In the Company of Liars

ONE DAY EARLIER
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11

You were home all night,” Detective Czerwonka confirms.

“Yes,” Allison says. “I was home all night.”

“And to be clear, here. We’re talking about last Saturday, the seventh of February.”

“Yes. I was home all night.” Allison gives an exaggerated sigh. “Are we going to be much longer?”

“We’ve told you all along, you’re free to go if you want,” says Czerwonka’s partner, Jack Aiken. He looks to be a little younger, and fitter, than Czerwonka, and he’s let his partner take the lead.

Yes, they have repeatedly informed her of her right to leave, because if she is free to leave, then this conversation cannot technically constitute an “interrogation,” and therefore no Miranda warnings are required. What, they forgot she practiced criminal law for almost three years?

“I’ll answer whatever you’d like,” she says.

Joe Czerwonka is a large, weathered man who seems to have a gentle side, too, which makes her think he’s a grandfather. Or maybe it’s just dealing with females. If she were a man, this guy might be breathing down her neck. Instead, he turns away from Allison, talks to his partner as if she weren’t in the room. “It’s just-confusing to me,” he says. “See, Mrs. Pagone’s daughter, Jessica, told us that Allison came home about two in the morning on Sunday.”

“Yeah,” Detective Aiken confirms, referring to his notes. “Yep, she said, ‘Two in the morning.’ She said she got to Mrs. Pagone’s house at about eight-thirty, Saturday night, and her mom wasn’t there. She said Mom didn’t get home until two.”

“That’s almost six hours unaccounted for,” Czerwonka says to Aiken.

“You talked to Jessica?” Allison looks at them sharply. “You didn’t notify us.”

“She’s twenty years old, Mrs. Pagone. She doesn’t need parental notification.”

“What did Jessica tell you?” Allison pounds the table. “Tell me what she said.”

Aiken looks at his partner. This is Czerwonka’s call. “Well,” the senior detective says, “your daughter seems to remember you coming home and not looking so hot. Upset. And dirty, I guess. Mud on you. And she says you threw up when you got home.”

“Jessica saidthat?” Allison asks, feigning surprise.

“Yeah, she did. And she said the next day, you told her you’d been dating Mr. Dillon. The two of you were having a romantic, shall we say, relationship.”

“Thatis confusing,” Aiken says to Czerwonka. “Mrs. Pagone here says she was home all night and she wasn’t sleeping with Mr. Dillon. Her daughter says just the opposite.”

“Maybe it’s a mixup,” Czerwonka says to his partner. “Maybe we misunderstood what Mrs. Pagone here has been telling us.”

Allison says nothing.

“Well,” Czerwonka continues with Aiken, “when you talked to Jessica, did she give any indication she was confused?”

“No,” Aiken says. “No, she was crystal clear on it. We went over that point over and over again. Mom came home about two, looking all out of sorts. And then she spilled it-that she was having an affair with Sam Dillon.”

“Well, did she know it’s a crime to lie to a police detective?” Czerwonka asks.

“That’s enough,” Allison says.

“Yeah,” says Aiken. “She knew she had to tell the truth. Otherwise, it’s obstruction of justice. Yeah, Jessica understood that she could get in all kinds of trouble for lying to me.”

“I want you to stop this.” Allison stands up.

“It’s no act, Mrs. Pagone.” Czerwonka laces his hands together. “One of you is lying about this. You or Jessica. Should we pick her up for lying to a police officer?”

“Leave her out of this. She has nothing to do-” Allison looks away.

“Nothing to do with what?” Aiken asks.

“Nothing.”

“Look, Mrs. Pagone. Take your seat if you would,” Czerwonka says. “Let me make this easier for you. We know you went to Sam Dillon’s office downstate last Friday-the day before he was murdered. We know you were upset.”

Allison holds her breath. Something she can’t control, what happened at Sam’s office.

“You went to his offices up here, first, then you drove all the way down to the capital to find Sam Dillon. You already told us, when we started this interview, that you didn’t have business with Dillon. You said that already. So why the rush to go down there? It’s personal. Of course, it’s personal. Okay.”

Allison sits down, as previously requested.

“You rush into Sam’s office and close the door. Okay, you want privacy. But you didn’t quiteget privacy, Mrs. Pagone.”

The words pierce her heart. Her body accelerates. She is ready to say it right now, if necessary. Something in her-caution, perhaps, or simply the inability to speak-forces her to keep quiet for the moment.

Somebodyheard her conversation with Sam?

“There was an aide at the office,” Czerwonka continues. “You may not have noticed him in your haste. He heard what was going on in there.”

“You don’t understand,” she says.

“Then help me out here.”

No. No. Let him take the lead. She closes her eyes.They know, she thinks with a mounting horror.They know I made Sam fire Jessica. They know Jessica had a thing for Sam and he rebuffed her. They probably know Jessica was upset, upset enough to-

“ ‘This isn’t working out.’ ‘Mat’s a friend.’ ‘This is crazy.’ ”

Allison opens her eyes to a satisfied Detective Czerwonka.

“Sound familiar, Mrs. Pagone?”

Something’s not right. Those were the words Sam used, on the phone with Jessica, but the look on the detective’s face tells her he is misreading it.

“He dumped you, Mrs. Pagone,” Czerwonka concludes. “You’re not the first. I can say that from personal experience.”

