Ties That Bind

Chapter Fifty-Four.

J. D. Hunter knew that Harvey Grant would hang tough, so he let him stew for an hour before joining the prisoner in a narrow, uncomfortably hot interrogation room. The judge knew all the tricks and made no protests about the heat or the time he'd been kept waiting. He just looked Hunter in the eye with a cool, appraising stare.

"Good evening, Judge," Hunter said as another agent wheeled a television hooked up to a VCR into the room. "You're probably expecting me to try to trick you with clever questions but I don't have any. And I've been told that we can't use rubber truncheons anymore."

Grant remained stone-faced.

"We're not doing good cop, bad cop either," Hunter continued. "Just show and tell. So sit back and relax. Any cooperation with our investigation on your part will be strictly voluntary. Personally, I hope you don't cooperate. We've got enough evidence to send you away right now and I really don't want to cut you any breaks."

A third agent entered the room and stood by the door while the agent who'd entered with Hunter made certain that the VCR was working, before inserting a cassette.

"I'm going to show you a movie, but I'd like you to meet someone first. You don't have a heart condition, do you?"

Grant didn't respond. Hunter laughed. "I knew you'd be a bitch to crack." He turned to the agent who was guarding the door and nodded. The agent opened the door and stood aside. The judge leaned forward and stared.

Ally Bennett was standing in the doorway.

"Hi, Your Honor," she said. "I can't wait to testify against you and your friends."

Hunter nodded and Ally backed out of the room. Her eyes never left Grant until the door shut.

"Miss Bennett is alive and well. It was all a setup."

The judge looked thoroughly bewildered.

"Don't feel bad about being conned. The Bureau uses a magician on occasion when we want to create an illusion. This guy is really good. I've seen his show in Vegas and L.A. Normally, I'd never let you in on a magician's professional secrets, but this will give you something to tell the other death-row inmates on cold, winter nights."

Grant kept his jaws clamped tight, but his mind was racing. Hunter nodded, and a picture appeared on the television. It was Stan Gregaros's car following Bennett's on the night Kerrigan was supposed to have killed her. Hunter pointed at the rear of Ally's car.

"One of Ms. Bennett's rear taillights was intentionally put out of commission. We had a cop pull her over to highlight that fact. When Stan got to the park, he was following a car with one working taillight. The trick depended on that piece of misdirection."

The picture changed to a shot of Gregaros entering the park and winding along the twisting road that led to the meadow.

"Earlier in the day, our magician constructed a stage set. We planted tall hedges to block the view from the road. There were black curtains on either side. Magicians call them black art drops. The drops look solid but can be penetrated by a car. At night, it was impossible for Stan to tell that there was a set at the side of the road.

"A row of low beacons guided Ally through the drop and behind the stage, where she parked. Also behind the stage was a specially rigged car that was identical, down to the bad taillight, to the one Ally was driving. Inside the car was a corpse dressed in clothes identical to hers. Blood packs were attached to the cadaver's clothes, and a wig was glued in place. A body harness under the clothes was secured to a magnetic latch that we installed in the driver's seatback. This held the body in place until a signal released it."

On the screen, the rigged car drove up the road toward the meadow.

"A guidance wire had been laid under the gravel road bed," Hunter explained. "It led from the stage to the meadow. A unit was installed under the front bumper, which allowed the car to be driven along the wire by remote control. The agents who operated it were in a camouflaged tree house that overlooked the meadow. The remote-control system is similar to a system that the Germans are experimenting with on the Autobahn."

A maintenance truck suddenly appeared on the screen. Its high beams turned on.

"That truck was driven by an FBI agent," Hunter said. "Stan met him the next morning. He pretended to be a maintenance worker who'd written down most of Tim Kerrigan's license number.

"Anyway, the agent blinded Stan for a moment with the headlights to distract him. In the dark and momentarily blinded, he didn't see the substitution. When he saw a car with single taillight headed for the meadow, he assumed it was Miss Bennett's."

Now the screen showed the meadow where Gregaros had thought he'd seen Tim Kerrigan murder Ally Bennett. The pictures on this section of the cassette had been taken from overhead.

"By the time Stan reached the meadow, Tim Kerrigan was already at the window of the second car. You've probably guessed by now that he's been working with us all along."

Grant felt light-headed. His stomach clenched.

"A remote-controlled tape in the tape deck of the rigged car contained Ally's half of the conversation. Our agents turned it on and off using a remote control in the tree house. A shotgun mike recorded everything Stan said. I can play you the audio if you'd like. I'm sure your attorney will want to hear it."

On the screen, Tim Kerrigan was emptying his revolver into the cadaver.

"A small reel operated by an electric motor was installed below the front passenger seat. A thin, transparent multifilament that's impossible to see even in daylight was drawn out of the reel and attached to the corpse's left lower jaw from inside the mouth. When Tim shot the corpse, the blood packs were set off, spraying the car with blood. Then the magnetic catch was released and the reel was activated, snapping the head and torso of the cadaver to the right and pulling it face-down across the passenger seat so its face couldn't be seen. Ally's scream was played. Tim doused the interior of the car with gasoline and tossed in a match. The front seat had already been doctored to ignite with an intense heat to prevent Stan from looking inside the car for more than a second. In that second, he saw a corpse dressed like Ally. That, the shots, the blood, and the screams convinced him that Tim had killed Miss Bennett."

Hunter nodded and the agent turned off the VCR.

"I'm sorry you had to wait so long in here, but I was performing my little dog-and-pony show for Stan. I'm going to let you sit in here for a while longer, so you can think about life and death. It's useful to have complete quiet when you're contemplating such big subjects."

Hunter started to leave when he remembered something.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you that you have a right to remain silent. If you do decide to talk to me, anything you say can and will be used against you. You have a right to an attorney. If you can't afford an attorney, one will be provided for you free of charge."

Hunter paused and silently ticked off the warnings on his fingers. Then he smiled.

"Yeah, that's it. See you later."