“Let’s say I believed you,” he said softly.
“‘Let’s say’?”
“That Will is innocent,” Pullman said. “And you have been right for all these years and someone else killed Alexandria. Let’s say that’s the case.”
I felt the hope rise inside my chest. This didn’t mean that he actually believed me. It meant he was willing to play nice with the crazy girl if it meant I might talk. But still.
“We know it can’t be Gary Hopely,” he continued. I braced myself for more questions about his death, but blessedly Pullman refrained. “So there must be another explanation,” Pullman said quietly. “Maybe there’s something you aren’t considering.”
“And what’s that?”
He straightened in his chair so that he was sitting up in a more professional position.
“Rose, what was the relationship between your father and your sister like?”
His voice was steady, as if he’d practiced this line before. His eyes were locked on my face, searching for any flicker of emotion. He was looking for atell.
“You think my father had something to do with this?” I was stuck somewhere between disbelief and fury. I was used to people discrediting me regarding Will’s situation. I was used to people believing our family was a breeding ground for sin, that my parents were the kind of people who raise monsters. But this? Pullman was even more incompetent than I had thought.
He seemed unfazed by my reaction. “Were they close?”
I caught the subtle change of tense.Were.Notare.
“Heisher father,” I said through my teeth. “Of course they are close.”
“Can you describe the way they interacted?” Pullman continued, ignoring my tone. “Or tell me why Hazel chose to move back with him, rather than staying with her mother?”
I didn’t want to answer his questions. “What reason would my dad have to hurt his own daughter?” I demanded. “He adored Hazel. She was basically his reason for living. These last few days have been killing him.”
“People said the same thing about Will and Alexandria,” Detective Pullman reminded me. “That he adored her. That there was no reason to hurt her. And look what happened.”
“They said that because he didn’t do it.” I sighed, not understanding how this didn’t make any sense to him. Why no one could see this the way I did. “You’re suggesting that my brother killed his girlfriend, and then eleven years later my father randomly killed his daughter?”
Pullman’s face tightened. “It wouldn’t surprise me for one violent person to raise another violent person. Will had to learn it from somewhere.”
“Except my father has never even had a parking ticket, let alone a history of violence.”
There was a pause as the detective let the comment sink in. “He is the only male that lives in the home. That alone gives us a reason to suspect—”
“That’s a little flimsy, don’t you think?”
“We have more,” Pullman said.
I cocked an eyebrow. They had something else? I waited as Pullman looked a little smug.
“Hazel road a bike to school every day,” Pullman said. “Did you know that?”
No. But I didn’t need to reinforce how little I knew about her, so I lied. “Yes.”
“Well, she left school that day on the bike. People saw her.”
“Okay?” How did that have anything to do with my father?
“School got out at two forty-five p.m. Takes about fifteen minutes to bike to your father’s house on the east side of Loxahatchee.”
“Yes, I’m aware of the location of my own home. What’s your point?”
“There’s Ring camera footage of Hazel on the west side of town. At three thirty p.m.”
