“No,” Laura said. “You dated Alana Garland?”
“Only once!” Schafer cried. “It didn’t—we weren’t—it was only one date. And then we didn’t go on any more.”
“Did that make you angry?” Nate asked.
“It was years ago!” Schafer protested, looking between them as if begging for reason.
“Did it all come to a head recently, and you wanted to get revenge on the people who didn’t pay you enough attention?” Laura asked, taking a wild stab in the dark. “Elias never saw you as enough of a friend, Alana didn’t want to date you—what was Dina’s crime? Not giving you the time of day even though you had a crush on her?”
“No!” Schafer almost exploded. “No, I’m not like that! Alana and me, we just didn’t work—I didn’t want to go on another date either!”
“Why?” Nate asked. He and Laura were batting questions around like ping pong balls, keeping Schafer always on the defensive, volleying between them. “What happened on that date?”
“Nothing!” Schafer protested. “Nothing happened, it just wasn’t fun enough!”
“Was it something like this?” Laura asked, slapping down one of the aces they’d managed to put up their sleeves while they waited to interview him.
Schafer stared down at the piece of paper for a minute, uncomprehending. Then he read enough of it to know what it was, and his eyes widened.
“That…that was—” he started.
“What?” Laura asked. “What are you going to say to justify the fact that a tourist reported you to the local police for sexual harassment?”
Schafer blinked, shaking his head. He looked like a man who was losing hope. “It was a misunderstanding,” he said. “I didn’t…I didn’t mean to touch her. It was an accident, and she didn’t give me a chance to explain.”
Laura shook her head, scoffing. “My favorite excuse for being a sexual predator: I slipped, and my hand went there by accident,” she said. “Was that how it was with Alana? Did you go a bit too far, and she didn’t like it?”
“Nothing happened with Alana,” he said. “I’ve barely even thought about her since then—it’s just a small town, and we’re around the same age, that’s all! It’s not unusual. I bet she’s dated half the men that fit those criteria.”
“So, she’s a slut?” Laura replied, raising an eyebrow in challenge. Not only was he making himself out to be a scumbag, but the kind that really got her goat. “Is that why you had to punish her?”
“I…” Schafer said, shaking his head slowly.
“Tell us about this,” Nate said, taking another piece of paper from their folder and putting it in front of him.
This was Laura’s personal favorite.
As much as Sheriff Landyn claimed to have done the checks on Schafer’s background, Laura had wanted to do it again herself—just to make sure.
And boy, had they struck gold.
“I, um…” Schafer looked at the piece of paper, his eyes sliding down it. Reading the words like ‘outstanding warrant’ and ‘arrest immediately on return to Germany’—and the kicker: ‘sexual assault on a minor.’ He looked up at Nate and Laura with a much more solemn expression. “I would like to exercise my right to a lawyer.”
Laura looked at Nate. He was smirking. She well understood why: Schafer was guilty. This would mean a delay, but if he had a good lawyer, they would tell him to confess. It was the only way to save his bacon if he was guilty. The only way to avoid the harshest possible sentence and maybe get himself a spot in a prison that wasn’t completely awful.
Though, given what he had done, it was a pretty slim chance.
Or…what the killer had done. Because Laura was getting a vibe from him that didn’t mesh with what she expected. As far as she knew, the killings had no sexual elements whatsoever. For a man to graduate from sexual assault to murder and yet therenotto be a sexual element in the deaths…
It was unusual, to say the least. Maybe even unprecedented.
“We’ll make sure you have someone appointed to you,” Laura said smoothly, standing up. “It may be a bit of a wait. In the meantime, if you feel like you want to talk again, all you have to do is call out. We’ll be listening.”
She left the room and waited for Nate to join her in the corridor.
And as soon as he did, he lifted his hand for a high five. “Case closed,” he said, with a grin.
Laura looked at his hand and hesitated.