'Uh, I want to specialize in diseases, actually.'
'Well, well,' Butts replied, smiling. 'How 'bout that? You gotta be real smart to do that kinda stuff, I know that much. Me, I was no good in science. I envy guys like you.'
Ralph seemed suspicious of this attempt to butter him up. He sat looking at Butts, his hands wrapped around the paper coffee cup.
'So, Ralph, what can you tell me?' Butts said, his tone indicating it was time to get down to business. 'How long have you known Marie?'
'Since last semester. We, uh-we were in the same comparative lit class.'
Butts frowned. 'But you're a science major.'
'It's a required course. I need it to graduate.'
Butts cocked his head to one side. 'I get it. And Marie was a religion major?'
'Comparative religion, yeah. She wanted to teach eventually.'
'I see. So you guys just sorta hit it off?'
Ralph winced. 'Yeah. I mean, at first I didn't believe a girl like her would be interested in me. I mean, she's so pretty and lively and everything, and I'm…well, a science geek, you know?'
Butts gulped down some more coffee. 'Yeah. I know what you mean-never could figure out what the wife sees in me. Women are a mystery.'
This admission seemed to put Ralph more at ease, and he sipped at his coffee, though without taking his eyes off the detective.
'Tell you what, Ralph,' Butts said. 'I'm not gonna keep you here very long, but can you think of anyone who'd want to hurt Marie? Anyone at all?'
'Well, she was really sweet and trusting. I can't think of anyone who didn't like her. I mean, she didn't try to be popular or anything, but there was just something about her, you know?'
'Yeah, sure.'
Ralph shifted in his chair. 'There was one thing…'
'Yeah? What's that?'
'Well, I had the feeling she was seeing someone-someone else, I mean. I don't really have any evidence of it. It was more of a feeling, I guess.'
'Okay. Any idea who it was?'
Ralph looked down at his hands, which were clasped tightly in his lap. 'No. I was meaning to ask her about it, but…I guess I didn't want to pry. It's not like we were engaged or anything, you know?'
'Yeah, sure. Will you excuse me for a moment?'
He got up and lumbered out of the room, closing the door behind him. He came over to Lee and slumped his stocky body against the wall.
'That kid's clean as my mother-in-law's kitchen. No way he did it-and I don't think he has any idea who did.' Butts pulled a cigar stub from his breast pocket. Placing it between his sturdy teeth, he bit down on it hard.
'Do you ever actually smoke those things?' Lee asked.
'Not anymore. Used to, wife hated the smell, said it got into everything. So I gave it up. This is the closest thing I have now to a vice… I miss it, but I'll tell you, this is a helluva lot cheaper. I used to buy the good ones-you know, the Cubans-when I could get 'em, and they set you back a buck or two.'
Butts shifted the cigar to the other side of his mouth. 'This other guy he mentioned-that could be a lead. That is, if she really was seeing anyone else.'
'Maybe,' Lee replied. 'I wonder if you'd just let me ask him one thing?'
Butts shrugged. 'Go ahead-knock yourself out. Then we should let the poor bastard go home.'
'Thanks.'
Lee entered the interrogation room and felt the oppressiveness of its windowless silence. The one-way mirror behind which Butts now stood watching only added to the sense of isolation and paranoia the suspects must feel.
Ralph Winters looked up at him apprehensively when he entered the room. Lee tried to dispel his fear with a friendly smile, but the boy's body didn't relax as Lee sat down opposite him.
'Hi, I'm Lee Campbell. I'm helping with this investigation.'
Ralph responded with a twitch of his head and wrapped his hands tighter around his coffee cup.
'Look, Ralph,' Lee said gently, 'we're going to let you go soon. I just want to see if there's anything else you can tell us about Marie that might help us catch her killer.'
The boy's face reddened, and his eyes welled up with tears. 'You-you don't think I did it, then?'
'No, we don't. But we hope you can help us by telling us about Marie-anything you can think of.'
Ralph swallowed hard. 'Well, like I told the other detective, she was really sweet, and everyone liked her.'
'Yes,' Lee replied. 'I know.' On the last day of her life Fate swooped down upon her, a slap out of nowhere, a sudden shock as she rounded the corner of her life. It was a line from a poem he had written about his sister, and he shook it out of his head. 'Why don't you just tell me what you can about Marie?'
'Well, she was kinda religious-Catholic, you know.'
'So she went to church how often?'
'Oh, not more than twice a week. She went Sundays, and then sometimes to Wednesday night mass. But she didn't like people who swore and took the Lord's name in vain, you know? And she had a crucifix over her bed-kind of creepy, if you ask me, but I wasn't raised religious.' His lower lip trembled. 'Have they called her parents yet?'
'We're taking care of that. They live in Jersey somewhere, I think?'
'Yeah-Nutley.' He swallowed again and took another sip of coffee.
'Did she have any special friends at church?'
'Not that I can think of. A couple of girlfriends. She didn't really socialize all that much. She did volunteer to feed the homeless at the church once a month.'
'Did you go with her?'
'Sometimes.'
'You mentioned her girlfriends-are they religious?'
'I don't think so.'
'But Marie was?'
'Yeah. She wore a cross around her neck all the time.'
'Can you describe it?'
'Uh, yeah…it was plain gold-oh, with a tiny little pearl in the center.'
'A white pearl?'
'Yeah. She never took it off.'
Lee felt his heart quicken. He carried a clear image of Marie as she was in death, and he could swear that when they found her there was no cross around her neck.
'Never?'
'No. She kept it on even in the shower-said it was like keeping Jesus with her all the time. I remember it scratched me one time when we were…' His face crumpled, and his thin shoulders sagged under the weight of his grief. 'Oh, God, oh, God!' He collapsed sobbing, burying his head in his arms. Lee laid a hand on his shoulder just as Butts reentered the room.
'Come on, kid, we got a car to take you home.'
Ralph raised his head and looked up at the detective through tearstained eyes.
'You don't have any more questions?' He sounded disappointed.
'Not right now. We know where to find you if we do.' Butts spat out a piece of cigar into the trash can and handed Ralph a business card. 'Give me a call if you think of anything else. Especially if you have any ideas about who this other guy might be. Sorry you had to go through this.'
'That's okay,' said Ralph, clutching the coffee cup as he stood up unsteadily.
'Officer Lambert here will take you home,' said Butts, indicating a thin, sallow-faced policeman standing just outside the room.
'Can you make it okay?' asked Lee.
