[Miami PD, 6:48PM]

>"By the way, what is the suspect's name?", September asked.
>
>"Jack Sparks. If you need anything, just call me on this
>phone," he said pointing to the wall outside the interrogation
>room and walking back down the hallway.
>
>"Jack Sparks? Isn't that the newspaper reporter?", September
>asked.
>
>"Yeah, I think it is. Hmm . . . let's see what we can find out.",
>Kate said, opening the door and walking in, next was September
>and heading up the rear was Flynn.

Jack Sparks sat at the table in the center of the room, managing to look at once furious and indignant. The agents all knew better than to judge by appearance - Sparks may not look like a rapist, but then, what does a rapist look like? But Sparks didn’t look or act guilty. Kate sensed that, and looking at Flynn and September, she guessed that they did as well. That didn’t mean that he didn’t have some information that might be useful.

"Jack Sparks," Kate asked. She stepped forward and held out a hand to him. Sparks looked confused for a moment before recovering enough to shake her hand.

"Yes," Sparks replied.

"Special Agent Kate Calloway, FBI. This is Agent Woods and Agent Foster." She sat down across from Sparks.

"FBI?" Jack Sparks was suddenly very interested. His reporter’s instinct kicked in despite his present circumstance. Feds involved in a rape case? "Well, maybe you can explain to me why I’m being held here."

"I’m sure you know exactly why," Kate told him. "Now it’s just a matter of finding out if we’ve got the right man."

"You don’t," Sparks said.

Kate nodded. "Prove it."

Sparks frowned, not immediately knowing what to say to that. "They came in and took a blood sample hours ago," he said finally. "If my blood type doesn’t match the rapist’s, that would prove I didn’t do it."

"And if it does match?"

"Just means they’ll have to do more tests. I’ve never raped anyone."

"You wrote the article about Sandra Lewandowski," Flynn asked.

"That’s right." Sparks frowned dramatically. "There some kind of connection."

Kate glanced over toward the door to hide a small smile that crossed her face. Sparks was a lousy liar and that certainly couldn’t hurt their position. "You seem to think there is," she said. "So, why don’t you tell us about it."

Sparks laughed, but it wasn’t convincing. "How could there be a connection. The guy who raped her would be in his late sixties by now. Unless he got his hands on a prescription for Viagra.."

"You claim that you got the story from Mrs. Lewandowski herself," September interrupted. "Is that true?"

This time, when Sparks frowned and paused to consider the question, his confusion appeared genuine. "How did you.. Yeah, that’s right. She likes to talk, she’s a fan of the paper. I guess she must have thought it would be a hoot to be subject of a feature article."

"Why now?"

"Why not? Maybe she was hoping to make a few bucks on it. Who knows?"

"Did she tell you that she had seen the rapist recently."

Sparks frowned again. These agents knew a little too much about him, and he couldn’t quite figure out how they could have learned some of it. "Yeah," he admitted. "She said she’d run into him. Even had a conversation with him, if you can imagine."

"Did she tell you who he was?"

"Well, she certainly never accused me of being him," Sparks replied sarcastically. "No, if she knew his name, or anything else about him, she didn’t tell me."

"Do you have any thoughts on that subject," Flynn asked.

"No," Sparks said.

He’s lying, Kate thought. "I think you do," she said.

"What would it matter if I did," Sparks said. "We’re not talking about murder here. There is a statute of limitations. And I hardly think the same guy could be responsible for any rape that has been committed recently. I’m guessing that you have some sort of description of the perpetrator? I got picked up for it. I’m no teenager, that’s for sure, but I certainly wouldn’t pass for a senior citizen either."

"That doesn’t answer my question, Mr. Sparks. Do you or do you not have information regarding the rapist in the Lewandowski case?"

Sparks thought about it for a moment. "No," he said.

"Do you have any knowledge of the rapes of which you are accused?"

"I told you! I didn’t do it."

"Yes," September said, "you told us that. That doesn’t mean that you don’t know anything about it."

"If you didn’t do it, we’re not your enemy," Kate said. "We want the rapist. Not a convenient scapegoat. If you know anything, you’ll be helping yourself by telling us."

>After what seemed like an hour, but actually was only 20 minutes
>of Jack Sparks vehemently denying being the rapist. The 3 agents
>left the room.

*****

Sparks was still waiting for someone to come in and lead him back to his cell. He was still furious, still indignant. And he’d barely had a chance to process his meeting with the first three agents when two more came into the room. Sparks frowned when he saw the younger of the two men. Well, at least now he knew where the others had gotten their information.

"I know you," he said to Newt.

"I’m Agent Moran, this is Agent Prescott," the other man said.

Sparks sighed. "Not again. I told the others, and I’ll tell you. I didn’t do it."

*****

While Paul and Newt were having a less than successful conversation with Jack Sparks, Kate was trying to convince Lt. Aznar to go along with her idea. His objection was not the obvious one - that it went against the department’s policy and quite possibly was a violation of Jack Sparks’ civil rights, although none of that would matter if Sparks wasn’t guilty, and Kate was convinced that he wasn’t. His objection was that they really ought to clear it with Agent Moran before proceeding. Kate didn’t like the idea, but she wasn’t going to object - until she learned that Paul and Newt were presently questioning Sparks. That made her a little bit nervous for reasons she couldn’t quite put a name to.

