Creep - Jennifer Hillier [115]
“You sure you don’t want any coffee? Soda? Water?” Torrance asked Maddox.
“I’m fine,” she answered in a husky voice, though it was obviously a lie. She was sitting up straight in the metal chair. “I just don’t understand why I’m here. Why couldn’t we have done this at my apartment? Two police officers show up at my door in the middle of the night and they wouldn’t tell me what’s going on—”
“Thank you for being so cooperative.” Torrance’s tone was pleasant. He was sitting directly across from Maddox, his smile friendly. “We need some information from you. You’re not under arrest or in any kind of trouble.”
“Do I need a lawyer?”
“Of course not,” Torrance said. “You can leave anytime you like. We just want to ask you a few questions about your boyfriend.”
“Ethan?” Maddox’s pretty face was troubled. Her gaze shifted back and forth between the two detectives. “Why, what’d he do?”
“Who says he did anything?” Kellogg said, and Torrance shot his partner a look.
“We think he might know something about the disappearance of Dr. Sheila Tao.” Torrance drummed his fingers lightly on the table. “Do you know who she is?”
Maddox’s eyes were wide and frightened. Jerry felt sorry for her. “She’s his graduate adviser. He works for her. She left town, I thought. Ethan said she was sick.”
Torrance and Kellogg said nothing.
“Oh, God.” Maddox’s hands shook and she clutched her large purse, which was sitting on the table in front of her. “Oh, God, I knew something was up. I knew it.”
Torrance glanced up at the camera. Alone in the control room, Jerry turned the volume up on the monitor.
“What can you tell us, Miss Maddox?” Torrance’s voice was soothing. He was using the tone he always did when he thought the witness might get squirrelly. “Did you suspect something?”
Maddox hung her head, her ebony hair falling over her cheekbones. “He was cheating on me with her. He didn’t think I knew, but of course I did. I’m not stupid.”
“How’d you find out?”
“I caught them once. They didn’t see me. I stopped by his office and she was sitting on the edge of his desk and his hand was up her skirt—” Maddox blinked, but the tears trickled down her face anyway. She dug into her purse for a wad of tissue and blew her nose.
“Has he been acting strange since Dr. Tao disappeared?” Kellogg asked as she scratched notes into her pad. “Anything that might indicate he knew her whereabouts?”
Maddox shook her head. “No, but he’s been gone a lot. I don’t know where he goes, he doesn’t tell me. I work the late shift at Safeway, and sometimes I get in at three, four in the morning. And he’s not home. He’s been distracted for the past few weeks. And difficult.”
“We’ve learned he spends a lot of time up in Lake Stevens.” Torrance watched her face closely. “Any idea why?”
Maddox shook her head again and wiped her eyes. “Is that where Dr. Tao lives?”
Torrance glanced up at the camera again and Jerry knew what the look meant. Abby Maddox had no idea about her boyfriend’s Lake Stevens house.
She started to sniffle, and it wasn’t long before a torrent of sobs escaped from Maddox’s slender chest. Torrance watched dispassionately, but Kellogg, the rookie, obviously felt bad.
“I should have known something was off. I should have known.” Maddox struggled to contain herself, digging into her purse for another tissue.
“We don’t know anything for a fact yet.” The female detective attempted to sound reassuring.
“I should have known,” Maddox repeated, looking across at the two detectives. “I should have done something the moment I found it.”
“To what are you referring?” Torrance asked with a frown.
Maddox reached into her purse. It was hard to tell from the camera angle, but she appeared to be unzipping something. Women’s purses mystified Jerry—they had so many zippers and flaps and compartments, he was amazed women could find anything they’d stashed away. She dug for a bit, then pulled out a wadded-up tissue,