Wrong Turn (17 page)

‘I heard you were somehow involved in getting Bill Waller to defend your little friend. I hope that’s not who’s on his way up here.’

Lucinda hoped so, too. If Bill Waller was about to sell her out already, last night’s call was a major blunder. To her great relief, Kristen appeared in the doorway with a scrawny little man with a sharp nose, beady eyes and thin lips. She wondered if he always looked like he was ready to throw a punch.

‘Mr Nelson Culver, sir,’ Kristen said and backed away.

‘Come in, sir, and have a seat,’ the captain said.

He zeroed in on Lucinda. ‘The fact that you are not willing to face me one-on-one, lieutenant, tells me a lot – confirms many of my suspicions.’

‘It was my decision, Mr Culver. Not the lieutenant’s.’

‘I suppose that’s a marginal improvement. Very well. I am here on behalf of my client, Martha Sherman.’

‘Perhaps it would be more useful for you to speak to the district attorney, Mr Culver. He’s the only one that can authorize your client’s release.’

‘I just have a few questions of the lieutenant, captain. If you’ll just give me a moment.’

‘I may not allow her to answer all your questions.’

Culver nodded. ‘Understood.’ Then he turned to Lucinda, who was marveling at his acting abilities. ‘Am I correct that the lead detective in the investigation of my client is deceased?’

‘Yes, sir, Lieutenant Boswell had a fatal heart attack on the witness stand at your client’s trial.’

‘Just for clarity, I was not her trial attorney. She became my client during the appeals process. Now. Lieutenant. You took Lieutenant Boswell’s place on the witness stand, correct?’

‘Yes, sir, I did.’

‘And you were involved with the investigation from the beginning, correct?’

‘Yes, sir, I responded with Lieutenant Boswell on the first call and assisted him thereafter.’

‘Fine. Now tell me about the interview with Lisa Pedigo.’

The captain jerked to his feet. ‘This is a conversation you need to be having with the district attorney.’

Lucinda had prepared for that question and wanted to answer it but if she did now, she’d give herself away.

Culver ignored Holland and blurted out another question: ‘Why did you withhold that interview from the prosecution?’

‘Don’t answer that, Pierce.’

Nothing was going as planned, Lucinda thought. This was really a dumb idea. She prayed that Culver would not blow his cool and blow her cover.

‘Fine, captain. But there’s one more thing—’

‘There’s no more thing. I am calling the district attorney and arranging for you to continue this conversation with him.’ He picked up his phone and asked for Michael Reed.

‘I do have one more thing,’ he said, pulling a folded document with a blue cover out of his suit pocket. ‘A subpoena for the lieutenant to appear about this matter for a hearing before the trial judge’s bench on Monday afternoon.’

Holland spoke into the phone. ‘Martha Sherman’s attorney is down here and he’s asking questions that I don’t think Lieutenant Pierce should answer,’ the captain said, then paused to listen. ‘No, sir, she didn’t answer any inappropriate questions.’ He ran a beefy hand through the gray and red bristles on the top of his head. ‘He has served her with a subpoena for a hearing on Monday afternoon.’ The captain winced and held the phone away from his ear.

Lucinda heard the anger in Reed’s voice but could not distinguish his words.

The captain pulled the receiver back to his ear. ‘Do you think that’s wise, Reed?’ The captain winced again. ‘I’ll do it. No problem.’

Holland hung up, rose from his seat and gestured Lucinda out into the hall. ‘Just give us a moment, Mr Culver, if you please?’

They walked away from the office far enough not to be overheard. ‘Reed wants you to escort Culver upstairs. I think that’s pretty stupid. It gives Culver time to confront you alone in the elevator. But Reed insisted.’

‘I can handle myself, captain.’

‘I know. I just wanted to make you aware.’

‘Thank you, captain,’ she said and walked back to his office. ‘Mr Culver, would you please come with me?’

She didn’t say another word. Culver kept his mouth shut, too. In the elevator, they both stared straight ahead in silence as if afraid to look each other in the eye.

She led the lawyer to the doorway of Michael Reed’s office and said, ‘Sir, Mr Culver is here to see you.’

Reed smiled. ‘Why, thank you, lieutenant. Would you mind waiting here for just a minute? I’ll get Mr Culver settled in the conference room and have someone bring him a cup of coffee and then I’ll be back for a quick word. OK?’

