CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
It was as good a time as any to take a break, and neither Coates nor Smith argued when Keen appeared with a tray of hot tea and biscuits.
The demonhunter used his easy charm to convince the two officers to vacate the interview room.
Let the suspect stew a bit, eh? Give him a moment to reflect on the seriousness of the situation.
A little time in a cold, uncomfortable room, hungry and tired, might be the final straw.
Men sometimes broke for just a blanket or a sip of hot coffee.
But Hero wasn’t trying to break Jerry Braun; she just wanted the truth, and every peacekeeper in town was currently trying to prevent her from finding it. Best to get them out of the way, then.
She and Keen made sure the observation room was empty and then locked the door behind them.
Coates and Smith had taken their tea to the bullpen, eager to brag about their progress, never mind that they hadn’t made any.
The other PKs were happy to listen and share tips, and no one even noticed when Hero and Keen locked themselves in with the suspect.
“Jerry,” Keen said softly, offering his friend the first sincerely kind voice he’d probably heard in hours. Hero approved; they weren’t here to force him into a confession.
Braun jerked at his name, cowering as if he expected violence – sensible, given the tirades of abuse and threats he’d endured. He pulled himself up, blinking dazedly. “Ander?” he said. Hope trembled in his voice. “Is it really you?”
“It’s me. We need to talk, Jerry, and we need to talk fast. You have to tell us everything.”
His face collapsed, red eyes filling with tears. “I’ve told you everything . I swear to the Goddess, I didn’t kill anyone!”
“Of course not,” Hero said briskly, coming to stand beside Keen.
Slowly, she unwound the tattered and stained bandages from her hands.
The burns were half healed, but the wraps were driving her crazy.
“We know this is all nonsense. Nevertheless, we need to know what you’ve been up to with Sister Catarine. Do you understand me?”
He stared at her, face pale beneath his full, dark beard.
She kept her glasses firmly in place, not wishing to distress him any further.
It wasn’t lost on her how her presence alone affected people, but Jerry Braun knew her – sort of.
He blinked rapidly, his eyes dropping. With a shudder, he pulled himself together.
“I tried to explain to – to those officers,” he began, voice raw from weeping.
“They wouldn’t hear me, just kept accusing me of…
” He blanched, swaying slightly. “But it wasn’t like that between us. We – we were working together.”
Hero didn’t want to lead him, but she did give him a little push. “This is about Bright Renewal Academy, isn’t it?”
He nodded, looking wretched. “Everything leads back to that place,” he whispered. “Cat – the sister – came to me . She’d seen my flyers plastered outside Clem Prep and wanted to ask me questions. About the kids gone missing.”
“What did she want to know, exactly?” Keen prompted when Jerry grew quiet.
“Their ages, how many were missing and for how long. She wanted to talk to some of the families, to see if any of them were willing to share their concerns. I didn’t see the harm in it.” He looked up at them pleadingly. “She was a Celestial nun! She was someone important, here to help us. Finally.”
“Did she talk to any of the families?” Hero asked.
“She tried the Grahams first. They have a son inside – Cole. He was writing his sister letters; he was too angry with his parents for sending him away to bother writing to them. Catarine had one of his letters, all marked up with deciphering because the boy wrote in code, apparently. She wanted to tell the parents he was in danger and force them to remove him from the Academy. At first, they refused – they didn’t believe her – but I think they were starting to wonder, to worry.
They finally agreed to meet with Catarine, at least.”
Hero grimaced. “She never got to that meeting, did she?”
Miserably, Braun shook his head. “She disappeared soon after. The letter vanished with her.”
“Did you know what the letter said?” Keen asked.
Braun swallowed. “There is a pit beneath Bright Renewal Academy,” he said, speaking slowly as if he were trying to picture words in his head.
“Deep and dark. It stinks of brimstone and rot. There are chains in the rocks. Chains with collars. Chains made of pale stone. Unnatural. Full of pale light. A sickly light. Except when the collar is placed around someone’s neck.
Then the links glow with an unholy brilliance.
The victims are drained of energy. Milked of their essence.
Only the strongest withstand it for long.
” He blinked rapidly as if coming out of a trance and stared up at them, eyes wide.
“That’s what Cole had written to his sister, but it was all laid out in nonsense words and backward talk. ”
“Cassie Graham decoded it for her,” Hero interjected, starting to see the pattern. Cole went to his sister for help, Cassie went to Catarine, and Catarine went to Braun because of his criticism of Bright Renewal. It made sense.
Jerry nodded. “Cassie was desperate, according to Catarine. She was going to go to her superiors if the Grahams wouldn’t cooperate.
But I warned her not to tell anyone about the letter.
She was already being harassed in her own school for speaking up about unpopular things, and now she was criticizing Bright Renewal.
