Page 99 of Forever Dark
The interrogation room at the sheriff’s department had no softness in it.
Gray table.Gray walls.Gray floor scrubbed so often it held a dull chemical shine.The cold overhead light pressed down from above without mercy.The air smelled faintly of disinfectant.Every room like this pretended to be neutral.Selena had never believed that.Rooms like this were built to make people feel exposed.
Elias Croft, however, looked perfectly at ease.
He sat with one ankle resting over the opposite knee, hands folded loose in his lap now that the cuffs were gone.The chase, the arrest, the transfer, the booking.None of it seemed to have unsettled his posture.He wore the same calm he had worn stepping off the bus, as if the entire process had merely delayed him from a speaking engagement.
Beside him sat his lawyer.
Martin Vail had arrived in under an hour and had the polished speed of a man used to swooping into rural counties and teaching local authorities the cost of procedural mistakes.Mid-fifties.Lean.Hair silver at the temples in a way that looked managed.A dark suit without a wrinkle in it.His legal pad already held two pages of notes in a tight, slanted hand.
Selena sat across from them with the case file spread open and a legal pad of her own under one hand.
No two-way-mirror theatrics.No raised voice.Those things rarely mattered with men like Croft.Better to pin him down with specifics and watch which details made him blink.
She started with Brenda Colter.
“April 5th,” Selena said.“Your revival was in Harlan County.Brenda Colter attended.Two nights later, she was found in the choir loft at St.Bartholomew’s, executed with biblical imagery surrounding her.Seems like an awful coincidence.”
Croft’s face did not change.“That is tragic.”
“Did you speak with her that evening?”
“I’ve already said I don’t remember.”
“You prayed with attendees after the sermon.She was exactly the sort of woman who might have approached you looking for help.”
Vail raised one finger.“Agent Raven, my client is not required to speculate on who might have approached him during a public event attended by dozens of people.”
Selena kept her eyes on Croft.“Did you see her?”
“No.”
“Did anyone in your party speak with her?”
“I don’t know.I already answered these questions at the bus the other night.”
“You keep a close circle.Your nurse.Your security.Someone must notice when women come back more than once.”
Croft tilted his head just slightly.“You think revival work is more organized than it is.”
Selena turned a page.“Let’s move on to Lauren Gimble.”
She laid out the date.The second county.The second service.The second body found posed on a gravestone.Croft listened with that same attentive gravity he used from a stage, as though every terrible detail grieved him personally while remaining entirely outside his control.
When she finished, he drew a slow breath through his nose.
“I minister to many people,” he said.“Lonely people.Frightened people.Women in trouble.Men who are lost.I do not catalog them like a banker keeps ledgers.”
“Convenient.”
Vail sat back in his chair.“You’re editorializing again, Agent.”
Selena ignored him.
“The victims,” she said.“All attended your revival.All ended up dead in staged scenes with religious language written beside them.Either you know more than you’re admitting or the people around you do.”
Croft’s gaze held hers.“I preach hope.I don’t kill women.”
