He held out his hand to her while George did the introductions. “Ms. Garr, this is Detective Hayes, my partner. Thank you for speaking with us.”
“Tabitha says we have to.” The tone was flat, not betraying anything, with a hardness underneath that spoke of a will of iron.
“We’re really sorry to bring all those bad memories up. If we could somehow avoid it, we would.” George was doing his best to sound empathic. Judging from the way Tabitha had put her arm around Josephine and was glaring at him, he wasn’t too successful. The two women remained standing, creating a hostile atmosphere. Andi couldn’t blame them.
“The problem is, we do have pictures of your vehicle at the crime scene, both on the day the crime happened and the day before. CSI has found traces of silk they can connect to Natural Beauty, Mrs. Garr’s workplace, on the crates with the doctored beer, and then there’s the rape.”
“Why don’t you arrest us, then?” Tabitha challenged.
George sighed, and Andi wasn’t sure if this was part of the role he currently played or if he really had sympathy for the two women. Andi thought it had to be a mixture of both. As righteous as George could be, he was also a sensitive man.
—the pain sharp and clear, pheromones spiking, stress, so much stress, worse than before, mixed with something else, the silk, food in the kitchen, a rotting apple, they hadn’t found it yet, behind the cabinet, so delicious, soft and juicy, decay in the house, in his mind, no not his, or was it, he needed to stay alert, alert, it all fell apart in his hands, in his head, everywhere, the silk, the tears—
“You’re a lawyer. You know.”
Tabitha relaxed a tiny bit. “It’s all circumstantial. The silk could be from anybody who uses the products made by Natural Beauty, and it was the sons who raped us, not the fathers.”
George nodded. “Exactly.”
“Why did you come?” A hint of curiosity laced Tabitha’s voice.
“Because we need your help.” George kept his hands loosely at his sides, appearing as nonthreatening as was possible for a man of his size. Andi stayed in the background, observing, waiting. The women weren’t as anxious as when they had arrived, which was good.
“Look, we know you didn’t kill the victims.” Not a lie; they hadn’t been the ones to lead them into the lake. “We also know that all the ugliness we’ve unearthed so far is somehow connected to the death of the victims. And while our IT department was able to find out about the rape, we don’t know any details, especially of what happened afterward. I know how hard it must be for you to talk about it, but perhaps there is something that will help us catch the killer, which would also exonerate you regarding your presence at the crime scene. We could write it off as coincidence.”
The two women looked at each other for a long time, communicating without words.
Determination, sadness, pain, it all flittered across their faces, hung in the air for Andi to taste, clung to the surfaces of the furniture, filling the house.
Finally, Tabitha gestured at the sofa. “Perhaps we should sit down.”
George took a seat on an armchair opposite the sofa. Andi sat down on the armrest, while Tabitha and Josephine took the sofa, staying close together, no doubt drawing strength from each other. After a long period of silence, George gently said, “Whenever you’re ready.”
Josephine gripped Tabitha’s hand harder, visibly shivering. Tabitha took a deep breath, her eyes hard as flint. “If we cooperate, you will keep our names out of the final report, and you will make clear that our presence near the cabin had nothing to do with the crime.”
George nodded. “You have my word. We will treat everything you say with the necessary discretion.”
“I guess that has to be enough. Well, then.” Tabitha straightened. Andi could feel the shift in her demeanor; she was now a warrior ready to go into battle.
—blood and gore and bones, hunger and death, decay and rot, all there, all feeding the arthropods, the screams so sweet, they promised food, the Valkyrie riding, killing, slaying her enemies, adrenaline heavy in the air, Andi could taste it, could hear the battle cries, the crying of the wounded, the dying, it didn’t matter, on and on it went, never stopping, always, always, the hunger, the greed—
“I assume you wish to know what happened afterward?”
George nodded. “We don’t need details of what exactly happened to you. The fact that it was hidden is proof enough how serious it was.”
Josephine snorted. Her eyes were wet from unshed tears.
—so many tears—
“When we realized what had happened, we went to a hospital where all the necessary things were done. After that, we contacted the police. We had just given our statements when two lawyers from Portius, Dyson & Partners appeared to talk to us.” Pure thunder stood in Tabitha’s eyes. “They made all kinds of threats, insinuated we had been asking for it, going to a fraternity party, dressed like we were, that we didn’t have the money to get a decent lawyer, that we’d never be able to see this through, blah, blah, blah.”
Andi perfectly understood the pure hatred and resignation in her voice. The way courts treated rape victims was an especially ugly stain on their system of justice. To think that rape victims were no longer forced to marry their abusers was a major improvement made Andi’s head hurt.
“And you believed them?” George sounded gentle, but Andi could hear the anger he was trying to hide.
“What do you think?” Tabitha laughed harshly. “We were young, both studying on a scholarship, me a woman of color and Josephine looking Mexican enough that it made no difference that she’s actually Italian. Nobody would have cared for such subtleties. Not when it was against the sons of such rich fathers. We retracted our statements, applied for scholarships at Yale, and tried to leave it all behind.”
“Did you ever have direct contact with any of the fathers?”
