“That wasn’t bad for a first interview, Sherlock.”
“Thank you, Captain Dougherty. But it wasn’t enough time. He was faking it.”
“I think you’re right, but it doesn’t matter.” “No,” Savich agreed. “It doesn’t. We’ll come back later, Sherlock. I wanted to go back to Washington today, but I don’t dare take a chance of leaving you here alone. You’d probably smile at the captain here, wink at Ralph, cajole in your FBI voice, and they’d agree to anything you wanted.”
“Not true,” Ralph Budnack said. “I’m the toughest cop in Boston. Nobody ever winks at me and gets away with it.”
She laughed, actually laughed, enjoyed the sweetness of it for a moment, then punched him in the arm. “I won’t try it, I promise. As for you, sir, I really don’t think you need to stay unless you really want to.”
“Stow it, Sherlock. We’ll both go home tomorrow. What I want to do now is go over those reports again and have MAX correlate just how many times anyone said the murdered women might have even occasionally cursed or even bad-mouthed their husbands just one time.”
“I told you that no one did. Remember about not wanting to say bad things about the dead? It was just that there couldn’t have been any other reason to cut out their tongues.”
“Yeah, you said that, didn’t you? However, somebody had to have said something sometime.”
“He’s anal, ain’t he?” Ralph said, and Lacey laughed.
“Thank God the cursing was right on,” Captain Dougherty said. “You nailed him good with that, Sherlock. My people told us that you really surprised him when you let out with the curses the first time at the lumberyard. They thought Savich was going to fall over with shock. Well, not really, but you didn’t do badly.”
“Thank you, I think.”
“I’m sure glad we weren’t wrong about the cursing being the red button for Marlin Jones. And talking back to the husbands. I guess we have to score a big one for the Profilers. Of course it made sense, since old Marlin had cut out their tongues.”
She knew, Savich realized, looking at that sudden brightness in her eyes. She knew without question that was what pushed Marlin Jones into violence. But how? There was something else that had happened seven years ago. It drove him nuts not to know what it was. If MAX couldn’t find anything in any of the interviews of the other murdered women, then that meant that Sherlock had based everything on the Profilers’ reports, that, or, well, something else had to have happened. But how could she have possibly known something that no one else did?
It was just past lunchtime in San Francisco when Lacey got through to Douglas Madigan at his law office.
“Lacey, that really you? What’s happening? Are you all right? It was all over the TV on the early news about that guy being caught. You were in on it, weren’t you?”
“Yes, I was, and yes, I’m fine, Douglas. We’ve got him.
I’ve already spoken to him once. I’ll find out everything from him, Douglas, everything.”
“But what more is there to know?”
“I want to know why he killed Belinda. You know she never cursed all that much. She worshiped you, you told me that, so she wouldn’t have ever cursed you out in front of any strangers.”
“That’s right, but so what?”
She drew a deep breath. “The reason he picked each of the women is because he knew she cursed and bad-mouthed her husband or boyfriend. If that’s not true in Belinda’s case, then there has to be another reason. I just want to know, Douglas. I have to know.”
“Were you the police decoy?'”
“Yes, but please don’t publicize it. I was the best one for the job. I know him better than anyone else.”
“My God, that was nuts, Lacey.” It was his turn to calm down. She heard his breathing become slower. He was an excellent lawyer.
“I’m going to call Dad.”
“No, let me do it, although I bet he already knows about it and that you were involved. He’ll be relieved that you weren’t injured.”