Page 43 of So Deadly
“And the only time she showed real emotion was when she talked about losing Princess.Even when she was talking about wanting to kill the woman responsible for killing her, it seemed almost rehearsed.Like she was an AI reading the sentences.And the way she paused and furrowed her brow?It was like she had an earpiece in, and someone was feeding her the answers.It just didn’t make any sense.She wasn’t behaving right.”
“I don’t know that I agree,” Jessica said.“She smiled, frowned, sniffled, wiped tears from her eyes.”
“Yeah, but the pauses.The furrowed brow.It was…”
Faith couldn’t find the word, so Jessica found another.“It was timid.Scared.Awkward.Probably caught off guard by the fact that the freaking FBI was in her living room with a K9 asking her about two murders and an attempted murder.”
“Did she give Jenkins an alibi for the first two attacks?”Faith asked.
Jessica sighed.“No, I don’t believe so, but not everyone has alibis for every second of every day.That’s the problem with alibis.Most people don’t have security cameras, and plenty of them live alone where no one could verify where they are for half their days.”
“Yeah, I get that.I just… Call it a hunch.”
Jessica sighed again.“I respect your hunches most times, Faith, but this one’s hard for me to come around to.She had an undecorated house and yard, a timid demeanor and a breathy voice.She hesitated before answering very alarming questions and only showed strong emotion when she talked about her brutally killed dog.None of that screams killer to me.In fact, the timidity… I mean,thatseemed real.Didn’t it seem real to you?”
“Plenty of serial killers seemed timid when they weren’t killing people.Plenty of themweretimid.”
“Yeah, but not the same way she was timid.”
Faith frowned and poked at the remainder of her bowl.She wasn’t hungry anymore.
“Answer me honestly, Faith.Does Jennifer Suleiman strike you as someone who could attack a big dangerous man like Robert Crawford in such a vicious manner?”
Faith shook her head slowly.“No.”
“Me either.And we searched her house.I doubt like hell she had time to clean things so well that Turk couldn’t pick it up with his nose and a full team of forensic investigators couldn’t find anything anywhere that connects her to the murder.”
“Probably not,” Faith admitted.“But she could have ditched everything somewhere else.Aside from the poncho, that would only be a pair of boots, maybe socks, pants.”
“So, she slinked back to her house in her underwear?”
Faith’s frown deepened, and she poked at her food again.
“It sucks, Faith,” Jessica said sympathetically.“It really does.But she’s not the killer.”
Jessica was right.At least, everything she said was right.So why couldn’t Faith shake the sense that she was wrong, that Jennifer Suleiman was now sitting in her home laughing at the foolish FBI agents and their dumb dog that she had just fooled?
“Turk didn’t seem suspicious, did he?”
Faith looked over at her dog, who was currently being hugged by four different children at once.Rather than seem bothered by their attention, Turk looked like he was having the time of his life.He looked at Faith and dropped his tongue in an excited pant.
Faith smiled at him.“No,” she told Jessica.“He didn’t.”
Jessica smiled and squeezed Faith’s shoulder.“I really think we’re looking for a male suspect.”
Faith started so suddenly that Turk leaped to his feet, eliciting cries of alarm from the children and their parents.“The shoes!”she said, loudly enough that Jessica looked anxiously around the restaurant and signaled for Faith to lower her voice.
“The shoes,” Faith repeated, lowering herself to her chair but keeping an intense look on Jessica.“I forgot to ask her shoe size.”
Jessica sighed.“Six,” she said resignedly.“I checked when we were searching the house.”
“The killer wore a woman’s size six.”
“Plenty of people wear a woman’s size six.”
“Plenty ofwomen,” Faith said.
“Men can wear women’s sizes too.I’ve seen plenty of men in women’s clothing.”
