by L. T. Ryan
“There was nothing to win back,” he said. “We were still together.”
“Not according to what some of her other friends said. They told us you two had broken up over a month earlier, and that you kept showing up at her work, her classes, the house. Always uninvited and unexpected.”
The young man’s cheeks burned red, but he kept his mouth shut. An attorney would have told him to shut up long ago. The house was awash with evidence. If Seth was innocent, forensics would clear him. It was time for Pennington to turn the screws on the guy. Seth knew something that would help to unravel the mystery further.
“Guess you figured the storm was the perfect chance,” Pennington said. “Show up there with nowhere else to go. Soaking wet. She’d take you in. Get you out of those wet clothes. Dry you off. Warm you up. Next thing, you’d be in bed together while the wind howled and rain battered the house.”
“It wasn’t like that!”
And there we have it, folks. Seth had said something to implicate himself.
“Then what the hell was it like, Seth?” Pennington leaned in closer, ducking his head to make eye contact with Seth.
Seth lowered his head until his brow touched the cold metal table. His shoulders hitched up and down a few times, like he was crying, but there was no sobbing. Then after a few moments, he moaned. A high-pitched sound that bottomed out into a throaty growl. He was experiencing a physical and psychological release. The images of that night took over his every waking and sleeping moment.
“Talking will feel good, Seth,” I whispered. “Just do it.”
“What?” Cassie glanced at me.
I shook my head and said, “Thinking out loud. I have a feeling he’s about to tell us everything.”
Pennington remained silent. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. No doubt he’d seen suspects try a multitude of tactics to throw him off. The threat of life in prison leads people to do and say anything to save their skin. Speaking from experience, little surprised you after several years on the job.
Cervantes left his post by the door, whispered something to his partner, then exited the interrogation room. The door fell shut like a brick hitting the floor. Cervantes stepped into the dark chamber and stood next to me.
“What do you think?” he said.
“Me?” I said.
“Yeah, you.”
“You want my opinion?”
“I asked, didn’t I?”
“I thought maybe it was a rhetorical question and you’d try to throw me out after I answered.”
“Christ, Tanner. I’m trying to build bridges here. Bridges. Don’t burn them down.”
Back in the room Seth had straightened up and sat rigid. A red spot covered his forehead. He stared at the window, almost as though he were looking at me right through it.
“I think he’s full of shit,” I said. “Or he’s a psycho stalker who wouldn’t leave his ex alone.”
“So you think there’s a chance he did it?”
“You’re the one with access to the evidence, man. You tell me.”
“Really think you’d be standing here if we had something solid on him?”
I folded my arms over my chest. “No, not at all.”
Cassie said, “It wasn’t him.”
“How can you be sure?” Cervantes said.
“I can’t.”
Silence lingered inside and outside the interrogation room for a minute or so. My aggravation bled over and increased my breathing, fogging up the glass. The hazy mist grew then retreated with each breath. Could they see it on the other side? I’d never looked for that before.
Seth cleared his throat and shifted in his chair. “We were broken up.”
Pennington nodded, but said nothing. No reason to. Seth had broken the cardinal rule in a negotiation. He spoke first.
“It had been a couple months, like you said. I’d go over to pay her a visit sometimes. She still let me in, but not when her friends were around. And if one of them answered the door…” He clenched his mouth tight. The muscles on his jaw stood out behind his thin, scraggly beard. “When they were around, Alice wouldn’t even see me. She’d tell them to send me away. But I’d hang around the hedges at a neighbor’s house, and late at night, when everyone was asleep, she’d open her window for me.”
“You sure it was for you?
“You calling my girlfriend a whore?”
“Ex-girlfriend, Seth.” Pennington stifled a smile. A little twitch at the corner of his mouth. He’d gotten under his subject’s skin, and that was often the moment the truth came out.
Seth’s cheeks burned red again, but not out of anger. Body language gave it away. His shoulders slumped. His chin dropped to his chest. His eyes cast downward again. “Look, man, I know she’s kind of casual with guys. That was why…that’s why she broke up with me. I couldn’t take it while we were exclusive. While I was exclusive, I guess. I yelled at her one time too many.”
“You ever strike her?”
“No, man. The hell? I ain’t like that.”
Pennington nodded. “Okay, fair enough. Let’s get to after you were broken up. Were there any confrontations the times her friends wouldn’t let you in?”
Seth shrugged, said nothing. I knew where Pennington was going with it, and hoped he’d stop short. He’d rattled the man and shaken Seth’s confidence. Any more might cause the guy to shut down and clam up.
“All right,” Pennington said. “Just tell me the truth.”
“About what?”
“Where were you that night?”
Seth glanced up. He was biting his bottom lip while clenching and unclenching his hands into fists. The raw emotions from the night of the storm were flooding in. What had he seen? What had he done? Or, perhaps, what did he wish he had done?
