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“But he can answer for his ownactions,” Simon said. “You’re involved in this somehow, Mich, and if you don’tstart talking, you’re looking at being charged with three murders, four, ifLoretta Kane doesn’t turn up safely.”
“Based on one piece ofcircumstantial evidence?” the lawyer said, with a faintly triumphant smile, asif he expected this whole thing to be dismissed in a matter of moments.
“It’s enough that we have a searchwarrant for your place now,” Simon said. “We have your prints and DNA. Ifthere’s any direct connection to the crime scenes, this is over, Mich.”
“If,” the lawyer said. “Do you haveanything better than ‘if’ to throw at my client, Agent?”
The worst part was that they didn’thave anything better right then.
“What was your alibi for last nightagain?” Simon asked.
“I was at a bar,” Mich said.
“A dozen people will vouch for myclient,” the lawyer added. “I have names and contact details with me.”
The lawyer had come prepared withMich’s alibi? How did he have time to do that? Amber wasn’t sure that shebelieved the alibi any more now than she had when it had just been some vaguething Mich had come up with on the spur of the moment.
“That alibi’s fake, and we all knowit,” Simon said. “Do you want to hear my theory?”
The lawyer shrugged.
“My theory is that your client knewall the victims. That he hit on them, maybe he was even in a relationship withthem. Or maybe he just thought that he was. He sold them the pendants, or maybegave them the pendants. Then, when things broke down, he decided he had to killthem.”
“An interesting story. Do you haveany evidence to support that, Agent?” the lawyer asked.
Amber looked over to Simon, thennodded to the door. It was obvious that they weren’t getting anywhere here.
The two of them went outside. Ambercould how worked up Simon was getting by all of this. He jabbed a finger backtowards the interrogation room.
“We should get back in there,” hesaid. “We should start putting more pressure on him. He’s obviously guilty.”
“I’d feel better if we’d foundLoretta, or any sign of him writing the codes,” Amber said.
“You’re not about to say he didn’tdo this, are you?” Simon asked. “He’s guilty, he’s just laughing at us.”
“He’s guilty of something,” Amberreplied. “But do we know for sure that it’s this?”
“Amber!” Simon said. “What aboutthe pendants? You’re the one who led us to Mich in the first place.”
“I know,” Amber said. “I justexpected… I don’t know, that Loretta would be there in his workshop. Where ishe holding her, if not there?”
“He’ll tell us. Sooner or later,he’ll tell us,” Simon insisted.
Amber wasn’t so sure. What if hecouldn’t tell them, because he didn’t know? The pendants pointed towards him,but other than that, there was no direct evidence linking him to the killings.There was a chance that the police currently searching his place would turn upsomething to connect to the victims, but Amber had expected there to be more.She’d expected to find Loretta, or at least evidence of Mich planning thecrimes.
“You go back in,” she said. “I’lltry checking his phone to see if there’s any evidence there we can use toconnect him to all of this further.”
Simon nodded. “All right, but weneed to focus, Amber. We have our guy, but we still need to find Loretta.”
Amber was only too aware of that.She went back to the office she was sharing with Simon, taking Mich’s phonewith her. A tech at the local PD had opened it up, so she was able to startscrolling through it, looking for any signs of contact with the victims.
If Simon’s theory held water, Amberwould expect to see that kind of contact all over Mich’s phone. Instead, therewas no sign of any of the victims. She went looking for whatever sales ledgersthe police had managed to seize in their search, and started to look throughthem, too. Again, no matter how carefully she looked, Amber couldn’t find thenames of any of the victims.
In a lot of ways, that was strangerthan their absence from Mich’s phone. It seemed obvious that he might haveerased conversations with his victims from his messages, but doing it from hissales records would be harder. Especially if he’d sold to the four womenonline, Amber would have expected to find their contact details for thedeliveries at least.
None of this made sense, unlessMich had given all four women the pendants as gifts, but then, Amber wouldexpect to see more signs of contact between them and him.
The messages that were on his phonewere cryptic in their way, with no names attached to them.
