Chapter Twenty-Six
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
R oland Dunning arrived ten minutes before Sam was planning to leave for the day, so she sent a text to Nick to go ahead with dinner and she’d catch up when she got home.
She showed Dunning into the room where Frank Myerson had been pacing.
“Took you long enough,” he said to Dunning.
“I have other clients. I was in court.”
Myerson didn’t care for that response as he took a seat at the table. “Can we get on with it? This is starting to feel a lot like harassment after my wife was murdered.”
Sam started the recording, noting who was in the room before she sat across from the two men. “My captain made an interesting point earlier.”
“Care to share it?” Dunning asked.
“In fact, I do care to share it. He said if, God forbid, his wife had been murdered, he’d be camped out in our lobby, wanting every update he could get and offering to help us in any way he could. Frank, on the other hand, is annoyed by our requests for more information. I find that interesting, don’t you, Mr. Dunning? ”
“Are you accusing my client of something, Lieutenant?”
“I’m merely stating that his annoyance with our investigation leads me to wonder if he’s not relieved that his wife is dead.”
Frank’s mouth fell open as his expression registered shock. “You think I’m relieved that Elaine was murdered ? What kind of monster do you think I am? I’ve loved that woman since I was twenty-three years old. She’s been the center of my life for more than twenty years. I am not relieved that she is gone.”
“You’re not relieved that the fighting in your house is over, that you and your girls can coexist peacefully now that Elaine is no longer setting the rules for them?”
Frank looked at Dunning, as if he expected his lawyer to do something.
Dunning remained silent.
“I’m not relieved. I’m heartbroken. Is that all you dragged me in here to ask? Because if so, you’ve wasted my time, yours and Mr. Dunning’s.”
“There’s no such thing as wasted time in a homicide investigation, Mr. Myerson. Every detail matters, such as the one in which your daughter Zoe told us she was at Zeke’s house all afternoon, which was confirmed by cell phone data. If we dig deeper, will we find that she and Zeke left their phones behind when they returned to the District to deal with her mother once and for all?”
“Are you going to sit there and let her say these things about my daughter?” Frank asked Dunning.
“Answer the question, Frank. The sooner you tell them what they want to know, the sooner you can get out of here.”
“Zoe did not kill her mother. Any other questions?”
“What about Jada? Was she fed up enough with what was happening in her home to do something drastic, like hire someone to take care of things for her while everyone else was out of the house for the day?”
“No,” he said through gritted teeth. “She didn’t. Are you going to tell me that almost two days later, you’re so focused on my children that you haven’t got a single other lead as to who did this to Elaine?”
“Do you know what the major element is in a homicide investigation, Mr. Myerson?”
“No, I don’t, because I’ve never been involved in one before.”
“ Motive is the key to everything. Who would want this person dead? And the only people we can find in your wife’s entire life who wanted her out of the way are your daughters.”
“How can you accuse children of such a thing? That would make them psychopaths.” He looked frantically to Dunning, as if hoping he would back him up. “My daughters are difficult at times. Show me a teenage girl who isn’t. But they’re not psychopaths. They’re not murderers.”
“I’d like you to call them and ask them to stop by to talk some more.”
“Why? So you can entrap them into admitting something they didn’t do?”
“No, so we can dig deeper into who else might’ve done this.”
“They’ve told you everything they know.”
“Have they?”
Freddie came into the room, handed Sam a sheet of paper and then sat next to her at the table.
Her backbone buzzed with sensation when she saw several highlighted rows of data that showed multiple thousand-dollar withdrawals from bank accounts belonging to Zoe and Jada.
Sam turned the page toward Frank and pointed to the highlighted rows. “What did your daughters need with thousands of dollars?”
“I… I don’t know. Those are their college funds. They aren’t allowed to access them.”
“Looks like they broke the rules. Where’d all that money go, Frank? ”
He gave Dunning another frantic look. “Do something, will you?”
Dunning looked as if he had an itch he couldn’t scratch in polite company. “The lieutenant has asked you to call your daughters. I think you should do that now.”
“Look,” Myerson said, “I didn’t want to bring this up, but Zoe has had some trouble with drugs. She’s been sober for six months now, but it’s possible she’s relapsed. That would explain what she did with the money.”
“Where did she attend rehab?” Freddie asked.
Myerson looked like the proverbial deer in headlights. “We handled it as a family.”
Freddie looked at Sam. “You ever heard of anyone getting sober with only the help of their immediate family?”
“Nope.”
“We didn’t want it to ruin her life! We handled it.”
“Funny that none of you mentioned a drug problem before now,” Sam said.
“Because it’s personal and has no bearing on this case.”
“Well, now it does. What was she addicted to, and who supplied the drugs to her?”
“I… uh, you want specific drugs?”
“That’d be good.”
“I don’t recall.”
“Your seventeen-year-old daughter was an addict, and you don’t remember what she was taking? Can you understand how preposterous that sounds?”
Once again, Frank looked to Dunning for help.
“Tell her what you know, Frank. This is no time for evasiveness.”
“I’m trying to protect my daughter’s privacy. Doesn’t that count for anything?”
