Chapter 22
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Keith leaned across the table, his expression fierce. “Even if Kirby doesn’t agree, and he might not, we didn’t do anything to Tanya. I need you to believe me when I tell you she was fine when we left her.”
“I do believe you.”
“Really?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“You haven’t had the best impression of me so far. And I’m sure you’ve heard an earful from people in town and my own family.”
“I’ve heard that a lot of people rely on you for repairs to their homes they wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise.”
“They said that?”
“Quite a few people said that.”
“I figured they’d lead with the multiple DUIs, the bar fights, the numerous relationships that ended badly, among other things.”
“I’ve heard some of that, too, but the other thing was mentioned more often.”
Keith ran his hand roughly over the stubble on his jaw. “It’s nice to hear they had something good to say.”
“They did for sure. The eyewitness that put you and Kirby with her is Jonah Brown.”
Keith’s face lost all expression. “Are you fucking kidding me? That guy has a stick up his ass for our family.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“That’s just great.”
“The good news is that I can easily discredit him at the probable cause hearing due to his ongoing litigation against your family.”
“That’s good news?”
“It’s very good news. It goes to him having an ulterior motive in pointing the finger at you and your brother.”
“Kirby didn’t do anything other than answer my call and give me a ride. He never even talked to her.”
“How’d he end up with a black eye?”
“He was mouthing off to me in the bathroom about how this was all my fault, and it pissed me off. He knows as well as I do that I had nothing to do with any of this.”
“Punching him isn’t going to help anything. You have to keep your anger in check around here, Keith. You don’t want to be giving them anything else to hold against you.”
“I know. I feel bad about it. None of this is Kirby’s fault, that’s for sure.”
“I want you to take me through everything that happened, from the minute you first met up with Tanya until the minute you and Kirby drove away in his truck. Don’t leave out a single detail as all of it could be relevant.”
Keith sighed deeply and sat back in his seat. “I’d met her before that night.”
“What? When?”
“Over the summer. She was here working at the sailing camp and had just turned twenty-one, so she was enjoying the bar scene for the first time. I saw her around a few times, and we ended up talking one night. She told me how she’d recently gotten out of a long-term relationship and was looking to have some fun.”
“When was this?”
“Maybe June? It was early in the season.”
“What happened then?”
“We danced a little, had a few drinks, some laughs, a few kisses. Nothing major. I didn’t see her again for a couple of weeks. We ran into each other again after the Fourth of July and started to hang out more regularly after that.”
“Define ‘hang out.’”
“We’d have a few drinks in town, watch some live music and end up at my place after.”
Dan wanted to moan at the idea of the cops finding out Tanya had been at his house and getting a search warrant. Her DNA would probably be found in the house, which could complicate things.
“She was quite a bit younger than you.”
“Yes, and I felt guilty about that, but she dismissed it from the start. She said she was a full-grown adult woman allowed to decide who she wanted to spend time with, and anyone who had a problem with it could fuck off.”
As Dan took copious notes, he ached for the strong, fearless woman whose life had been cut tragically short.
“Did her parents and friends know you guys were hanging out?”
“One of her friends did. A girl named Lauren Rogers. She’d tell her parents she was staying with Lauren when she was with me.”
“Do you know where I’d find Lauren?”
“She’s local. She worked with Tanya at the sailing camp. I’m not sure what she does the rest of the year.”
“I’ll find her.”
“Why do you need to talk to her?”
“She may have information that’ll help, like she could tell the court how Tanya liked you, trusted you, never had anything bad to say about you. That kind of thing. If, of course, she never had anything bad to say about you.”
“Not sure why she would’ve. We were all fun and no drama. We both knew this wasn’t a forever kind of thing, but it was fun for the time it lasted. She left to go back to school, and I didn’t hear from her again until the day before she came back to town for the future sister-in-law’s bachelorette party.”
“What did she say when she contacted you?”
“That she’d be in town for the weekend and wanted to get together. I told her I’d be at the Barnacle Friday night and to stop by if she was near there.”
This was excellent new information that would be useful to him. Knowing Keith had a preestablished, casual relationship with Tanya and that there was someone who could confirm that would help to show he would’ve had no reason to kill her.
