Chapter 59 #3
His words are drowned in a feral bellow of frustration as Graham tries to move freely, despite being shackled to the table, the clink of metal chains adding to his growing frustration.
“No! No, no, Harlow didn’t know my mother.
She shouldn’t have even been speaking about her.
Harlow is the opposite of everything my mother was. Harlow sees me for who and what I am.”
“Exceptional. You want Dr. Lane to think you’re exceptional,” I push.
Graham grits his teeth as he scowls. “I don’t have to want it—I already know she thinks I’m exceptional.”
I shake my head slowly. “That may have been what you told yourself, but that’s not what she told me.”
“Bullshit! If it weren’t for the obstacles in our way, we would have been together a long time ago.
” His fists bang the table so loud it causes his attorney to jump, but I saw the outburst simmering just below his facade of control.
I lift a hand to the viewing window, letting anyone watching to know that we are good in here and don’t need assistance.
“What obstacles?” I ask.
“No, you don’t understand our relationship.” He avoids my questions as he rambles on. “There’s no way you can understand the complexities of what Harlow and I have together.”
“What you have, or what you wish you could have? Sounds like you and Harlow saw things differently. I think the reality is that you don’t actually know her, Dr. Tremblay.” I push.
“I don’t know her. Me? What do you even know? You’re just her supervisor.”
“Did it bother you that you couldn’t control Dr. Lane?” Tara’s tone matches her previous statements, but the question is loaded.
The color rises in his cheeks as his eyes narrow on Tara. “That’s making an incorrect assumption.”
She tilts her head and leans in slightly, mirroring his body language. “How so?”
His voice drops as he answers, but there’s a slight tremble to it. “Harlow is mine. I don’t have to control what is mine. She yields to what I want.”
“She … yields?” I shake my head. “That doesn’t really sound like Harlow, though, Dr. Tremblay. Do you get where I’m confused?” I add as Graham whips his head toward me, spearing me with a death glare.
“You don’t know her. You have no idea what I’ve done for her.”
“How did you help Harlow, Dr. Tremblay?” Tara softly asks.
His voice is slightly steadier as he struggles with the composure he’s barely hanging onto. “I helped make her career what it is. I did everything for her. Anyone that fails to appreciate the role I’ve played is a fool.”
“And Harlow is no fool,” I supply.
“Never. Not my Harlow. When she reached out to get my opinion on the CPM that she was creating? I knew she finally saw it. I knew she understood we were on equal footing, and I knew, eventually, she’d reach out about these cases, too.”
“Which cases?” Tara asks.
“The Carnation Killer ones. It’s a perfect puzzle for someone with a sophisticated and beautiful mind like Harlow’s.”
“So, it was the perfect gift for her then?” Tara adds.
Graham smiles as his eyes light up. “Hypothetically. Only someone like Harlow could fully appreciate the intentionality and intricate attention to detail something like that would require. In fact, one could consider it a grand gesture like in those silly books she loves to read.”
“I think you put a lot of effort into creating this for Harlow, but she didn’t react the way you expected or wanted her to,” I suggest. “And things don’t go well if someone doesn’t appreciate your actions, do they, Dr. Tremblay?”
He schools his face to look unbothered, but the pulse point in his neck is fluttering at such a high-rate speed that it exposes the truth. This man is anything but calm, cool, and collected.
I shrug as I pivot the direction of the interrogation. “What part of the murders do you think made it perfect for her? Or was it one particular murder, like maybe the one in Boston or New York, or was it the murders you committed in Salem or Las Vegas?”
He bristles at that as his attorney interrupts, insisting Graham pleads the fifth, and Graham swats his hand away.
“You have no proof. You have nothing. You are nothing.”
“Interesting choice of words. Would your mother say DNA is nothing?”I ask, barely keeping the smile off my face. Asshole doesn’t even see it coming.
“What do you mean? Of course, she never would have said something like that. DNA is everything.” Graham scowls.
“Then, Graham, please, listen carefully when I say we. Have. Everything.” I let the intelligent doctor connect the dots.
“What? No. That’s not possible. Where is Harlow? I demand to see Dr. Lane immediately. I’ve put up with your dog and pony show, and I want to speak to Harlow.”
His delusion is running rampant, but it’s time to give him a healthy dose of reality.
“That’s not happening. But I can tell you what is going to happen right now: two technicians are going to come in here with a signed court order for your DNA, and I highly suspect it will match the DNA left at The Carnation Killer’s scenes. ”
His face pales, but his bravado hardly deflates. “Impossible. You’re bluffing.”
“Are you sure? Are you positive there wasn’t any trace DNA left behind?” Tara asks innocently.
“I would never be so foolish! I wore gloves!” Graham yells at Tara as spittle flies from his mouth, but as soon as he realizes what he just said, he immediately adds, “Hypothetically!”
But it’s too late.
“It’s a good thing that DNA is proven science instead of hypothetical theory, asshole,” I say as I push back from the table, Tara mirroring my movements.
“No, you said Harlow would come in after I talked to you!” Graham cries out.
“No, Graham, I didn’t. I said it depends on how productive our conversation was and that would determine if coming in would be worth her time.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, that regardless of what you told us today, Harlow was never coming here to speak with you. There is nothing about you that is worth her time right now, and the only time she will ever spend in the same room as you again is when she sees you in court.” I school my features as his eyes widen at the realization that Harlow is not coming.
I start to stand and Tara mirrors my movement. I could end it here, but I just can’t help myself. “Today wouldn’t work for her, anyway. She’s a bit busy with her fiancé.”
The mention of Ryan brings a new tidal wave of fury.
“No, she has to be here. Is she on the other side of that mirror? She wouldn’t miss this.
She’s here to talk to me, I know it. Harlow?
!” Graham is now yelling with widened eyes, twisting in his chair to try and peer through the two-way mirror as his attorney is shaking his head, looking up at the ceiling.
Graham’s glare snaps back to me as I push my chair in.
He slams his fists on the table in rage.
“You don’t get it. You don’t know what I’ve done for her.
I helped make her career what it is—who she is.
I gave her the perfect complex case for her beautiful mind to solve.
I did everything for her. You don’t know her like I do! She’s mine!”
I open the door to the interrogation room before turning back to Graham one last time. “No, I think you have this all backwards, Dr. Tremblay. Despite your claims, I do know my friend. I know her quite well, and in fact, soon enough, we will be family.”
He stills at that. “What do you mean?”
“Huh. You didn’t make the connection?” I shrug. “Harlow is engaged to my wife’s brother. She’s going to be Harlow Callahan after they get married.”
With that, I turn and let the door start to close. The litany of curse words spewing from Graham’s mouth are mostly silenced as the clicks shut behind us.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but you look pretty happy with how that just went,” Tara says as we enter the elevator, with Mason and Kelly following us.
I nod. “Honestly, I think it went about as well as it could have. And the best part?”
“What’s that?” Tara asks as she presses the button for our floor.
“Harlow didn’t have to listen to it, and he will never hurt her again.”