Better Ending (Spoiler)

For a minute at the end of the movie when Gere is digging up the girl's body with the lady culprit, I got the weird feeling that Gere's character was responsible for the young girl's disapearance. And that got me thinking... it would have been a better ending if the below were the case.

Gere's character was a child molestor as well, just had not been caught, and hated himself for doing it. Perhaps his work drew him to be one, or the fact that he was a child molestor led him to the job to help atone for his sins. That he only ever committed the crime once, and it was to that young girl who's family he promised he would bring her home. Throughout the movie you can see him become more on the edge, his boss even hints that he is showing all of the characteristics of a sex offender before they act. The reason for his tireless search to catch a sex predator in the act is so that he can pin them for the crime and say they led him to the young girl's body. Then he could take care of the molestor at the farm and solve his case, bring closure to the family and keep his name clean. Now his time at his job is coming to an end and he senses his window to do so is almost at an end, which is why he is becoming more and more erratic.

I feel like that would have made a much better ending, and for about 30 seconds I thought that might have been the case, when the lady at the end said something about, "let me tell the family how she died," I thought perhaps Gere's character ran off with the lady without Danes character so he could dig up the young girl and say the lady told him where the body was. She also said something like, "if only I knew you were like this, we would have made a great couple" which made me think that way too.