He heard the lock turn. The door cracked open and Callie walked away without a word, leaving it for him to follow. He stepped inside and looked around.
The place was in a state. Boxes pulled from closets. Clothes draped over furniture. Kitchen drawers open. It looked like someone had turned the apartment over searching for something, except the something was everywhere and nowhere and the searching hadn't produced any answers.
"Were you robbed?" he asked.
Callie sank into a chair in the living room with a glass of wine. He glanced at the bottle on the side table. Nearly empty. She was still in the clothes she'd worn to the scene.
"You know, for the longest time I have wanted to be a detective," she said. "I watched from the sidelines thinking I can do that. And the Adirondack County Sheriff's Office has given me more slack than most would get."
"That's small-town living for you. It's called supply and demand, Thorne," Noah said, sitting down across from her. "And High Peaks has more demand than we can supply."
She took a drink. "But I have to wonder now. Can I do it? Or have I just been deluding myself?"
Noah studied her, then chuckled. "You know that doesn't change even after you've been doing it for years, right?"
She glanced at him. "Seriously?"
"Oh yeah. I mean, maybe others look on and think I just flow with this, but half the time I'm flying by the seat of my pants, hoping to catch a break. If I get one aha moment, I'm doing well. The rest is just hard graft. Connecting the dots. Second-guessing yourself when you stare at a parent and can't guarantee you'll get closure for them."
"So why do you keep doing it?"
"Beyond the fact that I'm a Sutherland and my father would say it's in our blood?" He snorted. "Madness? A sucker for punishment? Or maybe it's an addiction. The thrill of the chase. A sliver of hope that if I just follow the thread long enough, it'll lead me to the answers I've been searching for." He glanced at her and a smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
Callie nodded slowly. She took another sip and set the glass down. "How did the interview with Seraphine go?"
"She's not psychic. Those sketches she handed in were an attempt to get the cops to take seriously the disappearance of her mother fifteen years earlier. She drew the sketch figuring the police would investigate. She said she was a kid inside a community that controlled everything. She couldn't walk into a police station and say her mother was murdered and her body could be in Bloomingdale Bog. She didn't have solid proof. But with Kara missing at the time, she thought they might take it seriously if the sketch was connected to a live case." Noah rubbed his hands across his lap. "At some point, the same personwho told her about the bog also told her that Derek Hollis could be responsible."
"But her mother's body wasn't there."
"It was sixteen years ago. A lot longer than the other victims. Could have disintegrated."
"So she pointed to Hollis?"
"Yeah. But that's not going to hold up. She was a child when her mother went missing. Without the person who told her, we have nothing."
"She didn't give a name?"
"Can't remember."
"But she can remember the rest."
"Selective memory, I guess. I pushed her but the therapist wouldn’t have it. Her therapist said it's related to her trauma. She's blocked out a lot of memories of her time in the Three Pillar Community. A lot of young women were assaulted." He took a deep breath. "Anyway, I spoke with Mark Spence. He's known Derek for a long time. Said Derek wasn't even in the country about five years ago. He was working in Europe for a year."
Callie straightened in her chair. "So he's not responsible for all the bog murders."
"Still verifying that. And Seraphine might have just been trying to get back at Tabitha."
"Right. Being the girlfriend and sister of her mother." Callie frowned. "Does Ray know?"
"Not yet."
"But if Ray has Derek. And all that evidence..."
Noah nodded. "It would create reasonable doubt and potentially get Carter Lyle a stay on his execution."
"And if Derek lied to Spence?"
"Then we might be helping a guilty man." Noah ran a hand over his head. "Regardless, Ray and many others believe Lyle isguilty of the murder of Jenny Walters because of his criminal history."
