Over Her Dead Body (21 page)

Chapter 34

Detective James had gone back to his house and managed to get a good night’s sleep. He awoke feeling refreshed and awake. He had sent Mrs. Bander back to the station to be held overnight. He had left instructions that the physical exams and x-rays were to be performed first thing in the morning. The detective got dressed and headed down to the diner for some breakfast. He didn’t eat out every morning, but whenever he was on a stubborn case, he found a good breakfast and coffee at the diner gave him some thinking time and an opportunity to fit the pieces together. It always began the same way. He would order two eggs over medium, two pieces of bacon, hash browns, water, and a coffee.

The detective was sitting in the same booth he always chose when it was available. Back to the wall. Eyes toward the door. He had already placed his order and was sipping on his coffee and flipping through the newspaper. Michael Bander was on the front page. They had a picture of him they had gotten from the school and a photograph of Mrs. Bander answering her door. They had only reported that a body had been found. The girl’s name had not yet been disclosed as they had not yet conta
cted her family. Her family…t
he detective thought about that for a moment. According to her sister, she was all the family she had left. Except for the parents that they had never met. Obviously they were already informed of their own daughter’s death. Still, with this all over the news,
why hasn’t the girl’s sister co
me forward? He had tried to contact her for months but her number had been disconnected, she had quit her job, and she had moved out of her apartment. Nothing. And she was an eye witness. They were goin
g to need her to testify that it
was Michael that had abducted them. The detective sipped his coffee and wondered if the sister was even still alive. Eye witness…

The waitress approached and served his breakfast. About that time CSI Dr. Crane came through the door. Detective James had asked him to join him for some coffee and bring the morning’s test results with him. The DA Cheryl Johnson stepped inside after him. They both sat themselves across the table from him. The detective nodded to each of them. “Cheryl. Doc.”

“Good morning
D
etective.” Cheryl said. “Started without us I see.”

“Well if I had known you were coming Cheryl, I would have started much sooner.”

The DA smiled. “Touché.”

The waitress approached the table. “May I get anything for you?” She asked nicely.

“Just a coffee for me please.” Dr. Crane said politely.

“I’ll have a cinnamon roll and a coffee as well please.” The DA said. The waitress scribbled the orders into her notebook and darted off. The DA looked up at the detective. “Did you get some sleep last night?”

Detective James smiled. “A full eight hours. You believe it?”

“Doc filled me in last night about the DNA. He said you had the wife in custody?” The DA decided to skip the banter and get right to it.

The detective shoveled a forkful of eggs into his mouth and followed it with a bite of toast. He nodded.

“Well, I guess you must have
obtained
a confession if you managed to get eight hours of sleep.” The DA said.

The detective wiped his mouth with his napkin and took a long draw on his coffee. “I’m sorry, is that a question?” The detective asked picking up his bacon. D
r. Crane
chuckled. The waitress stopped by and unloaded two cups of coffee and the DA’s cinnamon roll. The DA took a bite of cinnamon roll while attempting to stare down the detective.

The detective shoved his last piece of bacon into his mouth and chased it with some coffee. “No confession.” He said. “She still claims she hasn’t given birth. She agreed to an exam and x-ray this morning. DNA says it’s hers. She’s got to be lying. What do you think
D
oc?” The detective asked while attempting to juggle another forkful of egg to his mouth.

“I’m afraid the
girl is telling the truth.” Dr. Crane
said. “She has already completed the tests, and I’ve been informed that both doctors would testify in court that Mrs. Bander has never given birth naturally, or otherwise.”

The detective’s eggs unbalanced and fell back to his plate. He looked incredulously across the table at the doc as if he had just told him the sky was pink. “What about cesare
an Doc?
Couldn’t she have delivered by c-section?” The detective asked.

“That would fall into the ‘otherwise’ category. No, unless she has undergone major reconstructive surgery, the girl never gave birth.” Dr. Crane tore open a few packets of sugar and a couple of creamers and added them to his coffee.

“Impossible.” The detective said.

