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had you been there before the murder?”
    “A week, maybe less.”
    Dani looked over at Tommy to make sure he was taking notes. He would need to track down the motel and check its records to confirm Sanders’s statement.
    “Tell me what happened with Carly.”
    “I raped and murdered her, that’s what happened.”
    Dani strained to hold back her look of disgust. This excuse for a man sitting before her represented all she hated about criminal-defense work. She didn’t care what circumstances had led him to take another’s life. It didn’t matter if his childhood had been marred by abusive parents, or poverty, or defective genes. Maybe those factors would weigh against putting him to death, but she fervently believed he should never become a free man. Thankfully, she didn’t need to argue to a jury on his behalf. She only needed to prove that Carly Sobol had been his victim.
    “You need to be more specific. Tell me how you chose her, what you said, what she said. Where you took her. Every detail will help clear Winston Melton.”
    Sanders leaned back in his chair and grinned, revealing two missing bottom teeth. “What’s in it for me?”
    Dani stood up and gathered her papers. “We’re wasting our time here. I thought you wanted to clear your conscience. I’m not interested in playing games.” She turned to Tommy and Melanie. “Let’s go.” Dani wasn’t planning to actually leave, but she wanted to make sure Sanders took this interview seriously.
    Sanders’s grin disappeared, and he sat up straighter. “Hold on. I’m just messing with ya. I’ll tell you everything.”
    Dani sat down again. “Go ahead.”
    During the next half hour, he described in detail every step leading up to the rape and murder of Carly Sobol. When he finished, he said, “Is that enough for you?”
    “Did Carly have any birthmarks, or tattoos, or something distinguishing on her body that wasn’t visible with her clothes on?” Dani asked, hoping that the repulsion she felt didn’t come through in her voice.
    “Let me think on that.” With his elbows on the table, Sanders bent his head down into his hands. After a few minutes, he looked up and said, “She had a tattoo, a little butterfly, on her right hip. Purple and turquoise. Really girly looking.”
    “Good. That’ll help.” She turned to Tommy and Melanie. “Do you guys have any questions?”
    “Just one,” Tommy said. “Why now? Why didn’t you come forward earlier? Your appeals have been final for more than a year.”
    “Like she said, I needed to clear my conscience. It kept gnawing at me that someone else was gonna get the needle for what I did.”
    Dani still wasn’t sure he was telling them the truth. His answer didn’t really explain why he’d waited so long. Sometimes she needed to let an interview settle, maybe sleep on it, before she’d decide whether she’d been fed a line. With Sanders, she knew it would take more. At the very least, they’d need to corroborate the facts he’d given them.
    As Dani, Tommy, and Melanie stood up to leave, Sanders said, “Uh, there’s something else.”
    They turned back to look at him.
    “I haven’t even told my lawyer this.”
    “Yes?”
    “Carly wasn’t the only other one.”
    The HIPP team retook their seats and opened up their notepads.
    “There were nine others. In four different states. All unsolved. I never left anything behind.”
    Dani sat in silence, stunned by his admission. At times like this, she wanted to run home and jump in a shower to wash away the stench of depravity. At times like this, she wished she were an accountant, holed up in a cubicle crunching numbers, something dry and steady and devoid of ugliness. Instead, she stayed in her seat and took notes as Sanders recounted the details of nine other lives he’d destroyed.

C HAPTER
    8
    T ommy boarded a plane to West Palm Beach, Florida. He needed to visit the Tip-Top Inn and verify Sanders’s story. He’d already done an Internet