CHAPTER FOUR #2
“I told you everything I know,” he said before I’d even asked a question.
“You sure about that?” I smiled as I took my seat across from him.
“Absolutely,” he snapped.
I rested my elbows on the tabletop. “We have a little bit of a problem, though, Dale.”
He narrowed his eyes. “What kind of problem?”
I leaned forward. “Your wife says you went out the night Eddie died. You weren’t home all night with her like you said you were.”
The color left his face in a way that was almost satisfying to watch. He hadn’t expected Nicki to give him up. His eyes glittered with confusion as he looked at me, then at the wall, and then back to me again. But then his expression hardened. “So what if I did? It’s a free country.”
“Where did you go?” I asked calmly.
He leaned back in his chair, a muscle working in his jaw. “I went to the harbor to work on my boat.”
I gave him a skeptical look. “You went to work on your boat at night? Why not do that during the day?”
“Because I didn’t remember I had the part I needed in the garage until later that night. I realized I could fix the boat instead of losing another day of fishing. I don’t have the luxury of not fishing,” he grated out. “It didn’t matter what time it was. I needed to fix my damn boat.”
“Okay, fair enough.” I studied him. “While you were at the harbor, did you see Eddie Salcedo or his boat?”
“No.” His voice was flat. “I didn’t see Eddie. I didn’t see his boat. But then again, I was busy.”
“What time did you get to the harbor?”
He exhaled tiredly. “I don’t know. 9:30 p.m., maybe 10:00 p.m.”
“And you left when?”
“When I fixed the fucking boat,” he growled.
I held onto my temper. “And approximately what time might that have been?”
“11:30 p.m.,” he grumbled. “I think. I wasn’t keeping track.”
“Did anyone see you there? Another fisherman, someone on the docks?”
His jaw tightened. “I don’t know. I wasn’t thinking I’d be questioned about anything. I was just fixing my damn boat.”
I let the silence sit for a moment. Dale was angry, but he was also scared.
Was that because he was hiding something or because he was worried he was about to be blamed for something he didn’t do?
I didn’t officially have a homicide, so I needed to tread carefully.
All I had so far was an autopsy report that said maybe it wasn’t an accident, I had the wiped GPS, and the victim’s hands with no marks on them.
If I came at him too aggressively, Dale could lawyer up, stop talking, and I’d lose access to him. I couldn’t risk that this early on.
“Dale, help me understand something,” I said in the most non-threatening tone I could muster. “You told me you were home all night. Now I’m hearing you were at the harbor. I’m not accusing you of anything. But when a story changes, I need to understand why.”
“I didn’t kill him.” His voice broke on the word kill, and for the first time his tone was less angry and more conciliatory. “That’s what you’re hinting at, right?”
“I’m simply trying to figure out why you lied to me.”
“You know why,” he hissed. “I hated the guy, fine. I thought he screwed me over. But I didn’t kill him.
I wouldn’t do that. I’ve got a wife who loves me even though I’m a colossal asshole most of the time, and I’ve got a pretty good life here in Coral Cove.
I wouldn’t throw that away over a crabbing permit. ”
I studied him. The desperation was real.
Whether it was the desperation of an innocent man being squeezed or a guilty man watching the walls close in, I couldn’t tell yet.
I needed the harbor camera footage that Bree was pulling.
If Pruitt was on camera arriving at the harbor at the time he claimed, and he was seen leaving at the time he said, his story would check out.
If he wasn’t, I’d be back in this room with him, and the conversation would be very different.
“Okay.” I stood, scraping back my chair. “I think that’s good enough for now, Dale. I appreciate you coming in and answering my questions.”
He stood, eyeing me warily. “I’m not lying to you about Eddie, Chief Hale, I swear.”
Every liar I’d ever known had said that.
I just smiled and opened the door for him. “You have a good day.”
* * *
The real surprise was when Gil Moran came in voluntarily to see me later that same day.
I hadn’t called him. He just showed up at the station and asked to speak with me.
That was either the behavior of a grieving partner who wanted to help or the behavior of a guilty man who wanted to know what I knew.
In my experience, the two often looked identical from the outside.
