Page 101 of We Are All Guilty Here

“Adam?” Brett questioned. “I mean, shit, Emmy. Do you really think—”

“I think my father got murdered yesterday morning and I don’t want another vigilante mob doing something stupid with both of Adam’s elderly parents inside their home.” Emmy wasn’t finished, “Brett, I want to make this clear: you need to have eyes on Adam at all times. If you have to take a piss, use a bottle. If you’ve gotta take a shit, then you call someone to watch Adam before you go. Understood?”

His nod was curt. “Yes, chief.”

She told Virgil, “Let me know when Belinda gets here.”

Virgil nodded, too. “Yes, chief.”

Emmy spotted Cole sitting at his desk. He was bent over his keyboard again. She motioned him over, telling Jude, “Let’s go to the back.”

They were barely out of earshot of the squad room when Jude started talking.

“Well done.”

“I told you I’m not looking for your approval. Somebody has to be in charge of this place. It’s what Dad wanted.”

“Hey.” Jude stopped her outside the door to the monitoring room. “What you said before. I’m not here for a victory lap. I’m here for you.”

Emmy couldn’t keep juggling back and forth between workand whatever this was. She turned on the lights. The two monitors glowed on the desk with the Bluetooth speaker between them. The left-hand monitor showed Elijah sitting at the table in the interrogation room. The sensitive microphones in the ceiling picked up the sound of his labored breathing. Emmy looked at the other monitor, which showed the empty chair across from Elijah. Her vision doubled. She closed her eyes for a moment. She was so tired she literally couldn’t see straight.

“Emmy,” Jude said. “You’re right that I don’t know you, but this is what I’m good at, and if you could just look at the last forty years as me preparing myself to help you with this case, you’d be doing both of us a favor.”

“Fine.” Emmy saw Cole making his way down the hall. He looked distracted. She asked him, “What’s going on?”

“There’s a lot more chatter online. People are saying that Adam Huntsinger abducted Paisley, and that we’re too stupid to figure it out.”

Emmy felt the familiar knot twisting in her stomach. “Anybody sounding like they want to do something about it?”

“It’s hard to tell who’s blowing smoke and who means it, but the temperature’s definitely up.” Cole sounded genuinely worried. “There’s a citizen detective group tossing around theories. None of them are saying anything new. Most people think it’s Adam.”

Jude said, “It’s smart to monitor these groups. Some take the work seriously. Others are just bored and want to stir up shit. What are your thoughts on Adam Huntsinger?”

Emmy wasn’t sure about her thoughts. “I trust Brett to keep an eye on him. Whether Adam’s the one who took Paisley or not, I don’t know.”

Jude asked, “What’s your gut telling you?”

Emmy’s gut wanted to throw up from lack of sleep. “I can’t get a read.”

“Neither can I,” Jude said. “What do you know about Belinda Pfeiffer?”

Emmy was startled to realize she hadn’t let herself think beyond the name. “I’m in a book club with her mother, Daphne, who puts raisins in her potato salad. I don’t know much about the family beyond that. Belinda’s not on our radar for being asex worker. I doubt her mother knows what she’s up to. Cole, did you find anything?”

He supplied, “Belinda’s not on any patrol field notes. Nobody’s got her on their radar. She’s never been arrested. Never gotten a speeding ticket. Her TikTok is mostly aboutTheBachelorand all theHousewives.”

Jude asked, “Does she go to the Catholic church?”

“She follows the New Holiness Church, but there’s nothing religious that I found on her social.”

“That’s the Pentecostals,” Emmy told Jude, but then she realized Jude probably already knew. “So, maybe Elijah actually met Belinda on a dating site? Like an Ashley Madison sort of thing?”

Jude said, “I doubt he stopped at one affair. There have to be more women in his background. Cole, did you find Viagra when you searched Elijah and Carol’s bedroom?”

Cole looked surprised by the question, but he said, “Yeah, but not in the medicine cabinet. It was in a shoe box inside his closet.”

“He was hiding it from Carol,” Jude said. “Men like Elijah use Viagra for their mistresses. They don’t waste it on their wives.”

“Elijah told me Carol wasn’t adventurous enough.” Emmy was hit by a wave of dizziness. She looked down at the floor, took a deep breath. Between Myrna’s night terrors and staying up for over twenty-four hours straight, she felt like her brain was swimming inside of an aquarium.

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