"Look," Kate said tersely. She was tired of arguing with Aznar, tired of this case, tired of keeping secrets from someone who was supposed to be on her side. And just plain tired. "There are plenty of witnesses. If it turns out we need to do a real line-up, we can, and we can do it before anyone has a chance to talk to anyone else about anything. We’ve got two of the victims in the building. All we have to do is let one of them get a look at Sparks. If she recognizes him, we get the other one to confirm the ID in a line-up. If not, we keep looking."

Aznar nodded. "I agree with you. But I still think.."

"To hell with Moran," Kate said. She sighed. She really hadn’t meant to say that aloud. "I will take full responsibility for this. If anything goes wrong, you can tell Agent Moran that I forced you to go along with me. Trust me. He’ll believe it."

*****

There were a lot of questions that Paul wanted to ask Jack Sparks. If he could have gotten him alone, he would have asked, but Newt was there. Sending him out for coffee wouldn’t work, since they’d just come from a coffee break, so for the time being, he was just going to have to hope he could get Sparks to open up without asking anything too specific.

"You got alibis for the nights of any of the rapes," Paul asked.

Sparks rolled his eyes. "Probably," he said. "If I could get at my calendar, I could tell you."

"Must have a busy social life. Assuming you probably have alibis when you say you don’t even know when the rapes occurred."

"Busy enough. Look, maybe I can save you some time, because we’re just going over all the same questions the other agents asked me. Yes, I wrote the article about Sandra Lewandowski. I was aware of her because of a series of articles my father wrote years ago. I don’t know anything about her or her situation that wasn’t in the article. I’ve never met any of the rape victims. I don’t know who they are, where they live or anything about them. I’ve never stalked, assaulted or raped anyone. Are there any other questions?"

"No," Paul said, "no more questions. Newt, anything you’d like to add?"

*****

[Dr. Hirsh’s house, 7:25PM]

The house was dark and quiet. No one or nothing had moved since Sharlyn arrived some twenty minutes before. Kate had objected to her coming here alone, but Sharlyn had insisted that she would be all right. After all, it was just a surveillance. Now she was starting to think that something was wrong here, and she was wishing she had some back up. The thought of poking around in potentially hostile territory was less than appealing when there was no one to cover your backside. Regardless, if she was sitting there watching an empty house, she wanted to know it.

Hirsh lived in an older neighborhood, not yet exactly rundown, but getting there. There were a lot of trees and shrubs to provide adequate cover for a covert approach to the house. She studied the layout for a few moments, planned a route designed to insure that Hirsh wouldn’t see her if he happened to be at home and looking out the window, and got out of the car.

Looking through the windows, there wasn’t much to see. It was the typical house of a typical bachelor professor. Lots of books and little else. It was dark inside, so if there was some clue just laying there waiting to be found, she couldn’t see it. She made her way around the house, finding no sign of Hirsh. She had just about come to the conclusion that he wasn’t home when she came to the last window. The room appeared to be a spare bedroom that had been converted into an office. She could just make out the shape of a man laying in the middle of the floor.

Sharlyn was about to pull out her cell phone and call for assistance when a beam of light fell across the yard. She instinctively dove behind a bush and waited. Through the leaves and branches, she saw a car turn around and back into Hirsh’s driveway. There were three men inside. They sat for a moment, discussing something, and then got out, heading for the front door. Sharlyn breathed a sigh of relief. They hadn’t seen her. She decided to head back to her car, and make her phone call from there.

She started back toward the car, skirting around a row of shrubbery. She was almost there when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

*****

[Miami PD, 7:35PM]

Lt. Aznar brought Elizabeth Huntley into the room. She had just finished her session with the sketch artist, and Aznar had the final product in his hand. He showed the sketch to Kate while Elizabeth looked nervously around the room.

"That look like our boy to you," Aznar asked.

Kate shook her head. The sketch didn’t look anything like Sparks. It did, however, bear a slight resemblance to Officer Narrin.

"Me either," Aznar said. "Shall we get this over with? They’re gonna take him back to holding in about two minutes."

On schedule, an office escorted Sparks down the corridor while Elizabeth watched through the open door. They paused briefly so the witness could get a good look at him, but she had no reaction.

*****

"Last I knew, September and Flynn were still at the office doing research," Kate said in response to Paul’s question. "Sharlyn said something about going back to the hotel and getting some rest."

Paul nodded and glanced at the clock on the wall. He and Newt had found Kate waiting for them in the lobby of the police station, and it had been something of a relief. He had something he needed to do, and he hadn’t been able to come up with a subtle way to lose Newt. "It’s getting late anyway. I don’t think we’re going to accomplish much more tonight."

"You’re probably right," Kate said. "I wouldn’t mind grabbing something for dinner and getting back to the hotel myself and make a few phone calls before it gets too late." That much was the truth, although she doubted she would get the chance.

"All right. If the two of you don’t mind, I’m going to go back to the office for an hour or so," Paul said. "I’ll catch up with everyone in the morning."

After Paul left, Kate turned to Newt. "Everything all right," she asked.

"Fine," Newt said.

"I was too hard on you this afternoon," Kate told him. "I’m sorry. We’ve made a lot of progress in the last few hours. I’ll tell you about it over dinner."


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