It hadn’t led to the arrest of his sister’s killer. It only put the case on hold as if no one was even looking because all along they thought they had their man.
Time that could have been spent going over more clues or asking more questions.
“Not to diss anyone, but looking back as an adult and what I’ve seen of the police reports, I felt they rushed finding anyone they could to quiet the community down.”
“There were mixed emotions with Cooper’s arrest.”
“I heard you talking to Barb.”
“That’s right. Those who knew him refused to believe it. Many rallied behind him, even raising money to help with legal fees. And the people who didn’t know Cooper, they were ready to throw him in jail and give him the needle.”
“There is no death penalty in New York,” he said, taking another bite of his pizza.
“But people were calling for it,” she said. “It’s ironic. Monday night I was talking to Ford about my case with Dave. He was giving me a boost that he often does.”
Rory smiled. “I think you just like to know your brothers are there rather than needing them to kick-start your ego.”
She put her finger to her unpainted lips. “Shhhh. That’s my secret. Not a carefully guarded one either, but there you go.”
“That was how Rene and I were.”
“If you’re willing to talk about her, I’d like to listen. I tell my clients—though you’re not a client—to just ramble. I’ll pull out what I need. Sometimes there are hidden gems in our musings that we don’t know are trying to sneak out.”
Damn. He liked her.
A lot.
It was how he operated. Why he documented all his dreams and memories.
Not that he was going to admit that his sister still haunted his dreams and urged him to continue on.
There were days he truly believed it was Rene’s game to have him running the rat race to not want to lock himself away from the world as their father had.
“We might get to that,” he said. “Go on with what you’re saying.”
“When I was talking to Ford, your sister’s case came up. Seems like fate or irony, whatever word you slap on it. But I’d told Ford that Dave’s case is why I do what I do. Cooper’s situation. The law grabbing the wrong person and them needing someone to fight for them. Do I have clients that are guilty? Sure, I do. We’ve all broken rules, some intentionally, some not. And most times, people need someone to help them navigate their consequences.”
“I’d like to think of life that way, but unfortunately, I’ve witnessed way too much evil. Not just with what happened to my family but also in my job.”
“Is that why you left the force?” she asked.
“Part of it. The other was I couldn’t put my mother through losing another child by having a job that put me at risk like that. I thought if I studied and went for criminal justice that I could learn more, I could be my strongest, my sharpest, and I could find Rene’s killer. But all it did was flood my brain with other people’s evil around me. I couldn’t focus on her because I had to stay on top of it for me. It was hindering more than helping.”
“So now you put yourself in the mind of a killer and hope that helps solve the case?” she asked.
His mouth opened and then closed. He was processing what she’d said and wondered why it had never occurred to him before.
He didn’t start writing for that reason.
He wrote because he had crime in his head for fifteen years. What he’d seen that he didn’t agree with on the job. The information he gathered on his sister’s case.
All of them were stories building. He wanted closure for people and thought the only way to get it was to put it on paper the way he wanted it to end. Or wished it had.
The way it would help others, even fictional characters.
Yet somehow, Gale just put it all in perspective.
It was time to look at his sister’s case and see if he could live in her killer’s mind to find out who the hell the bastard even was.