“Tell me about Friday night.”
“She came in with her girls around ten. We had to act like we were just meeting because none of them knew about us. Her parents would’ve flipped out about her hanging out with an older guy, especially one with an arrest record, so we kept it on the DL. I bought a round of drinks for her and the others, and we danced the rest of the night. At one point, we snuck into the ladies’ room to fuck.”
“Did you use a condom?” Dan asked, though he already knew.
He shook his head. “She’s on long-term birth control, and neither of us had been with anyone since the last time we were together.”
“You realize that puts your DNA in her vagina, among the other places you touched her.”
“That’s all I can think about, but I didn’t hurt her. I’d never hurt her. She was the cutest, sweetest, funniest girl.”
“Call her a woman when you refer to her.”
“Right. Sorry. She was a great person, and I’m crushed that someone killed her.”
“Did you get to talk to her at all during the night?”
“Here and there. It was loud and crowded, but she said her semester was going well so far, but it was hard to get back in the groove of studying after the summer.”
“Was there anything else she said or did that might help us?”
“There was one thing that happened, but it didn’t stand out to me at the time…” He continued to rub at the stubble on his jaw. “She got really upset at one point.”
“Did she say why?”
“She said she thought she’d seen her ex in the crowd, but that wasn’t possible because he was in Connecticut.”
Dan’s heart began to beat faster when he heard that. “Did she look for him?”
“No, but after she thought she saw him, her whole disposition changed. She wanted to get out of there and asked me to walk with her for a bit to make sure she wasn’t followed.”
“Where were her friends at this point?”
“I forgot that part. She argued with the future SIL because she wanted to stay at the Barnacle when the rest of them were going back to her parents’ house. They didn’t want to leave her alone with me. She told them she was fine and could do what she wanted. I didn’t hear what they said to each other, but the others left, and she was wound up from fighting with them. She did a couple of shots and wanted to dance, so that’s what we did.”
“Did she say anything more about the guy?”
“No, but she’d told me before that he hadn’t given up on them getting back together, but she’d moved on. He had no interest in leaving the town they grew up in, and she wanted a bigger life than that. Apparently, he’d shown up on campus a few times since she went back to school, and she’d told him to get lost. He didn’t like it, but he left after accusing her of wanting other guys more than she wanted a bigger life. I guess it got a little ugly a few times.”
“This is great info, Keith. What do you know about where she lived at UConn?”
“I think she was in an off-campus apartment in Storrs.”
“If we need it, I’ll try to track down her friends and roommates to get some more info about what happened with him.”
“Do you think it was him she saw?”
“I’m going to check the security footage from the bar and see if we can ID him as being there. If we can, that could be enough to get the heat off you and Kirby. You had no motive. He did.”
“What if you can’t prove he killed her?”
“I don’t have to. I just have to show it’s likely that someone other than you two did it. If I introduce enough evidence to provide reasonable doubt of your involvement, it’ll never get to trial.”
“What if it’s not enough, and they still think we did it?”
“Let’s take it one day at a time. I’ll do everything I can to get you out of this.”
“And what happens then when I have to live the rest of my life as someone who was accused of murdering a woman?”
“Being charged isn’t the same as being convicted.”
“Isn’t it, though? Won’t there always be people who think it might’ve been me?”
“Not if someone else is eventually convicted.” Dan leaned in. “Look, Keith… I know this is excruciating, but you didn’t do it. You just have to be patient while we gather information that we can use to exonerate you. I’ve got good people working this from all angles.”
“You had them working on it before today?”
“Yes, I’ve had them working on it since about one minute after your mother called me Saturday afternoon.”
“You really are good at this, aren’t you?”
“That’s what I hear.”
“I know we didn’t get off on the best foot… but I want you to know… Kara’s a good kid who doesn’t suffer fools. If she thinks you’re okay, you probably are.”
Dan laughed. “For some strange reason that makes me the luckiest guy in the world, she approves of me.”
Keith held out his hand across the table.
Dan reached out to meet him halfway and shook his hand.
