Triptych (Will Trent #1) - Karin Slaughter Page 0,135
slept with him.”
“Yet.”
Angie gave a heavy sigh.
“Here’s an indisputable fact: Shelley raped and killed a fifteen-year-old girl. He cut out her tongue.”
“He’s not…” She looked back at Shelley’s photograph. “Whatever he did, he’s not that guy anymore.”
“Julie Cooper was fifteen,” Will told her. “He raped her in an alley behind a movie theater. He bit off her tongue.”
Angie shook her head.
“Anna Linder was fourteen. They found her in Stone Mountain Park the next day. She was holding her tongue in her hand like a security blanket. They had to pry it from her fingers.”
Angie still did not respond.
“Cynthia Barrett, Angie. Cynthia Barrett was fifteen.”
“Michael’s neighbor.”
Will shrugged. “So what?”
“Tell me this: How do they know each other? How did Michael know to warn me off him in the first place?” She indicated the liquor store with an angry wave of her hand. “You weren’t there when he did it. There’s something between them. Michael hates the guy.”
“What else am I missing here?” Will asked. “Because what it sounds like to me is that you’re so pissed at Michael Ormewood that you can’t see straight. Why is that, Angie? Why can’t you get this asshole out of your system?”
He could see the fury in her eyes, knew she was remembering the millions of times he had asked her this before.
Her voice was eerily calm when she said, “Did you ask Michael how old his wife was when he met her?” She didn’t let him respond. “She was fifteen, Will. He was twenty-five.”
“Did he rape her and bite out her tongue?” Will asked. “Because, unless he did, I don’t see why that makes a bit of difference.”
“I’m telling you, John didn’t do this.”
“I’ll ask him myself when I bring him in.”
“No.” She grabbed his arm as if she could physically stop him. “I’ll do it.”
Will could only stare at her. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“The minute you put those cuffs on him, he’s shutting down.”
“You don’t know that.”
“He’s a con. Of course he’ll shut down. He won’t so much as fart until his lawyer shows up, and then the lawyer will tell you to go fuck yourself.”
“You’re not going to control this.”
“What’s the charge? Jaywalking?” She raised her eyebrows, as if she expected an answer. “You can bring him in for questioning, but what do you have? You can search his place, but what are you going to tell the judge when you ask for the warrant? ‘He did it twenty years ago, Your Honor, so maybe, probably, possibly he could have done it again now?’ ” Angie crossed her arms. “Last time I checked, unless you’re the president of the United States, you need some kind of evidence to throw a guy in jail.”
Will did not answer because he knew that she was right.
“Do you have John’s fingerprints on anything? Any witnesses? Anybody who saw anything?”
Jasmine, Will thought. Maybe she saw something. If she did, she was probably at the bottom of a lake right now.
Angie summed it up: “No forensic evidence, no witnesses and no case. You’re right, Will. Let’s go out and arrest him right now, why don’t we?”
“He could be stalking his next victim,” Will said, not adding that Angie could very well be the next woman he set his sights on.
“If you arrest him now, you’ll have to kick him in twenty-four hours, and if it is Shelley who’s doing this, then he’ll know you’re on to him and he’ll go so deep underground that you’ll never find him again.”
“What do you propose I do? Wait until another girl is raped? Maybe murdered?” Will pointed out, “He could already have his next victim right now, Angie. What if he’s got Jasmine? Am I supposed to sit around while she’s counting down the minutes left in her life?”
“He’ll talk to me. He doesn’t know I’m a cop.”
“What is it with this guy, Angie? Why won’t you see him for what he is?”
“Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t judge men based on what they’ve done in their past.”
“Is that supposed to hurt me?”
“Let me talk to him,” she pleaded. “You can watch his house until morning, make sure he doesn’t go out. If he’s got that little girl, then he won’t touch her without you knowing. I’ll go to the car wash tomorrow morning and sit him down and talk to him.”
“You think he’s going to confide in you?”
“If he’s innocent…” She nodded. “Yeah. I can make him talk.”