People were leaving her little warning notes and other…
unsavory things. Dead rodents. Rotten meat.
I begged her to wait, to speak only to the Grahams. That’s why I asked her to come with me to the woods that night: I told her I’d bring the Grahams.”
“But you didn’t bring them, did you?”
“I had no choice but to lie. She was in grave danger, don’t you see? I only wanted to talk her out of going to her superiors.”
“She disappeared that night,” Hero pointed out sharply. If Jerry had lured her there to convince her of the danger, he might have led her right into it. “Did you leave her out there alone?”
“No!” He shook his head wildly, his trembling hands clutched into fists. “I’d never let anyone face such danger alone, much less Cat! She was the best of us. So very kind–” His words choked off.
Hero watched him fight off tears and her ire with him deepened. Dear Goddess, he’d been in love with her too. A very popular nun was Sister Catarine. “You escorted her home, then?”
His face turned red and he looked guilty. Some internal struggle had him suddenly squirming like a hooked fish.
“Tell us, Jerry,” Keen said softly. “Let us help you. Please.”
Braun looked at his old friend, finding a sympathetic soul in Keen’s kind expression. Hero was impressed; Keen had a knack for this.
“She – she came home with me, to my apartment,” he said at last in a rush, full of shame.
“I’d convinced her not to go to her superiors, but it took half the night.
By then, it was pitch dark and Catarine worried about returning to the convent so late at night with a strange man escorting her.
It seemed best for her to stay with me until morning, when she could return without being noticed. ”
“She spent the night with you?” Keen’s voice was remarkably even, considering how appalled he’d been by the idea of Catarine and Kellan carrying on together.
“Not like that! She stayed on the couch and left well before I woke up. I’m so sorry I lied about it, but you can see how it looks.”
Hero sighed and stepped back. It did look very, very bad.
No wonder he hadn’t spilled this part. A beautiful young woman – a woman he’d been clearly attracted to, judging by his letters – had slept on his couch, then subsequently disappeared.
But the letters had never been delivered, so Catarine had probably had no clue about his feelings.
Why else would she have dared stay in his apartment?
“So,” she said, drawing out the word as she pieced together a timeline. “She left your place sometime between midnight and…?”
“Dawn,” Jerry said immediately. “I woke up as the sky was just beginning to lighten. I went to check on her, and she was gone.”
“And you heard nothing? Saw nothing? Anything odd or out of place?”
He shook his head. “Everything was in order. She’d even folded the blankets I gave her.”
She shared another meaningful glance with Keen. “She was taken somewhere between the Jenny Wren and Clem Prep,” she said. “No wonder we found nothing incriminating in her apartment.”
Keen hesitated, seemingly torn. He stared at his friend, his brow wrinkled. “Did you rape her, Jerry?” His words were flat, emotionless.
Jerry didn’t seem particularly shocked by the question.
“No,” he said steadily. “I would never harm Cat, in any way. Never. But” – his calm shattered – “I got her killed! It’s my fault she was there!
It’s all my fault! I killed her! ” He buried his head in his arms, his hunched shoulders shaking with sobs.
Keen reached out to comfort him, laying a hand on his back. “Well,” he said to Hero, his expression grim. “What do we think?”
She opened her mouth and there was a click from the wall, a soft shuffling, then a muted voice came through the speaking tube. “Thank you, Inspector, DH. That’s just what we needed to hear,” said the disembodied voice of Officer Smith triumphantly.
“Wait, that wasn’t a confession!” Hero protested, taking a step toward the mirror. “Weren’t you listening? We have new information. Vital information!”
The door burst open and two uniforms crowded into the interrogation room, one of them carrying a pair of shackles.
Hero spun, her heart thundering, and tore off her glasses, letting her eyes whirl.
One of the uniforms backpedaled, but the other, undeterred, hauled Jerry to his feet and shackled his wrists together, giving Hero a sharp, warning look.
“Don’t interfere, Inspector. This one is going in a cell. ”
Hero seethed. “This is a mistake!”
“No,” Keen interjected, rising to pull her back – gently. Smart boy . “It’s all right, Inspector Viridian. Jerry will be safe enough in a cell. Right, Jerry? You’ll be okay for now, won’t you?”
Too stunned to speak, Jerry just stared at Keen. Terror lurked in his dark eyes. He managed a shaky nod, and in the next instant he was stumbling out between the two PKs.
When the door closed behind them, Hero turned to Keen. “We need to search the area near the Jenny Wren,” she said. “And we need to go into the woods behind it. That’s our crime scene.”
Keen grimaced. “That’s a lot of territory to cover for only two of us.”
“We have no choice, and we have no time. Once they draft a confession, they’ll force his signature, by trickery if necessary. We’re racing the hangman’s noose, DH Keen.”