Page 32 of Say Nothing
He and Alison exited the room to find Special Agent Loxley waiting for them.
"I wouldn’t have called you out unless it was important," Loxley said.
"There’s been another, hasn’t there?"Alison asked.
"Yeah," Loxley admitted."It’s different this time.There was a message, and well, you need to get down there.Boss’s orders."
"Yeah, we’ll head down there right away.Let me just finish up with Nichols, and then can you keep an eye on him?He can't go anywhere."
"Do you have a name?"Alison asked.
"Patricia Montgomery," Loxley said.
"Wait, Patricia Montgomery?"Alison asked.She looked at Derek.
It was one of the women Raymond had mentioned before they left the room, and it felt like too much of a coincidence to be pure chance
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Derek marched back into the room with Alison hot on his heels.He walked straight to the table and placed his hands down on it, opting to stand before Raymond instead of sitting.Raymond looked up at him defiantly, but swallowed hard as he maintained the illusion of confidence.
"Patricia Montgomery?"Derek asked."Is that why you ran from us?"
"I don't know what you’re talking about," Raymond said.
"You mentioned her right before we left the room," Derek said."She’s one of the women you are sure is in the wrong, right?"
"Yeah, she is," he stated.
"And something should be done about her, right?"Derek continued.
"You can't put words in my mouth like that," Raymond replied."If I think she should face some punishment for her part in the system, then yes, she should, but only within the confines of the law.I don't ever advocate for violence; I told you that already."
"So, you didn't kill her?"Derek asked.
That quieted Raymond.He took a second before he said one word."No."
"Three women," Derek said."We can connect you to three dead women, and you mentioned one of them by name with no prompting."
"I can mention the names of a lot of women with no prompting," Raymond spat."I know what the system’s like."He spoke through his teeth."I wouldn’t risk putting myself in a situation where people can testify against me.Three dead women and I’m a man?It’s open and shut, right?"
"You tell me," Derek said."I have an agent who’s going to look after you while we go look at the dead body of another woman.How about you have a little think about things, and when we come back, you can have something convincing for us instead of your tirades and crusades.How does that sound?"
Raymond breathed heavily, his chest rising and falling."You can't pin this on me because you think I did it.You spoke about facts, didn't you?"He looked directly at Alison."You can't convict me without facts."
"And we won’t," Alison said."If there’s nothing to prove you did it or if you gave us something to prove you didn't, I won't let you go to jail.I believe in the justice system, and I believe you are innocent until proven guilty.Give us anything, Raymond, and I’ll make sure you go free, no matter how much you hate me."
She could see the anger in his eyes and the confrontational way he held his body tensed.He nodded in response to her, and some of the tension left his body.
***
Derek and Alison sat in Derek’s car outside the luxury apartment building and the most recent crime scene.An officer stood at the entrance and held it open as the forensic team went inside.
"I appreciate that you were fair with Nichols back there, but what do you make of him?Could he have done it?"Derek asked.
"Yeah, I think he could have," Alison admitted."He speaks about being against violence, but he knows the power of his words.Maybe he’s not capable of violence, but he’s capable of manipulating people into violence, which makes it more likely that he manipulates someone into doing the killing for him.That makes it far trickier for us.If he comes back with an airtight alibi for any or all of the murders, he might still be responsible, but it’ll be almost impossible to prove that or arrest him on any charges."
"I could see it in his eyes that he wants them to hurt," Derek said."I still don't get how he can protest against hundreds of women and cases.He must know he’s in the wrong."
