Chapter 2
“Where is she?”
I didn’t expect to see the woman standing in front of the first floor interrogation room.
She was six years older than I. I remembered her as a bouncy, perky cheerleader with auburn hair, freckles, and the fancy clothes I always wanted growing up.
Her father had been a cop before her. One who had arrested mine for drunk and disorderly conduct on our front lawn at least twice.
Deputy Sharon DePaul. I hadn’t seen her in a very long time. I don’t know if I was just projecting or imagining it, but she looked at me with the same disdain all DePauls had toward anyone named Leary.
“Inside,” she said. “Are you her lawyer?”
“I’m …” I didn’t know how to answer that. I supposed at least for the moment, I was.
“I’m going in there,” I said.
“Cass …” Eric started. But when I shot a glance over my shoulder, he knew nothing he could say would stop me.
I opened the door. Katy, my former sister-in-law, had always been petite with fine features.
Nearly twenty years ago, when Joe married her, it looked like he would have been able to lift her with one hand.
Somehow, as she sat at that long, metal table, her cheek pressed against it, she looked like a little girl.
Her eyes were bloodshot, her face swollen and distorted from crying. She slowly lifted her head and stared at me.
“Cass,” she croaked. She brought her hands up from under the table. They’d put handcuffs on her.
“What happened?” I asked.
Before she answered, I pulled out my phone and punched in my brother’s number.
It went straight to voicemail as it had the three previous times I called on the way here.
Their divorce had been messy. I hadn’t yet forgiven Katy for breaking Joe’s heart.
But not long ago, she had been family. I knew Joe still cared about her. Which was why I was here.
“He’s d-dead,” she said. “Tom’s dead. Oh my God, Cass. There was so much blood.”
As she said it, I began to notice other details about her appearance.
Katy was always put together. Her hair was meticulously styled.
Her clothes were fashionable and always the latest trend.
This morning, she had on a thin, faded gray sweatshirt and baggy plaid flannel pants.
She was wearing her pajamas. But that wasn’t the most shocking part about her.
The hem of her left sleeve was bloodstained.
She had blood smeared across her forehead.
“Are you okay?” I asked, slowly sinking down beside her.
She shook her head. “No.”
My eyes went to the handcuffs. She looked down and raised her wrists. “They think I murdered him. I told them it’s not what they think. I don’t know what happened. He was just there. They said …”
“Did you ask for a lawyer?” I interrupted her.
“I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t believe anyone would think I would hurt Tom. I wasn’t thinking that. I was just thinking about what I saw. Oh, Cass. The blood was everywhere. There couldn’t have been a single drop left in his body. He was so pale. Like wax. And his throat …”
Katy pitched sideways and retched. Someone had put a small garbage pail beside her. That’s when the stench hit me. Katy had already emptied the contents of her stomach some time ago.
“Did they offer you water? How long have you been here?”
She righted herself. “I don’t know. A couple of hours. They made me go to the hospital first. I wanted to be with Tom. I wanted to stay right beside him but they wouldn’t let me. They said I had to get checked out. They took some blood.”
“They drew your blood at the hospital?” I asked, my anger rising. “Did you give them permission to do that? Please tell me you asked for a lawyer, Katy?”
Every member of my family knew the drill.
When my brothers were younger, they had a tendency to let their tempers get the better of them.
The elder baby boomers and silent generation cops in this town made assumptions about us due to our last name.
Deputy DePaul’s father was one of the worst of them.
Our father’s and grandfather’s reputations preceded us.
It had taken a long time to shake that stigma.
As a result, my brothers and sister knew you always asked for a lawyer if you found yourself in trouble. Always.
“I didn’t know what to do?” Katy said. “I did ask for you. I said I want to talk to my sister-in-law.”
I had to keep my own Leary temper in check. If she’d asked for me, that should have ended all questioning. They certainly shouldn’t have taken her blood without a warrant. Though I wanted to rail about her constitutional rights, and I would, Katy was falling apart right in front of me.
“Okay,” I said, not wanting to upset her further. “Just try to calm down.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I swear. I don’t know. I just woke up and he was dead, Cass.”
“Stop,” I said. “Stop talking. Even to me.” I didn’t know yet how deeply I wanted to get involved. I needed to talk to Joe above all else.
She collapsed in tears. “You have to help me! Please tell me you’re going to get me out of this.”
“Just stay put,” I told her, as if she had any other choice just now.
“No!” she shrieked as I started to rise. “Don’t leave me. You can’t leave me here. I want to go home. Oh God. I can’t go home. He’s there. Tom is still there. The police are everywhere. What is everyone going to think?”
“Sit tight,” I said. “Let me try to figure out what’s going on. I’m going to see if I can get those taken off of you. You need to drink something. When’s the last time you ate?”
She doubled over and dry heaved into the garbage can again. “Never mind,” I said. I closed the door behind me and walked out into the hallway. Eric was at the end of it deep in conversation with Deputy DePaul. I marched toward them.
“She asked for a lawyer,” I spat. “Whatever she said, whatever she told you. It’s inadmissible. She’s in no condition to waive her rights. Did anyone even read them to her?”
“Cass …” Eric started.
Sharon DePaul faced me full on, squaring her shoulders. “She was read her rights. She signed a waiver at the hospital.”
“She told me that she asked for a lawyer.”
“She did no such thing,” she said. “She was eager to talk to me. All she said was that she wanted to talk to her sister-in-law. She never said she wanted a lawyer. I asked her repeatedly. She never asked for you specifically.”
Eric dropped his chin and covered his face with his hand.
