“No!” he said, shaking his head.
"You don't think so?" Faith said, "I think it will. In fact, I think it will make the difference between a boring rehash of the same haunted house stories we all heard as children and an exciting account of the most mysterious deaths to hit Western Iowa in decades. Readers will eat it up, and the author will no doubt become very wealthy."
“I didn’t kill anyone, okay?” Callum insisted, fear morphing into outrage. “I made up some stupid stories, that’s all. And yes, I did it to sell a book, but what do you want me to do? This is my life. This is my dream. I’d do anything to achieve it.”
“Including murder?”
"No!" he sighed. "Look, you need an alibi, right? Well, I can give you one. I was here. It doesn't matter what day I was here."
“Every single day?” Michael asked.
“Look at me,” Callum replied. “Do I look like I go outside? Do I look like I have an active social life?”
“That lack of social life might be a problem,” Faith pointed out. “Can anyone confirm that you were here?”
“Roger can,” Callum said. “I couldn’t have left the house even if I wanted to. I don’t even have a car.”
“That Power Wagon isn’t yours?” Faith asked.
"That Power Wagon won't even start," Callum replied with a slight contempt. "Neither will the Bronco. And no, they're not mine. They're Roger's, but Roger lives on a pension and gets all of his food delivered. He hasn’t left his house in longer than I have. We were both here, we’re both losers, but we’re both not murderers. Especially me.”
“How do you get the photos of the abandoned buildings?” Michael asked.
“I find them online. I just search abandoned buildings, Iowa, and they pop up. Sometimes, the photos have the location in the file, and sometimes, I do some digging and find it. All from the comfort, safety and legality of my chair.”
“All right,” Faith said. “We’ll confirm with Roger. In the meantime, you should consider not writing articles justifying murder. It tends to make people like us suspicious.”
“You got it,” he said, bobbing his head up and down in obvious relief. “No more murder stories. I’ll try… I don’t know, just basic hauntings, I guess. Maybe I'll just make up murders. I'm making up the hauntings anyway."
Faith decided to let the conversation go. “I’m going to have Turk stay outside of the shelter,” she told Callum. “If you try to leave, we’re going to have some more questions for you, and we’ll have them in a far less comfortable setting. Do you understand?”
“Crystal,” he said. “Um… he’s not going to hurt me, is he?”
“You stay put and behave, and Turk will be as gentle as a kitten,” Faith promised.
Turk cast her a fishy look at the word kitten and Faith corrected, “Puppy. Gentle as a puppy.”
He nodded, then brightened suddenly. “You know, maybe you should focus on the locations.”
“The locations?” Faith asked.
“Yeah. Killers choose their victims, but they also choose their locations. If you’re not getting anywhere looking into the victims, maybe see if there’s a pattern with the locations. Those are just as important to killers as the victims. At least, that’s what my research suggests.”
Michael and Faith glanced at each other. “We’ll look into it.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Faith, you know I can’t talk to you about that.”
“I know,” she said quickly. “I was just wondering if you had anything. I know you can’t share details.”
“I can’t share anything at all,” Desrouleaux replied. “The Boss made it clear to us that information related to the case was not to be shared with anyone not directly working it. That means me and Chavez only.”
"You can't even tell me if the man who killed our friend and your partner assaulted me and threatened my boyfriend and my partner is any closer to being caught? You can’t tell me that?”
“Faith, don’t try to play the sympathy card on me,” Desrouleaux countered irritably. “And don’t you dare use Gordon’s memory as a bargaining chip. He deserves better than that.”
“So wanting to see his murderer caught is what, disrespectful?” Now Faith was irritated. “For God’s sake, I just want to know if my loved ones and I are safe. What’s so wrong with that?”
