And Angela smiled encouragingly at Colleen and hurried out of the room.
She knew the banshee would be staying now.
As she headed downstairs, hoping to snag an officer could drive her back, her phone rang. It was Jackson.
“Come to headquarters,” he told her. “Come straight to headquarters. An Officer Sherman is at the door; he’ll bring you. We’ve got to get to the bottom of this.”
*
Jackson
They were out of the woods.
Well, physically. They had come into headquarters where they could question Elizabeth Fitzgerald in an interrogation room.
Elizabeth was still accusing Conor.
Conor was still impatiently defending himself.
“You, you, you did it! You talked me into it! You did all the heavy hauling because you wanted me to console Sean and tomake him adopt me and that way you could marry me. All for the money!” Elizabeth cried.
“Elizabeth!” Conor said, shaking his head with horror. “There’s not enough money in the world to make me ever want to marry you!”
Jackson studied the man. Conor Murphy had seemed solid from the time they had first met. And, as was usual with the Krewe, every possible bit of background checking was done on all the major players in a case. Jackson did believe that, beneath Angela’s guidance, they had created one of the best technical response analysist units to be found anywhere.
But . . .
He thought about what he knew regarding Elizabeth. She had a brilliant mind; she had graduated from Harvard and done so on scholarships. But he remembered, too, that she’d been orphaned at a young age and been raised in a few different foster homes.
And of course . . .
Zach had been seated on Jackson’s side of the table, but he rose suddenly and walked around, hunching down by Elizabeth, smiling and touching Elizabeth gently on the shoulder. “This was something you wished might be true,” he said softly. “Elizabeth, we can help you the most if you just tell the truth.” He glanced at Jackson, and Jackson knew that Zach had used his own strange ability.
He had touched Elizabeth’s shoulder gently. His strange ability had allowed him into her mind.
And he had known that she had desperately lashed out at the detective she had first spoken to when interviewed regarding the case. Zach gave him a nod. Conor Murphywasthe solid detective they had believed in.
“We can understand,” Jackson told Elizabeth. “Growing up the way that you did . . .”
Elizabeth’s sobs rose again. “She had everything! He loved her so much. I know how to work . . . work . . . always work. And I don’t mind, but . . .”
She wanted to be loved. And the life she had led made that desperate need rise above all else.
“Elizabeth, we know that you were hurt; we don’t want to hurt you. But we know that you are telling us a lie because you feel the need to lash out more than ever,” Jackson said. “Please, tell the truth, the complete truth, and it will go so much better for you!”
The young woman just started sobbing again. And as she did so, there was a brief tap on the door, and he saw that Angela had arrived.
She gave him a questioning look and he nodded; she had something to say, he believed, that might help the situation.
“Elizabeth, we know that you did this alone. You do have a brilliant mind, and I believe it might have occurred to you to try to throw the blame on Conor when you saw him there. But I did some checking. You never saw Conor Murphy until he called you when he started the investigation into Colleen’s disappearance. Lying is bad. Very, very bad. But there is some goodness here.”
“I kidnapped a girl; I would have . . .”
“But we stopped the ‘would have,’” Jackson said quietly.
“Colleen wants to grant you mercy. She has talked her grandfather into doing so as well,” Angela assured her.
“Meaning . . .”