“This is the game you’re going to play?” I asked. “You know who I am, Sharon. I want to talk to the detective handling this case. Where’s Patel?”
“You’re not her sister-in-law,” Sharon said coldly.
“Cass,” Eric said, looking back at me. “Patel’s been reassigned. Sharon was promoted to detective a few months ago.”
“So you’re new,” I said. “Great. Sharon, you know I’m a lawyer. You know Katy was my sister-in-law. You know what Katy meant. Whatever she told you was in violation of her rights. Are you arresting her?”
“Not yet. As soon as …” Sharon said.
“Great. Then you can take the cuffs off her. And if she’s not under arrest, I’m taking her home.”
“Her home is a crime scene,” Sharon said.
“Figure of speech,” I said.
“I said she hasn’t been arrested yet. She will be.
I’m getting my warrant signed. Then she goes to booking.
She’s not going anywhere after that but into a holding cell.
You wanna take it up with the sheriff? Be my guest. But this conversation is over.
Nice catching up,” she spat just before she stormed off.
Eric turned to me.
“Don’t start.” I put a hand up. “You know I’m right.”
“Come on,” he said, gently taking me by the elbow. “We can talk in here.”
I followed him into a break room across the hall. I wouldn’t sit. Eric knew better than to ask me to calm down.
“It’s pretty damning, Cass,” he said. “They’ve got an eyewitness.”
I felt the blood rush from my head. “They what? Who?”
“Her housekeeper. She walked in on it.”
“She actually saw Katy killing Tom Loomis?”
“She saw her holding the knife,” Eric continued.
“It was grisly. His throat was slashed open. Deep enough, it nicked his spinal column. They’ve got the murder weapon.
DePaul’s right about one thing. She has probable cause.
You can argue about whether there was improper procedure, but Katy’s not getting out of here without a court order. ”
“You know her dad was an undersheriff,” I said. “My dad considered him a mortal enemy. Not that I’m defending Joe Sr. He got what he had coming to him. But Sharon’s brothers made a sport out of picking fights with my brothers. This feels personal.”
I pulled my phone back out. I angrily punched in Joe’s number. Again, it went to voicemail. I shot off a text.
“Joe’s AWOL,” I said.
“It’s Friday,” Eric reminded me. “It’s nine a.m. Joe’s probably on some job site with heavy equipment running all around him.” My brother had finally formed his own construction company and it was starting to take off.
“Right,” I said. Then my heart sank. I hadn’t bothered to ask her. But if Katy had tried to call Joe this morning as well, either way, the cops would want to question him at some point. Though they’d been divorced for two years, he and Katy had hooked up again briefly last year.
As if he could read my thoughts, Eric’s face grew serious. “Cass, are you sure you should get involved with Katy’s side of this?”
“I’m not involved,” I said. “Not like that. Not yet. I’m just here to make sure she doesn’t get her rights trampled. Which seems like she has. I can help her find a defense lawyer. It looks like she’s going to need a good one.”
“That’s what I’m saying,” Eric said. “You might want to stay hands-off here.”
“I’ve known Katy for over twenty years,” I said. “She’s guilty of a severe lack of judgment. And of adultery. But slashing someone’s throat?”
“We don’t know what was going on in their marriage,” Eric said. “That’s all I’m saying. I worked a lot of homicides. I’m no longer surprised at what people are capable of. Cass, she said some pretty disturbing things. Word is, at the hospital she was talking kind of crazy.”
“I need to see her statement. Eric, this is baloney. She asked for me. DePaul really wants to pretend she didn’t know what Katy meant when she asked for her sister-in-law?”
He didn’t answer me at first. His expression just became more strained.
“What?” I said. “What are you hearing that she said?”
“You didn’t ask her?”
“I want to talk to Joe before I get further involved,” I said. “The less she says to me or anyone else, the better.”
Eric shrugged. “That horse might already be out of the barn, Cass. First, she told DePaul that she didn’t do it.
That she had just woken up and found him dead next to her.
Then she started questioning herself. Asking herself if she had really killed him.
Telling DePaul and anyone who would listen that she didn’t remember what happened.
And she screamed ‘What have I done’ a few times. ”
It was worse than I thought. Way worse.
“I can at least tell Katy what to expect,” I said. “Hopefully, I can get her a bail hearing. Lord, probably not until Monday. She’s going to have to spend the weekend in jail. Then she …”
“Then she what?” Eric asked. “Are you planning on putting up the money if it gets that far? They’ll charge her with at least second degree murder.
As soon as any judge in the county sees those crime scene photos, they’ll set her bail high.
Katy likely won’t have access to Tom’s money.
And, like you said, maybe you shouldn’t get involved any deeper just yet. ”
Eric had good points. At the same time, I couldn’t shut off the lawyer in me. And if Joe ever answered his blasted phone, I knew what he’d want. Despite everything, he’d want me to help Katy any way I could.
“I’m assuming DePaul actually showed you the crime scene photos?”
Eric pulled out his phone. “I knew you were going to ask me.” He opened his camera roll. He had one photo of Sharon DePaul’s phone with a picture of the crime scene pulled up.
I too had worked on plenty of violent crimes and murder cases since becoming a defense attorney.
But what Eric showed me made me gasp. Tom Loomis had sportscaster good looks.
That’s exactly what he did for a living.
But there was no trace of that in the man lying on the bed in this photo.
His eyes were fixed open. The gaping wound in his neck made me gag.
And as Katy said repeatedly, there was blood everywhere—Charles Manson crime-scene level.
“Eric,” I said, my voice gone hollow.
“I know,” he said, clicking his phone off. “Katy’s in real trouble. And this is going to be a mess.”