28. May Eighteenth
TWENTY-EIGHT
May Eighteenth
Harry
H arry stood in the observation room next to Cade Bohannan, both of them in the same stance— arms crossed on chests, legs planted, eyes to the one-way window—while Rus worked Dern.
Dern knew the score, so he had his attorney with him.
But it didn’t matter.
Dern’s ass would be in one of Harry’s cells, because the Feds were coming, and they wanted a go at him too.
“Just gotta run this down,” Rus said, scanning the papers on the table before him. “All right, late in the evening on May sixteenth, Gerald and Michelle Dietrich reported a burglary at their home.” He looked to Dern. “Yes?”
“Don’t have access to my old files, you do.” Dern tipped his head to the file open in front of Rus. “So you tell me.”
“According to your own notes, that’s confirmed,” Rus stated. “Solely upon Gerald Dietrich indicating Simon Rainier was having financial problems, early on the morning of May seventeenth, you picked up Simon and his wife Avery, regardless of the fact they had twenty thousand dollars in the bank, they carried no debt, even to the point they owned their home and car outright, no one else, family nor friends, reported they were in financial crisis, and no one reported they had issues with drugs, drink, or gambling. Oh, and neither of them had a record. Last, they both had alibis, not only alibiing each other, but their daughter alibiing them. But you still did not conduct an interview at their home, you took them to the station for an interrogation. To your recollection, do I have that right?”
“Don’t know why we’re talkin’ about this. It was fuckin’ years ago,” Dern bit.
“Do I have that right?” Rus pushed.
“Sonny Rainier’s prints were all over the Dietrich home.”
“You didn’t know that at the time, because he had no record. His prints weren’t in the system. Neither were his wife’s. But his prints could be explained because he was their handyman, and they used his services liberally.”
“Avery’s prints were too.”
“One print. One . A thumb print on the safe,” Rus pointed out.
“And the safe was broken into.”
“Avery ran an at-home daycare. Again, she didn’t have a record. How did she learn how to break open a safe?” Rus inquired.
“Her husband was a handyman,” Dern spat.
“So Sonny’s stupid enough to leave his prints everywhere, but Avery’s careful, though not careful enough, and leaves one single print in the most incriminating location she can leave it. Is that what you’re saying?” Rus queried.
“That’s what we found,” Dern said, and he smirked. “And then they ran, so what does that tell you?”
Harry’s already tight neck muscles got tighter at Dern still pointing his filthy fucking finger at Lillian’s parents.
And Christ, that fucking smirk , he wanted it to remove it from his face.
Physically.
“Okay then,” Rus said easily, making it clear why he was in there with Dern, and Harry wasn’t. Rus looked back down at the file and kept his eyes there. “You also interviewed their nineteen-year-old daughter, Lillian, at her home that same day.”
“If you say so.”
Rus looked at him. “You did. Her parents were released with a warning not to leave town. Upon attempting to pick them up for another interrogation after you got their prints and compared them to the ones at the scene, on May nineteenth, you found they’d skipped town. On that same day, you brought Lillian Rainier to the station and interrogated her for five hours. She repeatedly made the same statement she made on her first interview, a statement that fully corroborated the ones of her parents.”
Dern said nothing, just glared at Rus.
“What did you do on May eighteenth?” Rus asked.
Dern’s eyebrows twitched, and as far as Harry could read, they did this in confusion and surprise at the question.
“Again, what did you do May eighteenth?” Rus pressed.
“And again , I’ll say that was a long fuckin’ time ago. So, fuck if I remember,” Dern replied.
“I just ran a timeline down for you,” Rus pointed out. “May sixteenth, a major crime was reported, cars, guns, jewelry and other valuables to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars were missing. May seventeenth, you interrogated two suspects and interviewed their daughter. May nineteenth, you received word there was more evidence to indicate your suspects did it, you went to pick them up, they were gone, you interrogated their daughter. There’s a day missing there, Leland. This isn’t LA county. You didn’t have fifty robberies reported every day. You must remember what happened that day.”
“Well, I don’t,” Dern clipped.
Harry tensed.
And Rus went for it.
“That’s really too bad, since the night of May eighteenth, someone murdered Simon and Avery Rainier in Idaho.”
Dern’s entire body bucked in his chair, his eyes went huge, and his attorney held up a hand Rus’s way.
“I want a moment alone with my client,” he demanded.
“Take all the time you need,” Rus told him, gathering the file and standing. “He’s not going anywhere. The Feds are on their way, and they want time with him. We’ll be getting to that tomorrow.”
“You’re holding him?” the attorney asked.
Rus shot the attorney a penetrating scowl. “I got a clear frameup, obvious insurance fraud and two dead bodies, and the man sitting here who was found guilty of corrupting his office was the lead investigator on the case. Hell yes, I’m holding him.”
