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“Mrs. Sugarman, Andrew Fraser has broken no laws. He did not rape a little girl in New Jersey. You are referring to a lie which has been peddled by an online troll, by someone who gets their kicks getting people like you riled up.”
Sugarman flushed. Her pointy chin came up. “People like me!”
“People like you.” Sarah Jane was calm, controlled, and very cold. “Mr. Fraser is dealing with a personal horror right now. His daughter is missing. He should be getting support from his community, not accusations and mistrust. And I’m warning you right now, any action taken by any member of the public against Mr. Fraser will be met with the full force of the law.” She stood up and picked up her notebook and pen. “It’s time for you to leave.”
Sugarman stood up. She bristled with outrage. Sarah Jane’s speech had not had the intended effect.
“You wait and see, when the truth all comes out, you’re going to lose your job. Or maybe you’ll go to jail too, for protecting him. See how smart you are when that happens.”
They left the interview room. Matthew gave Sarah Jane enough time to escort Mrs. Sugarman back out to the reception area. He waited for her in the hall. She pushed her way through the double doors with force and stalked along the corridor until she saw him and came to an abrupt stop. Her eyes went from his face to the interview room doors behind him, then back to his face again.
“You watched?”
“I did.”
Sarah Jane cleared her throat. “I apologize if I overstepped. I told her three times that the New Jersey story was made up. She didn’t want to hear it.”
Matthew started up the stairs. “You did fine. People like that are difficult to deal with. They see every fact you give them as evidence of some greater conspiracy. Probably there was nothing you could have said to change her mind.”
Sarah Jane followed him. He told her about the update from Damien at the K-9 team.
“Damn,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“It must have been Nina. Right?”
“I think so.”
“So he moved her. He found out that the Frasers were going to search for her on Wednesday, and he went back and moved her.”
Matthew nodded. “And he would have to have moved her on Tuesday night. The decision to search the grounds came after the Tuesday press conference. That gives him a small window of opportunity.”
“We need to trace his movements on Tuesday. Find out where he was. Where he went.”
“Anything yet from the phone data warrants?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “I realized this morning that it’s only been two days since we sent them in. It feels a lot longer, somehow.”
“I’ve been thinking that I should call Simon’s lawyer and ask him to voluntarily surrender his phone.”
“You think he’ll do that?”
“I doubt it very much. But it will put him under pressure.”
“Great.” Sarah Jane sounded thoughtful. “You know, if he did move her, that’s a mistake.”
“How so?”
“Because if he’d left her where she was and we’d found her, he could have claimed that someone else must have killed her after he’d left the house. They’d spent a week together. Slept together. Even if his DNA was all over her, that wouldn’t prove he’d killed her. But to move her he’d have had to go back. He’d have had to drive from Waitsfield to Stowe. Someone might have seen his car. He could have driven past someone’s security camera. We will eventually get his phone data and we’ll be able to check his location history. We can check his car GPS data.”
“Always assuming he was stupid enough to bring his phone with him. To drive his own car.”
“Murderers aren’t known for their stunning intellect.”
“Agreed,” Matthew said. “Though Simon goes to Northwestern, so he’s no dum-dum.”
“Fear makes people do stupid things,” Sarah Jane said.
