"What do you make of him?"Detective Moore asked once they were outside.
"I don't like who he’s become," Alison said."I don't know that man anymore."
"Do you think he could have done it?"
"I don't know," Alison admitted."He hates the system enough, and me, to want to do something about it, but he also speaks with such bitterness that I wonder if he's tired of it all.Physically, he’s still capable, but I’m not sure if he is mentally.The anger is there, but does he have the patience and peace of mind to plan the murders?"
"Let’s talk to the guard and see what we can find."Moore took out her phone and checked her messages as they descended the stairs.She pressed the phone to her ear to listen to the voicemail that had been left.When she was done, she said, "Change of plan.I’ll have an officer connect with the guard, but we need to get down to the station.As soon as they released Harold Jenkins, they spotted someone following him."
"Who?"Alison asked.
"They don't know.Apparently, he won't speak and has requested a lawyer.They have him down at the station now."
Alison hopped into the car quickly, and they took off as fast as they could through the security gate and back to the station.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Alison and Detective Moore walked back into the station to find everyone in a pensive mood as everyone waited for the man to finish talking with his lawyer.
"We still don't have a name," Officer Keenan told them."As soon as Harold Jenkins was released, he got into his car and left.I was the one who followed him, as promised, and as soon as Jenkins pulled out onto the main road, I saw a car pull out and begin to follow him.I followed them both just to be sure, and then I radioed it in."
"That’s really weird," Alison said."We put protective detail on him, and someone else follows him at the same time as we do?"
"They can't have seen me following them," the officer said."Or maybe they did and didn't care that I was on their tail.When Harold got home, he went straight inside, and the man following him remained in his car.I gave it a couple of minutes to see if anything would happen, and then I approached the car and spoke to the man."
"Did he have anything to say?"Moore asked.
"He refused to show me ID and asked what he was under suspicion of.He quoted quite a few laws and told me I was harassing him.He’s the kind of person that if I had stopped him without him committing a crime, I might just let him go, you know?Technically, he hadn’t broken any laws, but this was different.Anyway, it was clear he’d studied the law, and he told me he didn't have any ID, not that he needed to give it to me, and that he would show me copies of his license and insurance online if I needed him to, and I didn't want to mess around with that any longer, so I brought him down here.Of course, he went off about suing the police force and needing a lawyer, and…I don't really know what’s what at the moment."
"You did well," Moore said, patting him on the shoulder."Don't worry about it.You did the right thing.There are extenuating circumstances, and when we have a chance to talk with him, we can explain that to his lawyer.You did the right thing."
"Thank you, detective."
"Which interview room?"Moore asked.
"Two," the officer said.
Moore patted the officer on the shoulder a second time.Then, she and Alison went off to see if they could talk with the suspect.
He was still conversing with his lawyer when they got there, so they went into the adjoining viewing room to take a look at him.Once in there, Alison had a startling revelation.
"I know him," she said.
"What?"Moore asked.
"I know him," Alison repeated."He’s Marcus Webb.He’s a former corrections officer who was fired for inappropriate conduct.I don't know what he’s doing now, but Special Agent Sullivan and I interviewed him as part of a previous case.He was innocent, but he does have a documented resentment toward forensic psychologists, and he was able to access confidential materials previously.I don't know how any of this makes sense."
"None of this has made sense to me so far," Moore admitted."Did he just fall into our laps?"
"Yes," Alison said.
"He resents forensic psychologists, and you previously interviewed him as a suspect," Moore said."Maybe the resentment grew after that.It’s weird that he’s driving around with no ID, and he wanted to speak with a lawyer instead of talking to Officer Keenan."
"That’s against him," Alison stated."Still, if you were the killer, and you had just sent someone a threatening note, and you knew they were at the police station, being interviewed, would you wait outside that police station and follow him home?"
"There are a lot of things I wouldn’t do," Moore admitted.
"He fits with the profile in some ways, but that doesn’t fit in others.That’s not being careful or clever."