“Nothing’s clear or obvious,” the attorney retorted. “Sounds to me my client had purpose to pursue the Rainiers.”
“Then you don’t know your client had a reputation for harassing and badgering women he found attractive, using the resources of this department to punish those who didn’t fall for his charms. And Avery Rainier was one of those women.”
The attorney’s face got red.
Rus turned to Dern, and an expression came over Rus’s face the like Harry had never seen on his friend, and it gave even him a shiver.
“She wanted nothing to do with you not just because you’re all the nasty that’s you, but because she loved her husband. For some twisted reason, you couldn’t handle that. So you set Sonny up. You set Avery up. You picked them. You . And you delivered them to the Dietrichs. Which means you’re responsible for their deaths, you miserable fuck.”
With that, Rus left the room.
Harry and Cade turned to the door, so they saw Rus enter the observation room with them.
His eyes went right to Cade, but Harry’s didn’t.
“You good?” he asked Rus.
“I need a shower,” Rus answered.
Harry got him.
“Your take?” Rus asked Cade.
“Well, we know the man’s a narcissist,” Cade began. “But narcissists know right from wrong. They just have the ability to twist a wrong into a right if it serves their purpose. That said, murder is extreme for them. Emotional and physical abuse of significant others, loved ones, common. Murder, it can happen, but not as common.”
“We know he didn’t pull the trigger, Cade,” Rus said. “How did you feel about what you saw in there?”
“He had no idea Sonny and Av were dead,” Cade answered. “And he’s freaked right now, blustering for all he’s worth, because he’s got Ballard’s situation hanging over his head, and now this.” Cade glanced at the window. “I don’t know.” He came back to the men in the room. “If I had to call it, I’d say he was fucking with Sonny and Avery just so there’d be something to report to the insurance company so the Dietrichs could get a payout. But also because they got on his bad side, and that’s the man he is. He’d know there wouldn’t be enough evidence to push through an arrest, and definitely not a conviction. There’s so much reasonable doubt over the little they had, a lawyer fresh from passing the bar would get them off, a prosecutor would know that and therefore wouldn’t touch it. The fuck of it is, Sonny and Avery didn’t know it.”
Yeah.
That was the fuck of it.
Or at least one huge fuck of the many fucks of it.
“He could have planted something, something more than the obvious plant of the thumbprint, if he really wanted to get nasty,” Cade went on. “But I don’t see it. The goal was to get his friends out of a financial situation. That happened. How Sonny and Avery ended up dead is not going to come from Dern, because he had no idea it went that far.”
“Did you know the Dietrichs?” Rus asked.
Cade shook his head. “Of them. It’s a small town. They got around. But we never met.”
“You know Muggsy Ballard?” Harry put in.
Cade shook his head again. “Nope. Though I know Roy Farrell was a waste of space. And I know Karl Abernathy gave me a wide berth, which was suspicious. But that’s all I got for you on that.”
Harry blew out a sigh and said, “Thanks for coming in, Cade.”
“Anytime, and anything for Sonny and Av, Harry. Anything,” Cade replied.
Harry nodded.
Cade took off.
“I’ll be sure he’s processed then I’ll get home,” Rus said. “Nothing more we can do, so you get home too.”
There was one other thing Harry had to do, and it was time to do it so he could get to Lillian.
He and Rus said their goodnights, and Harry headed to his office.
He closed the door and got his phone out.
He then made the call.
A couple of rings, Rita Zowkower answered.
“Hey there, Harry. You hear something about my boy?”
“Actually, yeah, Rita. He called his ex-wife a few days ago and made some statements to her that made her uncomfortable.”
Silence, then, “You mean he called your girlfriend .”
“One and the same,” Harry returned. “Now, just sayin’, I know you’re worried about him and don’t know where he is. But just in case you know someone who can get word to him, remind him he’s got three warrants for his arrest in Fret County. If he’s seen around here for any reason, odds are, he’s going to be a guest of the state for a good while.”
That got him only silence.
“You there, Rita?” he called.
“I’m here, sheriff,” she said. “Haven’t talked to my boy in a while, but, you know, his ex-wife just took a blow, and she meant the world to him. He might get in touch with his momma so I’d send her flowers or somethin’, and I’ll share what you said if he does.”
“Appreciate you. And maybe refrain on the flowers, Rita. Lillian is going through it right now, she doesn’t have a lot of fond memories about her time as a Zowkower, it’d be the kindest thing you could do not to remind her of them.”
It came tight when she said, “You’re heard.”
“Obliged. You have a good evening.”
“Same to you, sheriff.”
They disconnected, and seeing as that was all he could do unless he could get Willie’s ass in one of his cells, Harry shut down his office and walked to Lillian’s.