“Okay. I am going to tell you now. I don’t believe you’re such a hot IT specialist,” she said dismissively. “I don’t think you have the ability to do what you’re saying. I think you’re bragging too much and you’re just all talk. Forgetting a password? Seriously? I mean, who does that?”
As she’d hoped, that got to him. Having a young woman criticize him was clearly something that rankled.
“I am the best in the business. I don’t have to brag about it,” he said angrily, his eyes narrowed.
“But you’ve just been bragging about it,” Cami pointed out.
“What is your point?” he flashed back at her.
“My point is that I don’t think you were at these places coincidentally. And I’m sure that if we opened your devices, we’ll find proof of that,” Cami said. “That’s why you don’t want us looking, isn’t it? Because we’ll find something incriminating. Maybe a map pin drop, maybe a message, maybe a record of their real addresses or their IP address. Prove me wrong!” she challenged.
He hissed in a frustrated breath.
“Okay, if you want to know, I…I did know Adriana Knight, who was killed. I heard about her murder. I recognized the name immediately.”
Cami’s eyes widened. She felt Connor shift in the seat next to her, as if encouraged all over again by what might be the start of a confession. The fact he’d mentioned Adriana by name, when neither she nor Connor had referred to it, was a sign he was telling the truth and he really did know this woman.
“How did you know her?” he asked.
“Not that well. We’d messaged a while ago. We’d connected online, on social media, I think. I was in town, and I drove past her place. I was thinking of going in and meeting up. But it didn’t look like she was home, and then my client phoned wanting changes to the proposal. So, I didn’t go in. I never saw her at all. But yes, I was there, outside her place, deliberately. Wondering if I should call her. I know you guys will twist this all the way out of context. You’ll say I came here to kill her, and I didn’t. It wasn’t like that. And I’m not saying another thing. You wanted a confession? You got one, and it’s all there is.”
“Do you know Liz Hughes? Kate Warner?” Connor asked.
“I don’t know them.”
“Do you play Bordercross?” Cami asked.
“No. I don’t. You’ll find no evidence of it on my machine. I imagine that must be important to you? Maybe it should clue you in that you’re on the wrong track because the only games I have time for are the ones I work on professionally. I’ve never played Bordercross. Never worked on it, either.”
There was silence in the room for a while.
“Take a moment. We’ll be back,” Connor said.
They stood up and left.
Connor looked tired, Cami realized. It was getting toward evening. It felt like they’d spent hours in there with this man, talking in circles and getting nothing definite, apart from that he’d wanted to meet up with one of the victims.
But as Cami thought about the situation, she suddenly wondered if there was something else she could try in the meantime. Something else she could do.
It wouldn’t hurt to try it. It would take only a few minutes to set up. And it could run, innocently, while she was back in the interrogation room questioning Leeming.
If he was guilty, then it was just a question of time.
But if he was not guilty and he was just a man with no people skills and a bad attitude, then Cami wanted to try an alternative plan.
Something Leeming himself had said had made her think of it. He’d mentioned the game, and that it was clearly an important part of the whole investigation. He’d said he hadn’t played it and she had believed him. He might be lying, but she didn’t think so. He seemed too smart for such a lie.
With that in mind, Cami had come up with another idea. A bold, reckless idea that might very well fail, but might just possibly get them further. Because without a doubt, the killer was in the game. Those taunting avatar visuals had confirmed it.
She wanted to access the game, create a character, and see if she could attract the killer’s eye, and set herself up as his prey.