Moore looked at Alison and then back at Marcus."You’ve given us what we need, so we have no quarrel with you.We won't mention your name if we can help it."
"And if you aid us in catching a killer, you can be assured that people will know," Alison said."That will only do wonders for business."
Marcus sighed through his mouth and sat back in his chair again with his arms folded."Itoldyou I didn't do it," he said to Alison.
Alison and the detective got up from the table and left the room.Marcus was still on their suspect list until they decided otherwise.
Now, it was time to pay Linda Hamilton a visit and find out why she wanted Harold Jenkins to be watched.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Alison found herself back in the passenger seat again as Detective Moore drove them to interview their third suspect in quick succession.There was a mild Pavlovian response, and as soon as she was in the car and they were driving, she craved an espresso and a croissant.
"They’re going to send the file through on Linda Ashford as soon as they have it, but we might be going in there blind," Moore said.
"I interviewed Marcus Webb as a suspect previously, and it was clear he hated me and the system.Now, he's part of the justice system, and perhaps doing something good after all these years.That's proof that people can change."
"It is," Moore admitted."He’s obviously still wary of you and the police in general, but he did help, didn’t he?"
"Unless it’s a game he’s playing," Alison said."I don't believe it from how he acted in the interview room, but we can't rule him out until we have the evidence to do so."
"Speaking of that, they’ve chased up the knives extensively, and we’re not going to get anything from that.There’s no way to discover where the knives came from when there are so many places the killer could have bought them.That’s if they bought them the state.I don't want to waste any more resources on that."
"Okay," Alison said.
"As for the lawyers, we looked into that, and different lawyers represented Thomas, Jennifer, and Harold.There doesn’t seem to be any contact between the three of them.We can talk to them if you want."
"Put it on the back burner for now," Alison said."It doesn’t make as much sense as some other leads.I don't see why they would start killing people.We don't discount them yet, but we don't use resources on them either."
"Sounds good to me," Moore said."Do you think that—" She stopped talking when Alison’s phone rang.
"Sorry," Alison said."I should get this.It’s Derek."
"Yeah, go ahead," Moore said.
"Hey," Alison said, answering the phone.
"Do you have a minute?"Derek asked.
"I do," Alison said."We’re on our way to interview a suspect, but we won't be there for another…"
"Ten minutes," Moore told her.
"Ten minutes," Alison relayed to Derek.What do you need to talk about?"
"The skin sample found under Katrina Sands’s fingernails," Derek said.
The statement almost took her breath away.If there was nothing there or if it were Katrina’s own skin, he could have just texted her that.He had called her and asked if she had time to talk, and that meant it was important.
Her natural reaction was to push it all down and ignore the feelings of hope, as she had done numerous times before, but something was different this time.She pushed some of the emotion down, but not all the way.
"What did they find?"Alison asked."Is it…?"
"They think it’s his," Derek said slowly.
"His?"Alison asked cautiously."What does that mean?"
"It’s good news and bad news," Derek explained."They were able to get enough of a sample together to do an analysis, and they have a genetic profile.Now, there isn’t a match in any of the databases, so that’s the bad news, but they do believe we are looking at a male in his forties or fifties.I wish I could give you more than that, but it’s all they were able to get."
