The Trespasser

Conway interviews Aislinn’s two boring ex-boyfriends. Nothing useful emerges other than a hint that Aislinn had a pattern of withdrawing whenever a relationship was on the point of becoming serious. On the way back to work, Conway realizes that Rory probably is the murderer. She also decides this will be her last case on the Murder Squad: “I think of a boxer, ducking and weaving away from every punch, faster and faster, till one blink and bang, blackness. I’m not going to wait for the knockout […] I’m going on my own terms” (247-48). Back at the station, Breslin says that he interviewed Rory’s ex-girlfriends. They say he has a pattern of growing too serious in a relationship, too quickly. Conway speculates that Aislinn’s need to withdraw might have conflicted with Rory’s need to get close. He probably grew enraged and killed her.

Breslin has some additional info he wants to share with Conway in private. He shows her video footage of Rory hovering around Aislinn’s neighborhood weeks before their date. He was evidently stalking her. Breslin says the floater gave him this tape, instead of Conway, because nobody on the squad trusts her. Her defensive attitude has alienated everyone. He then tells her that Detective Roche has been circulating a false story that Conway got a former partner demoted to the rank of beat cop; this is the reason everyone is afraid to work with her. Breslin offers to use his influence to change the squad’s perception of Conway. In that moment, she realizes what Breslin’s angle is. He isn’t out to sink her. He wants to own her: “If someone rescues you, they own you. They own you because you’re not the lead in your story any more” (256). With Steve gone, Breslin offers to partner with Conway to interrogate Rory. She agrees, thinking this will be her last case on the Murder Squad.

Conway and Breslin assume their personas of Chief Jock and Cool Girl to interrogate Rory. Conway begins by gaining Rory’s trust, and he tells her his fantasy theory about who really killed Aislinn. Rory thinks it was a jilted lover who was spying on her as she prepared dinner for her new boyfriend. The jilted lover couldn’t stand the thought of being replaced, so he entered the house and murdered her. Both detectives immediately start poking holes in Rory’s story. They have photos proving that he’s been stalking Aislinn for weeks. Even though he’s terrified, Rory denies entering the house or hurting her. Realizing they won’t get a confession from him that night, Conway insists they release him and finish up the next day. Steve has been watching from the other side of the interrogation window. The two make a report to O’Kelly. Conway says she’s satisfied that Rory is the killer. Privately, Steve says he still isn’t convinced. Because this will be her last case, Conway doesn’t want to stake the outcome on circumstantial evidence alone. She tells Steve that she’s going to follow up with Lucy about the mystery boyfriend and check with forensics regarding the encrypted folder on Aislinn’s computer:

The incident room grabs me by the gut. For that second it glows warm and steady from every corner with twenty years’ worth of might-have-beens. Every time I could have walked in there laughing with Steve, every shout of triumph when I could have held up the phone record or the DNA result we’d been waiting for, every thank-you speech I could have made at the end of a big case: all of those rise up to find me, now that they’re unreachable (291).

At home that evening, Conway catches a glimpse of someone moving past her window. She calls Steve and tells him to catch the man loitering at the end of her street and bring him to her. Steve collars the stalker and hauls him inside Conway’s house. She abruptly tells Steve to go because she recognizes the resemblance and realizes the man is her father. He’s a middle-class Englishman with brown skin. He explains that he only realized she was his daughter when he saw her photo in Crowley’s newspaper article. The man says he’s willing to answer any questions Conway has. She knows she’s now being offered the closure that Aislinn never got. Conway declines the offer: “I know exactly what he was at […] He wanted this situation—wanted me—on his terms, start to finish” (302). Like Breslin, this absent father wants to own Conway, but she resists and sends him packing.

She calls Steve to come back to her place. They drink and talk about the situation. Conway says the encounter helped her see Aislinn’s motivation more clearly: “I was so busy bracing myself to fight anyone who was out to sink me or own me or generally use me as his very own dollhouse dolly, it never occurred to me that this might not be about me to begin with” (313). Conway believes that Aislinn continued the search for her father by going straight to McCann; when Aislinn attempted to seduce some additional information out of him, she failed, turned her attention to Breslin, and began an affair. The two detectives theorize that Breslin didn’t like the idea of Aislinn cheating on him with Rory, so he sent McCann to have a talk with her. Things got out of hand, and McCann killed her accidentally. Conway and Steve form a plan to trap Breslin.