“Thank you, Dan.”
“You’re welcome.”
Dan next asked to see Kirby, and when his brother-in-law was seated across from him, he noted that Kirby couldn’t stay still. His fingers were tapping on the table, and his leg bounced so hard that his entire body moved with it. “Are you sleeping at all?”
“Not really.”
“Do you need anything?”
“I need to get the hell out of here before I lose my mind.”
“I have some good news for you. Keith asked for a meeting and has signed on to be represented by me, pending your approval.”
“Why do you need my approval?”
“Because you’re my client, first and foremost, so my allegiance is to you, but if you’re okay with me also representing him, I can mount a joint defense, provided you both sign conflict-of-interest waivers.”
Kirby thought about that for a second. “Normally, I’d want nothing to do with being on the same team as Keith, but he didn’t do this. I don’t want to see him railroaded because of his past problems. I’ve seen him trying to turn things around. He needs a good lawyer, and Matt Gallagher is not a good lawyer.”
“In that case, I’m happy to represent you both. Keith gave me a ton of very useful information about the victim and his prior involvement with her as well as her difficult split with a longtime boyfriend. I’ve got people working on this, with a goal of discrediting the investigation and getting the charges dropped at the preliminary hearing.”
“That’s days from now. I’ll never make it.”
“The judge has asked for a meeting today as well. Not sure what that’s about, but it’s good news that he asked to see us.”
“None of this is good news until I’m out of here.”
“You didn’t do this, so give me a chance to prove that, and it’ll go away.”
“It’s just unreal, you know? To be living your life, minding your own business, and then get caught up in something like this.” He sent a hesitant look Dan’s way. “When I first heard about what you do, your innocence project, I admit I was a bit skeptical. Like, are you out there getting criminals out of jail? I mean, who doesn’t say they’re innocent of whatever they’re charged with? Now I get it.”
“It happens far too often, which is why I’ve made it my life’s work.”
“Thank God there’re people like you protecting people like me.”
“It’s possible you could end up with a nice big settlement from the state at the end of it.”
“I don’t care about that. I care about my good name, my reputation, my life.”
“There hasn’t been a person I’ve spoken to who hasn’t said what a good guy you are and how there’s no way you had anything to do with this.”
“Well, that’s nice to hear. I’ve had far too much time to think while I was in here and to imagine what’s being said.”
“I know it’s hard to believe from in here, but I honestly think you’ll be going home very soon. I’m taking advantage of every opportunity I get to say you had nothing to do with any of this. I’ll say it again when I meet with the judge today.”
“Thank you, Dan. Thank you so much.”
“I’m glad I could be here to help. Don’t lose hope, okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll try not to.”
“I’ll be back soon.”
“How’s Kara doing? It can’t be easy for her to be back here.”
“She’s holding up as long as you are.”
“Tell her I’m okay and not to worry.”
“I will. She’ll be glad to hear it.”
After he left Kirby, he went to speak to Detective Cosgrove. “Please tell me you’re starting to realize you have no case against my clients.”
“We have additional witnesses that can put Keith with Tanya before last weekend.”
“He fully admits to having dated her during the summer.”
Judging by his surprised expression, the detective hadn’t expected Dan to concede so quickly.
“You know what I’ve found to be true when you’re dealing with innocent people improperly charged with crimes?”
“I’m sure you’re going to enlighten me whether I want you to or not.”
“The common denominator is that innocent people have nothing to hide. If you want to know about Keith’s prior relationship with Tanya, we could get you in the room with him to clear up any remaining questions.”
Cosgrove thought that over. “I’d be interested in talking to him, but not today. I’ve got other things to take care of.”
“I hope your other things are related to this case as my clients are innocent and being held on serious charges. They’re going to have one hell of a civil case when all is said and done.”
Cosgrove frowned. “Unfortunately, theirs is not my only case, and while I’m sure you’re used to dealing with much bigger departments, we’re stretched thin here.”
“Understood. Well, I’ll let you get back to work. All of this will come out in court if not before.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just what I said. We’re under no obligation to refrain from sharing what we know before the hearing. You have a good day, Detective.”