Derrick had even started to think so himself.
He drummed his fingers on the desk then ran a background check on Cord. He’d done it when they’d first met, but maybe he’d missed something.
He would have been a teenager when Ruth disappeared. Had been abused. Had a juvie record, although it had been sealed.
With his past, he could fit the profile of a serial killer.
Indecision played through his mind as he recalled the rescue and recovery missions McClain had worked through SAR andFEMA. The courage and skill he’d shown working on the task force. The lives he’d helped save.
He’d been instrumental in saving Ellie’s life more than once and even in saving Derrick.
Determined to get to the bottom of the situation, he stood and headed down the hall to knock some sense into the man. But he bumped into Ellie as she made a beeline for her office. She was panting for a breath, her eyes blazing with anger.
At McClain or at him? Probably both?
“What are you doing here?” Derrick asked. “I thought you’d be working to find Carrie Ann.”
“I talked to her parents on the way here. I’ll talk to Kat next. But I want to know what Cord has to say.”
Derrick gritted his teeth. Good god, Ellie was stubborn. “I was on my way to question him.”
“Let me,” Ellie said.
“You’re too close to this, to him,” he said matter-of-factly.
“But—”
“You know I’m right, Ellie. I can’t let you compromise the case.”
Not when McClain already has.
“Please, Derrick…”
“If he intended to tell you something, don’t you think he already would have?”
She released a wary sigh. “All right. But I want to watch the interview.”
He conceded to that, and she slipped into the monitor room to view his conversation with McClain.
Derrick ducked into the interrogation room where he’d left the ranger. McClain looked stony faced, his posture on edge as he stared at the table. Derrick claimed the chair on the opposite side and folded his arms. “You ready to talk?”
“I don’t have an answer for you.”
Derrick’s temper flared. “You realize your silence cost us valuable time in hunting the maniac killing these girls?”
Regret flickered in Cord’s pensive brown eyes. “That wasn’t my intention. I’ve been trying to find the killer. And if you let me go, I’ll comb every inch of No Man’s Land to find that girl Carrie Ann.”
“First tell me how your prints got on the shovel where Earl Bramble’s remains were found.”
“I didn’t kill him, if that’s what you want to know.”
“Then who did?”
Cord pulled a hand down his chin. “That I can’t tell you.”
Suddenly the door opened and Ellie stormed in. She crossed the room, planted her hands on the table and stared McClain in the eyes. “Can’t or won’t, Cord?”
He closed his eyes for a brief second, then looked up at her with a contrite expression. “I’m sorry, Ellie. I wish I could help but I can’t.”
