"I've just got a few follow-up questions for you,” I said. “It won't take long."
"Sure. I was just about to run to the store. But I've got a minute for you. Are you making any progress?”
"Actually, I'm making good progress. I think we’re getting closer.”
"Oh, that's fantastic!” It sounded hollow. “Who are you looking at?"
"You mind if we come inside? There are a few things I need you to clarify for me.”
Dana hesitated a moment. "Sure.”
She stepped aside and motioned us into the foyer. Dana closed the door behind us, then escorted us into the living room and offered us a seat on the sofa.
"Can I get you anything to drink? Water, coffee, soda?"
"No, thank you," I said.
Denise smiled, and Dana took a seat catty-corner.
“I recently spoke to a journalist,” I said. “Chris Johanessen. It seems he's done a lot of work on this case. He’s discovered valuable information.”
A look of panic crept into her eyes. “Oh, is that so?”
"He mentioned he spoke to you already," I said.
Dana cleared her throat. "Yes, I do believe he's called here to the house a few times.”
"He said he stopped by and talked to you personally."
The muscles in her jaw flexed, and she shifted uncomfortably. "Yes. That's right."
"You knew. This entire time, you knew about the allegations.”
Dana hesitated, and her eyes flicked between the two of us. "I…" She took a deep breath. "You have to understand, Chris came to me with shocking accusations. He said horrible things about my husband. But upon reflection, it made sense. It made me question a lot of things about Ray and about our marriage. Chris told me the stories of the horrible things Ray had done to those poor girls. He was a monster. I wanted him out of my life.”
"How far were you willing to go to get him out of your life?” I asked.
Dana swallowed again. "Chris showed me photos of Ray's victims. Crime scene photos. I don’t know how he got them. It was horrible. To think that Ray had gotten away with all those things for 15 years and that he was doing them again.” She frowned. “I look back and think about all the times he left the house with an excuse that he was going to fix an AC. How many of those times was he out there raping and murdering an innocent girl?"
"New evidence has come to light that suggests Ray Coleman or Ray Corbin, whatever you prefer to call him at this point, was not involved in any of those prior murders.”
Dana's eyes rounded, and her face froze. She short-circuited again, then finally twitched and said, "What do you mean?”
"I don’t think Ray was the Bay Strangler. We have anotherperson of interest. Earl Vernon Maddox. He's been identified by Jenna Keating.”
Dana swallowed hard. "She’s the girl who survived, right?”
I nodded.
“Are you sure about this?"
I nodded. "I also know that you've been in contact with some of the prior victims’ families."
Isabella had looked into her call logs and made the connections.
"How do you know that?"
"Stephen Pike. He's the brother of Catherine Pike, one of the Bay Strangler’s victims. He must have gotten your information from Chris. He's called you on several occasions. I believe you've even met for coffee.”
