bottle of Coke under his arm. He reaches into his pocket and

pulls out my keys. ‘Might make it easier for you getting in and out.

Saves breaking more windows.’

‘Seriously, Carl, this isn’t a good time for me,’ I say, taking my keys off him.

‘Spare me the bullshit. This place hasn’t had any food in it for a long time. Except for this kind. You’ve got enough pizza boxes stacked in your kitchen to build a fort.’

My stomach starts to growl and my mouth waters.

‘I was going to bring beer,’ he says, reaching under his arm and grabbing the Coke, ‘but something told me that was a bad idea.’

‘You’re a real funny guy’

We move through to the dining room. I grab some plates and

a couple of glasses. The pizza has a range of different types of meat on it, so between that and the Coke I reckon I’ll get the nutritional value I need for the day.

‘So why are you here?’

‘Look, Tate, Landry can be a real arsehole, but that doesn’t

mean he doesn’t have a point.’

‘Which is?’

‘The fact you’ve become a real mess.’

“I’m in the process of changing that.’

He looks around the room, absorbing the comment. “I guess

you are.’

‘That’s what life-changing moments will do to you.’

‘And what was that?’ he asks.

‘What do you think?’

‘The accident,’ he says, and he’s right — it was the accident more than it was being taken into the woods, or being framed for murder.

‘It’s kind of ironic,’ he adds.

I know what he’s getting it. He’s saying that if it hadn’t been for me driving through that intersection and hitting that car, I would now be in jail. I’d have been arrested for murder. He’s

saying that picking up the bottle and getting hammered was the only thing that kept the frame job on me from being complete. It all comes back to that word luck.

‘Did you really think I did it?’

‘Sure we did. Until the weapon showed up. That threw a

spanner in the works. Or a hammer, I guess, in this case. It messed everything up. So you were lucky’

“I shouldn’t have needed to be lucky. I didn’t kill the guy and that should have been enough.’

‘Come on, you know sometimes that isn’t enough.’

‘So why are you here, other than to make sure I’m eating

okay?’

‘How long’s it been since we hung out, Tate?’

‘Probably around the same time you stopped calling me. Hell,

it was the same time everybody stopped. If I remember correctly, it was around when Emily died.’

‘That had nothing to do with it.’

‘Then what was it?’

‘It was Quentin James. Nobody believes he ran. We all know

you killed him. But without a body, without any proof…’

“I didn’t kill him.’

‘Hey I’d have killed him. Any one of us would have — and

that’s why none of us looked real hard into finding him. It just sucked that it had to be you. And none of us wanted to hear you say it. What would have happened if over a few beers one night you told me what you’d done? What then? No, none of us could

call you, Tate. It was the only way. It was safer. And not just for you, for us.’

I don’t answer him. I’m not sure if he’s made a valid point

or whether he’s just made up an excuse that sounds believable. I guess if I were in his situation I’d have done the same thing.

We sit in silence for a few minutes, eating our pizza and getting through our Cokes. The Coke tastes different without bourbon

added to it.

‘Tell me something,’ I say, finishing one slice and getting ready to start another. ‘Bruce Alderman. Did you ever look at him for the murders?’

‘We looked at everybody’

‘Yeah, but how much did you look at him?’

‘Not as much as his Father.’

‘Which father?’ I ask.

If you’re trying to get at something, Tate, just spell it out.’

“I didn’t mean his priest.’

He sets down his pizza. ‘Who told you?’

“That Bruce and Sidney weren’t related? I’ve known from the

beginning. Do you know who the real father is?’

He picks up his slice and starts back in on it. ‘Tracey told you, that’s what I think. Probably recently too. Maybe today’

‘How’d you figure it out?’ I ask.

‘Probably the same way you did. You want to share first?’

‘Come on, Carl. You wouldn’t have come around unless you

had something for me.’

And you need to stop reading things into situations that aren’t there. I don’t have anything for you. I came around to check in on you.’

“I appreciate that,’ I say, ‘but come on, just give me that one thing. You know we fucked up two years ago. You know we could have stopped this, and three more girls would still be alive for it. I can’t let it go.’

He sits his pizza back down. “I’m surprised it took you this long to play that card,’ he says.

I don’t answer. I just wait him out and he carries on.

‘Like I said, we were looking at everybody, right? A case this big, all those girls — we’re gonna run all the DNA we can get hold of. Absolutely we’re gonna do that.’

And Alderman agreed to that?’

‘No, he didn’t agree. He didn’t even know. He came down to

identify his son’s body. When he took a swing at you, he hit the wall, right? That gave us his blood. We threw it into the database we were building.’

And?’

‘And the results are still out on DNA. Come on, Tate, this

shit still takes a couple of months to get back to us. Nothing has changed there. But blood tests proved the two Aldermans weren’t biologically related.’

‘Why’d you test?’

‘Like I said, all that stuff just gets done, right?’

‘What about Father Julian? You checking to see if his DNA

shows up anywhere it shouldn’t?’

“how did I know you were going to ask that?’

‘Well?’

‘You’ve had plenty of opportunities to tell us about Father

Julian, Tate. You kept refusing. But, like I say, we’re still waiting for DNA results.’

‘Father Julian was Bruce’s real father, wasn’t he?’

‘What makes you say that?’

I think about what Father Julian said about Bruce being like a son to him. A hunch.’

‘Don’t know. It’s quicker to disprove parenting through blood

comparisons, which we’ve done. But it’s going to take longer to confirm. We’ll know soon.’

“How soon?’

‘We’ll know when we know. That’s just the way it is.’

I wish testing was as quick as it is on TV It’s not. It’s about eight weeks of sitting around waiting while the specimens are sent out, tested, re-tested and sent back.

‘You’re going to compare the DNA you’ve been collecting

against the samples found at crime scene in the church?’ I ask.

‘Gee, why didn’t we think of that? Christ, I didn’t realise the impact of you leaving the force.’

“Yeah, good one, Carl.’

Tou fucked up,’ Schroder says.

‘What?’

‘This whole thing. You fucked up. And it’s only a matter of time until we find Sidney Alderman.’

‘When you do, can you ask him about Father Julian? Maybe he

knows something.’

“Yeah, I’ll make sure I do that. He wrap his hands around a crystal ball. See if that’ll help the conversation. It sure has to be better than this.’ He swallows the last of his drink, then stands up.

I walk him to the door.

On the step he turns around and faces me. ‘You know his wife

died in an accident, right?’

He knows I do. I found the article online and printed off a copy It was pinned to my wall with all the others.

‘What of it?’

‘With everything that’s going on, some bright spark had the

idea that maybe there was something more to her death.’

‘You’re kidding,’ I say, suddenly worried about where this is

going.

“I knope. It’s bullshit, right? It’s a stupid idea. But the decision has come down from the top. One of those dot the i’s and cross the Ts that’s going to cost time and money and get no result. The upshot is we’re digging her up on Monday’