He sat across from me in my office, not the interview room. I’d made that choice deliberately. The interview room had a table, hard chairs, a camera. My office had a couch, a window, and a photo of Scout on the desk. People talked more when they were comfortable.
I got him a cup of coffee and, once he was settled, asked, “I was going to ask you to come in so we could talk. I appreciate you beating me to it.”
“I want to help,” Gil said. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days.
Red-rimmed eyes, blond stubble going gray at the jaw.
“Whatever you need. I have to know what happened to Eddie. He was my business partner for eight years, but my friend most of my life. I don’t know what I’m going to do with him gone. ”
“I’m sorry for your loss, Gil.” I grimaced. “I know it’s been an awful few days.”
“Probably the worst two days of my life.” His voice broke, and he stared down at his coffee. “I just want to understand why he’s gone. Why that had to happen to him. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
“I don’t know if I can give you those kinds of answers, but I promise I’ll do my best to figure out how Eddie died.”
He nodded, letting out a shaky breath. “I just wish I could turn back time. If I could do it differently, I’d go out with him that night. I wouldn’t let him go alone.”
I frowned. “Can you tell me about the night he died?” I made sure my tone was in no way accusing. “You usually would have gone out together, right?”
“Yep.” He winced. “I planned on going with him that night. I’ll regret that I didn’t till the day I die.”
I studied him, taking in the dark circles under his eyes and the overall weariness on his face. “But something happened that kept you from going?”
“I got sick.” He took a sip of coffee.
“I see.”
He rubbed his face tiredly. “We’d planned on checking the pots in the north channel together, but after lunch, I got really sick with some kind of stomach bug.
I ended up calling Eddie around 5:00 p.m. to tell him I couldn’t go.
He said he’d go alone.” His mouth turned down.
“That was the last time I talked to him.”
My chair creaked as I leaned back. “What time did he leave the harbor, do you know?”
He shook his head. “Ray would know better than me. I wasn’t there, remember? I was home.”
“Right. Sorry.” I gave an apologetic smile. “So, you were home all night sick?”
“All night. Sick as a dog from both ends.” He gave an embarrassed laugh. “I ended up crawling into bed around eight. I felt like I was dying.”
I smiled faintly. “Anyone who can confirm that?”
He paused. “I live alone, so no. But I was home.”
I nodded and rested my elbows on my desk. “I have to ask you something, and it might be uncomfortable.”
“Go ahead,” he said cautiously.
I met his wary gaze. “I’ve heard from a few people that you and Eddie had been having some tension lately. Some arguments. Can you tell me about that?”
He shifted in his seat. “Oh, that was nothing. Just business stuff. We disagreed on some things, the way partners do. Where to fish, how much to invest in new gear. Normal stuff. Both Eddie and I could be stubborn. But we always worked that shit out. We were like brothers.”
It was true most people said they’d been very close.
It was only recently they’d had issues with each other.
I really needed to know what had caused the friction.
“Eddie’s wife supports the stuff other people have said about you two fighting.
She said he wasn’t sleeping well before his death.
She attributed it to something going on between the two of you.
That doesn’t sound like the normal stuff. ”
Gil’s expression didn’t change, but something behind his eyes did. A door closing. “Rosa is grieving. People remember things differently when they’re hurting. Eddie and I were fine. If he hadn’t had the accident, we’d have been right as rain again.”
It was a smooth answer. He definitely didn’t want to talk about the fights he’d had with Eddie.
Not that it meant anything bad. Losing your best friend before you could work through issues you might be having would be a gut-wrenching thing.
I could understand his reticence to talk about what probably felt very private and painful.
“You two were partners, but Eddie owned the Pacific Lady, is that right?” I asked.
His cheek twitched. “Yes.”
“What happens to the boat now?”
He grimaced. “It’s kind of complicated, and I haven’t wanted to talk to Rosa about that just yet.”
“Did you and Eddie have an LLC?”
He let out a harsh breath. “No. We had a handshake kind of deal because we were buddies. He bought the boat, but I’d pay for repairs and anything the boat needed. Then we’d put out our pots and split the catch, fifty-fifty. We worked well together. We trusted each other.”
I frowned. “What does that mean for you now that Eddie is gone?”
He gave a pained laugh. “It means I’m kind of fucked, if you want to know the truth.”
“Why is that?”