Kyle coughed, squeezing water out of his shirt. "I was just going for a boat ride," he said in a strangled voice.
"You tried to run from law enforcement, using a motorboat," May pointed out.
Kyle spluttered some more.
"I was going to check the boat, to see if the motor would start," he muttered.
May resolved to question him there and then about the murder, before he could invent any alternative stories. If he seemed a likely suspect, she decided she’d take him into the police department.
"Tell me about your relationship with Savannah," May said, and Kyle flinched.
"We'd broken up by the time - by the time..." His voice trailed off.
"By the time she was murdered?"
"I heard about that," he muttered. "I seriously can't believe it. I mean, she was my girlfriend. Until recently. And then, someone did that." Now his voice had changed. To her surprise, hurt and misery resounded in his tone.
"Why did you run from us then? Give me the truth!" May said sternly. Then, she remembered that Kyle must be freezing, and that even if he was guilty, she couldn't let him or Owen catch their death of cold out here. Firmly, she grasped his clammy wrist.
"Let's walk back to the house. You need to get into some dry clothes," she said. His teeth were chattering.
She took off her own jacket and gave it to Owen. It was far too small for him but at least he could drape it over his shoulders, for basic warmth.
Owen grasped Kyle’s other wrist and they marched him back in the direction of the house.
"I ran because I felt guilty. Because if I was a cop, I'd suspect me of planning something," Kyle stammered out. "I panicked. I've never been in trouble with the police before. I was only trying to make things right. But I thought - I thought - "
May stared at him intensely. She had the strong feeling that this wasn't just about the messages she’d read. It didn't seem to her like Kyle was thinking about them.
"What exactly did you do?" she asked.
He sighed.
"I thought - I thought you might have gotten hold of my messages."
"The ones you sent to Savannah?" May clarified.
"No. Not those."
"What else did you do, Kyle?"
He stared at her miserably.
"When I heard yesterday what had happened, I was so torn up about it. I started chatting with a friend online, and we said that if we ever found out who'd done this, we would kill them. We kind of took it further and discussed how we would track the guy down and how it could be done. We were like, discussing ways to murder him. But we were only theorizing to make ourselves feel better.”
“I see,” May said.
“I know I lost my temper and shouldn't have said what I did when she broke up with me. That was wrong of me. I was hurting bad, man. But I really liked her. Loved her, even."
"So you thought we were going to arrest you for wanting to kill her murderer?"
He nodded, looking ashamed.
"I thought you might have found out, and you'd think I was, like, a psycho."
"Why would we think that?" Owen asked in surprise.
Kyle gritted his teeth, swiping his dripping hair out of his eyes.
"I didn’t know what you might think. I’ve never been in trouble with the cops before at all. I have no idea how things work. But I wouldn't kill anyone."
"Why didn't you tell us this right away?"
"I was afraid to. I thought you'd arrest me for wanting to kill her murderer. I mean, on TV and in the movies, if someone says something like that, they get arrested. So I panicked. I thought I'd better get out while I could."
May glanced at Owen. It was time to confirm the most important fact of all now.
"I need to know what your movements have been over the past few days. Where you have been, who you have been with? Especially on Friday morning?”
They didn’t yet have a definite time of death for Savannah’s murder, but May wanted to know if Kyle would have had the opportunity to grab Savannah on the way to school.
Kyle stared at her in surprise.
"On Friday I had early classes, because we were starting an exam period," he said. "I got up at six, had breakfast, and went to college. I had classes all morning. Then I had lunch, and then it was afternoon classes. All my lecturers and friends can confirm I was there.”
"Which college?" Owen asked.
"Grays Art and Drama College. It's about an hour's drive from here."
May nodded. Although she still wanted to check with the college, she felt this timeframe cleared him. His guilt had been for a different reason. He was not the person they were looking for.
"You'd better go in and get dry," she said, seeing the back door of his house up ahead.
He nodded. "I will. And - I'm sorry."
They let go of his wrists and he turned and jogged inside.
Owen sighed. "I was hoping we would have caught the killer. But it doesn't seem that he was guilty at all."
"We're going to have to keep looking," May said. “You’d better get back to the car now and get the heater on.”
Owen nodded. “I have a change of clothes in the back. I always keep one, just in case.”
Again, May stared at him, surprised by her partner’s resourcefulness.
At that moment, her phone rang. It was Sheriff Jack.
"May, there's been a new development in the case."
His voice sounded taut and urgent. Worry surged inside her all over again.
"What's happened?" she asked.
"There's been another body found. Another young woman. She’s washed up on the northwestern shores of Eagle Lake, killed the same way." He let out a heavy sigh. "I can't believe this, but it seems we're dealing with a serial here."