Lucinda listened to Reed’s jovial banter as he led Culver down the hall. When he returned, the smile was gone. He slammed his office door behind him as he entered.

‘I am fed up with you, Pierce. I cannot understand why you are still employed by the department.’

‘Excuse me, sir. I brought him up here as you asked and I didn’t say a word to him on the way.’

‘Oh, you think you’re so clever, don’t you? Well, while I was waiting for you and your buddy the lawyer, I followed up on a sudden hunch. And what did I learn? C’mon. What do you think?’

‘Don’t know, sir.’

‘I found out you visited Martha Sherman at the jail. Don’t deny it.’

‘I won’t, sir. I am involved in the current investigation in this case and felt an interview with her might be useful.’

‘You ought to go into politics, Pierce. You can spin it like the best of them. But you don’t fool me. I know that lawyer is here today because you leaked information to Martha yesterday. But I’ll tell you one thing, Pierce. If that son of a bitch mentions that Andrew Sherman was a donor to my re-election campaign, your ass is mine.’

‘Sir, that’s public information.’

‘I don’t care. You got that. I don’t care where he got that information. If he brings it up, I’m hanging it on you. And another thing. You will not show up for that hearing on Monday.’

‘I’ve been subpoenaed, Mr Reed.’

‘I don’t care. You will not be there.’

‘If I’m not there, the judge will find me in contempt.’

‘I don’t care. You would deserve it.’

‘He could put me in jail.’

‘It won’t kill you. You can spend your time thinking about why you betrayed us all.’

‘I have done nothing wrong. I have pursued the path of truth and justice – nothing more, nothing less.’

‘Bullshit! You’re probably working for that damned ass who’s running against me in my re-election campaign. How much did he pay you? What did he promise you? An investigator’s job in this office after he’s elected?’

‘I hope Culver does figure out the contributions Sherman made to your campaign. And I hope he gets it smeared all over the damned front page.’ She jerked open the door, slammed it behind her and headed downstairs.

L
ucinda went straight to her office and sat down, breathing in and out, slowly and deliberately, focusing on nothing but the flow of air, until she felt she was calm enough to speak. She then went back up the hall and knocked on the captain’s open door.

He looked up. ‘How did it go?’

‘Not well, sir. He ordered me to not show for the hearing.’

‘Did you remind him you’d been served?’

‘Yes, sir. He seemed to think a citation of contempt of court would look good on my resume and a jail sentence would be good for my character development.’

‘Listen, Pierce, no one under my command is going to refuse to respond to a subpoena, so you can put that thought out of your head right now.’

‘I have every intention of showing up, sir.’

‘And don’t even think of claiming the fifth,’ he said.

Lucinda smiled. Oh what a relief, she thought. ‘Of course not, sir.’

‘You don’t have grounds.’

‘No sir.’

‘Unless you were involved – unless there is something you are not telling me.’

‘No, sir. I knew nothing about Lisa Pedigo until the last couple of days. I had no awareness at the time of the trial.’

‘Good. But listen, Pierce. If you ever get pressured to do anything by the prosecutors that you don’t think is right, come to me. I won’t guarantee I’ll stand with you every time. I’ll only do that if I agree with your assessment. If I don’t I’ll tell you – and explain why. Is that clear?’

‘Yes, sir. And thank you.’

‘Now, get out of here before I think of some reason to yell at you.’

Lucinda grinned all the way back to her office. Holland might give her crap day and night but underneath that he was a decent, honest man and a righteous cop. She knew his moral compass was steady and dependable. She was lucky to serve under him. Now, if she could only get what she needed from Trevor doing it his way.

She was getting ready to leave for the psychologist’s office when her phone rang. ‘Pierce, Homicide,’ she answered.

‘Barbara Craig. Dr Barbara Craig.’

In that moment, Lucinda was certain the interview was off but she steeled her voice and said in as upbeat a tone as she could muster, ‘Yes, ma’am, what can I do for you?’

‘I’ve been having second thoughts ever since this morning’s custody hearing.’

Lucinda felt something inside of her coil up tight ready to strike. She breathed deeply and waited for the doctor to continue.

