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“Why?”
“I won’t go so far as to say that she’s hiding incriminating information, but I sense she has information that might help.”
“Accessory after the fact?”
“No. More like...” She paused, then said, “Pete doesn’t like Island Protectors. Thinks they’re a bunch of nutjobs. He said so when I talked to the family today. Ashley pushed back on that, then clammed up, which tells me she sympathizes with the group, may know people in the group, may even be part of the group. If we are running a theory that someone associated with IP may be responsible for this bombing, we need aninthere—and you just said that the head honcho, Ms. Bell, wants nothing to do with us. I need to get Ashley talking to me—but not around her father, and probably not around her sister. Whitney isn’t someone who can keep a secret.”
“How old is Ashley again?” Matt asked.
“Seventeen.” While state laws varied, cops could generally talk to children over the age of fourteen without a parent or advocate being present or even notified. They were clear with Ashley.
“Okay, good call. Do it.” Matt looked up at the board. “And the widow, Mrs. Jeffries. She’s listed here as a high possibility. You interviewed her, correct?”
“Yes, I did,” Kara said. “She’s not involved.”
Catherine cleared her throat.
Matt looked from Kara to Catherine.Oh, shit.Now he felt the tension in the room. It had been there from the beginning, but now it was almost tangible.
“You disagree, Catherine?”
“Based on what we currently know, it’s more likely that someone affiliated with IP is involved, or if the gas leak was intentional, that Neil is the target; however, Madelyn Jeffries is our second most viable suspect. She has the most to gain financially.”
“You think she’s capable of killing nine people?” Matt asked.
“I need to interview her and do a psychological profile to make that determination. I’ve done extensive research on her background and marriage and cannot rule her out. I also think it’s suspicious that Mrs. Jeffries knew one of the other victims, Tina Marshall. They were in the same sorority and had worked together at the country club where Mrs. Jeffries met her husband. That avenue needs to be explored.”
Matt turned to Kara. Her face was completely blank, and he would have thought she was disinterested except for one small tell: she was sitting perfectly still. Kara never sat still. She rocked in her chair, she rolled her feet, she played with her watch. She was a fidgety person. Except when she was angry. When she was frustrated, she paced. When she wasreallyangry, she froze.
“Kara, what did Mrs. Jeffries say or do that had you believing in her innocence?” Matt asked carefully.
She didn’t answer. She was looking straight at Catherine until Catherine averted her eyes. What on earth had gone on between them before he got here?
“Kara,” Matt urged, “you must have a reason.”
“I interviewed her, she’s pregnant, she loved her husband, she wasn’t involved.”
“Did you ask her about knowing any of the other victims? Ms. Marshall?”
“She indicated,” Kara said, “that she’d let Tina Marshall get under her skin prior to the boat leaving dock. That was the reason she had left.”
“So she lied to the police,” Catherine said. “The first opportunity she had to speak to law enforcement, and she lied about why she wasn’t on the boat.”
“At that moment, she was in shock, having just learned that her husband was dead. She felt guilty that she hadn’t asked him to come home with her,” Kara said. “She told her husband she wasn’t feeling well—morning sickness—because she had a confrontation with Tina and didn’t want to be around her.”
“Did you ask her what the confrontation was about?” Matt asked.
“I was about to when two of Jeffries’s kids showed up and caused a scene. But she was up-front about knowing Tina Marshall.”
“Don’t you think you should have continued that line of questioning?” Catherine asked. “She lied to the police, she knew two of the victims, she had clear motive—”
“Motive? Because her husband was rich?”
“Yes. It’s a common motive for murder.”
“Her grief was real.”
“Guilt can be misinterpreted for grief.”
