CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO #2
Not because she was done. Because there was no value in showing how much ground had just given way beneath her.
She stood.
Vail had already opened his briefcase and was pulling out another pad. “I’ll be drafting a formal complaint regarding the stop, the detention, and the arrest. I’d advise your office to preserve every radio transmission and dash-cam recording associated with this afternoon.”
Connor had once told her there was no man more confident than a lawyer who smelled county-level panic.
He had been right about that, too.
Selena gathered her photographs into a neat stack. “We’re not finished.”
Croft looked up at her, still seated, still calm.
“Agent Raven,” he said, “I suspect you may be.”
She left before she said something she would regret.
The corridor outside felt too bright. Voices carried from the front desk. Boots squeaked somewhere on linoleum. Selena walked past it all without seeing much and pushed through the exterior door into the parking lot.
Cold air hit her face.
Only then did she stop.
The sheriff’s department lot was half full. Deputy SUVs. Civilian trucks. A rusted sedan that had probably been abandoned there after a custody dispute or a DUI arrest. Late afternoon light had thinned toward evening, washing everything in the tired color of old steel.
Selena stood beside the building and stared at the old concrete by her shoes.
She had been wrong before in her career. Every investigator had. But wrong in the early stages was one thing. Wrong after the arrest, after the chase, after all that certainty she had worn like armor, was something else.
But something else was going on inside of her.
She could feel it. Harlan County had been making its way back into her mind and bones with each passing hour.
She was carrying regret. Carrying unresolved memories.
She knew she needed to step back for a few hours, put it all into perspective.
A proper sleep sure would help. Only then could she serve the case as it needed.
The door opened behind her.
Connor stepped out, letting it shut quietly at his back.
He took one look at her and lost the remark he had probably been about to make.
“You okay?”
Selena almost laughed at the uselessness of the question.
Instead, she folded her arms and looked out across the lot. “I had him.”
Connor did not answer right away.
“I was sure,” she said. “Every road led back to him.”
“Every road led back to the revival.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No,” he said. “It isn’t, and we should be mindful of that.” Connor stood next to her, the wind ruffling his green sheriff’s coat.
She turned then, finally looking at him. “No. It’s him. It’s got to be. He used you.”
Connor’s brow furrowed. “What?”
“He saw you out there. At the fairgrounds. He saw your vehicle. He kept it in reserve until I pressed on Tara.” The words came faster now, harsher. “He sat in there and waited until the exact second it would do the most damage.”
Connor absorbed that without flinching. “I’m sorry if he saw me. But that doesn’t clear him or someone under him.”
“It clears him for one murder because we became inadvertent witnesses. The others then don’t follow.”
“I’ve got that warrant to get hold of the revival’s employee data,” Connor said.
“They’re handing the data over to us, but they’re dragging their heels.
That lawyer is slowing it down as much as possible.
They say it’ll take a day or two because they’re having problems with their cloud storage. Bullshit.”
“It’s something at least,” she said. “But if it’s Elias who’s behind this, then it won’t tell us much.”
“You don’t know it’s Croft; we can’t prejudice ourselves.”
Selena gave him a sour look. “Since when did you become the voice of reason?”
“Maybe you should get some sleep. You can’t have gotten much last night during the stakeout.”
Selena rubbed at the bridge of her nose with two fingers. Sleep deprivation had sharpened everything ugly and dulled everything useful. She hated that he could see it. Hated more that there was no hiding it.
“How were the people in that car on the road?” she asked.
“No major injuries,” he said. “Thankfully. I just took their statements, and the bus driver’s. The bus driver is being kept in custody. Croft won’t be though.”
“I don’t know where we go with this at the moment,” Selena said, annoyed that she’d voiced it out loud. She felt that made her weak. And weakness was something Selena had tried to fight ever since leaving Harlan County fifteen years ago.
Connor took a step closer, but not too close. “Then we pivot to something else.”
Her head came up. “To what?”
“To everyone around him.”
She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. “I just had the preacher himself in the room.”
“And he walked you right up to the edge of what he wanted you to know.” Connor’s voice stayed level. “So, stop staring at him and start at the edges.”
Tiredness made her defensive before the words were even done. “You think I haven’t considered that?”
“I think you’re too locked in on being right about Croft.”
Anger flickered. “I am right about Croft.”
“Maybe. But maybe not in the way you wanted.”
Selena let out a short breath that held no humor. “That’s supposed to help?”
“It’s supposed to get us moving. We need to try something else before another woman ends up murdered. We’re running out of time.”
The parking lot felt cold and quieter than usual.
Connor kept going.
“We go back through everyone connected to the revival. Not just Croft. The volunteers. The drivers. Security. Everyone. The regulars who follow them town to town.” He watched her face.
“If the sermons are drawing these women in, somebody in that orbit is seeing them and using that to identify who to strike. The killer must learn about them somehow. Socials maybe. Or maybe he’s just talking to them at prayer meetings. ”
Selena looked away.
Because he was making sense.
“I still feel Croft is at the center of it,” she said.
“Probably.”
“Then why are you talking like he’s irrelevant?”
“I’m not.” Connor’s voice tightened for the first time. “I’m talking like the people around him exist. And while we can’t get Croft, we might get something or someone else if we shake enough trees.”
“God, I hate being spoken down to by a sheriff,” she said angrily. “You know how many perps I’ve caught for the FBI? Cases far bigger and more complicated than anything you guys have seen or could even conceive of in Harlan.”
She saw something in his eyes. Hurt at the words. “I… I didn’t mean that.” She folded her arms harder. “I’m sorry. I think… I think I need rest. Just a couple of hours.”
“Selena. If things are getting to you…”
“I said I need rest.”
He stared at her.
Somewhere in that stare sat history and frustration and an understanding of her habits she had never managed to shake. He knew the difference between exhaustion and retreat. Knew when she was trying to step back and when she was trying to disappear into work by pretending not to.
“I’m not trying to prove you wrong,” he said at last. “I’m trying to help you be right.”
For a second she had no answer.
Then pride found one for her.
“I just need a few hours. Then I can come back stronger. I suggest you do the same.”
Connor’s jaw flexed once. “I’ll be here.”
The word held more irritation than agreement.
He turned toward the lot, then looked back over one shoulder.
“It’s going to take a while for the revival to hand over the employee records,” he said. “In the meantime, my department is piecing together a list from socials who attended there. I’ll interview the ones we identify. With or without you.”
Selena nodded. “I don’t have the energy for the fight. Fine. Do what you have to do.”
Connor headed back into the department, shoulders set, his footsteps unable to hide his anger; back toward the work while she remained outside with the evening wind moving at her coat and the sickening knowledge that she was beginning to come apart at the seams. Harlan County was winning.