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.Gil and Joe went back to the conference room and looked at the whiteboard, which still displayed Brianna’s timeline, as well as all the lists and the phrase I was dead and buried.They stared at the board in silence until Joe said, “I know the family is lying to us, but I can’t see any of them putting Brianna’s bones up in those displays.It’s just too evil.”“That’s my issue with it, too,” Gil said.“I wonder about the David Geisler thing,” Joe said.“I know he could still be our guy.”“Although it seems less likely since Stevens lied about seeing him with Brianna.”“But he fits the profile perfectly.” Joe got up and stood next to the board.“I don’t know.Maybe the profile is wrong.”“Our profile is solid,” Gil said.“I know it is.Whoever killed Brianna and left her bones fits this profile.”“The profile that describes David Geisler,” Joe said, exasperated.Gil’s head was starting to hurt again.“So let’s change tacks here,” he said.“Alex Stevens seems pretty convinced that Ashley got rid of Brianna, but you and I both know that no one in the family put up the displays of Brianna’s bones.So let’s assume both things are true.How would Ashley get rid of Brianna in a way that explains how we found her bones?”“The only thing I can think of is that Ashley sold Brianna to a psychopath,” Joe said, “and now we are back to creepy land.”They kept looking at the board until Joe said hesitantly, “Could Ashley have sold Brianna to David Geisler?”It was a measure of how much of a toll the investigation was taking on Gil that he actually considered it.CHAPTER TWENTY-FOURSunday MorningHaving no other ideas, Gil and Joe went back to old-school detective work—looking through documents.Gil had spent the last half hour going over Ashley’s financial statements from a year before Brianna went missing up to a month after.The statements had been part of the original investigation and the warrant that went with that.Gil knew it was unlikely they’d get a court order for her most recent financial information, given the lawsuit, but he thought he’d satisfy his curiosity about the money Ashley was paid for the adoption.Anna Maria Roybal said that payments to the birth mother from the adoptive parents were normal, but it still rubbed Gil the wrong way.He could understand that there were expenses, but it felt like a payoff.Joe, of course, had his own agenda, which was proving his most recent theory.He was looking over David Geisler’s bank statements, which they had found during the search of his house.Unfortunately, Geisler’s statements were incomplete, with many months missing.Joe sighed and said, “What kind of mom sells her kid to a crazy guy?”“I really don’t think she did,” Gil said, already regretting that he hadn’t stopped Joe when he first started to tug on this crazy thread.“It fits nicely, though,” Joe said.“We’ve got the blood on the sword, the prior complaint by the neighbor that Geisler approached some kids.Plus, the guy is nuts, but he really wasn’t that messed up when we first went to his house.He started that thing.What did Lucy call it? Word salad? He started the word salad thing only after he was in custody.”Gil said nothing, and the two worked quietly until Joe said, “Gil, can I ask you a question?”“Sure.”“How would you have done the initial investigation differently?” Joe asked, looking at Gil intently.“Like instead of how Fisher did it?”“Joe, I don’t—”“Look, Fisher is dead, and he was a good guy, but he was no genius.”“Why do you ask?” Gil said, purposely deflecting the question.“It’s just,” Joe said hesitantly, “when we were sitting there asking Stevens all those questions, like really manipulating the hell out of the guy, he didn’t even realize it.That’s when I saw how an interrogation is supposed to look, and it occurred to me that I never saw Fisher come close to doing what you do.”“What is it I do exactly?” Gil asked.He did not want to get into a conversation about Fisher.Joe had seemed to worship the man.If there was one rule Gil had learned when he was a teenager, it was don’t talk bad about your buddy’s ex-girlfriend, because when they get back together, you won’t be friends anymore.Gil felt the same thing was true in this case.Fisher was dead, but Joe’s hero worship wasn’t.“Gil, man, don’t take this the wrong way, because I mean it as a compliment, but you are one cold motherfucker,” Joe said.“You lie better than my ex-wife, and she lies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.” Gil didn’t take it as a compliment.Instead, it only made him feel vacant.They spent the next few minutes in silence while they continued to go over the financials.Gil finally tracked down the ten thousand dollars.It was paid to Ashley in January when Brianna was adopted.He flipped through the papers and found what he was looking for toward the back of the file.It was a personal check, and the signature on it was clearly written, without flair or flourish.Victor Otero.“Interesting,” Gil said, showing the check to Joe.“Why would Judge Otero give Ashley a check as part of the adoption?” Joe asked [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]