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"When did you last see Maggie alive?" Charlie interjected.
"Three nights ago," he said. "She was trying to persuade Mac Gleeson to let me stay on the farm until I found somewhere. I'd been living in the hills in a bush craft camp I'd set up. Weeks of it. Hunting. Sitting by the fire. I greatly enjoyed it, but the cold was getting to me, and Maggie was worried the weather was turning for the worst."
"She thought you'd freeze ..." Carter mused out loud. "How could you kill a woman who cared so deeply about you? And what about the other victims, dammit!?"
"I never killed anyone!" Lance said angrily. "Life is sacred!"
"It didn't seem so sacred when you hit Will with a hammer on the arm," Charlie agreed. "Seemed like the actions of a violent individual."
Lance hung his head in shame. "I'm sorry for that," he said mournfully. "It was wrong of me, and I'm deeply ashamed. But it's not an excuse for what I did. I have a problem with anger, one that I've been struggling with since childhood. It overwhelms me at times, no matter how hard I try to control it. It's ... it's one of the reasons I want to live away from people."
He looked up at the three of them then, his eyes filled with guilt and sorrow. "And when your friend Will said that Maggie had died … I couldn't handle it. I wanted to be alone, and I guess I lashed out with my grief. I ... I was scared too. It thought you were going to pin it on me. And I was right."
"We don't have to pin it on you," Charlie said. "We know it was you. But why the other victims?"
"I swear, I haven't killed anyone."
"Where were you on the 6th and 3rd of this month?" Valerie asked.
Lance paused for a moment before he answered, "I was visiting my father in a small town called Fremont. He lives there, and I wanted to ask him for money. We talked, but he refused, so I spent the night at his place. He will verify that I was there on the 6th."
Sheriff Carter sighed. "Fremont is on the other side of those hills back at Mac Gleeson's place. But it's a six-hour hike at least."
"One of the other victims was more than fifty miles away," Valerie explained. "There's no way he was hiking that kind of distance."
Valerie turned to Lance.
"Thank you for your time, Mr. Nielsen," she said, turning to the suspect.
"I'm free to go?" he said, hopefully.
"Hell no!" Charlie said. "We'll check your alibi out. Even if you aren't the murderer, you'll be in custody for assaulting an FBI consultant with a deadly weapon."
Lance Nielsen bowed his head and looked down at his hands.
Valerie, Charlie, and Sheriff Carter stepped out into the corridor.
"I think he's telling the truth," Valerie said. "He showed too much emotional connection to Maggie to be the killer."
Sheriff Carter nodded. "We'll see if his alibi checks out first," he said. "But I'm inclined to agree with you; this doesn't feel like a cold-blooded murderer."
Charlie sighed heavily. "So that leaves us back at square one," he said. "Any other leads?"
Valerie shook her head, her brow furrowing in frustration. They were back to square one indeed, and it felt like they had no new clues or leads on the case at all.
Valerie looked at her watch. It was 5 PM. They had less than a day and a half left to catch the killer before Heinlein shuts them down. The grim reality of their situation weighed heavily on all of them as they trudged back through the station.
"There's got to be something we're missing," Valerie said. "Let's go to one of the other crime scenes and hope we can find out more."
But Valerie's heart was laced with doubt.
Sheriff Carter paused in the middle of the hall and turned to face them. "What about the second victim, Mark Jacobsen? We could question his roommate?" he suggested. "I only took a statement from him when we were at Greensville a few days ago before you arrived. That's an hour's drive away, but it might be worth checking into. I had been meaning to catch up with the roommate to see if anything had jogged his memory."
Valerie looked at Charlie, who nodded back. It was a long shot, but it was better than nothing. The three of them left the station and got into Sheriff Carter's car, heading towards Greensville with renewed determination. Valerie knew time was running out, and that with each passing minute, the killer got closer to another kill, and she and her team got closer to the unemployment line.
Over a year of work chasing killers. She couldn't let that all crumble because of a conspiracy against her unit. She had to stay sharp and not burn out. Valerie was afraid the stress of the situation would lead to mistakes, and that was something no one could afford. Not the team, not the victims, and not their families.
CHAPTER TWELVE
