“Why would you say that?”
“You keep defending him, and when we were back at his house, you looked as if you knew him from somewhere.”
Ethan sighed. “Okay, I do know him.”
“I knew it! You need to be taken off this case. You could mess up this whole investigation!”
“Kerry, I won’t mess up the investigation. I can be objective about this; I promise.”
“You’re already trying to defend him and trying to prove he didn’t do it,” she accused.
“I don’t think he did. Since I do know him, I should be a better judge as to whether or not he was capable of murder.”
Kerry glared at him. “If you know him and like him, then you’re not going to want to believe he did it. You’re biased.”
“I’m just looking at it from a different angle than you are. We have to look at every possibility.”
“Look, the alarm was on. There was a dead body in the house. He was the only one in the house with the body and the only one with the alarm code. He had to have done it.”
“How do you know someone else didn’t get the alarm code? How do you know someone didn’t plant that girl there to frame him? It could have happened that way.”
Frustrated, Kerry pulled the car back out into traffic and drove on toward the station. She was tired of arguing with him. This partnership wasn’t going very well if they strongly disagreed on the first case they worked together. This just wasn’t going to work. She would ask the captain to partner her with someone else.
After a few minutes, Ethan said, “Kerry, I don’t want to quarrel with you. I’m only asking you to look at all the angles. I’m not asking you to completely throw out your theory. I just want you to consider mine. Will you please try to be a little more open minded about this? If we look at all the evidence and consider everything, and you still think he’s guilty, then we can go back and arrest him later. It doesn’t have to be done right away.”
Kerry took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Alright. I’ll consider what you’re saying. I don’t see any way it could happen like you’re saying, but I’ll give it some thought. But you have to think about my theory as well. Okay?”
He smiled at her. “It’s a deal.”
They got back to the station and reported back to Captain Bruce. They talked to him about all of the possibilities, and Kerry reluctantly told him that they were looking into the possibility of another suspect. After they were finished talking to the captain, they went to their desks, which were across from each other, and talked more about the case.
Kerry said, “This thing about all the blood being drained from the victim’s body is very strange. What would be the purpose of something like that?”
Ethan shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe they are going to use the blood in some kind of ritual. Does Gerard Stokes strike you as the kind of man who would be involved in some sort of blood rite?”
“I don’t know. I thought he was kind of strange. I don’t know what he could be involved in.”
“He’s a prominent businessman,” said Ethan. “He wouldn’t risk his reputation by being mixed up in something like that. In fact, he wouldn’t get mixed up in a murder, either. Why would he murder a girl, and then turn around and call the police, knowing he would be the prime suspect?”
“Maybe he didn’t know what to do with the body, so he called the police to throw the suspicion in another direction. He probably thought that by calling the police, he was showing that he had nothing to hide.”
“I just don’t buy it. A man that wealthy has plenty of resources. He could have found a way to make that body disappear. And I sure don’t think that he would do something as bizarre as drain the blood from the body, and then call the police. Why would he do that?”
Kerry said, “I don’t know. But until we find out how someone bypassed or turned off that alarm, my money is going to be on Stokes.”
“I disagree. But you know that.”
“There is something really wrong in that house. That girl that opened the door for us. She didn’t really say much. Something was off about her. And Stokes was really weird, too. He just stared at me right before we left and it made me feel strange. It was kind of creepy.”
“Oh, so you think he was trying to put some kind of spell on you?” Ethan teased.
“No, of course not! I don’t believe in that kind of thing. But it did make me feel odd when he looked at me that way.”
“Maybe he was trying to hit on you.”
“Oh, stop being stupid. There is just something wrong at that house.”
“Well, having a murdered girl in the house is pretty wrong.”