Latent Danger (On the Line #2)(56)

Shauna leaned forward. “Tell.”

“When we needed to know if there were any hiding spaces in Liz’s house, we talked our way in to interview Jonathan Sawyer. Which reminds me, we need to let the district attorney on his case know he helped us on that.” Zach paused while Ronan made a note on a pad on his desk, then continued. “Mrs. Sawyer said she used to know Herschel. She didn’t say a whole lot, but we could go interview her down the road sometime. She said he was disturbed, but a sweet boy. They used to talk when she was out in her garden.”

Shauna shook her head. “So?”

“So, Mrs. Sawyer is a very petite blonde. I bet if we looked at old photos of her, you’d find a striking resemblance between her and your victims.”

“You think Herschel had a crush on her, so he ran out and killed girls who looked like her?” Hutch asked.

It was Zach’s turn to shake his head. “Not so simple as that, but we know he had some kind of mental issues. We can check to see what kind of diagnosis he might have had before he went into that last hospital. I suspect at that place, he was diagnosed with whatever the family told the doctors to diagnose him with. Maybe he had a crush on Mrs. Sawyer but didn’t think he could approach her. Could be he saw his first victim and thought she looked like Mrs. Sawyer, so he tries talking to her, maybe even went further than talking. Maybe he hits on her, she rejects him, and he lashes out.”

“Mrs. Sawyer’s father is still alive. We could always try to interview him and Mrs. Sawyer again down the road. See if they can tell us more,” Shauna said, then frowned. “After we prosecute her son for rape.”

They were all quiet, then, knowing they likely wouldn’t find out much more. They could look into old newspapers and things, see what they could learn about Herschel Kenworth, but in all likelihood, they would only ever be guessing.

“I say we wrap this up and head up to the pub. Dad can make us burgers.” Shauna had no more got the sentences out of her mouth, than the men were tearing for the elevator.

She grinned and took the time to stack their work and shut down her laptop, slipping it into its bag so she could bring it out to the car. Much to the men’s annoyance, she took her time about it while they made a production of looking at their watches and calling the elevator up again after it had already come and gone once.

Then they were on the road, Zach and Ronan in one car, she and Hutch in another.

“You going to see him again after this?” Hutch asked.

Shauna shot him a look. “What are you, my mother?” It was a line they often gave each other. It never worked to put off whatever the other had wanted to talk about.

She gave him a shrug, and he let her off with that, but her own mind didn’t want to let the question go. She stared out the window, thinking about the Zach she used to know and the Zach she’d seen over the last week. She also thought about her ex-husband. It was impossible not to when she was thinking about anything having to do with dating or men. Trusting a man not to do a one-eighty on her again would never be easy.

But as Hutch left her to her own thoughts, she realized something. She’d spent a lot of time thinking about what signs she should have seen in Patrick that she didn’t. She’d obsessed at first, and over the years, it had turned into an ever-present nagging question. What did she miss?

She didn’t have to ask that anymore. She knew she’d missed signs. Small little hints at control. Jealousy he’d tried to keep under tabs when they were dating, but then let loose once they were married. There were signs there. She’d just not given them enough credence. She’d made excuses for him, to herself and to others. Not that she blamed herself. She let the blame fall squarely on his shoulders, where it should be.

But there was one thing she’d never realized had played a big part in all the time she’d spent second guessing and looking back. Respect. Zach clearly respected her. She’d felt it all week.

Yes, sometimes he acted like a big jerk, pressuring her to go to dinner with him when she’d said she hadn’t wanted to. But there was a difference in it. He’d laughed as he did it, and she’d known the entire time that if she’d really stopped and looked him in the eye and said she didn’t want to go with him, he would have been hands off in a heartbeat, respecting her wishes.

She’d felt the respect he gave her throughout the case, listening to her, thinking about her opinions, even suggesting she take the lead at times. That had never been there with Patrick. She didn’t know how she hadn’t seen it before.

Her mother and father were all too happy to welcome the four of them into the pub and her dad started on sandwiches and burgers right away. Her mom didn’t waste any time giving Shauna a look that said she knew exactly which one of the men was the man they’d talked about the other day. It wasn’t hard. Shauna had to admit, she’d gravitated to Zach’s side as soon as they entered the pub.

The group took a seat at the back in a booth, Zach and Shauna sliding in on one side and Hutch and Ronan on the other.

There was no toasting the closing of a thirty-year-old case. Not when the current case had left three young women dead. But there was the kind of chatter that let them unwind as they always needed to after a case. When one of the waitresses brought out their burgers and sandwiches, the table went silent as everyone dug in.

But through it all, Shauna felt Zach’s thigh on hers under the table, warm and strong and tempting. He didn’t, she noticed, reach for her under the table or try to do anything other than simply hang out with the group. She liked that. She saw it as further evidence that he respected her as an officer, as a woman.