Page 60 of We Are All Guilty Here

“How long can DNA stay inside of a woman’s reproductive tract?”

Cole shrugged again, but said, “Up to five days.”

“So, it’s possible that Adam had unprotected sex with Barbara Jericho up to five days before she was attacked. It’s possible that her real attacker wore a condom. It’s possible that by her own admission, Barbara being high as a kite during the assault means that she was confused about timing.”

Cole didn’t shrug, but he had a faint wisp of a grin. “You didn’t buy that logic on that rape case last year.”

“I didn’t hold two dead children in my arms last year.”

Emmy saw him flinch. She wasn’t going to take back her words. She was his chief deputy right now, not his mother. “I attended the autopsies. Cheyenne was beaten and shot in the head. The bones of Madison’s hands and feet were systematicallybroken, probably with a hammer. Adam kept her alive anywhere between twelve to eighteen hours. She couldn’t fight back. She couldn’t make a run for it.”

“But you never found the hammer, either.”

“Explain to me what the termpreponderance of evidencemeans.”

Cole bristled, but still answered, “That something is true more likely than not.”

“And what doesbeyond a reasonable doubtmean?”

“That there’s no other reasonable explanation for the evidence presented.”

“Tell me a more likely explanation than Adam Huntsinger is the murderer. And don’t go by Jack’s stupid podcast. He was talking out of his ass ninety-nine percent of the time. Dale Loudermilk didn’t drive a Jetta. He drove a Ford truck and his wife drove an Audi. He doesn’t wear a size eleven boot. His DNA isn’t anywhere on anything having to do with the girls.”

“Dale borrowed his wife’s Audi all the time,” Cole said. “He was seen washing it out with bleach eight hours after the kidnapping.”

“Seven hours after, and no one ever claimed that the girls were never in the Audi. Dale admitted to it in the first interview. During the trial, Adam’s lawyer cross-examined Ruth Baker on the stand. She testified that she’d allowed Dale to drive Cheyenne home. Hannah said the same thing about Madison.”

Cole didn’t back down. “What about the money and the hard drugs?”

“Great question,” Emmy said. “It’s curious that none of the grown men who were paying a fifteen-year-old girl for sex and supplying her with coke to sell ever came forward.”

He snorted in frustration. “Alma Huntsinger testified that she scuffed the left bumper on the Jetta back when she was still able to drive.”

“Alma Huntsinger was trying to keep her son off death row. The jury sat through three weeks of testimony and saw all the evidence and found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.” Emmy gave Cole one of his own shrugs back. “Weigh it out for me, pal. What other explanation is more reasonable?”

Cole held up his hands in surrender. “Whatever you say, chief.”

Emmy heard another car in the driveway. She looked out of the window and saw Tommy’s blue Honda nosing into its usual space under the magnolia. She heard him whistling as he walked toward the kitchen door. Emmy checked the time. Her brother was going to be late to school.

“Cole,” Gerald said, “need a minute with your mother.”

“Yes, boss.”

Emmy waited until he’d left. “I don’t need a lecture, Dad. I know I’m being too hard on him, but he thinks he knows everything, and he doesn’t. His DFR is more WTF.”

“Okay,” Gerald said. “What’s the plan?”

Again, she was relieved to fall back into work. “We need to pay Adam Huntsinger a visit. Millie says she’s been getting phone calls, people burning hot to do something stupid. The online chatter isn’t great, either. I don’t know if it’s just idiots blowing smoke, but Walton’s in his seventies and Alma can’t see two feet in front of her. We have a duty to warn.”

Gerald didn’t acknowledge anything she’d said. He only repeated, “What’s the plan?”

The knot twisted inside her stomach again, but for an entirely different reason. “My plan is to do my job as chief deputy as best as I can.”

“And then?”

Emmy shrugged as flippantly as Cole. “Dad, the Houston County sheriff made it to ninety-one when he finally retired. You’re not running and gunning. You’re using your brain to lead the force. You still have the confidence of the county. They’ll vote for you as long as you run. There’s no reason to—”

“There’s a reason.”

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