“I’m trying to figure out who murdered the wife you claimed to love with all your heart,” Sam said. “Doesn’t that count for anything? Doesn’t she count for anything? ”
“Of course she does! But she’s not here anymore, and Zoe is. What good will it do anyone if it becomes public that Zoe had a drug problem?”
“Call your daughters, Mr. Myerson. Tell them to come here right away.”
“You’re not going to do anything to stop this madness?” Frank asked Dunning.
“There’s nothing I can do. This isn’t an unreasonable request.”
“Then get out of here. You’re fired. I don’t need your kind of ‘help.’”
Dunning got up and left the room.
“Can you please confirm for the record that you’ve fired your counsel, Roland Dunning?” Sam asked.
“I fired Roland Dunning.”
“Are you planning to retain new counsel?”
“Yes.”
“While you arrange that, please call your daughters.” Sam engaged him in a stare-down that she won when he reached for his phone. “Put it on speaker.”
He called Zoe first. The call went right to voice mail.
“This is Zoe. You know what to do.”
“It’s Dad. I need you to come to the police station right away. They have more questions for you. Call me.”
Next, he called Jada, got her voice mail and left the same message.
“Why would their phones be off?” Freddie asked.
“I… I don’t know. They’re chained to those phones.”
“Are you able to track their locations?”
He shook his head. “Elaine did that.”
She turned to Freddie. “Can their locations be tracked if the phones are off?”
“We can see where they were most recently.”
“Go get Elaine’s phone from Archie, please.” After he left the room, Sam said, “We were told that Jada was going to her friend Ali’s house. Is that correct?”
“Yes, she wanted to spend some time with her best friend.”
“Do you have the number for Ali’s parents?”
Again, he shook his head.
“Good thing I do.”
That shocked the shit out of him, but he tried to hide that from her. He failed.
She sifted through the pages of her notebook until she found the number for Trina Gauthier and made the call on her phone, with the speaker on, staring down Frank as she waited for Trina to pick up.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Trina, this is Sam Holland.”
“Oh, hi. Have you found the person who killed Elaine?”
“We’re working on that. I wondered if I could speak to Jada.”
“To Jada? She’s not here. Did you call her phone?”
“I did, and it went straight to voice mail. But she was supposed to be visiting Ali.”
“Ali has been at cheerleading practice since school let out. She’s not due home until after nine.”
“Thank you for letting me know. If you or Ali hear from her, will you give me a call?”
“Yes, of course. Jada isn’t in trouble, is she?”
Sam never blinked as she continued to stare at Frank. “I’m not sure yet. Thank you for your help.”
“Whatever we can do.”
“I’ll be in touch if we need anything further.”
After she ended the call, Sam said, “Did you hear that? ‘Whatever we can do.’ That’s called cooperation with a homicide investigation. Also, did you hear the part where Ali has been at cheerleading practice all afternoon and not available for a visit from Jada, who told you that’s where she was going? ”
“I heard it.”
“So where’s Jada, Mr. Myerson?”
“I have no idea.”
“Track down Zeke Bellamy’s parents, will you?” Sam said to Freddie when she met him outside the interview room where she’d left Frank working to acquire a new attorney. She’d tried to call Zeke and had gotten his voice mail, too.
“I think Cam has the dirt on them. I’ll ask him.”
“I’m going back in there to make sure Frank is only shopping for a new lawyer.”
It was unusual for them to allow a potential suspect to keep his cell phone, but he wasn’t technically in custody, and they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him or anyone in the case. She was giving him some latitude while the pieces fell into place, or so she hoped. After learning that Jada had lied about where she was going and that large sums of money had been withdrawn from both accounts, Sam was more convinced than ever that the girls were involved. What she didn’t know yet was whether Frank was, too.
Sam sent another text to Nick on the secure BlackBerry. Might have a break in the case. Will be later than expected. Tell the kids I love them and I’m sorry to miss dinner.
She hated missing dinner with her kids and hearing about a day they’d never experience again. As she was about to step back into the room with Frank, Dr. Trulo came around the corner from the pit.
“Ah, there you are.”
Oh shit. The grief group. She’d totally forgotten. “Not sure I can make it tonight, Doc. Got a case heating up fast.”
“No worries. I was just coming to give you the reminder you requested.”
“Thank you, because I did forget.”
“I’m shocked. ”
“Haha, no, you’re not.”
“Is there any word from the lawyers about the twins?”
“Not yet.”
“That’s got to be weighing on you.”
“It is, but I’m keeping busy, which helps. And everyone keeps telling me we’ve got the parents’ will on our side, not to mention what the kids themselves want.”
“Those are all strong points in your column. Keep me posted?”
“I will, and I’ll run upstairs if I get the chance tonight. Please give everyone my regards if I can’t get there.”
“You got it, kiddo. Hang in there.”
“Thanks.”
Freddie greeted Dr. Trulo as he returned from the pit. “Fired up Elaine’s phone and couldn’t get current locations on either kid.” He handed her a sheet of paper. “Here’s a number for Zeke’s mother.”
“I’m getting a buzz. Are you?”
“Oh yeah. Big-time.”