Lots and lots of waiting time. The phone would need to be sent off to the specialists, and they always had a waitlist. Always. Usually a couple of weeks. Sometimes more.
Bitterly, she knew that the FBI could get this kind of thing done practically overnight. Kerry's cases had proved that to her time and again. But she was not in the same lucky situation here.
"I also thought he might have deleted them," Owen said.
"I guess he could have done that," May agreed. "Do you really think he would have, though? Knowing what they meant to him, deep inside?"
"Yes, I also have a problem with that. A guy like this, he would have wanted to save them somewhere. And he didn't email them anywhere or there would have been a record; I did check that carefully. We can search his house. Perhaps there's a storage device at his home where he keeps them. Or maybe he took them off a camera, or a second phone. Maybe he has a burner phone he uses just for that."
May nodded.
"I think we're going to need to do that search urgently, Owen. Can you go and organize it?"
"Yes, I'll take a couple of officers along with me. Are you going to go in for another round of questioning?"
May sighed. "Yes, I am. But I really don't know what direction to take now. I feel like we're stalled."
"We need to do something to get him to crack," Owen emphasized.
"Do you think we should inform him that we're going to search his house? I might be able to pick up something from his reaction."
Briefly, May felt comforted that in the pressure of this unexpected situation, she and Owen felt as close as ever. That awkwardness of earlier had gone away. Hopefully soon those scorching memories would also fade. She longed for things to be back the way they had been.
Then the side thought vanished, and the inexorable pressure of the case weighed down again.
Owen paused. Then he said, "I think so. I mean, if he's innocent, he'd want to be helpful, right? He wouldn’t mind us searching. And if he’s guilty he might give a sign. It might panic him."
May nodded. "Yeah, he'd want to be helpful if he was innocent. But I am finding his behavior so hard to read. He's so emotionally distraught. He teeters between appearing totally innocent, and being entirely guilty and with no hope of getting out of it. And just as I think - great, we're there, he goes the other way. This whole denying the photos and demanding his lawyer. Where did that even come from? Why?"
Could he have been telling the truth the whole way along?
May's mind grappled with that thought, but it was very far-fetched. For a start, it would have meant someone had planted that evidence in the car. Who would have done that? It was simply impossible. Every time she considered that theory, stumbling blocks seemed to spike out of the ground every way she looked.
The car had been unlocked, though. There was that. But May guessed that in a secure parking lot, in this small school, it was likely that teachers would be careless with the actual locking of their cars.
"Well, we'll just have to see what happens when he finds out that we're doing a search."
"Right," May said. "Right. I'll head back in there and do another round of questioning."
"I hope we get some results," Owen said. "I'll let you know as soon as possible. I'll call you the minute we find anything."
He rushed off.
May drew a deep breath, trying to get the emotional strength she needed to go back in that room to verbally fence with this anguished, guilty man again.
As she got up from the desk, Sheriff Jack walked in.
"May. There you are. I'm glad I caught you before you went back into the interview room. I guess we have not yet had a full confession from the suspect?"
May looked up, feeling hopeful. Sheriff Jack had been keeping things together, running everything in the county while they'd been chasing the killer. Perhaps he, too, had come across something that could be helpful.
"Not yet. He's close, but he's denying very important points. Owen just left to search his house. Is there anything you have discovered that we can use?"
Although, looking at him closely, he didn't look exactly thrilled by what he was about to tell her.
"I have some unexpected news," Jack said. "A few of the teachers at the school are waiting here in the police department’s lobby. I think three have come along."
May's eyes widened. "Why's that?"