Page 84 of We Are All Guilty Here

“They talked to the parents, looked into relatives, interviewed the school staff, spoke with neighbors, canvassed the area from the house to where the bike was found. Checked dumpsters, trash cans, sewers, alleys. We’ve got the girl’s father, Elijah Walker, back in interrogation. The mother’s name is Carol. She’s at their home address. Had to be medicated, but my agent tells me she’s ready to talk.”

Jude asked, “Anybody you like for it?”

“No, ma’am,” Seth answered. “Got a wily uncle on his way over from Alabama and a Hispanic male in a black truck who did some yard work for the family four months ago. Father says he might’ve seen the same black truck the morning of the disappearance. We’re tracking the man down through a payment app.”

“You want to be careful with that.” Jude looked back at the squad room. She spotted a young deputy with his head bent over a computer. Handsome. Curly brown hair. Distinctive features. She told Seth, “Small town. People get stirred up easily.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Seth said. “You know about the officer who was murdered?”

“I do.” Jude looked away from the deputy. “Have you explored possible connections between Paisley’s disappearance and the Adam Huntsinger case?”

“Huntsinger was released from custody three days ago pending a rape charge. Should we be looking at him? Is this a serial?”

“Undetermined.” Jude didn’t like the excitement in his voice. He was thinking too much of the chase and not enough about the victims. “What else do you have?”

“We’ve got Elijah Walker’s phone.” He waved over another clean-cut, buttoned-down agent. “SA Damien Reynolds. He’s our IT guy.”

“Dr. Archer, it’s an honor,” Damien said. “One of the locals managed to get access to Elijah Walker’s phone. Texts are clean. Browser history is mostly fantasy football and porn. I need to run the software to break his WhatsApp, but his photos tell a story.”

Jude found her reading glasses in her purse. Took them out of the case. She scrolled through the photos. There had been many times during her career when Jude was acutely aware that she was the only woman in a room full of men. Now as she looked at the lewd photographs of men’s and women’s genitalia stored on Elijah Walker’s phone was definitely one of them.

Damien said, “The metadata has been scrubbed for location, but the date on all of the pictures is from last year.”

She took off her glasses. “What sort of porn was in his browser history?”

“Light bondage. Adult women. Nothing too kinky. Nothing underage or barely legal.”

“What’s the main password for the phone?”

Damien read the number from a scrap of paper. “Eight-seven-two-thirty-one-six.”

Jude told Seth, “Tell me about the parents.”

“Elijah Arnold Walker, thirty-seven, white male. Insurance broker. Church deacon. Wife is Carol Diane Walker, aged thirty-one, white female. Homemaker. Volunteers at the local charity shop three days a week. No previous marriages for either. Paisley is their only child.”

“So she was seventeen and he was twenty-three when they had Paisley,” Jude said. “Alibis?”

Seth took a moment to absorb the math. “Mother was at home. Neighbors saw her checking the mailbox after the daughter left. Father was at work all morning. Secretary was with him at his office when he got the call.”

“Take me to him.”

“Yes, ma’am. This way.”

Jude didn’t need help finding the interrogation rooms, but she was glad to let Seth take the lead. She let herself look at Gerald’s empty office. The lights were off. His desk had been turned away from the window. Another desk was pushed up against it. Jude saw a laptop, a faded photo of a boy with a mop of curly brown hair that matched the young deputy who was still bent over his computer.

The sense of unease returned to her body. Tommy had said that Gerald had changed because of Emmy. That Myrna had gotten better. That Emmy had brought a ray of sunshine into their lives. What her brother hadn’t said was the obvious: the light had only broken through after Jude’s darkness was gone.

Seth stopped outside the closed door to the first interrogation room. “You need me in there, ma’am?”

“I assume there are cameras. Watch from afar. I’ll signal if I want you.” Jude stopped him before he left. “Who’s the local who got Walker to unlock his phone?”

“Emmy Clifton. I let her take first swipe at the interview.”

Jude tried not to bristle. Getting the phone voluntarily unlocked was not inconsequential. “Did she share her impressions of Walker?”

“She said he came off as controlling and—her words, ma’am—a tight-ass. Thought he was hiding something. She flagged that he didn’t like how his daughter dressed.” Seth shrugged. “Pretty normal for a father to be worried about that. Could be Emmy was bringing in her own issues.”

“Do you know her well?” Jude saw the question in his eyes. “You keep calling her Emmy. Isn’t she the acting sheriff?”

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