‘I don’t think so.’

‘Okay, what’s your problem? Why, suddenly, aren’t you sure?’ Maggie winced as she spoke. ‘Sorry. This sucker hurts.’ She flipped open a prescription bottle of pills and dry-swallowed one. ‘Percocet. I’m popping them like M&Ms.’

‘Should you even be walking around?’

‘Yeah, the doc said it was good for me.’ She shifted position to relieve pressure on her right leg. ‘Anyway, you were going to expound on your theory of Kelly’s possible innocence.’

McCabe moved behind Bill Fortier’s desk and sat. ‘A couple of things bother me about Kelly being the bad guy. Obviously, the MO’s one of them. The whole scene at the Fish Pier was pure show biz. It was too cute by half. It still doesn’t seem to be the kind of thing Kelly would do.’

‘You explained it pretty well in the interview room. Convinced me. Besides, people sometimes act out of character.’

‘Yes, they do,’ McCabe admitted, ‘and maybe that’s what’s going on here.’

‘You said there were two reasons. What’s the other?’

‘The phone message. There was something we left off when we let Kelly listen to it in there just now. Something I didn’t think about till that very minute.’

‘What?’

‘According to the Verizon computer voice, the call was received on Tuesday, December twentieth, at 6:44 P.M. The whole message says, “I know what you’ve been doing, you asshole, and you’re not going to get away with it. We need to talk. And don’t try ignoring me. I’ll try your other line.”’

‘Yeah, so?’

‘“I’ll try your other line”? That means she called the island number first. Why? Kelly says he hardly ever uses the place in winter.’

‘Maybe Lainie didn’t know that. Or maybe he told her he would be there that particular day,’ said Maggie.

‘Maybe, but why would he be? It was a Tuesday, and on Tuesday nights Kelly’s usually working at Sanctuary House. I think Lainie would have known that and called him there first. Or called his cell phone. The island phone should have been the last place she called, not the first.’

‘It should be easy to check if he was at Sanctuary House that Tuesday,’ said Fraser. ‘Also easy to check his cell messages.’

‘I agree. Let’s do it. However, I’ve also got a small problem with the rest of the message. The first time we listened to her say, “I know what you’ve been doing, you asshole, and you’re not going to get away with it,” we were at Kelly’s cottage. Ten minutes later we find the boy’s frozen and sexually assaulted body on the edge of the property. It was only natural to assume that abusing Callie Connor was what Lainie meant by “I know what you’ve been doing.”’

‘It was – and it is. We were right. It fits,’ said Maggie.

‘Why? Because Kelly’s gay?’

‘No. Not just that. You told me Kelly was abused himself when he was a kid. We both know most adult abusers were abused themselves as children. Besides, whether it was the first number she called or the last, the simple fact is that Lainie’s message was on Kelly’s phone.’

‘Yeah, but you know what suddenly struck me while we were playing it for him?’

‘No, but I have a feeling you’re going to tell me.’

‘It struck me that maybe it wasn’t Lainie who left it there.’

‘What do you mean? We know it was Lainie. It’s her voice.’

‘Yes, it’s her voice – but what if she originally left the message on somebody else’s voice mail or message machine and not on Kelly’s? Now let’s suppose that person – whoever he was – decided to kill Goff to keep her from revealing what she knew. Let’s further suppose that that person – whoever he was – decided to frame Kelly for Goff’s murder. Wouldn’t it be a good idea for that person to re-record Lainie’s original message onto Kelly’s island voice mail? Easy enough to do. Especially since she never called him by name. Just called him “you asshole.” Re-recording it onto the island phone instead of his cell or Sanctuary House phone is a brilliant move because Kelly never uses the place this time of year and almost certainly won’t check or erase the message before we hear it.’

Maggie nodded thoughtfully. ‘Interesting. He re-records the message where he knows we’re bound to search,’ said Maggie, ‘where he knows we’ll find the quote from Amos and where he knows we’ll find the boy’s body.’

‘Sounds like you’re agreeing with McCabe,’ Fraser said to Maggie, ‘that Kelly’s not the killer.’

‘Well, I’m agreeing with McCabe that he might not be the killer. I’m not totally convinced yet one way or the other.’

McCabe got up and moved to the window. He stood looking out, watching the light Sunday morning traffic flow by on Franklin Arterial.

‘What’s that twisted brain of yours thinking about now?’ asked Maggie.

‘I was just wondering exactly what Lainie was referring to when she said “I know what you’ve been doing.”’

Maggie shrugged. ‘Presumably to the fact that Kelly – or possibly the real killer – was sexually abusing Callie Connor.’

McCabe turned and looked at her. ‘How would Lainie have known about that?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Maggie.

‘Kelly wouldn’t have told her if it was him. Neither would some other so-called real killer. So who did?’

‘Connor lived at Sanctuary House. Lainie worked with the kids there. Maybe he told her himself.’

‘Maybe. But Lainie only worked with the girls.’

‘He still could have told her. Or he may have told one of the girls.’

‘Again, maybe. But here’s another thought. What if the real killer was abusing one or more of the kids, but it wasn’t Callie Connor he was abusing. In fact, what if it wasn’t a boy at all. What if the real killer isn’t gay but heterosexual and the person he was abusing was a girl. Or maybe girls plural.’

‘That makes no sense, McCabe. If Lainie was confronting him about abusing a girl, why would he kill Connor and not the girl?’

‘It does make sense if his goal is to make us think John Kelly, the gay ex-priest who was abused as a child, is the murderer. If he was using Connor’s death as nothing more than another piece of carefully orchestrated misdirection to push the investigation in Kelly’s direction.’

‘Then he would have also had to kill the girl who told Lainie,’ said Cleary.

‘Yes, he would. Or girls. Plural.’

‘If he did,’ said Maggie, ‘their bodies may not be as easy to find as Connor’s was.’

‘You guys are blowing my mind,’ said Fraser. ‘As of now this is all pure conjecture. And, if you’ll pardon my French, maybe pure bullshit. As of now all the evidence for all the killings still points straight to John Kelly.’

Fortier’s phone rang. Cleary picked it up. ‘Lieutenant Fortier’s office. Cleary speaking. Hey, Joe.’ Pause. ‘Really?’ Pause. ‘Interesting.’ Pause. ‘You’re sure the final reads will back up the prelims? Okay. Yeah, I’ll let ’em know.’ Cleary hung up. ‘Well Sergeant, I hate to throw a monkey wrench into your Sherlock Holmes conjectures, but –’

‘But Pines says the semen on Kelly’s sheets came from the kid?’ asked McCabe.

‘Yeah, some of it did. But not all of it. Some of it came from Kelly himself. None of it comes from some unknown mystery killer. Does that convince you Kelly’s the guy?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe it’s Kelly. Maybe not.’

‘If not Kelly,’ asked Maggie, ‘then who?’

‘I don’t know, but there are two people who might be able to tell us.’

‘Yes.’ Maggie nodded. ‘Unfortunately, at the moment, Abby can’t and Barker won’t.’

‘Did you ever get the search warrant for Barker’s place?’

‘Krickstein signed it this morning. Said we could pick it up anytime.’

‘Good. Let’s pay Andy a little visit. Would you like me to get you a wheelchair?’

‘You mean like Ironside?’

‘Sort of. Except you’re way better looking than Raymond Burr.’

‘I don’t know. He was cute in an ugly sort of way. Anyway, I’d rather hobble. It hurts too much to sit down.’