Long Shadows

Chapter 94

D​ecker led them not to Tyler’s room but to Davidson’s office.

Decker closed the door behind them, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone.

“The cops forgot to give you this. Remember they took your phone and computer when they arrested you.”

“Yeah, I remember,” groused Davidson. “And I need it all back. I conduct my business on that computer.” He reached out for his phone but Decker didn’t hand it over.

“What gives?” said Davidson. He glanced at White. “What games are you two playing?”

She said, “We talked to your neighbor downstairs, the one who gave you the alibi when he got back into town.”

“Right. Lou Perry. I wish he hadn’t gone out of the country. I never would have been arrested.”

Decker pointed to the set of French doors leading outside. “He was out on his balcony watching some news from overseas on his iPad.”

“So I understand.”

“He said he told you earlier in the day he was going to be out there smoking a cigar, having some scotch. He invited you to join him and maybe play some cards. He’d been in Asia recently and his body clock was still in that time zone. And he knew you were usually up late. But you had meetings.”

“Right again. So?”

“So you knew he’d be out there that night.”

“Okay. So what?”

“He said he called up to you around ten thirty. Heard you outside.”

“I was out on my balcony getting ready for my first Zoom at midnight. I called back to him.”

“Perry also said he heard you off and on from around eleven thirty until he went inside and went to bed close to three. He remembered seeing the times on his iPad.”

“Which is why he knew I couldn’t have been at Julia’s during the time she was killed. Nobody can be in two places at the same time.”

“Yeah, they sort of can.”

“What?”

“A friend of Tyler’s said you record your practice sessions.”

“That’s right.”

Decker held up the phone. “You recorded your ‘Hong Kong practice session’ from that night on a voice memo on your phone.”

“So? I do that a lot.”

“We never had much reason to look at the memo until Lou Perry’s alibi came up, and a few possibilities occurred to me. We played the recording for Perry. He said it was pretty much verbatim what he heard from you that night between one and nearly two.”

“Of course it was. I was getting ready for my second Zoom with the client in Hong Kong then.”

“Not between one and two o’clock you weren’t.” Decker held up the phone again. “Voice memos are time stamped. You recorded your Hong Kong practice session starting at ten fifty, which is shortly after Tyler went to bed, and you finished it at five minutes before midnight.”

“Then how the hell did Perry hear it at one o’clock?”

In answer Decker opened the French doors, went out on the balcony, and set the phone on the top of the waist-high wall that encircled the balcony. “You put it here, turned the volume all the way up, hit play, and left. That made Perry think you were up here the whole time. You used Tyler’s electric bike parked in the foyer. You took it down the back stairs, most likely. On the bike using the motor you could cover the two miles in a few minutes. You went to Julia’s house. You killed her. And then you came back here in plenty of time to clean up and do your next meeting at two.”

“That is crazy.”

“You recorded the Zoom videos, Barry. We watched them. You had on a different shirt between the first and second ones. Why was that?”

“I... I spilled something on my shirt.”

“The geolocator on your phone shows it never left here that night.”

“Because I never left here that night. Look, this is all bullshit. A good lawyer would make mincemeat out of it. You think I murdered my wife and came back here and did a Zoom!”

“You used the word ‘butchered’ before. How did you know that? Because you were the one who did it.”

“You’re nuts!”

“Perry told us he also called up to you around one twenty. But you didn’t answer him.”

“I didn’t hear him, obviously. I was focused on practicing for my next Zoom.”

“No you weren’t. You were probably still at Julia’s. You finished with her, planted your evidence, and rode back here. At that time of night no one would be in the elevator or stairwell to see you coming back in with the bike and the bloody clothes. You cleaned up, changed your clothes, threw the bloody ones in the washing machine, and got ready for your next Zoom. Later, you showered to get the rest of the crap off you.”

“That is all a fantasy, nothing more.”

“‘Res ipsa loquitor’?”

Davidson just stared at him.

“Tyler highlighted the legal phrase in the law dictionary in his bedroom. That phrase was on the card left with Julia’s body. I talked to the medical examiner this morning. She said when Tyler came to ID the body — because you were too upset to do it — the card in the evidence bag was out and clearly visible. I think Tyler saw it. And I think he had heard his mother use that phrase before. With you. And he wanted to know what it meant.”

“You leave my son out of this!” Davidson said warningly.

“I’m not sure that’s possible, Barry. The way I see it, either you killed your wife — or Tyler did. Or you did and he covered up for you. That’s accessory after the fact. That means prison time for him. And he can kiss his college dreams goodbye.”

“Bullshit!” Davidson lunged at Decker, but Decker easily pushed him away. Davidson fell back against his desk.

“I’ll sue your ass off!” bellowed Davidson.

“He was also looking up information on bipolarism. Is that what he thinks you have?”

“My son loves me.”

“Yes, he absolutely does. So are you going to tell us the truth and save him? Or are you going to take your son down with you?”

“What did you mean he was covering up for me?” Davidson said darkly as he slowly got to his feet.

“He washed your clothes that night. They must have still had stains on them even after you laundered them. Then he spilled your drink on purpose, the first time we met you and him. He did that so he could run another load. Probably to get the blood out of the machine and the drains, and all that. Even though you never really can. We’ll be checking that next. Julia Cummins’s blood shows up in one of your drains, Barry, it’s over, for both of you. So what’s it going to be? You, or both of you?”

Davidson snarled, “You son of a bitch. You asshole!”

White put a hand on the butt of her gun and stepped forward. “That is not a solution, Barry. That does not make the problem go away.”

