Cody sat down hurriedly.
"Your movements yesterday and today. Where were you?"
"I - I was helping my mother with the horses."
"All day?"
"Yes!" He stared at her outraged.
"Who are your witnesses? And your mother's testimony won't be enough."
"She was at a horse show in Hillside. We trucked through with the trucking company at six a.m. We then stayed at the show all day. There were several classes. I had to hold the horses, get refreshments, and do a whole lot of odd jobs. I only got back at eight last night. Then we had to go out to dinner with one of the horse show judges. They made me go along to that. This morning, I had to drive the judge back to the airport to catch a flight back to Chicago. I left at six a.m., again, and got to the airport at seven. I got back at eight. And then I called Elmer and we got going with our experiment. Which had been delayed. Because of the horse show."
Cody sounded slightly bitter.
May turned away from the window, raising her eyebrows at Owen. He raised his in return, and she knew they were thinking the same thing.
After a promising start, this witness had fizzled out. He had an alibi for the time the email reply was sent to the police from the cabin in the woods. He didn’t seem like the person they needed, although she was sure that Kerry would check back and go through his timing and where he had been for the two previous kills.
But she didn't think he was their guy.
"I think he's either going to end up in jail, or winning a Nobel prize. But I don't think he's the killer," she whispered to Owen.
"I agree. That's a fairly solid alibi," he said. “The email from the killer was sent in response to police messages and that IP address in the cabin was not faked or concealed. So that timing is a certainty. And that’s too far for Elmer to have driven. I checked and double checked the police report.”
"I’ve just had another idea," May said. The intuition came to her in a flash, while she’d been thinking back about those two reluctant and embarrassed schoolboys covering for each other.
"What's your idea?" Owen whispered back.
"I don't think that Sheila told her husband everything that went on in her work life. I think she might have kept some of it from him because knowing about it would have made him uneasy. I am sure she received a lot of threats. As a criminal lawyer, surely she would have? At any rate, I think we should check that possibility in more detail."
"Via the police?"
"Yes. The police might have records. And the law firm also might have kept a log of all the threats. So instead of listening to this interview any longer, how about we go and look into those two possibilities?" May said, and saw Owen nod firmly in agreement.
They tiptoed out of the interview room and headed for the door.