Raney & Levine by J. A. Schneider Page B

killing the child Jenna carried would save her from
     eternal hellfire?”
    “No! I never would have done that!”
    “Sure you would’ve,” Zeinuc said sarcastically, inventing
     like the good interviewer that he was. “Last June she was only three months
     along, so if you got her to abort, convince her to confess
really sincerely
,
     she could’ve been absolved, right? Isn’t absolution terrific?”
    “She hasn’t gone near confession in years.”
    An evasive non-answer.
    A nurse ran past them carrying orange juice for Susan
     Sutter, hovered over her while Paul Sutter used their glucose meter to prick
     her finger. The trio grimly checked the results. Susan drank; lay her head
     tearfully on her husband’s shoulder.
    And Connor’s phone vibrated again. A voice on the other end
     told him Walsh’s alibi didn’t check out. He worked in a Greenwich Village
     appliance store, but had taken an hour off for a “late lunch” around when Jenna
     was attacked. “Not very bright, huh?” the voice finished.
    Connor hung up.
    “Where’d you have your late lunch?” he asked.
    Cocky: “Phil’s Deli, I’m sure I’m on their surveillance
     tape.”
    The detectives traded looks again.
Maybe a planner after
     all. Maybe he ate real fast…
    Connor gave Walsh a solid stare. “So you’re a devout
     Catholic?”
    “Yes.”
    “Your address here lists Macdougal Street in Greenwich
     Village. How long have you lived there?”
    Uncomfortable: “Five months.”
    “And before that?”
    “Staten Island.”
    “Ah! So five months ago you moved to the Village, which
     isn’t exactly known for its churchgoers. Why is that?”
    A shrug. “It’s where I found work.”
    “It wasn’t because your sister lived in the Village and you
     wanted to keep tabs on her?”
    “That’s ridiculous.”
    “There aren’t appliance stores on Staten Island?”
    “Nobody was hiring.”
    “But there are snakes, aren’t there? Lots of garter snakes
     in Staten Island?”
    For the first time Walsh locked eyes with Connor, screwing
     his face. “
Snakes?
What are you
talking
about?” He looked
     genuinely confused.
    Zienuc added helpfully, “Those snakes are common. They’re
     all over.”
    Connor fumed and took another tack. “Maybe this
isn’t
just about the baby,” he said sharply. “Jenna was hit hard on the head. So hard
     it surprised the doctors the blow didn’t kill her. So this was personal. You
     couldn’t control her anymore. That made you seriously mad at her, didn’t it?”
    “
No
.” A vein throbbed on Walsh’s temple.
    “It drove you crazy.” Connor started inventing too. “You’d
     assigned yourself to protect her soul, and failed. Now I’m a little rusty here,
     it’s been a long time since catechism, but doesn’t that mean you too failed in
     your holy mission?”
    “What? No!”
    “Sure it does,” Zienuc said, back to annoyingly tapping his
     ballpoint. “You failed to save her soul, which means she’s sent
you
to
     hell too.”
    “No it
doesn’t
.” Walsh’s face contorted. “You’re
     twisting everything! I didn’t
do
this!”
    “Is your wife a good Catholic by the way?”
    “Of course!”
    The nurse just leaving Susan Sutter asked them to keep it
     down. Connor apologized, and said they were done anyway.
    “Okay Brian,” he said. “You can leave for now, but we’re not
     done with you or your wife. Tell her to come in to be interviewed, or we’ll
     come to her. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”

11
    D avid slammed a locker door closed.
“Please
move
     in with me,” he pleaded, intense, uptight.
    “I’ve already moved in with you,” Jill said, just as tense.
     She yanked on a new scrub top, pulled her long dark hair out of it and let it
     drop down her shoulders.
    David exhaled hard. “I mean, full time. A few clothes in a
     drawer doesn’t mean you’re moved in.”
    They had showered and changed in the women’s locker room,
     where all such traffic had been