“If I tell you what I saw, you promise nothing will happen to me?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The three of us stood with our faces pressed against the glass. The air vents directly above piped frigid air over us. The two-way mirror felt like ice on my skin. The tension in the room immobilized us where we stood. Seth appeared on the verge of confessing, or at the very least, placing himself close enough to the crime scene that he’d be upgraded from person of interest to a full-blown suspect. Cassie had her doubts, and so did I. Seth didn’t have the look of a man who could kill three and kidnap another. Then again, they didn’t always look like you expected.
Pennington said, “Seth, I can’t promise something like that until I hear what you have to say. I mean, if you tell me you went in there and murdered those women, there’ll be consequences. I’m sure you understand there has to be. This is the kind of case where the DA will recommend the death penalty. That being said, confessing now will greatly help your chances of avoiding serious punishment.”
“I ain’t did it, man,” Seth said. Tears were falling now. “Christ, it wasn’t me.”
“Okay, so what’s this about then?” Pennington’s voice rose in anger. He was getting tired of the run around.
“I went over that night, like you said. My apartment was rented, and I had nowhere else to go. Most times, I’d just find a quiet spot and sleep outside. No one really bothers you if you’re in the right area. But the rain started. When I checked my phone and saw the size of the storm that was coming, I mean, shit, I knew I had to get somewhere.”
“You hadn’t heard anything about the hurricane prior to those first few drops?”
“Nah.”
“How?”
“Don’t pay attention to the news.”
“You don’t listen to the radio?”
“Why would I?” Seth lifted one eyebrow and looked at Pennington as though the detective had stepped out of a time capsule. “I got all the music I need on my phone.”
The guy epitomized everything that they say is wrong with millennials.
“All right, okay, Seth. I’m feeling it. But why not check into a hotel?”
Seth shrugged and loo
ked a little surprised. Hadn’t he considered it?
“Well,” Seth said, “I figured just like you thought, being trapped in a hurricane gave me an opportunity to get back in with Alice.”
“How long had it been since you’d seen her?”
“Seen? Or touched?”
“Both.”
Seth looked toward the ceiling, calculating dates and times. “I’d seen her only a week before, leaving the library. She went over to Leopold’s with two of her roommates.”
“Did you talk to her?”
He shook his head. “Nah, I know better than that. She was with her friends, so I kept on my way.”
“Okay, so when was the last time you were in contact with her.”’
“It’s been a few weeks. Fifteen days before she disappeared, I’d say.”
“And what happened?”
“The usual, I guess. She let me in. We did, uh, our thing.” The left side of his face scrunched up, like he was trying to explain to his grandmother what happened in that room. “I tried to talk to her afterward, and she asked me to leave.”
“Nice gig for her, huh? Lets you in when she’s got nothing better on tap, then gives you the boot.”
Seth narrowed his eyes. “I guess. I’m getting something out of it, though.”
“I’m sure you are, Seth.” Pennington’s lips twitched again. He was working overtime to keep from laughing at this clown.
“Anyway, that’s the last time I spoke to her. I mean, I tried calling, but she wouldn’t answer. I left a couple messages. None were returned.”
I nudged Cervantes with my elbow. “Messages?”
“Nothing exciting,” he said. “We checked it out already.”
Nodding, Pennington said, “Let’s get back to the night of the storm. You knew you had to get inside, and didn’t bother with a hotel or shelter. Did you try a friend’s house?”
“What I was saying earlier was kinda true.” Seth leaned back in his chair, crossed his left leg over his right knee. He was getting comfortable. Letting his guard down. Was Pennington enough of a shark to take advantage? Seth continued. “I did go by a friend’s house, and they weren’t there. But there wasn’t any spare key. I tried a few windows and the terrace door, but they were all locked.”
“And you did what after that?”
“Alice’s. I went to her place.”
“Did you walk? Take the bus? Drive there?”
“I rode a bike.”
“Through the storm?”
Seth shrugged and said nothing.
Pennington shook his head, exhaled, and refocused. “What did she say when she saw you?”
“She never saw me.”
“Why not?”
Cassie drew in a sharp breath about the same time as Cervantes. This was what we were waiting for. Seth was about to deliver the money shot.
Seth leaned forward and tapped the table with his index finger. “‘Cause by the time they got to the house, it was raining so hard they ran from the car to the front door. All five of them.”
“Five, you say. Who? Tell me as though I know nothing about the residents of this house.”
“Her, her three roommates, and that dude.”
“What dude?” Pennington did well to hide his apprehension. It was best to string it out, let Seth recount it as he remembered it. And then ask him again.
“The one that slut brought home.” Seth leaned back and folded his arms over his chest. He held his head high, lips pursed.
“Did you get a good look at him?”
Seth shook his head as he lifted his hands in the air. As he let them fall, he wiggled his fingers. “The rain, man. It was like a plastic sheet. I can tell you he was about a head taller than her, but other than that, I don’t know if he was old, young, bald, whatever.”
“Was he white?”
Seth leaned back and glanced up at that spot on the ceiling where the inner recesses of his memory resided. “Yeah, he was. I could tell that.”
“So what happened next?”
