wait inside the store to give you privacy.”
Will stared at the road ahead. He knew Faith wasn’t going to drop the subject. “I already told her.”
Faith slowly pressed the corner of her phone to her forehead. Her eyes squeezed closed. “Are you shitting me?”
“I called her from the bathroom before we left.”
“Thanks a fucking lot, Will. She’s going to be pissed at me. Which—” Faith sighed. “Okay, yeah, I can see what you’re thinking. She was going to be pissed at you, and you’re her boyfriend, so you should’ve told her, which you did, and I’m her friend so it’s on me for not telling her, but, good God, this healthy relationship stuff is hard. I don’t know how you do it.”
Will wasn’t sure he was doing anything.
“I’m apologizing to her right now.” Faith talked while she typed into her phone. “It would help me a lot if you told her that I said to tell her before I knew you had told her.”
“It’s the truth.”
“We’re not okay with Nick roughing up Nesbitt, right?”
Will grappled with the abrupt change of topic. He had almost forgotten about Nick’s outburst. Will was a big proponent of the menacing threat, but putting your hands on a suspect was crossing the line. “No, we’re not okay with it.”
“It sucks, because we have to back up Nick so he’ll back us up if we ever need it—not that we’d ever do something like that, but, for fucksakes, it’s just another sucky thing in an already sucky day.”
She dropped her phone into the cupholder.
“I need more than newspaper articles on these dead women. Were they on dating apps? What’s their social media presence? Did they work in offices or at home? I need case files, coroner’s reports, photographs, witness statements, scene of crime drawings, toxicology reports. All I’ve got is that eight women were found in the woods, and Amanda is right about the woods. Look out the window. How could someone die in Georgia and not be in the woods?”
Will had been looking out the window for almost an hour. He wasn’t as convinced as Faith. Someone was seeing a pattern with these bodies. That someone had devoted the last eight years of his or her life to tracking them. You didn’t do that unless you were obsessed. Will felt in his gut that finding the root of that obsession would answer a lot of their questions.
He said, “If we reach out to all the different jurisdictions, someone is going to talk. You said it yourself. Cops are bitchy little gossips. Do we want it getting out that we’re looking at a possible serial?”
Faith was saved answering by her phone dinging. Then dinging again. She groaned as she read the text. “Amanda wants you to use your relationship with Sara to make a connection with Lena.”
Will felt his eyebrows furrow. Sara blamed Lena for Jeffrey’s murder. The only way she connected to Lena was with a baseball bat.
“He’s a pedophile, right?” Faith was back to Daryl Nesbitt. “I mean, part of me says, yeah, Nick, go ahead and beat the shit out of him.