‘I testified that Trevor was emotionally fragile and afraid of his father. I told them that contact with him at this time could destroy all the progress he’d made in the last couple of years. Chris Phillips’ attorney tried to get me to admit that he could be more traumatized by the separation from his father and that a reunification with him would heal Trevor’s wounds. The judge nodded as if he agreed.’

‘You’re kidding me.’

‘I wish I were, lieutenant. Some of these family court judges can’t see beyond the biological connections as if the answer to everything were bringing the family back together no matter how poisonous that environment might be. Trevor’s legal team objected to the judge overruling the best judgment of the professional who had been treating Trevor. The judge scowled and ordered an interview with a social worker from CPS to give an independent analysis of Trevor’s state of mind. Then, he turned to Chris Phillips and said, “I’m sure we can get resolution here soon, Congressman”.’

‘When’s the interview?’

‘A time was not set then and I don’t think CPS will be able to set a time this late on a Friday. But I would expect considering the judge’s urgent regard of the matter that they will take care of setting the appointment on Monday and, in all likelihood, it will be scheduled for Tuesday. You need to get Phillips locked up again before then.’

‘I doubt if I can make that happen – the decision is in the district attorney’s hands.’

‘I know you have influence there. I need your commitment to apply pressure to make it happen, lieutenant, or I can’t agree to this afternoon’s meeting.’

‘You’ve got it, doctor,’ Lucinda said while thinking that the only influence she had there now would be to push the DA in the opposite direction from what she suggested.

‘I also was calling to make sure that you do not arrive here early. Trevor is coming in to talk to me at quarter till and I don’t want him to run into you in the waiting room. I want to speak to him before your first encounter.’

‘No problem, ma’am.’

‘Thank you. I’ll see you at four sharp then.’

Lucinda left the office right after the call. She couldn’t bear to be stuck inside her small space just sitting around waiting. She decided to stop at a coffee shop and get fortified with a latte before showing up at Craig’s office.

She arrived in the waiting room ten minutes before the hour, a time she was fairly certain that Trevor would have already gone into the inner sanctum. The minutes seemed to refuse to move forward, but, finally, at precisely four o’clock, the door opened and Dr Craig invited her inside.

The psychologist was an attractive brunette in her late thirties or early forties. A simple, no-fuss haircut downplayed the striking beauty of her face, giving her a very accessible look. She wore a shirt dress covered with blue tulips and windmills, a pale yellow scarf around her neck and a mile of bracelets running up her right arm. And she was a tiny woman, definitely less than five feet tall with an equally petite bone structure. She made Lucinda feel like a marauding giant.

Trevor slouched in a chair beside her desk, his legs stretching out long in front of him. An artificially manufactured wear pattern ran down the front of his jeans; the kind of holes that don’t come cheap. His shaggy hair looked like it needed a cut but Lucinda thought he probably liked it that way. His lower lip stuck out as if in contemplation or a pout and his eyes followed Lucinda’s every move. He held an open, folded-over, spiral notebook in his hands.

‘Trevor, this is Lieutenant Lucinda Pierce, the detective we discussed. I want you to remember if, at any time, you grow uncomfortable or wish to terminate the interview, you let me know and it’s over. No one will harass you for that. Will they, lieutenant?’

Lucinda swallowed hard. ‘Of course not, doctor.’

‘Now, lieutenant, I have told Trevor that he could ask you some questions and you would answer them before proceeding with your questions. I trust you will be willing to accommodate him.’

Lucinda didn’t like it but she had little choice in the matter. ‘I’d be glad to answer his questions.’

‘You can start your questions, Trevor,’ the doctor said.

Looking down at his notebook, he said, ‘Do you think my dad is guilty of the murder of Patty Phillips?’

‘Yes, I do.’

‘Do you think I saw something when my stepmother Patty died?’

‘I don’t know, Trevor. Did you?’

‘No questions yet, lieutenant,’ Dr Craig snapped. She softened her voice when she said, ‘Continue with your questions, Trevor.’

Trevor looked down at the page again. ‘Do you think I saw something when my mother died?’ His lower lip quivered.

‘I don’t know, Trevor,’ Lucinda said, imagining his pain, aligning it with her own.

‘Do you think I saw something when my stepmother Gloria went down the stairs and got injured?’

‘Yes, Trevor, I do.’