Chapter 39
“Ikilled him,” Hailey said in the interrogation room, the pale lights casting a sickly pallor on her skin.
She jittered with nerves, and her eyes darted about. She wasn’t overly emotional. It was matter of fact. Somewhat detached.
JD and I sat across the table from her.
Hailey had walked into the station and turned herself in. No attorney. She waived her rights and agreed to talk.
“Why did you do it?” I asked.
Her jaw tightened, and her eyes bulged. Rage filled her face, incensed by the question. “Because he abused me!”
“How did you do it?”
“Don’t you already know?”
“I do. But I need you to walk me through it.”
She took a deep breath and composed herself. “I went to my father’s house, and I stabbed him.”
“How many times?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t count. A lot.”
“If you had to guess.”
“10, 20, maybe 30 times. It’s all kind of hazy. Something came over me. I wasn’t myself. I was just a passenger watching it all unfold.”
I shared a look with JD, then asked her, “How did you deal with Tiffany?”
“I should have killed her, too.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I don’t know. I was focused on the task at hand.”
“So, this idea to kill your father just popped into your head?”
“It had been brewing for a long time. Something snapped inside me. I couldn’t take it anymore.”
“When was the last time you had seen your father prior to the murder?”
“I don’t know. Months. I didn’t want to be around him or her,” she said, her lip curling with disdain.
“So, he was just living rent-free in your head?”
She glared at me, jaw clenched, cheeks red. “Not rent-free. He lived in my head like a cancer. This was the only way I could cut him out.”
Hailey was about to come unglued.
“What did you stab him with?”
“Scissors.”
I let that hang there for a moment. “Are you sure about that?”
She blinked a few times. “Yes. I’m sure.”
I shared another glance with Jack. Maybe she was referring to the shears as scissors. But I wasn’t buying it.
I said to her, “Would you excuse me for a moment?”
The chair screeched as I pushed away from the table. I stood up, walked to the door, and gave a quick knock. A guard buzzed me out, and I stepped into the hallway. I hustled to the main office, grabbed a pair of scissors from Denise’s desk, and returned to the interrogation room.
The scissors clunked as I set them on the table.
Hailey’s eyes found them, and the scissors transfixed her. She couldn’t break her gaze away.
With Hailey in handcuffs, I wasn’t concerned about her grabbing them and going crazy.
“Can you confirm that those scissors are the murder weapon?”
She nodded, still mesmerized by them.
“I need a verbal response.”
“Yes. That’s the murder weapon. That’s what I stabbed my father with.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Her eyes found me. “Positive.”
I gave her a look. "That's not the murder weapon.”
Her face went long, and she swallowed hard. "Yes, it is.”
"No. It's not.”
"Well, it looks just like the murder weapon.”
I laughed. "No. It doesn't. Those are a pair of scissors I pulled off a deputy's desk. Your father was stabbed with shears that look nothing like those scissors.”
Hailey swallowed hard again.
"You want to tell me why you admitted to something you didn't do?”
She looked incensed. "I'm telling you. I killed my father.”
"No. You didn't. And you're wasting our time.”
She growled at me.
"I understand you’ve got a lot of animosity toward your father. A lot of unresolved feelings. I suggest you work out those feelings with good counseling.”
"I am working those feelings out with good counseling. I worked them out by stabbing him to death. He deserved it.”
“You're interfering with a police investigation.”
I grabbed the scissors, pushed away, and stood up. I walked around the table and commanded her to stand. She complied, and I released the cuffs from her wrists.
A look of disbelief washed over her face.
JD and I strolled towards the door.
"That's it? You're just going to let me go? Just like that?”
"Yes. Just like that.”
I knocked, and a guard buzzed us out.
I held the door for Hailey as she stomped out of the interrogation room. I’d never seen somebody so upset about being let go.
Before walking off, she turned back and said, "You're making a mistake.”
I sighed and shook my head.
Hailey stormed away, and Daniels joined us in the hall a moment later.
"That girl's got some serious issues," he said. “I'll never understand why people make false confessions.”
“I'm no psychologist, but I think it's some attempt to gain control over uncontrollable situations,” I said. “Makes her the center of attention. A last attempt to get back at her father. Imagine the unresolved feelings she has. She's never going to get closure. Maybe this is her way of doing that.”
"I hope she gets the help she needs," Daniels replied. "You got anything solid on the landscaper?”
"A lot of circumstantial evidence. So far, I don't have any proof that he bought those exact shears. I've got my people digging."
"Go to all the hardware stores in the city. Check receipts. Pull up security footage over the last several weeks. Those sheers were new. Maybe we can catch one of our suspects on video buying them.”
"We'll give it a shot.”
I had told him about the kidnapping when we spoke earlier. He wanted a status update.
"We're just waiting for the next contact,” I said. “I've got my people trying to track them down, but that's not proving fruitful at the moment.”
"Do you want to bring in the FBI?"
"Mickey wants us to handle it.”
"Any particular reason?”
I told him about the ransom demand and the money.
"Let me get this straight, you're out there with this guy searching for $150 million in stolen drug money so you can pay a drug dealer that just got out of prison to get his daughter back?”
I nodded. "That pretty much sums it up.”
"I see why he doesn't want the FBI involved.” Daniels sighed. "If this goes sideways…”
“When does anything ever go sideways?” JD said with as innocent a face as he could muster.
The sheriff gave him a knowing look. “One day, you two are going to write checks your asses can’t cash.”
“Be positive,” I said.
He just shook his head in dismay and walked away.
We left the station and headed over to the hardware store to see what we could find.
The killer could have easily purchased the shears online.
Isabella was hacking into suspects’ accounts, searching transactions.
I wouldn’t be able to use anything she gave me in a court of law, but it would point us in the right direction.
So far, her search had turned up nothing. But we found something interesting at the hardware store.