“Which was?”
“Determining sexual compatibility and aligning people with individuals who pleased them.”
Kate laughed.She didn’t like doing that in front of a suspect, especially not in the middle of an interrogation, but come on.“Really?So, they broke up marriages by figuring out the kind of sex people liked and using that for… Real estate?”
Graham’s expression didn’t change.“Yes.”
“How?”
“Like I said, they hooked people up.Trust me, agent, when you find the perfect person, the one who does everything you want,enjoysdoing everything you want,needsto do everything you want,lovesit when you feel more pleasure than you’ve ever felt in your life—”
“We get the picture,” Marcus interrupted, making no effort to hide his scorn.
Graham grinned at him.Apparently, he enjoyed making people uncomfortable."My point is that when someone has the power to make your wildest dreams come true, you don't let that go.That's why drug addicts will sell their souls to get their next hit."
Kate wasn’t sure she believed that powerful people would compromise that power for a good lay, at least not knowingly, but she believed that the Carltons would gather evidence of certain events and use it for blackmail.“So, in your case, the Carltons used their exceptional erotic power to drive your wife into the arms of Mike Howard because you were making people leery of seeking out their services, meaning they couldn’t sell land and couldn’t make money.”
“Precisely.”
“That seems like a stretch.”
“It did to me as well.Until it worked on my wife.”
Kate and Marcus shared a glance.
“Marriage is pretty important to you, isn’t it?”
Graham rolled his eyes.“Honesty is important to me.If Ginger had come to me and said, ‘Hey, I’m done with you; I really want to fuck this other guy, so can we get divorced?’I would have happily signed the paperwork.Well, not happily, but you get the point.”
“So, you were angry.”
“Of course.But not enough to kill them.”
Kate decided it was time to broach the elephant in the room.“What do you know about Elijah Cox?”
She watched Graham’s face carefully.He frowned.“Cox.The priest guy who burnt those people in Maine?”
His confusion seemed genuine, but he recognized the name.“Yes.Him.”
“He’s in prison, right?”
“Yes.”
“So how could he have killed anyone?”
“Have you talked to him lately?”Marcus asked.
“I haven’t talked to him at all,” Graham replied.“What the hell is this?Do you think I’m some sort of disciple of his?”
“Are you?”
“No!”
His indignation and shock also seemed genuine.Kate’s confidence that Cox was behind this string of killings waned.That didn’t mean Graham wasn’t their killer, though.“Can you confirm your whereabouts for the night before last?”
“Yes.I was home.With my girlfriend.”
Kate lifted an eyebrow.“Your girlfriend?You moved on pretty fast after your wife dumped you, huh?”