The DA swallowed another piece of her cinnamon roll. “Doc, how can the evidence both say the victim is 99.9 percent her daughter and yet say that she never had a child at the same time?” She asked.

The detective’s eyes lit up as if a switch had been turned on. “They had a surrogate…”

“Yes.” Dr. Crane said as he pointed his finger at the detective.
"
That is the only explanation for the conflicting evidence…”

“I feel a but coming on here.” The DA said stabbing her fork into her cinnamon roll.

“Very intuitive my dear. A big butt indeed. Mrs. Bander denies ever having a surrogate and is willing to take a lie detector test.”

The detective
'
s face went expressionless. He looked for a moment like he was going to drop his fork. After a
few seconds
, his color came back into his cheeks and he looked down at his plate and scooped up the remaining bits of egg that he had dropped earlier and shoveled them into his mouth followed by the last piece of toast
and a long swig of coffee. He sa
t the cup down making a clicking sound and an “ahh” signaling satisfaction with the breakfast. He looked up at
Dr. Crane
. “So what do you think Doc? What the hell is going on here?”

“Well
, there is only one explanation;
s
he’s lying about the surrogate. She’s got to be.”
Dr. Crane
said while pushing his glasses up on his nose.

“Give her the lie detector test. If she passes, let her go.” The DA said.

The detective sat up in his seat. “Are you out of your mind? The husband’s already on the run. We’ve got her DNA and it matches the vic. She either helped murder the girl, or helped cover it up!” The detective shot back a little too loud. Both the DA and D
r. Crane
looked around slightly embarrassed and hoping they hadn’t been overheard.

“Detective, I understand your frustration,” the DA began, “but I can’t go to the jury with conflicting evidence. I can’t put her on trial with evidence that she both had a kid and didn’t have a kid. The case would be thrown out before it even began. So unless you want this girl to walk…find me something more…conclusive.”

The detective sat back in his seat and turned his head focusing on something other than the DA. He was trying to swallow his frustrations and make sense of the new information.

Dr. Crane looked down at his coffee stirring it absentmindedly. Finally he looked back up at the detective. “Perhaps we
'
ll make some progress with the husband when we get him.” He said.

The detective looked at Dr. Crane and then at the DA. “You don’t get it Doc. The same evidence that sets
that
girl free, exonerates
him
as well. If it wasn’t
her
kid, then it reasons that it wasn’t
his
kid either. And if it wasn’t
his
kid, then we have no motive, no murder weapon, and no case.”

“I’m afraid he’s right.” The DA said. “Even if you find Michael Bander, we can’t charge him unless he confesses to the murder, knowing the girl, or admission of having a child. If he doesn’t. He walks. Hell, he might walk anyway after this torture case comes to light. How are we coming along on that anyway?”

“Luke has the reins on this one.” The detective said referring to his partner.

“Yes, we were finally able to get into Mr. Bander’s messages. Your suspicions are correct
D
etective. Mr. Bander recorded a whole argument between the two officers about what had happened and how they were going to spin the story. I had the con
versation printed out and gave
Luke a copy this morning. He put out an arrest warrant right away.” Dr. Crane said.

“You’ve got to be shitting me. Do you have any idea how bad this…” The DA turned her head sideways trying to get control before exploding in the diner. “I mean Jesus Christ! Do you realize that anybody who was arrested by those assholes are going to appeal their cases on grounds that they were tortured? I’ll bet at least a couple dozen bad guys are back on the street by the end of next week!”

The detective and Dr. Crane exchanged glances. Both shook their heads solemnly. One thing was for certain, it was going to be a long week.

Chapter 35

April sat quietly in the interrogation room. She had been to the hospital where she was poked, prodded, and x-rayed. After she was done, she was ushered back to her cell where she no more than got seated and
then she was
ushered back to the CSI building where she submitted to a lie detector test. She expected to be taken back to lockup but had been placed back into the interrogation room instead. She was still in the same clothes and her hair was still a mess. She had finally moved on past embarrassment and humiliation and was now in the acceptance stage of her dilemma. She accepted that she was screwed. She accepted that Michael was screwed. They were both going to jail for something she doubted either one of them had anything to do with. How was she going to fight a DNA test? How could she? No, it was all over. She decided that the acceptance stage was nice. There was a lot less stress when you just let go and accept the inevitable. Even if it wasn’t just. And it certainly wasn’t just.