“What do you want from me!” screamed Davidson.

Decker said, “It’s real simple. The truth.”

Davidson slowly sank to the floor, his head in his hands.

Decker sat in a chair and looked down at the man. “You must have been stunned when you walked into Julia’s house and saw the dead guy. And her maybe kneeling next to him. She made up the bullshit about needing a security guard, and then not letting her other gentlemen friends come over to the house. She was afraid of how you might react, wasn’t she? What did you do to make her afraid, Barry? Was it just the stalking, or something else?”

He sat up straighter, leaned back against a desk leg, and wiped at his eyes. “I said some shit. And did some stuff. But she deserved it. She walked out on me when I needed her. Tyler was devastated by the divorce and she didn’t give a shit. She was always on my ass because I just loved life. I wanted to go out and party and feel young. But, no, she was having no part of that. And then what happens? She dumps me and she’s out partying and dressing younger and having the time of her life. All the stuff she said she hated in me! She was a liar. Just a fucking liar.”

“Or maybe she was a single woman approaching middle age who just wanted to have some fun,” said White. “Without you, because she was tired of cleaning up your messes.”

“Go to hell,” barked Davidson.

“Did you go there that night planning to kill her?” asked Decker.

Davidson shook his head. “I didn’t tell you, but I called her that day, from Tyler’s phone. She wouldn’t answer my number. When Tyler told me about his mom needing security I really was concerned. That’s when she told me it was all bullshit. That she was actually screwing the guy. That’s what she said, ‘screwing the guy.’ She basically told me to eat shit and die and then hung up. So I decided to go over that night and find out what was really going on.”

“Did you see the men who killed Draymont?” asked Decker.

Davidson shook his head. “No. When I got there, there was a strange car in the driveway. The rear door was open. I went in, and there they were. At first I thought they were doing it right there on the floor. She barely had any clothes on. Then when I saw the blood I knew something bad had happened. I was going to try and help her. Call the cops. But she saw me, and screamed at me, accused me of killing the guy. Then she said all these horrible things about me, and then it hit me that she had never really loved me at all. Then I just snapped. I grabbed a knife from the kitchen drawer and... chased her upstairs. And I... did what I did. Then I put the blindfold on her and I wrote out the words on a piece of paper and left it on her chest.”

“‘The thing speaks for itself’?”

“She used to use that term with me. Every time something got messed up, she blamed me. That tax thing? It was just a misunderstanding. But no, she could never see it that way. Res ipsa fucking loquitor. She always threw that in my face. Oh, something got screwed up? It must be Barry. It fucking speaks for itself.”

“You used the ruse with the voice memo to establish an alibi. You sure you didn’t go there to kill her?” asked White.

“I swear I didn’t. Part of me... a little part of me thought we might, I don’t know, hit it off that night. Maybe get back together.”

Decker and White exchanged glances at the utter absurdity of this comment.

Decker said, “No fingerprints of yours showed up at the house, Barry. No footprints either. There were no prints on the card you left with the legal phrase. No prints on the handkerchief you used to blindfold her. You took the knife you used to kill her, and presumably the pen you used to write the note. For someone in a daze you were pretty damn careful.”

“I... I watch cop shows. I used another of her handkerchiefs so my prints wouldn’t show up. I took that and the knife and pen with me. Later, I threw them all in the ocean.”

“And your footprints?” asked White.

“I smoothed out the carpet on my way out and used the handkerchief to wipe out any marks on the hardwood floor.”

“I think you did go over there to kill her, Barry,” said Decker.

Davidson glanced at him. “She pleaded with me, you know. The woman who was always in control, always was right about every little thing, was on her hands and knees begging me not to do it, not to hurt her. But it was too late. And once I started... I couldn’t stop. Then I just looked down at her lying there.” He stopped and choked back a sob. “And... and maybe I did go over there to hurt her. But... now that it was over, I couldn’t believe what I’d just done. It was like somebody else had done it.”

“Why did you put the mask on her?” asked White.

“So... I thought the cops would think whoever killed her did it because she was a judge. You know... justice is supposed to be blind, but not really. I thought that would confuse everybody, especially since she had been telling people she needed protection.”

“So, again, you were thinking that clearly at that moment in time?” said Decker as he stared impassively at the man. “To try to throw suspicion off you?”

“I... I don’t know what I was thinking. I was scared. I’d just killed Julia, for God’s sake!”

“You might have been scared, after the fact, because of what you’d done. But Julia must have been terrified. You stabbed her ten times, Barry. You took your son’s mother away, in the most brutal way possible.”

Davidson composed himself and said, “But Tyler had nothing to do with this. I’ll say anything, sign anything, but only if nothing happens to my son. I’ve ruined pretty much everything, but he still has a life to live, and he’s going to get a chance to live it. If you can’t promise me that, then I’ll deny everything and fight you like hell in court.”

White looked at Decker, who kept his gaze on Davidson.

“I think we can promise you that,” said Decker quietly. “You must have been shocked when you found out your gun had been used to kill Lancer and Draymont.”

“‘Shocked’ is too mild a word,” he said dully.

“Did you go over there to kill yourself that night with the gun?” asked Decker.

“I thought if I did it where I killed her, it might, I don’t know, equalize things.”

“It doesn’t work that way,” interjected White.

“Do you have to tell Tyler what I just told you? I... I don’t think I can live with that.”

Decker said, “I’m not sure he can either, Barry. But I think I might know how to do it best. For him, not you.”