Skin Deep

36

It was after seven. The detective shifts were changing and the office was empty but for a couple of sergeants. In his office, Reardon was just packing his briefcase to leave for the weekend when Steve walked in.

“You look like hell.”

“That’s the good news.”

Reardon’s eyebrows shot up. “What’s the problem?”

We’re back to door one. And I don’t want to open it.

“You said you saw the Pendergast video.”

“Some of it, why?”

“You might want to take a closer look because I think we’ve got a problem.”

“Like what?”

“Like maybe he shouldn’t be in lockup.”

A television monitor with a DVD player sat on a table near Reardon’s desk, and Steve slipped in the disk. With the remote, Steve jumped to key segments. Reardon said very little while he watched, occasionally asking Steve to replay sections, occasionally muttering to himself.

“I double-checked the reports. We don’t have his DNA in the bedroom. And we don’t have a witness to his car being on her street. Those are fabrications. Plus he violated the guy’s rights all the way up. The D.A. sees this, she’ll blow a fuse.”

“Any way to confirm his alibi?”

“No.”

“What about the latents?”

“They may be old like he claims. He said he was up there once after a dinner date with her. But there’s nothing in the bedroom or anywhere else.”

“He could have wiped them.”

“True, but nobody’s going to like the claim we’ve got bedroom prints when we don’t.”

“But he lied when he said he was never up there.”

“Yeah, but it’s kind of a stretch for probable cause.”

“Why the hell didn’t he insist on his lawyer or just walk out? The guy’s got a Ph.D., for Christ’s sake. You’d think he knows his rights.”

“Neil kept tweaking him with threats of going to the press about his priors. And maybe he’s so walking wounded he wanted to be beaten up.” It was clear that Reardon had barely looked at the video but had taken Neil’s word. At the moment, Steve wanted to spit at him.

“Shit!” Reardon said.

“Looks like he arrested him for having sex with her.” He handed Reardon the DVD. He would make some calls on Neil’s claims about the latents and witness then review the DVD.

“Don’t go far.”

Steve went back to his office and took a tab of Ativan. That pea was now a bowling ball.

He sat at his desk, which had two piles of papers, pencils in one cup, pens in another. Things lined up, pathologically neat unlike the contents of his mind. His eyes fell on the photo of him and Dana from a trip to the White Mountains a few years ago. The air was crisp and keen and the sky an endless blue.

Suddenly his mind was a fugue again:

Well, Bunky, isn’t this a fine how do you do? Came in thinking the gargoyle was off your back. That maybe you’d been wrong. That it was just a weird set of coincidences. That her death didn’t belong to you. That it was that randy English prof after all, graduated from lewd and lash to murder most foul. And now we’re back to numero uno.

So, what’ll it be?

Could make it easy for yourself, walk right in there and tell the captain that you were the last to see her alive. Got the receipts. Got the number in your PDA phone. Took the forbidden Ativan cocktail and let Mr. Hyde out of his cage. Plus you’ve got a big fat time hole that you can’t account for—from 6:22 when you bought the champagne ’til Reardon’s call. Blanko, nada.

And what about those dreams of her? And Dana? Explain those if you’re not wracked with guilt that you did something wrong.

Autosuggestion and some form of psyche dysmorphia, to use the good doc’s term.

Bullshit. You were there. Felt the vibes as soon as you walked in.

Yeah, then where did the stocking come from?

Maybe they were hers. Just never been worn. Unwrapped them and tossed out the packaging somewhere else.

Go in there and tell him. Get rid of that goddamn lump before it bores a hole through you.

Nearly two hours later Reardon called Steve into his office. He had reviewed the video and made his check-up calls. Against protests that he was in bed, Neil drove back into headquarters. When he entered he looked at Steve then to Reardon. “Somebody die?”

“Close enough,” Reardon said.

“What’s that mean?” Neil said, a white stirrer in his teeth.

“I just finished reviewing the Pendergast interrogation. My concern is the guy’s lawyer gets a look, he’s going to want to know the probable cause.”

Neil’s face flared as he flashed a damning glance at Steve then looked back at Reardon. “He started off saying that he’d never been to her apartment until I mentioned the latents, and suddenly he remembered. The first thing he gave me was a fucking lie.”

“But you told him we had his prints on her bed and his hair on the sheets. Those aren’t in the forensics reports. We have no latents from the bedroom. Nor a witness who saw his car on her street. What the hell were you thinking? His fucking lawyer will be all over us.”

“I told him that to pull him out, and he did. He admitted lying to us.”

“That still doesn’t connect him to the crime, for Christ’s sake.”

“We’ve got an admission that he was dating her, that he’d been to her apartment. Plus his computer’s loaded with evidence that he could have stalked her. We’ve got motives up the grunt.”

“We’ve got circumstantials up the grunt.”

Neil shot another look to Steve. “Feel free to jump in, partner.”

The word came out like a wad of phlegm.

Reardon cut him off. “Theriault won’t prosecute unless you’ve got something physical linking him to crime. And we’ve got shit—no DNA on or near her body, no witnesses, no e-mails or phone record. Nothing but prints on a bottle. He won’t risk his reputation if we can’t connect him.”

Neil turned to Steve, his eyes saucered. “You going to sit there like a goddamn zombie or something? You know the guy’s a fucking slimeball.”

Steve wanted to support him. Wanted to say, Yeah, he’s a slimeball and we got him. Means, motive, opportunity. Enough to convince a jury he’s the one. Had me going without a history of violence, but got the goods with the latents, DNA, and witness. Except, partner, you lied about all that. And I’m back on the drill bit.

“We don’t have a case.” Steve’s words rose up devoid of inflection.

Disgusted, Neil turned to Devin. “You let him out, and in five days he’ll disappear.”

“Right now he’s going nowhere. The immediate problem is you attacking the guy with the stocking. What the fuck were you thinking?”

“I was reenacting his crime.”

“You assaulted a witness during interrogation. A defense lawyer will jackboot all over you, maybe even toss a fucking lawsuit on us.”

Neil made a dismissive gesture. “We can handle it.”

Reardon’s face was bright with rage. “No we can’t handle it because you let him know how she was killed. If the media gets that, which it most certainly will, a key piece of evidence goes public. You gave away our fucking trump card.”

“I guess I got a little carried away.”

“A little carried away? That was fucking stupid.”

Tension crackled like electrical discharge. In Neil’s behalf, Steve said, “The last thing Pendergast wants to do is talk to the press.”

“But not his attorney.”

“We can get to him or her to keep quiet,” Neil suggested. “Maybe even get an injunction to quash release.”

Reardon did not look convinced. “Whatever, we’ve got enough to hold him ’til the arraignment. In the meantime, go out and get something real, okay? Check his alibi against neighbors. Check his phone record, credit cards, pay-per-view cable, people who can put him and Farina together on the night she died. And bring it in by court time.”

Steve and Neil both got up to leave, but Neil avoided looking at him.

“By the way, somebody let the word out about his prior offenses and the media want details.”

“Who let that out?”

“Who the hell knows? But the vultures are circling.”

And that pea’s a damn auger in my brain.