April was getting uncomfortable
in the wooden
chair. After a few more minutes she got up and moved to the floor and leaned back against the wall. She began to wonder about Michael. Where was he? Was he alive? Was he angry that she had betrayed him? April shook her head. Of course he would be angry. He had trusted her. The one person in the world he should have been able to depend on and what had she done? Possibly got him
injured or killed?
April shook her head in disgust. She was too exhausted to do anymore crying. She had cried all night. She had small bouts of sleep but probably didn’t add up to more than four hours. April reached up and rubbed at her eyes. She could feel the bags that had formed under them. She longed for a hot shower and comfy bed. The door to the room opened and
D
etective James walked in.

He walked in and looked at her on the floor. He plopped down on the floor adjacent to her and leaned back against the wall. “Sleep well?” He asked.

April gave him a look that said ‘
seriously?
’ and looked away. Her arms were crossed in front of her.

“You know, I can’t blame you for being mad at me. I would be mad at me too.” The detective explained. April kept her gaze pointed in the opposite direction. “Look Mrs. Ba..April.” April turned her head surprised he had actually called her by her first name. The detective looked sincere. Almost apologetic. “I have to look after her first. You know that don’t you?” April didn’t say anything. She stared blankly at him. “Suppose that girl was yours. What wouldn’t you go through to find her killer? What wouldn’t you do?”

April looked down into her lap.
You’re my mommy silly
. In her mind’s eye she was looking at the little girl with the ice cream cone.

“Now I don’t know what’s going on here,” the detective continued, “I don’t know why your DNA matches yet what you have told me is true.”

April looked up at the detective. She guessed this meant that she had passed the lie detector test.

“But what I do know is that there is a young, beautiful, sweet girl who is no longer with us. She is calling out from
her grave
and begging for justice. And you know what worries me even more?” The detective asked April.

“What?” April said quietly. Looking up at the detective.

“That girl has a sister and her life is in danger.” The detective said.

April nodded. “So what happens now?” She asked.

“Now, you go home. Your sister is waiting outside for you. She’s been camped out in the parking lot all night. I think she has threatened each and every one of my CSI’s that have come or gone from the building.”

April smiled. She could picture Becca doing that. “What about Michael?” She asked.

“What about him?”

“Have you found him? Do you still believe he had anything to do with this?”

“I’m not going to lie to you,” the detective began, “Michael isn’t out of the woods yet. He was still found digging up the girl. He has a lot of explaining to do. We haven’t found him yet but we know he is alive. He was spotted at Walmart last night.”

April’s eyes lit up at this. “He’s alive?” She asked.

The detective nodded. “And still in good shape too. He managed to outrun all our officers again so he can’t be hurt too bad.”

April’s eyes welled up with tears and she cupped her hand over her mouth. She had thought she had gotten him killed. She fought off the urge to reach over and hug the detective.

The detective stood up and held out his hand to help April up. She took his hand and he pulled her up to her feet. He walked her to the door and paused. He looked back at April. “You know you’re not completely off the hook yet either until we have solved this. You know that don’t you?” He asked.

April nodded. “I know.”

The detective reached into his pocket and produced a business card. “In case you lost the last one.” April took the card. “You call me if you find Michael or you hear anything that may help. He can’t keep running. He’s going to have to face this.”

April nodded again and stepped through the door. She found her sister waiting in the lobby.
Becca
threw her arms around April. “Are you ok? They didn’t hurt you did they? C
au
se if they did I’ll…”

“They didn’t hurt me Becca. I’m fine.” April said. “I just want to go home and get some sleep.”

Becca nodded at her sister and put her arm around April’s waist and walked out the door.

Detective James watched them from the door as they got into Becca’s car and drove away.

“What now
D
etective?” Dr. Crane’s voice came from behind.

“Now we track the wife and see if she leads us to the husband…what else
can
we do?”