Right Where We Belong (Silver Springs #4)(36)
“Did he say why he went to that Mormon church in Provo if he wasn’t a member?” Gavin asked.
“He insisted he did it because he was missing his grandmother, and she was so devout. He felt closer to her there.”
“Is that something he’d be likely to do?”
“Sounded a little off to me. But, like I said, he was troubled and struggled with his past. His grandmother helped care for him when he was young, so...maybe.”
He turned his glass around with two fingers. “That’s why his presence at the church didn’t mean much to you.”
“To be honest, even the items in the shed didn’t completely destroy my faith. The police had been so antagonistic with us. Apparently, they thought that was the best way to go about the investigation—by threatening and intimidating us. Because of how the detective had behaved, I could believe he might try to falsify evidence.” She picked a piece of lint off her jeans. “He didn’t do himself any favors by treating me the way he did. I probably would’ve come around sooner without that.”
“But then they found forensic evidence on the knife or something?”
“They’re still testing it. Real labs aren’t like the ones in the movies. That type of thing takes a long time, since there’s usually a backlog. They did rush the DNA test on the blood in the van because they needed to arrest him before he could hurt anyone else, but we have to wait for the rest.”
“Do you get the impression Gordon is nervous about what they might find?”
“No. He insists they won’t find anything, but I’m hoping they will. Otherwise, he’ll keep denying it. And I want him to stop lying, you know? I really just want him to tell the truth—at last—so I don’t have to go on second-guessing every move I make.”
“What does he say when you ask him for the truth?”
“He swears up and down he’s innocent. I told you he said the police must’ve planted the knife and those other things? Well, that was only at first. Now he’s saying that he pulled those items together for a Halloween costume—even though I’ve never seen him dress up once in all the years I’ve known him. If he was home, he usually watched the slasher kind of horror movies I hate while I took the kids trick-or-treating.”
“He wouldn’t go with you?” Gavin sounded surprised.
“Wasn’t interested. But his love of all things ‘dark’ makes his costume excuse somewhat plausible.” She shook her head. “Or maybe not.” The more she drank, the less certain she became. Everything seemed to be running together in her mind. “He said he thought it would be a cool costume, but once he assembled it, he decided it’d be too creepy.”
“Some people dress up as Freddy Krueger...”
“True, but being a character from a movie is one thing. Pretending you’re an actual murderer is a little different. Don’t you think? I admit I wouldn’t have liked it.”
“So why didn’t he put it away? Why keep it all in a handy duffel?”
She could hear Gavin’s skepticism. It was one thing to draw a conclusion as an unbiased person and quite another to have to condemn the father of your children. “He claims he didn’t take the time. That he wasn’t concerned about it, since he saw it as harmless fun.”
Gavin gripped the edge of the countertop with both hands. “I can see where you could get confused, but an article I read indicated that investigators found the blood of one of the victims in Gordon’s van.”
“They did.” She’d thrown up when the detective told her about the blood. She still felt squeamish when she thought about how many times she and the kids had ridden in the vehicle her husband had supposedly used for his crimes. “It was Theresa Spinnaker’s.”
“There’s no getting around DNA evidence,” Gavin said, making that point again.
For the past several weeks, Savanna had been almost as certain as he was. But after talking to Gordon this morning...
Was there any chance he could be telling the truth? She hated the way he made her doubt what seemed clear to everyone else. Just when she thought she had it all straight, he’d get hold of her and infuse a little doubt. That was one of the hardest things about what she was going through. One minute, she was certain he was guilty and felt he deserved to lose his family and spend the rest of his life in prison. The next, she was asking herself, “What if?” Could Gordon be that good at concealing his true character? He wasn’t an easy man to live with, but was he really a sadist?
“It was only a few spots,” she explained. “And Gordon told me this morning that he once gave Theresa a ride to work—picked her up on the side of the road because he felt bad that she was walking in the middle of a snowstorm.”
“Doesn’t that prove he knew her?” Gavin asked. “Maybe that’s what drew his attention to her in the first place.”
“Could be. But it also establishes a legitimate reason for her DNA to be inside the van.”
“We’re talking blood, not just DNA.”
“She could’ve had a small cut or something.”
“She can refute that she was ever there, can’t she?”
Savanna drained her glass. “She could. Then it would be his word against hers. But Gordon told me that she admits getting in with him. Supposedly, once his lawyer brought that encounter to her attention, she remembered it.”