Brian Freeman - Immoral

"Knowing that you don't have to say anything, are you willing to answer some questions, even though Mr. Gale is not present?"

Another shrug. "I have nothing to hide," Graeme said.

Stride was surprised-rich suspects never talked-but he wasn't about to question his good fortune.

"The leak regarding this situation was regrettable, Mr. Stoner. I apologize for that. I don't know how it happened." Stride didn't want to leap into the tough questions and have Graeme realize he was better off staying quiet. He wanted to worm his way slowly toward the ugly details.

"I suggest you find out how it happened, Lieutenant." Something in the man's eyes made Stride believe that Graeme was perfectly aware of the detective's strategy.

Stride nodded. "You can understand, however, that some of the details we have uncovered raise a lot of questions for us. We'd like to get your side of the story. That's why I'm here."

"I'm sure."

"Were you sleeping with Rachel?" Stride asked.

There was a heavy silence in the room. Emily seemed to hold her breath, waiting for Graeme's answer. Stride watched the man set his jaw and saw anger creep into his face. There was no hint of guilt in his expression, only contempt. His conviction made Stride wonder if they were making a mistake. Or was the man simply a consummate actor?

"What an offensive question. But the answer is no. Never. I would never have slept with my stepdaughter, Lieutenant. It did not happen."

"Rachel said it did," Stride said.

"I can't believe that," Graeme retorted. "The girl may not have had the best relations with either of us, but I cannot believe she would make up such an outrageous lie."

"She told a school counselor, Nancy Carver, that you started having sex with her shortly after you married Emily."

Stride heard Emily wince and suck in her breath. Graeme glanced at his wife, then back at Stride.

"Carver? No wonder. That interfering little bitch. Do you know she actually called and interrogated me? But she never came out and made any accusations like that. I think she's the one you should be investigating, Stride. It's obvious the woman is a lesbian. As I recall, I even called the school to complain."

Stride jotted a reminder in his notes. He wanted to check if there had really been a complaint lodged against Nancy Carver.

"Why would Rachel make up such a story?"

"I can't believe she did. Carver probably made up the whole thing."

"Rachel told someone else, too," Stride lied.

This time he caught a glimmer of hesitation in Graeme's eyes, but the moment quickly vanished. "I find that hard to believe. But if Rachel did that, all I can think is that she was having problems. Maybe the girl was having fantasies about me. Or maybe she was trying to drive a wedge between me and Emily. Who knows?"

"But you never slept with her?"

"I told you, no."

"You never touched her or had any kind of sexual contact with her?"

"Of course not," Graeme snapped.

"And she never touched you."

"I'm not Bill Clinton, Lieutenant. No sex means no sex."

Stride nodded. A definitive denial would help them in prosecution, if they could find any evidence to back up a relationship between Rachel and Graeme, but he knew that was a big if.

He doubted Stoner would be so adamant in his denial if there were any way of proving the two had been involved.

Or he was telling the truth.

"Do you know a friend of Rachel's named Sally Lindner?" Stride asked.

Graeme furrowed his brow. "I think so. She goes out with that boy Kevin, as I recall. Why?"

"Have you ever given her a ride in your van?"

"I really don't remember," Graeme said. "Maybe."

"Maybe?"

Graeme scratched his chin. "I may have given her a ride to her car one day. Her bike was broken. This was several months ago, and honestly, I can't even remember if it was her."

"Where did you pick her up?"

"Oh, somewhere north of town, as I recall. I had been visiting one of our branches."

"And where did you take her?" Stride asked.

"Like I said, back to her car."

"Did you stop anywhere?"

"Not that I recall," Graeme said.

"She says you took her to the barn."

"The barn? No, certainly not. I picked her up and dropped her off at her car. That's all, Lieutenant."

"It didn't happen?" Stride asked. "You never went there with her?"

"It didn't happen," Graeme told him firmly.

"Then why would Sally say it did?"

Graeme sighed. "How the hell would I know, Lieutenant? Maybe Rachel put her up to it."

"Rachel?" Stride said. "Why would Rachel do that?"

"She's a complicated girl," Graeme said.

Maggie pointed at a three-drawer oak filing cabinet. "You start there. I'll take the desk."

The other officer, a gangly twenty-five-year-old rookie who hadn't outgrown his pimples, nodded and chewed his gum loudly. His name was Pete, and he had been in private security for several years before joining the force a few months ago. Maggie liked his cocky confidence, but he had a lot to learn. Pete had made the mistake of blowing a bubble with his gum and popping it with his gloved finger. Maggie nearly took his head off, reading him the riot act about contaminating the scene. Besides, the noise really bugged her.

Pete stopped blowing bubbles, but he kept chewing the gum, just to annoy her. That was exactly the kind of thing she would have done, and she liked that.

They were in Graeme Stoner's upstairs office. He kept it impeccably organized. There was a monitor and keyboard on the big, custom-built oak desk, a small array of books arranged by subject, and two stacks of compact discs. Maggie glanced at them. One set of discs reflected Graeme's taste in music, which ran to loud Mahler symphonies. The other set included discs labeled as confidential and bearing the stamp of Graeme's bank.

"We'll have to get Guppo to look at all the discs and the hard drive," she said. "Make sure we label them and take them all with us."

Pete grunted. He dug his gloved hands into the first drawer of the file cabinet.

Maggie glanced around the room, absorbing Graeme Stoner's tastes. The walls were papered in a dark blue pattern, with a gold fleck that matched the rich gold color of the carpeting. Several original watercolors hung on the walls, mostly nature scenes, and to Maggie's untrained eye, they looked professional and expensive. The desk and its elaborate leather chair were the main furnishings, supplemented by the filing cabinet, a wall of built-in bookshelves lined with hardcovers, and an overstuffed chair with matching ottoman. A slender brass lamp with a globe light sat on the corner of the desk.

It was a rich, sterile room, full of money and devoid of character. The same had been true of the master bedroom-the kind of elegant space in which it was hard to believe people actually lived. She and Pete had spent nearly two hours in the bedroom and bathroom, sifting through drawers and searching for secrets. They found little. The rooms were as interesting for what they didn't find as for what they did. No birth control. No sex toys. No adult videos. She wondered when Graeme and Emily had last had sex.

It didn't really matter. The question was whether Graeme and Rachel had ever had sex. They had turned up nothing yet in either room to prove Nancy Carver's allegation, and Maggie knew from their original search of Rachel's room after the disappearance that she had left nothing behind as physical evidence of an incestuous affair.

Maggie shuddered. She tried to imagine Rachel alone with Graeme in this house. Was it in the bedroom? In her room? On the bathroom floor? Did he take her on top, or did he make her straddle him? Did he take her from behind? Did he force her to her knees and make her suck him off?