Chapter Fifty-Seven
TED WANTS TO snap some sharp reply, but he remains silent.
‘Why are we here, exactly?’ Alan Siegle asks.
‘The NYPD received an anonymous package in the mail this morning,’ Ramirez begins. ‘It contained a thumb drive with some digital files – camera footage, with audio, taken from inside Ted and Jill Westcott’s home.’
Ted had assumed this, and it’s all over the news online, but hearing the words from Ramirez’s mouth makes the sweat break out anew under his arms and along his back. Fortunately, his attorney understands the situation perfectly. It’s no longer hypothetical.
‘I’m sorry,’ Siegle says. ‘Camera footage? Taken inside my client’s home? How did that happen?’
Ramirez flushes slightly. ‘We don’t know, exactly. Someone obtained it and sent it to the NYPD.’
‘Someone.’ The attorney turns to Ted and asks, ‘Were you aware that there was a camera inside your home taping private conversations between you and your wife?’
‘No, I was not,’ Ted answers.
‘Was your wife aware there was a camera inside your home taping your private conversations?’
‘Absolutely not.’
‘That’s something for her to answer,’ Ramirez says.
Ted’s attorney faces Ramirez and the detective. ‘What you have here is clearly an illegal recording. As you’re fully aware, this is inadmissible in any court of law in New York, criminal or otherwise.’
Ramirez now looks coldly furious, Ted is glad to see.
Siegle continues. ‘So my client and I don’t have any need to see it.’ He pauses and says, ‘Do you have any questions for my client?’
‘Yes,’ Ramirez says, looking at Ted. ‘Did you push Greg Westcott off his sailboat on the afternoon of Sunday, September tenth of last year, and leave him in the ocean to die?’
Ted knows what to do. He says firmly, ‘No comment.’
‘Do you know who was trying to blackmail you, Ted?’
‘No comment.’
‘Did you send someone to the home of Lara and Ben Donleavy to recover the files – resulting in Ben Donleavy’s death?’
Ted feels his heart jump, but answers, ‘No comment.’
Ramirez is frustrated as he ends the interview and watches Ted Westcott and his very expensive, very good attorney leave the interview room. He turns to Charlie beside him and says, ‘Fuck.’
‘It’s what we expected,’ Charlie reminds him.
‘I know.’
They make their way down the hall to another interview room where Jill Westcott is waiting with her lawyer.
She doesn’t look as composed as her husband had; she seems visibly nervous.
Maybe they will make more headway with her.
But that depends on her lawyer, and whether he’s as smart as the other one.
They introduce themselves for the tape and begin.
He watches Jill lift a glass of water to her lips; her hand is shaking slightly.
They already have a computer monitor set up in this room too; he hopes that this time they get to use it.
He takes a different approach with her. He begins, ‘I’d like to show you something. ’
He immediately plays the clip on the monitor.
It shows the interior of the front room of the Westcotts’ house.
Ramirez glances at Jill; her face is frozen.
He realizes that although she knows about the existence of these recordings, she has probably never seen them.
Perhaps she doesn’t remember just how damning they are.
Her attorney has turned his attention to the monitor and is watching with interest. He’s clearly not as sharp an attorney as the other one. Ramirez tries not to get his hopes up.
They all watch Ted and Jill having drinks in their front room. Hear them talk about Ramirez’s suspicions. Then Ted says, ‘Jill, he wasn’t there. He didn’t see us push Greg off the boat and leave him there to die. There’s no evidence! You need to stop worrying.’
A few moments later they discover the camera and the footage ends abruptly.
Ramirez turns it off and observes Jill as a silence falls over the room. The attorney briefly looks stunned, but then he remembers who he is and what he’s supposed to be doing. ‘How did you acquire this material?’
Ramirez ignores him and addresses Jill Westcott directly. ‘Your husband deliberately pushed his brother off that boat, didn’t he?’
She stares back at him, as if mesmerized.
The attorney, making up for lost ground now, turns to his client and reminds her, ‘You don’t have to say anything. It is my strong advice that you say nothing.’
For Jill, time seems to stand still. So many thoughts are running through her mind. Subversive thoughts.
They must know about Ben. She could tell them that Ted sent John Burnley to break into the Donleavys’ house, without her knowledge, to recover the recordings, and that Ben died as a result.
She knows enough about the law now to know that if she testified against them – and Lara backed her up – Ted and John Burnley could both be tried and probably convicted for felony murder, even if Ben’s death was an accident.
The question is: what is Lara going to do?
Jill doesn’t want to be charged as a co-conspirator in Ben’s death – and now that recording of Lara’s accusations is out there, which they didn’t anticipate.
If Jill cuts a deal for immunity on Ben’s death, she would remain free.
John and Ted might both go to prison, but Ted would still keep the money from the inheritance.
And as his wife, even if he divorces her from prison, she would get a sizable share.
And she would be rid of Ted.
Ramirez stares at her, waiting.
She doesn’t know what Lara is going to do. Confronted with the recording, what will she say? Will she talk?
Ramirez repeats the question. ‘Your husband deliberately pushed his brother off that boat, didn’t he?’
Jill lets go of the breath she’s been holding and says, ‘No comment.’
The attorney asks, ‘How did you get that recording?’
‘It arrived anonymously, through the mail,’ Ramirez admits.
‘So it’s illegal and inadmissible. Unless you have anything else, we’re leaving.’
‘Let’s talk about Ben Donleavy’s death,’ the other detective says. Jill freezes. ‘Lara Donleavy is a friend of yours, correct?’
‘No comment,’ Jill says.
‘Did you and your husband send someone to the Donleavys’ house to try to get the files back? Is that how Ben Donleavy died? Because, according to the recordings, that’s what Lara Donleavy believes.’
‘No comment.’
When Jill finally rises from her chair, her legs feel like they might buckle beneath her.