He dumped-me. Me,not Jessica. Allison’s heart leaps. The office aide heard the words but didn’t know the context. He didn’t know Sam was on the phone, talking to Jessica.

Sam dumped me. Yes!

“But then you deny you were involved with Sam,” the detective says. “And it looks bad for you. Because it’s so obvious to us that you twowere an item.”

“And that means, score one for Jessica,” Aiken adds. “She was telling the truth. Which means she was probably also telling the truth about you coming home at two in the morning on the night Sam Dillon was murdered.”

“We need you to explain this to us, Mrs. Pagone. You’ve lied to us twice. There’s an innocent explanation for that? Great. I’m ready to believe it. But you’ve given me nothing to believe, so far.”

Allison brings her hand to her forehead. “It’s-complicated,” she says.

“Life is complicated,” Czerwonka responds. “Explain this to us.”

Allison gets back to her feet. “You said I’m free to leave.”

Czerwonka freezes. His partner looks at him.

“Yes,” Czerwonka says, to keep the record clear on this point. A good detective is always thinking about keeping a confession legal. “But this is not the time. Right now, you should be putting our minds at ease.”

“I’m leaving, then.”

“Mrs. Pagone.” Czerwonka stands, along with his partner. “I’d advise you not to leave town any time soon.”

“I’d advise you to get a law degree, Detective.” Allison hikes her purse over her shoulder. “You can’t make me do anything.”

There will be a time,” Father said, “when they will want you to risk your life. That,” he added, “is when your true dedication shows.”

Ram Haroon drinks his beer slowly. He is the only non-Caucasian at this place on the west side. It is close to midnight. The dozen or so people inside are getting louder, growing more boisterous in their inebriation. This was an asinine choice, this spot. Haroon sticks out, as the Americans say, like a sore thumb. And it could well be only a matter of time before one of these drunken idiots decides to tap him on the shoulder and tell him to go back to his own fucking country.

Ram drains his beer at ten to midnight. He walks toward the bathroom, ignoring any stares that might be coming his way. He turns down the small corridor where the restrooms are located but passes them, goes to the exit door and pushes it, steps out into the alley.

Larry Evans is standing there, awaiting him.

“I assume there is an excellent explanation,” Haroon says, “for what I have been reading in the newspapers and seeing on television.”

“Everything’s fine,” Evans says.

Haroon approaches him, partly so he can keep his voice down but more to make his point clearly. “Last week, you tell me there is a man, Sam Dillon. You tell me your scientist is nervous. You tell me you’re going to keep an eye on this man Dillon.”

“And I did.” Larry Evans is immediately defensive. “I listened to him. Watched him.”

“ ‘Keep an eye on him,’ you said. You said nothing aboutkilling him.”

Larry Evans takes a moment with that. He will neither admit nor deny killing Sam Dillon, obviously. “I think all the worry was for nothing,” he says instead. “I don’t think Dillon knew and so I don’t think she knows, either. The woman. Allison Pagone.”

“And how does your scientist feel about this?”

“He’s upset. He wants me to watch Pagone, so I will. But I think we’re okay.”

“Youthink.” Haroon runs a hand over his mouth, paces in a small circle. “Her home is still bugged?”

“Yes. And it’s been interesting. She looks like she’s going down for the murder.”

Haroon nods. “I saw on television. She was questioned today.”

“She’s going to be arrested.” Evans stuffs his hands in his pockets. “She thinks so. It’s like shewants to go down for it.”

“Why would she want to be arrested for murder?” Haroon turns to Evans.

He shrugs in response. “I think she’s protecting her daughter.”

“But why?”

“Here’s the thing.” Evans steps closer. “They were both there that night. The night he was murdered.”

“Allison Pagone and her daughter?”

Evans nods. “Both of them. And Allisontold her daughter she killed Sam. She confessed, that night.”

“That doesn’t make sense. Why would she do that? Confess to a murder she did not commit?”

Larry Evans laughs.

“You killed Sam Dillon,” Haroon says. “Correct?”

“I never said that, Mr. Haroon. I never said that. All you need to know is that I would never be connected to it.”

A man stumbles by, a drunk, singing to himself, oblivious to the two men standing in the darkness of the alley.

“We’ve been out here too long,” Haroon says. “The police won’t find your surveillance equipment in Allison Pagone’s house?”

“No. City cops? They’ll have no idea. I promise you. And worst case, they’d never be able to trace it to me or anyone else.”

“All right. And what, exactly, do you propose we do?”

“We sit tight, for now. I’ll keep an eye on Allison Pagone. I promised the scientist I would, anyway. We watch her. We do nothing for a couple of weeks. You and I don’t speak. My scientist does nothing. I’ll listen and watch and see what happens.”

“All right. Now listen to me carefully.” Haroon stands within inches of Larry Evans. “Nobody else dies unless I say so. I will decide when and how, and I will do it. There will be no more mistakes.”

The perceived criticism does not seem to sit well with Larry Evans, but it is clear who has the upper hand here. Haroon could abort this operation at any time, and Evans says good-bye to twenty-five million dollars.

“That’s the way the doctor wants it, too,” Evans says. “Nobody else dies. So don’t worry. No one’s killing her.”

“Unless and until I say so.” Ram Haroon straightens his coat and walks down the alley.