Seth picked up his cup and turned it over. “I need some more water.”
Pennington looked back and nodded. Cervantes exited the room, leaving the interrogation on hiatus until he returned with a pitcher of ice water. He left it on the table, then rejoined Cassie and me on the other side of the glass.
Pennington filled Seth’s cup. We all waited while the guy took his time sipping on it.
“All right,” the detective said. “You’re re-hydrated. So now tell me what happened after they went inside.”
“I went to the door, the front one, and tried to get in. It was locked. I checked the flower pot, but the spare was gone. Guess she removed it after the last time I went over.”
“Thought you said she invited you in.”
Seth shrugged. “Kinda. I guess I showed myself in, and that was good enough for Alice. It wasn’t the first time, either, so don’t start thinking I did something wrong.”
“The door was locked the night of the hurricane. No key.”
“Right, yeah. I went to the back. Same thing. Power was out, so I couldn’t see anything through the windows. Checked each one. Either the curtains were drawn, or the darkness was too…dark.”
“How long did all this take?” Pennington shot a glance at his watch.
“Fifteen minutes, maybe?”
“You must’ve been soaked by this point.”
“Yeah, I was.”
“So what’d you do next?”
“The storm was getting bad. I went down the street and stopped at every house that had a garage until I found one I could get into.”
“What’d you want with a garage? Refuge from the storm?”
Seth slumped in his chair, eyes focused on the table. “Yeah, I mean, for a while.”
“How long?”
“An hour. Maybe two.”
“Must’ve been tough in there,” Pennington said. “Knowing that your girlfriend was in that dark house with some strange man.”
He was baiting the young guy. Judging by Seth’s reddening cheeks, it was working.
“They were all wet from the rain,” Pennington said. “Get to the house, guy has no clothes. Alice offers him something from her closet. Heck, maybe a pair of shorts you left behind. Can you imagine that? She helps him change into your old clothes.”
Seth said nothing. Kept his eyes focused on a scratch on the table. His expression told a different story, though. His eyebrows knitted together while his nostrils flared wide.
“Wonder if she even got dry clothes back on him? But you probably weren’t thinking about that, were you?”
Seth balled his fists and hit the table. “Yeah I was thinking about that. I stewed on that the whole time I was in there. What the hell was she thinking? I mean, I was right there, available, and she knew it. She knew I’d be over. She asked me to come over, man. And she still brought some asshole home.”
Pennington remained quiet as Seth shifted in his chair.
“And all around me, in that dark, ass-smelling garage, all these tools.”
“And what’d you do?”
“I took a big ass knife off the wall and went back out into the storm.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The room felt as though the air had been drained from it, like it’d been hit in the gut, until Cervantes broke the silence.
“Shit, this little creep? He did it?”
As much as I couldn’t believe it either, it appeared a confession was forthcoming. I had questions, sure. What happened to the other man? But I supposed that would come in the next few minutes.
Cassie placed both hands on the window. I glanced over. Her eyes were shut. Her head swung side to side.
“What is it?” I asked her.
She said nothing. Someone else had her attention.
“The hell is wrong with her?” Cervantes said.
“You’ve worked with her,” I said. “Shit like this just happens.”
Inside the interrogatio
n room, the mood had changed. The scared, scrawny man no longer looked so scared. His lips formed a slight smile. He sat up, shoulders back, hand clutching an imaginary knife.
Now Pennington hunched forward, like a leopard ready to pounce. He only needed Seth to make one statement. The trick was leading him there.
“What was the weather like at that point?” Pennington asked.
“Felt like walking through a hailstorm of bullets, man. Wind was ripping down the street. Water pelting me in every direction. I figured out pretty quick that if I huddled up next to a house, it was a lot easier than walking down the middle of the road.”
“And how far away were you?”
“Couple blocks is all.”
“Okay. So on your way back to Alice’s house, did you see anything?”
“Nah. Too dark. Rain was too thick.”
“What were you thinking as you were making your way back to the house?”
Seth smirked. “I’m gonna kill that bitch. Only thought going through my mind.” He hummed a few bars of blues, then sang, “I’m gonna kill that bitch tonight.”
Pennington placed his hands on the table, palms down. He lowered himself an inch or two, slightly below eye level of the other man. He was going for the close. “Seth, did you? Did you kill Alice?”
A long silence ensued. It sounded like the three of us standing behind the glass were in the middle of panic attacks. Our breathing was rapid, shallow. The glass in front of me fogged up with every exhale. It felt as though my heart was going to explode.
“I got there and the front door was still locked. I checked for the spare again, figuring maybe I was being too hasty last time. Still didn’t find it. Was about to try and kick the door in, but I changed my mind at the last second.”
“Why? Seems like the quickest way inside.”
“Someone might be watching. Might call the cops.”
“You didn’t think standing out there in the middle of a hurricane with a large knife was enough to raise suspicion?”
Seth shrugged. “Dunno.”
“So what’d you do to get inside?”
“Went around back.”
Pennington nodded. “You broke in through the rear door.”