Package Deal (74 page)

Carlton
put the water glass back
on the table. “You’re confusing me. I just wanted to get my thing
s
.”

Will
slid
the
glass to the far end of the table
with his pencil
.

Rex
pulled some papers from
his
inside
jacket
pocket. “What do you know about these clippings?” He shoved a copy of Marcus’ article
on
sex predators
in front of Carlton.

“He’s lying. He tried to pin that on me.
I told you he’s out to get me.
It wasn
’t me who did that. I liked her,
that little girl.
She was so pretty. And
most of the time,
she was nice to me
. We would talk—in the office—when her mother wasn’t there
.
But
then
she
started screaming
.”
His
cheek start
ed
to
twitch
again and
he
clapped one grimy
hand
against his face
.

Rex
leaned forward.
“Why would she do that? Girls don
’t usually scream unless there’
s a reason.What did you do to her?”

“Nothing. I didn’t do anything. I just wanted
her to sit next to me,
to feel—”

“What did you want to feel,
Professor
?
Her body?
Her
ass
? She’s a little girl.”
Rex
stood up
suddenly
, knocking
over his chair
.

Carlton
jerked at the sound and
turned
toward
Will, still
seated next to him.

“You don’t understand. She
was getting to
lik
e
me. I just wanted her to sit on my lap, so I could—so I—”

“So you could
feel her up—so you could use her
like a woman?
”
Will
shouted back at him. “You’
re disgusting!
”He showed Carlton copies of the articles from the Madison paper
that Marcus had given them
.
“
What about these
article
s?”

After looking them over,
Carlton’s face paled.
“You’re trying to pin that
on
me, too. It isn’t fair.
Did
Marcus t
ell
you about those? That’s why I
tried to stop
him.
He hates me,
just because I had to share my office with Amanda
,
and her little girl came in to see me
.
She liked me.
Y
ou know, when
her mother wasn’t there
.
He deserved
to die. I didn’t do it! I didn’t want to do it! She wouldn’t stop screaming. I had to make her be quiet, but she wouldn’t stop.”He
paus
e
d to catch his breath
and then
he
put his head in his hands, refusing to look at
either of them
.

Will
walked out of the room
and approached the man who had been observing through the one-way glass
. “What do you think?”

The district a
ttorney nodded his head. “I’ve heard enough. What statement do you have from Dunbar? Isn’t he the one in the hospital? The one who almost died?”

“He said he’d file a complaint,
but that’s only assault
with
intent to harm
.”

“What about the woman professor? Have you talked with her? What has she said about her daughter?”

“We
have an appointment to
see
he
r this afternoon
.”

“
Find out
what
she
can tell you
. Ask her about the kid and also what this guy did to her. He’s a head case, if you ask me.
The PD
may
try to
get him off
on that basis
, but if he did what I think he was talking about, I’d like to put him away.”The DA looked through the one-way glass again.Carlton was rocking b
ack and forth and weeping into
his hands.

When
Rex
came out of the interrogation room, the DA asked,
“What
did
the Madison detectives t
ell
you?”

“They’
re pretty sure he strangled the
victim
mentioned in the article
,
now that they have
th
e evidence Dunbar found. He talked to
one of their detectives
and sent it
on
to them
. Dunbar was on us months ago about
Winslow
, but w
e didn’t have any real evidence,
except what he kept telling us.
When we went by
Winslow’s
apartment,
he
wasn’t there and we didn’t have a search warrant.
By the time
Dunbar
showed us the
se
clippings, Winslow had disappeared and
the woman professor refused to press charges because she didn’t want her daughter to have to testify. She’s only
ten
.”
He pointed to the water glass sitting on the table in the interrogation room. “We’ll get the prints
off that
and check with the Madison
detective
to be sure we’re talking about the same person.”

