A small smile curved his mouth, and he looked up toward the cameras mounted on either side of the room. “Crampons? I don’t even know what that is.”
“Sure you do. You put them on your feet and stomped through ice,” she said. “At most of your recent crime scenes.” She opened a file folder and took out a picture of Delta Rivers. “You met her in Santa Fe. Remember?”
He tilted his head. “No. I’ve never met that woman.”
“Have you been to Santa Fe?” Laurel asked.
His nostrils flared as he took in air. “I’ve already told you I won’t discuss my travels with you. Period.”
They’d see about that. Laurel tapped the photograph. “She had dark hair. You seem to like blondes. Did you talk her into dying it blond, or did you do it for her?”
Zeke looked at Monty and then back. “I have found that women do what you ask them to do if you treat them nicely. But in this case, I never met that woman.”
Then he stared at her, a smirk now obvious on his face.
She had studied smirks. She understood the derision behind them. Yet he might just be playing a game with her. Why would he have killed Delta? He had an alibi for Teri’s murder. Haylee seemed like an inconvenience for somebody like him. None of this made sense. She took out a picture of Haylee Johnson. “What about this young woman?”
“She was pretty, wasn’t she?” He stared down at the picture. “It’s quite a pity that Huck Rivers killed her just to protect you. The captain is quite the alpha male, isn’t he?”
Would Zeke go to this much evil trouble just to hurt Huck? That didn’t fit with his psychopathy. She could see him hunting and shooting Huck, one on one, but not kill him with an elaborate game.
Perhaps she needed to speak with Pastor John again. For now, she pulled out a picture of Rachel Raprenzi. “What about her?”
Zeke cocked his head. “I saw her show earlier. She is such a brave young woman. How in the world did she escape your boyfriend? Perhaps Huck still has feelings for her and couldn’t go through with the murder?”
“Were you at Rachel Raprenzi’s crime scene?” she asked.
“I’ve never been to a crime scene,” Zeke murmured.
“Were you present at the search and rescue effort last night?” She needed to tie somebody else to the scene and, from there, to taking the blanket out of Aeneas’s crate.
His mouth opened and then closed. “Of course not. I was busy praying at my church when I heard those girls were missing last night.”
“Do you have anybody who could corroborate that?” she asked.
He looked sadly around. “No. I worked by myself at the church, then at my cabin. My phone will reflect that, I’m sure.”
So he’d left his phone either at the church or his cabin. A man who was smart enough to steal a blanket out of Huck’s truck and use it himself wasn’t stupid enough to take his phone with him on a kidnapping and murder. Or he actually wasn’t the killer. How badly did she want to put him in prison? Could her anger with him be coloring her actions?
He sighed. “Laurel, it appears as if Captain Rivers is a killer with some serious problems. I do wish you’d take heed and protect yourself from him.”
“You have access to a lot of trucks, don’t you?” she asked suddenly.
“Oh, no, I have an SUV.” He drummed his fingers on the tabletop. “You’re not going to connect me to any of these crimes, Laurel. I’m a man of the cloth. I would never harm a woman.”
She pulled out a picture of Teri Bearing and pushed it across the table. “What about Teri Bearing?”
His eyes flared and for a second, the lines of his face shifted.
She’d have to study the video later to try to determine what that movement meant.
“I’m very sorry about the mayor’s wife.” He stared as if transfixed by the picture. “I cannot believe Captain Rivers dumped her body outside of our church.”
“Hypothetically, if the captain didn’t kill her, who do you think did?” she asked. Zeke no doubt knew his parishioners.
“Hmm.” His lids lifted and he stared at her. “I don’t know. Is there something different about this death?”
She reached for comparison pictures of the holes made in the ice. “The ice is different. The killer didn’t use crampons for Mrs. Bearing’s drowning.”
