At Rope's End (A Dr. James Verraday Mystery #1)(61)

Maclean absentmindedly rotated her coffee mug on the desk, a nervous reaction that Verraday noticed was extremely unusual for her.

“I’m wondering why we only found trophies from Rachel Friesen and Helen Dale at Cody North’s apartment. None from Alana Carmichael. What if Cody North didn’t kill her? What if I’ve blinded myself to that possibility, lost my objectivity because I hate Fowler so much? And swayed you as well. Plus Fowler would love for me to be wrong. If I don’t have all my ducks lined up, and soon . . .”

“I know what it will mean,” said Verraday. “And you know what I think?”

Maclean stared into her coffee. He didn’t wait for her to answer.

“I think you’re a good cop. And a decent person. And because you’re a good cop and a decent person, you’re questioning yourself and your motives. But you have good instincts, and you’re one hell of a detective from what I’ve seen. Your gut is telling you that something’s not adding up here. And I think your gut is right.”

She looked up from her coffee, but didn’t speak.

“So, Detective, what are your instincts telling you right now?” asked Verraday.

“That it’s very strange that we haven’t found any trophies related to Alana Carmichael.”

“Putting your feelings about Fowler aside, do you think she could have been killed by someone other than whoever killed Rachel Friesen and Helen Dale?”

“It’s possible, but I’d say it’s unlikely. I agree with your assessment of Cray, your profile of him, and I still don’t think he killed Alana Carmichael. Plus there were no other murders with this MO. I just can’t figure out why, if Cody North did it, he would want souvenirs of Rachel and Helen but not of Alana. As a psychologist, can you think of a reason a murderer would have one particular victim whose personal effects didn’t interest him?”

“No. I can’t.”

“Then why would we find trophies from two victims, but not from all three?”

“To determine that, you also have to determine what Rachel Friesen and Helen Dale have in common that’s different from Alana Carmichael.”

“They have almost everything in common. All three are of the same type physically and aesthetically, and they all traveled in the same circles. There’s only one thing different that I can think of: as far as any member of the general public or even the police department knows, there’s already a suspect in custody who’s confessed to killing Alana Carmichael. And that the only thing standing between that suspect and a conviction is the trial coming up next month.”

She paused.

“James, only you and I know that we’re looking for somebody who also killed Alana Carmichael.”

“So whoever the real killer is, he thinks he’s off the hook for the Carmichael murder. He’s only worried about getting caught for killing Rachel Friesen and Helen Dale,” said Verraday.

“Yes, and that would mean that he did it by framing Cody North, killing him or having him killed, then making it look like a suicide to tie a ribbon on the whole thing,” Maclean continued. “But why frame Cody North? Why choose him?”

“Because whoever did it was smart enough to realize that Cody North had the right profile to be believable as the killer. And that it was also believable that he’d commit suicide rather than go back to prison. Who do you know who would know all that about North?”

“Son of a bitch. Griffin sponsored Cody North and brought him to Seattle just before Alana Carmichael was murdered!” exclaimed Maclean.

Verraday nodded agreement. “And he kept him around as insurance against the day that he’d need a scapegoat for the murders.”

“Plus they’re the same age and race,” said Maclean. “Someone looking for a person with Jason’s profile could easily fall for the sleight of hand and be directed toward Cody instead.”

“Jason Griffin planned this very carefully. He probably looked through the profiles of hundreds of ex-felons before he found just the right one.”

“But how do we prove any of this?” asked Maclean. “How do we know we’re even right? There’s not a shred of Jason Griffin’s DNA on any of the bodies.”

“We’ve got to shake him up,” said Verraday. “Jason thinks he’s smarter than everyone else. He thinks he’s outwitted us at every turn. So we have to throw him off balance, find his Achilles’ heel. He’s got to believe we’ve got so much on him that there’s no point in putting up a fight. And we’ve got to figure out how to do it as quickly as possible before there’s time for the shit to come down on you for openly questioning whether Fowler got it right.”

“There’s something you said early on that’s stuck with me,” said Maclean.

“What’s that?”

“That whoever the perpetrator is must have committed killings before to be this good at it. Since there were no bodies fitting the killer’s signature found in Seattle before Alana Carmichael was murdered, we have to assume that if Jason Griffin is the killer, he committed his previous murders somewhere else. So what happened in Jason Griffin’s life that would have changed his MO? Made him started killing the way he’s killing now?”

“He said his father died last year. He was the head of the business until then.”