Illusions: A Lesbian Detective Novel (CarpenterHarding Book 12) by Barbara Winkes

Author:Barbara Winkes [Winkes, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2021-02-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

A.D.A. Esposito, who had watched from behind the two-way mirror, looked doubtful.

“I won’t deny there’s something off about him, but the same thing could be said about many people, and I can’t charge them. You didn’t get a clear ID from Mulveney or Walton. I need a little more than that.”

“Come on, Val. He’s clever. He knows the area. I’m sure he knows what his father did, and he had means and opportunity—more than Cordell, actually,” Jordan said. “He knows the system, so maybe he didn’t steal any blood samples, he just exchanged them.”

“Still not enough. It’s all circumstantial. Adding up, for sure, but you’ve got to work on motive. Why would he want to reproduce his father’s killings?”

“To punish them. To punish himself. Continue the family business, what do you think?”

Valerie raised an eyebrow, and Jordan realized her tone might not have been entirely appropriate. In the resulting silence, she admitted that she was glad to have at least one person in the room who didn’t know the complicated history she had with another self-proclaimed “punisher.” If Ann McCoy’s curious expression was any indication, she hadn’t done her research that far back, though according to Ellie, she knew about the Prophets case.

“In Salter’s mind, being gay is a terrible thing punishable by death, and he passes that idea on to his son. Any attraction he might feel toward other men, he projects that on his victims, like father like son.”

“There might be another dimension to it, if some of the victims were underage,” McCoy remarked. “Either one of them could be a pedophile.”

“The thought had occurred to me,” Jordan said, not hiding her frustration. “We know who’s going to have a field day muddying the waters as usual. Walt Granger’s father finds nothing wrong with calling gay people predators in general, and there are too many people like that, willfully ignorant or with an agenda.”

Ellie shrugged. “Then we need to be very precise with the terms we use. That’s all we can do.”

It didn’t seem enough. Days like this, nothing ever felt like it was enough.

Meanwhile, Tim Caplan was still out there.

“We’ll do that. Let’s bring the night shift up to date, and we’ll call it a day.”

* * * *

It was a little late for Meri to still be up, but Jordan needed a moment to reassure herself. She had no illusions when it came to the extent of evil that drove some people. Jordan knew this kind of darkness intimately—and she would do whatever possible to keep Meri far away from it.

Jordan used to think that with Darby’s death it would all be in the past, and to some extent, it had given her closure. But it was impossible to completely extinguish the harmful ideas, in everyday people, in psychopaths like him.

Meri, undisturbed by her thoughts, fell asleep in her arms even with all the conversations going on around her.

Jack and Pauline were still here. Derek, Kate, Maria and Ann had joined them as well.

Jordan wondered

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