Off the Deep End (38)
He continued ignoring me and pulled the car away from the sidewalk. He drove slowly, making his way down Marshall Street.
“I’m parked on Ninth,” I said in plenty of time for him to turn, but he drove right past the street when we reached it. Panic thrummed through me. Where were we going? Was I actually in trouble? It wasn’t illegal to confront Jules like that, was it? It couldn’t be. I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans and forced myself to calm down. Leftover adrenaline pounded in my temples, making my head hurt.
Detective Hawkins drove for a few more blocks before he finally spoke. “Don’t you ever do something like that again, do you hear me?”
I wanted to be sorry, but I just wasn’t. I would do whatever it took to find my son.
“I’m sorry,” I lied. “I won’t go there again.”
“What possessed you to go there in the first place?” His voice was laced with shock and disbelief like it had never actually occurred to him that I would do something like that. I’d surprised myself too. I’d never done anything like it in my entire life. Certainly never gotten physically aggressive with anyone, not even Carrie, and we’d gotten into some horrible fights growing up.
“I was just sitting upstairs in the bathroom after Mark and I had finished arguing.” There was no use hiding our constant fighting. It wasn’t like it was a secret. We lived in a house full of strangers who heard everything. “And I just felt compelled to confront her.” I shook my head. “No, not confront her. That’s not what I wanted to do. Not at first. I wanted to speak with her mother to mother, you know? I thought that if I connected with her like another mother, and she saw my face, then she wouldn’t be able to say no to me. She’d confess to me on the spot.” I hadn’t meant to get so upset with her. I’d had no idea that was going to happen, but I’d just snapped when she looked so smug.
“Believe it or not, my team and I have discussed the possibility of having you do something just like that with Jules at some point depending on how things went with her. We talked about arranging a meeting where the two of you could sit down together, and you could connect with her over being parents.”
“What?” I couldn’t believe it. They’d never said anything to me about meeting or talking to Jules, which shouldn’t have been surprising, since they were never direct and straightforward when it came to her or where they stood with her involvement in the case. That’s why it was so frustrating and infuriating. One of the major reasons I’d just done what I did was because they didn’t seem to be taking it seriously enough or have any sense of urgency about things with her.
He took a left and then pulled up alongside the curb on the next block. He turned to look back at me. The anger had left his eyes. Annoyance and irritation had taken its place. “Yes, Amber, we’re always strategizing different ways that we can get information out of her, and you may have been one of our options given your connection over being moms. Nobody understands a mother like another mom.”
“So, you do think she took Isaac?”
“It’s unlikely, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility,” he admitted.
“See! I knew I was right!” I jumped in my seat excitedly, forgetting I was in such a tight space and almost hitting my head on the top of the car’s ceiling, with Detective Hawkins admitting what I’d been pushing for all along. What Mark could never see. “And what about Jeremy Gunkle? Do you think he’s involved? Could he be helping her?”
“Jeremy Gunkle.” He laughed and smacked the dashboard. “Of course that’s why you went there tonight. I should’ve known.” He shook his head.
He’d never laughed at me before. Dismissed me or purposefully evaded answering my questions, but he’d never laughed. I didn’t like it.
“Jeremy Gunkle is a class-two registered sex offender, and we know all about him since we’ve looked into every single sex offender in southern Minnesota during this investigation. That’s how wide our scope is, so yes, Jeremy Gunkle was definitely looked into, but guess what?” He paused, building up the suspense. “He was crossed off our list of potential suspects almost immediately.” Another dramatic pause so he could let his words really settle into me. “Jeremy Gunkle works second shift as a parking attendant at the Marriott in Minneapolis. He was there the entire night Isaac went missing. Clocked in and out, and he’s on camera. Doesn’t get any more rock solid than that.” He finally looks at me in the rearview mirror. His eyes are angry and insulted. “Come on, Amber. Give us more credit than that.”
“I didn’t know,” I mumbled, feeling like I had when I was a child after a harsh scolding.
“And as far as Jules goes? I’m not sure what gave you the impression that we weren’t considering her as a potential person of interest in this case. We’ve had Dr. Stephens with her for three days now. Do you know how much that’s draining the resources for this case? But we’re shoveling it out because we think it’s a good enough reason to do so. And guess what you did today?” The excitement drained from my body as quick as it’d come, due to the change of tone in his voice. “You spooked Jules. You showed her our cards. Up until this point, we’ve been approaching things a certain way—showing up like her allies, building her trust, making her think we respect her and understand her, never approaching her like she’s a suspect. That’s been the most important part. It’s probably the reason we’ve gotten as far as we have with her, but you might’ve just wrecked all that.”