And from the flutter of eyebrow and twitch of lip, she realized she might have just played into his hand. With people like Hamilton Royce, you never could be sure if all was straightforward, or if you were fencing.
"This blog . . . I was talking to the AG about it. We're worried that as long as people are posting, it's like gasoline on the flames. You know what I mean? Like an avalanche. Well, mixing my metaphors, but you get the idea. What we were thinking: Wouldn't it be better for the blog to shut down?"
"I've actually asked Chilton to do that."
"Oh, you have?" Overby asked the question.
"And what did he say?"
"Emphatically no. Freedom of the press."
Royce scoffed. "It's just a blog. It's not the Chronicle or Wall Street Journal."
"He doesn't feel that way." Dance then asked, "Has anybody from the AG's office contacted him?"
"No. If the request came from Sacramento, we're worried that he'd post something about us bringing the subject up. And that'd spread to the newspapers and TV. Repression. Censorship. And those labels might rub off on the governor and some congressmen. No, we can't do that."
"Well, he refused," Dance repeated.
"I was just wondering," Royce began slowly, his gaze keenly strafing Dance, "if there was anything you've found about him, something to help persuade him?"
"Stick or carrot?" she asked quickly.
Royce couldn't help but laugh. Savvy people apparently impressed him.
"He doesn't seem like the carrot sort, from what you've told me."
Meaning a bribe wouldn't work. Which Dance knew was true, having tried one. But neither did Chilton seem susceptible to threats. In fact, he seemed like the sort who'd relish them. And post something in his blog about any that were made.
Besides, though she didn't like Chilton and thought he was arrogant and self-righteous, using something she'd learned in an investigation to intimidate the man into silence didn't sit well. In any case, Dance could honestly answer, "I haven't found a thing. James Chilton himself is a small part of the case. He didn't even post anything about the boy--and he deleted Travis's name. The point of the 'Roadside Crosses' thread was to criticize the police and highway department. It was the readers who started to attack the boy."
"So there's nothing incriminating, nothing we can use."
Use. Odd choice of verb.
"No."
"Ah, too bad." Royce did seem disappointed. Overby noticed too and looked disappointed himself.
Overby said, "Keep on it, Kathryn."
Her voice was a crawl. "We're working full-out to find the perp, Charles."
"Of course. Sure. But in the whole scope of the case . . ." His sentence dwindled.
"What?" she asked sharply. The anger about Robert Harper was resurfacing.
Watch it, she
warned herself.
Overby smiled in a way that bore only a loose resemblance to a smile. "In the whole scope of the case it would be helpful to everybody if Chilton could be persuaded to stop the blog. Helpful to us and to Sacramento. Not to mention saving the lives of people who've posted comments."
"Exactly," Royce said. "We're worried about more victims."
Of course the AG and Royce would worry about that. But they'd also worry about the bad press against the state for not doing everything to stop the killer.
To end the meeting and get back to work, Dance simply agreed. "If I see anything you can use, Charles, I'll let you know."