GREG WAS WATCHING A SLOW-MOTION COLLISION. The two women were cooperating with each other, working together. It wasn’t an antagonistic conversation. Ann had been patiently listening to Janelle’s point of view and asking questions for the better part of two days. Greg had sat in on most of it, pleased at how Janelle was handling it. But the most important impasse hadn’t budged.
“Even if I set aside how the bloody shoes ended up in your apartment, a stranger robbery isn’t supported by what’s here,” Ann was saying gently to Janelle. “Your knife being the murder weapon is too compelling. The only other conclusion is that you yourself did the murder, Janelle. And since you didn’t, everything points to Tanya. She ceased to be your friend when she wanted something else more than she wanted the friendship. She wanted her freedom from her brother, the money that brought her, and she was willing to sacrifice you to get it.”
Janelle paced. She’d paced so much in the last couple of days, Greg suspected her calf muscles were burning and her feet feeling bruised.
She finally nodded and turned to Ann. “Okay. I’ll accept your conclusion that Tanya could be a danger to me. I don’t agree with it, but your logic is rational and I will agree that it may be true. I’ll live accordingly. Change my name, not get in touch with her, keep my distance from those who knew us both. When I leave here, I won’t let our paths cross. But you’re talking about accusing another innocent person of murder, possibly putting her on trial for that murder, and I can’t live with that.”
Greg felt one of his strongest worries fade. This was going to find a way to end at a compromise. The two very self-assured women were trying to reach an acceptable conclusion.
“Acknowledging Tanya as a possible danger is a big concession,” Ann replied, “one I’m relieved to hear, Janelle. You want me to be wrong because she was your friend. That’s the heart of a good friend. But I’m not wrong. And I know that if we don’t stop Tanya now, the next person who crosses her who has something Tanya desperately wants, that person could die too. That’s the part I can’t live with.”
Janelle went back to pacing, then stopped again. “You need more proof to accept I’m right. I need more proof to accept you’re right. So let’s add more facts to the table. Let’s go have a conversation with her.”
“You want to meet with Tanya?”
“It’s time, don’t you think? You said she’s been aggressively looking for me, asking everyone from my trial lawyer to newspaper reporters of my whereabouts. You see that as a sign of guilt, that she’s worried what I’m telling the cops, worried about the new evidence. I see it as the logical step Andrew’s sister would take to the news I’ve been pardoned. She’ll agree to meet me.
“You can record it, you can listen in. If you put what she says to me now alongside those past interviews, you’ll see her in a different light, that what I’m saying is true. I know her, Ann.”
Janelle came back to the table. “And I need to meet with Tanya for my own sake. We never talked—not after the detective separated us that night at the beach to get our individual statements. I want to hear what she has to say—about the knife, about that night, all of it.”
Ann glanced over at him, and Greg gave her a subtle nod. A conversation with Tanya would help Janelle on a lot of levels. Even if it went an unexpected direction, it was movement.
Greg watched Ann assess Janelle, then choose her words with great care. “You could burn us badly, Janelle, by telling Tanya you did it or by confessing remorse to protect her. You could lie and face no immediate consequences for it. That audio could guarantee we can’t touch Tanya for whatever role she might have played that night. I’m asking you to play fair with us.”
“You’ll have to trust me, Ann. I can’t help you convict another innocent person, but I do want justice for Andrew. You can trust that. One of us is right. I can accept, at least theoretically, that it might be you. I’ll do my best to cooperate and stay within the parameters we work out.”
Greg didn’t need to hear Ann’s reply to know where this was heading, so he added a point of his own. “Promise me you’ll never tell Tanya you are staying somewhere in the South, and never mention this island.”
“She’s going to notice the tan. I’ll just imply I’ve been vacationing in the Caribbean while staying away from the press.”
“Ann?” he said.
“We can fly to New York this afternoon if the weather along the Eastern Seaboard cooperates. A delay doesn’t help any of us.”
Janelle visibly relaxed. “Thank you.”
Ann reached over to lay a hand on her arm. “I want the answers too, Janelle.”