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“If I say no, you might charge me as an accessory.”
“That’s bullshit. The only way you’d be charged as accessory after the fact is if you learned who did it but didn’t come forward. I don’t think you had anything to do with the bombing, Ashley.”
“I would never hurt anyone. I can’t—I still have nightmares. I see—the bodies. Floating.”
Kara felt for the girl. “I would, too,” she said softly. “Ashley, you need to tell me what you know.”
“I don’t know anything about what happened!”
“Yesterday when I talked to you, you clammed up as soon as your father criticized IP.”
“Because he doesn’t know I go to the meetings. He doesn’t know I’ve been following the charters for months, taking pictures, trying to catch them violating environmental regulations so we can shut them down. He’s friends with Mr. Colfax, and he would never allow me to follow what I know is right. And—he doesn’t know that I’m seeing Bobby. Bobby is nineteen, which isn’t a big deal, but when his brother was arrested last year, my dad just went off on IP. My dad is kinda rigid about things, you know? I just can’t talk to him about any of this stuff, and next year Bobby and I will be in college together, University of Washington, and then he can’t do anything about it.”
Kara was sympathetic to Ashley. Being a teenager was tough, especially when you and your parents didn’t see eye to eye. At the same time, Pete Dunlap was doing the best he could, raising two girls after his wife died, even if he was overprotective. Kara had no intention of having kids, but she’d probably be overprotective, knowing what she did about the world.
“Please don’t tell him,” said Ashley.
“I have no reason to talk to your dad about your love life,” Kara said. “Are you close to your family?”
“Of course I am. I love my dad so much—he just doesn’t understand about Bobby, and I don’t want to argue with him.”
“In my experience, the truth always comes out, eventually. The question you need to ask yourself is: do you want to be the one to tell your dad or do you want him to hear about it from someone else? I grew up in a small town. There are no secrets for long.”
Ashley didn’t comment.
“Valerie?” Kara turned the conversation back to the reason she wanted to talk to Ashley in the first place.
“She’s a bitch, but she’s not all that smart, if you know what I mean. I don’t think she could make a bomb or anything like that. She’s all talk, no action—except for convincing Craig to vandalize the West End pier last year. But they got caught because she’s stupid.”
“Okay,” Kara finally said. If Valerie was involved, Ashley didn’t know. And that was going to have to be good enough—for now. “Ashley, I want you to be careful around the people at IP, at least for the next few weeks. We don’t know who set those bombs, and we don’t know why, but if someone in the group is involved, I don’t want you caught up in that. If you see or hear anything that causes you concern, you have my direct number. I know that Donna told you to call her first, and if you want, go ahead. But it’ll delay the investigation and create layers of legal bullshit that could prevent us from getting a warrant or catching the guy before he strikes again.”
“You think he’s going to set another bomb?”
“Why stop now? He has the attention of the town, of three law enforcement agencies, and West End Charter. Honestly, I think he’s just getting started.”
Matt pulled Catherine aside when she came into the station. “Where’s Kara?”
“I don’t know. She dropped me off and left.”
“I have Valerie Sokola and Craig Martin in two separate rooms. They have the same lawyer, Larry Barker, so we can’t interview them simultaneously. Barker’s a jerk, but a smart jerk. I have one of the deputies tracking down Martin’s brother.”
“What happened?”
“An anonymous call came into the hotline. Claimed Bobby Martin was walking near West End, heading south, early this morning—didn’t know the exact time, but between four thirty and five.”
“Anonymous?”
Matt was skeptical like Catherine, but the information should be easy to prove.
“Doesn’t mean they had anything to do with the bombing, but we need to talk to Bobby as well as Craig. Michael is going over security footage with one of the deputies and maybe we’ll catch him on it. But in the meantime, I’m going to ask him. Who do you want to talk to first?”
“Craig,” Catherine said without hesitation. “If the sheriff is correct, he’s the one most likely to cave under pressure.”
Kara had said the same thing, but Matt didn’t remind Catherine of that. He needed his team to get along.
They notified the attorney, and a few moments later went into the interview room to talk to Craig.
Larry Barker went through the standard bullshit about how his client was there of his own accord and they could walk out anytime they wanted. Matt didn’t push back, not yet. He didn’t have cause to arrest Craig—he had no evidence that he’d been involved—but he did have cause to question him because of past criminal actions against West End.
