This man appeared to be socially awkward and not what she expected. Very average, clean-shaven, and tidy and nothing about him made him stand out in a crowd. He was one of those forgettable people. A badge with his name and company had been attached to his shirt—maybe because people forgot his name. Beth allowed his background to filter through her mind. “You seem to prefer to work alone. Is that by choice or necessity?”
“I get enough work to keep myself employed. I can’t see any reason for hiring someone to work with me. It’s expensive hiring someone, which means I would have to increase my rates, and then I would lose the competitive edge I have against other contractors in this county.” Rourke shook his head slowly. “I don’t like having to rely on someone else to do work for me. What if they made a mistake? I would be liable. The only person I can trust is myself.”
The reply appeared to be truthful but Beth hadn’t finished with him yet. “Let’s walk through your week. Where were you on Friday night between eleven and one?”
“I grabbed a pizza around ten-thirty.” Rourke scratched his head and stared into space. “So, I figure I would be driving home around that time. I’m sure you already know that I live alone, so I don’t have anyone to corroborate my story. Although I know the pizzeria has CCTV cameras, so I’m sure you could check the feed to prove where I was at that time.”
“Why were you out that late on Friday night?” Rio remained pinned to the wall. “Girlfriend?”
“Nope.” Rourke leaned back in his chair and stared at him. “I got a call from Antlers. They were having trouble setting their security system and I dropped by to check it out. I discovered a small glitch, fixed it, and grabbed a pizza on the way home.”
Everything he had mentioned could be easily verified, if he had told the truth. “So, I gather you logged into the Antlers system to gain access? Did you install the system?”
“Yeah, I did.” Rourke shrugged. “That’s the same answer to both your questions.”
Beth nodded. “Good, we can check the time stamps.” She checked her notes. “Now where were you on Monday and Tuesday mornings?”
“Here.” Rourke leaned back in his chair. “Ask the manager. I moved back and forth all the time getting parts for the job.Working on a place this size takes a lot of time and things happen that you don’t expect.”
Again, his answers were easy to check. Beth tried a different angle. This intelligent man knew his way around various systems, but could he be a killer? “You’re able to access to systems most people wouldn’t even know existed. Have you ever been tempted to use that access for something more personal?”
“What do you mean by that?” Rourke looked taken aback. “As in spying on people, you mean? No, it’s never entered my mind.” He glanced at his watch. “Is this going to take much longer? I need to get back to work.”
“What vehicle do you drive?” Rio pushed away from the wall.
“A new GMC truck.” Rourke narrowed his gaze. “Why?”
Clearing her throat, Beth smiled at him. “The one good thing about having a new truck is that we can track your movements with your GPS. It will be your alibi if it tells us that you drove straight home.”
“Why would I need an alibi?” A confused expression crossed Rourke’s face. “I didn’t kill anyone.” He shook his head slowly. “No, ma’am.”
Standing, Beth picked up her phone. She had recorded the entire conversation. “Thank you for your time and the information. If you think of anything else you believe we need to know, call Deputy Rio.” She waited for Rio to hand over his card and then headed for the door.
As they walked back to Rio’s truck, she ran the interview back through her mind. Being familiar with the behavior of psychopaths, she could easily be seeing one in his passive state. Some psychopaths were really nice people until something triggered them.
“What do you think about that guy?” Rio swung open hisdoor and peered at her. “Is he one of those quiet killers? I figure we need to check his alibis.”
Beth climbed into the truck and fastened her seat belt. She turned to look at Rio. “Although he looks harmless enough, I wouldn’t discount him just yet. He might be innocent. He didn’t try to evade any of our questions and I watched his body language very closely and didn’t pick up anything unusual. The thing that worries me, is that he could know how to erase digital footprints. If so, he could manipulate data enough to cover his whereabouts if necessary. I’ve been able to do that since I turned fourteen. As he works in a variety of different IT areas, it’s possible he could create his own alibi using a digital footprint.”
“But you’d be able to see if he changed anything, wouldn’t you?” Rio started the engine and flicked her a glance. “Styles told me you were the best in the business. I know Kalo is good, but you’ve been working in cybercrime for years, haven’t you?”
Laughing, Beth nodded. “I don’t have my supercomputer with me at the moment, but I figure we’ll be able to get the files he mentioned. If there are changes to the data, I’ll be able to find them, and if I do, he’ll be going to the top of our suspects list.”
THIRTY-FOUR
Excitement and anticipation shivered through Jenna as she waited with Kane in the outer room of the DA’s office. She couldn’t sit still and paced up and down, much to the annoyance of the secretary sitting behind the desk. They’d handed over all the evidence they’d collected from Dr. Lionel Graves’ house, but they’d annoyed the DA by not seizing the computer and the trophies Jenna had discovered. When she’d explained that they’d left everything behind, apart from the samples of trophies she’d collected, to make sure Graves would be there when they went to arrest him, the DA reluctantly agreed with her plan. Moments later the office door opened and the county prosecutor waved them inside.
“You have no idea if Graves is still in his residence.” The DA sat behind his desk, towering his fingers. “Why didn’t you hunt him down after the welfare check?”
Jenna leaned both hands on his desk and stared at him. “It’s a matter of priorities. He has an outside chance of being the killer, and we’re only here as he falls into the person-of-interest category because he was working with kids and social workers at one time. We are aware Graves has child pornography on hiscomputer. No child is at risk at this time. I have a serial killer in town and that is my priority. Two murders in the same number of days means that a third is on the way. My experience in psychopaths tells me we need to apprehend this man before he murders again. This is why we allowed Graves to escape, and by leaving his house untouched and placing a tracker on his vehicle, we can assume he returned to his house. At first, he likely figured we were there to question him about the pornography. If he believes that we didn’t enter the house, he will likely think he is home free and we came by for another reason—which in fact we did. His vehicle hasn’t moved since we went to see him. I have no reason to believe that he isn’t at home right now.”
“This is why we took a portion of his trophies and I downloaded a copy of his hard drive.” Kane stood with feet apart and hands loose at his sides. “If he decided to destroy evidence, we have copies and many photographs. It doesn’t matter what he decides to do, we have enough evidence to take him down.” He heaved a sigh. “My question to you is, why the delay in the arrest warrant? We did everything by the book and I have FBI and deputies waiting to arrest him. All we need is the warrant from you, and Graves will be in County before supper.”
“And if he’s escaped”—the DA looked from one to the other—“we’ve allowed a predator to run free.”
At the end of her rope, Jenna threw her hands in the air. “The longer we stand around discussing this, the more time he has to escape. Do we get the arrest warrant or should I get back to hunting down serial killers?”
“You may have your warrant.” The DA signed a document on the desk in front of him. “Call me the moment you have him in custody. I have a van standing by to take him directly to County.” He pointed a finger at Jenna. “Next time, collect all the evidence.”
