‘This is bullshit. Total bullshit …’
Miller was pacing back and forth in Gabrielle’s office. She was angry, aggrieved, protesting her innocence. But Gabrielle noted that her deputy had not looked at her once.
‘I’m just asking the question, as I’m duty-bound to do.’
‘Sure, but if someone’s pointing the finger, then it’s because they’ve got an agenda. A score to settle. God knows, maybe they want my job …’
‘It’s not about that.’
‘Really?’
Her scepticism was strongly expressed, but felt forced to Gabrielle.
‘What else could it be?’ Miller continued. ‘I have been very loyal to you, to this team, working night and day –’
‘I know your work means a lot to you –’
‘Damn right it does.’
‘But I also know that at times you can be impetuous, that you are tempted to take short cuts. We’ve talked about it before.’
Miller said nothing, but finally ceased her pacing.
‘We’ve all been under a lot of pressure. This is an extremely challenging, high-profile investigation. And I can see why, if we had the prime suspect in custody, but not enough evidence to make things stick, it might be tempting for an officer to help things along …’
‘No, no, no,’ Miller retorted, shaking her head vigorously.
‘Jane, when we were at Redmond’s trailer that first night, you offered to break in, to scope the place. What’s the betting if you and I went down there right now, we’d find one of those windows had been forced?’
Suddenly Miller ceased her protestations. Her gaze ranged across the floor, as if seeking a missing penny. Still she wouldn’t look at her boss.
‘Now, I’ve been to the Jones residence this morning. The cufflinks that were clearly in situ in the crime scene photos aren’t there any more. Someone’s moved them.’
Miller continued to stare at the floor.
‘So I’m going to ask you again, Jane. Did you plant Jones’s cufflinks in the trailer?’
Miller hesitated a second too long before opening her mouth, and in that moment Gabrielle knew. For a second, it looked as if her deputy might continue to protest her innocence, but the words wouldn’t form and suddenly she broke down in tears, her body shaking with distress.
Gabrielle stared at her. She wanted to berate her, to scream in her face, to vent all her anger on her, but when she finally opened her mouth to speak, it was with sadness that she gasped:
‘What the hell have you done, Jane?’