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Cooper thought rather hard about it, going quiet for roughly fifteen seconds. When he finally managed to meet their eyes again, he shook his head. “No.”
“Well, if you don’t have an alibi,” Sullivan said, “your stay here is going to be a bit longer than you’d hoped.”
“I’m not exactly a very social person,” Cooper spat. “I can show you my credit card transaction for the booze and groceries, but that’s about it. But you know…I’ll stay here for as long as you need me to because all you’re going to find out is that I did not kill those women.” Sneering, he added: “I’m no murderer. I changed my tune on stem cell research because I wanted to spare life, not take it.”
Rachel knew this was a polarizing argument, and though she had thoughts of her own on the matter, now was not the time to share them. Although, as his final comment rattled around in her brain, she approached the table and looked down at him, trying to pull some care and sincerity into her eyes.
“Will you try to be cooperative with us if we can work towards proving you aren’t the killer?”
“Of course,” he said, though there was still some venom in his voice.
“Well then let me share this with you. If you stay here and the theory is pushed that you’re the killer and are just lying to us about why you’d have Adler’s face crossed out, we’d end up searching your home. That’s going to happen one way or the other. But this research paper of yours…did you send emails to other experts in the field?”
“Yes.”
“And were there arguments?”
“Some. Most just ignored me, it seems. Why?”
“Let me get a head start. Let me have a look at your laptop—at your inbox, at your research, and the paper itself. Would there be things there that might help clear you?”
He seemed almost excited for a moment, but it was quickly replaced by disappointment. "I honestly don't know. But if you think it might help, you're free to it all."
Rachel took out her phone and said, “What passwords will I need to get to everything? And where can I find the paper?”
"Are you for real?"
“Yes. If you aren’t who we’re looking for, I don’t see the point in wasting this much time. So if you want to show you’re ready to cooperate, you can give me these things, right?”
She eyed Sullivan for just a moment, and he looked completely confused by this sudden approach—maybe even a little irritated.
“Fine, then,” Cooper said. He then gave Rachel two passwords, which she typed into her phone. One to log into his computer and another to sign into his email account.
When she had the information typed in, she nodded her quick thanks and then looked to the door. “Detective Sullivan, can I see you in the hallway for a moment?”
Sullivan shrugged, and they both left the room. Rachel closed the door behind them and took a few steps away. "Sorry to pull that without talking it over first, but I think it does tell us some very important things."
“Like what?”
“Like he’s fine with knowing that I’m about to snoop around his house. Also, let’s be honest…he was drunk at 1:30 in the afternoon. That’s not exactly the sort of determination and focus a man who had killed three people in a week is going to have.”
“So you don’t think it’s him? not even after he attacked me and after we found the brochure with Adler in it?”
“I won’t rule him out, but I think it’s ridiculous to stop looking because he sort of fits what we’re looking for.”
“Fine, okay…I’ll give you that. So, you’re really going to go looking through all of that stuff?”
“Might as well. How long would we be looking at if we waited for official channels?”
He sighed and said, “Good point. So…do you want me to come along?”
“Actually, if you don’t mind me making a request…”
“Go ahead, Gift,” he said with a smile. “It’s my field, sure, but you’re still just a tier or two higher than me up the ladder.”
“Why don’t you make a call to the coroner? Get an estimate on the size of the hands that choked Molly Stevens. Then get a measurement on Cooper…see if they’re similar.”
Sullivan smiled at the idea and then shook his head, as if disappointed in himself that he hadn’t thought of it first. “I can get that done, yeah. You want to call me if you find anything over at Cooper’s place?”