“Maybe
the girl
won’t have to
testify
if you can get
a confession a
long
with
this other evidence. Talk to the mother
.Let
me know what she says.
I’ll
follow up with the DA
in Madison. I
f the prints match
, h
e
may want to extradite
him
,
”
the
district
attorney said.

Rex
and Will
headed for the campus
. When they entered the
English
d
epartment,
Beatrice
directed them to the c
hairman’s office.

Gregory Hillier shook hands with
them
. “Gentlemen, I understand you’
re here to see one of my faculty members
.”

They nodded.

“She’s had a difficult time of it. I’d appreciate you
r
keep
ing
your interview as short as possible.You know
about
her previous problems with Mr. Winslow?”

Will
nodded
and looked around at the
books in the c
hairman’s office.

“We have to talk with her about that, Professor
,”
Rex
said.
“
It’s the only way we can put this man awa
y—if we have evidence of what’
s been alleged.”

“Alleged, you say?”
Hillier
frowned. “I can tell you that Amanda’s little girl was badly treated by that man.
Her mother
did not go into details with me. She is
very
protective of t
he
child
—as any good mother would be
.
And
I don’t want her further traumatized by endless questions.”

“Professor, do you know what happened—when
Professor
Dunbar was assaulted?”
Will asked.

Greg
’s
mouth
thinned before he spoke
.
“No one was here in the office when
Carlton
came
in—
except
Amanda
. She likes to
work here
when
the office
is
quiet
.
You might want to speak to
Ian
Berriman about what he saw and heard. He was the one who
stayed wi
th Marcus after he was injured
.”

“Berriman?” Will asked.

“
Historian
. A good man. Used to be a firefighter in California before he turned academic.
His office is down the hall
on this floor
—nearly to the end.”

“We’ll
talk to
him.”

Rex
turned when
Beatrice
knocked on the door. “Amanda’s
in her office, Greg. Do you want her to come in here?”

“
We’d like
to speak
with her privately,
”
Rex
stated
.

“Use our
small conference room.
To the left,
”
Greg said.

Beatrice
showed the two
men
in
to the conference room and
quietly shut the door
.

When
Amanda
entered, both men stood.

“Please sit,” she said. “I know you want to talk with me, but I had to
make
sure
…
I
t was important to me that my classes weren’t interrupted, and that Cecelia wasn’t here
.”

“
Where is your daughter?
Is she
at
home?”
Rex
asked.

Amanda shook her head. “No. Her best friend’s mother
agreed to
pick up
the girls
after
soccer practice this afternoon.
She
will
walk
them
over
here
—from the other side of the campus
—in about
thirty minutes
.” She sat down at the end of the table. “What do you want to ask me?”

“
Why don’t you
tell us what happened
on Saturday
,
”
Detective
Mahoney
began.

Amanda nodded. When she began to describe Marcus’
s
injury, her eyes filled, and she stopped.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that
.”
Her hands shook
as she wiped her eyes
. “B
ut it’s still very fre
sh and raw. Not something I’
d wish on anyone.”

Detective Park
stopped taking notes. “What is your relationship to Professor Dunbar?”

“I—w
e—we
…” She sat up straighter in the chair and met the detective’s eyes. “We
are
colleagues
,
and friends.”
She ran her fingers along the scab of the cut on her neck, remembering what he had done.

“Winslow alluded to a romantic relationship—between you and Dunbar.”

Amanda was silent
as
her face flushed
.
“What has that got to do with the fact that Carlton stabbed and nearly killed Marcus?”

Will
Park
made a note
and then
asked,
“
Winslow seems to think
Dunbar wrote
a
newspaper article to accuse him
of something he didn’t do
.”

Amanda shook her head.“No. His intent in writing that article was to alert parents to the dangers of
sex predators
and
child
abusers
.
He didn’t mention
anyone by name.” She looked at
the detective
. “And I insisted he take out all references to
the
local therapist
who saw
Cecelia. His
article included information from
a psychiatrist
in
Seattle—
to keep the
focus on general issues, not
a specific
situation
.”