Page 26 of Girl, Remembered

‘Among other things.’

‘Such as?’

Ella hadn’t expected the question to land like a hook, but there it was. ‘Why don’t you tell me what you’d call it?’

He looked at the phone again, longer this time, and his tongue prodded the inside of his cheek. ‘She used to sit across from me exactly like you’re sitting now. Same distance. She’d have noticed it too. The ankle thing. She noticed everything.’

‘Where did you meet her?’

Winters paused, then said, ‘What? She didn’t tell you that herself?’

‘No. In fact, Doyle doesn’t talk much at all.’ It wasn’t a lie. The Doyle currently in jail didn’t talk much. She hadn’t spoken a word since her arrest.

‘Strange.’

‘So?’

Winters tipped his head, and for the first time since she’d sat down his eyes stayed on her instead of drifting back to the phone. ‘Why do you want to know this if you have Lindsey in custody already?’

‘Because even though Doyle isn’t talking much, she’s very close to ratting you out.’

‘How would you know that?’

‘We have our ways.’

‘Sounds like she’s already ratted me out, if you’re here.’

‘But the courts don’t need to know that.’ Ella took her phone back, in case Winters inspected too closely. ‘I’m not your lawyer, but I imagine your defense are going to be arguing for not guilty by reason of insanity, which might just land you in a cushy mental hospital. You’re no stranger to them, are you?’

‘No. I’m not.’

‘But if Doyle’s little statement is true, then it proves that all of your crimes were premeditated, and once a judge hears that word, insanity defense is off the table. You’re going to Central, where they won’t hesitate to stick a needle in your arm.’

Winters seemed to consider that. It probably wasn’t the first time the prospect of being executed had crossed his mind, but just presenting psychopaths with the cold facts occasionally highlighted the realities of their circumstance.

‘The death penalty,’ he said. ‘So, if I say that Doyle helped me out, then I’m going to the chamber. Is that correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘So why would I say it?’

‘Because if Doyle says it and you deny it, the judge will still take it into consideration. But if you admit it – and give me more details that I can verify – I’ll make sure it goes in your favor.’

Winters looked over at the one-way glass. He was no doubt aware that this interview was being watched by several other people.

‘You don’t have that kind of authority.’

‘Gabe, you’re a federal inmate. Your life belongs to the Bureau, and I’m the person at the Bureau that put you here. Believe me, I do have that authority.’

It wasn’t completely true, but this whole meeting was an exercise in stretching the truth as far as it would go. And despite what people believed, it was perfectly legal to lie to federal inmates.

Winters’s eyes went to the glass again, then to his own hands, then somewhere past both of those to a fixed point that wasn’t in the room at all.

Then he let a breath go through his nose, and the words came out of him fast, almost relieved to be rid of them.

‘The Grey Room.’

The grey room.