“We think you can help us with our investigation. It would be great if you could take a look at some pictures we found,” I said.
“Oh, like mugshots or something?” She perked up.
“Just pictures we’ve come across during the investigation.” I glanced at Bernie, but he was still staring at Jake, probably scaring the crap out of him.
“Okay. I’d like to help. I’ll follow you.”
“That’s okay, you can ride with us,” I said cheerfully.
She frowned. “But what about my car?”
“No problem. Jake can follow if he likes.” I looked through the window at Jake and waved. “Hi, Jake.” I forced a smile.
Jake’s face shimmered with perspiration. He wiped his forearm across his brow.
Bernie opened Jake’s door and moved aside. “Do you plan to follow us?”
Jake nodded and looked at Kelly. “Yeah, sure. What’s the address? In case we get separated.”
Kelly grabbed her purse, and I walked her to our car while Bernie gave Jake the address. Jake got out of the car and walked around to the driver’s side.
I opened the door to the backseat of our car for her. “Buckle up,” I said, adding a friendly grin. “It’s the law.”
She climbed in, strapped herself in, then looked at me expectantly.
“I’ll be back in a sec.” I shut the door, stepped away from the car, and pulled out my phone. I called Theresa and updated her on the situation. She promised to wait for us. When I returned to the car, Bernie had settled into the driver’s seat, so I rode shotgun and worked out the best way to handle the interrogation.
29
At the station, I took Kelly straight to Interrogation. She asked for something to drink, and I left the room to grab a bottle of water. As I walked by, I flipped the switch outside the room to turn on the audio-visual feed and stopped at Theresa’s desk to let her know we were back. She wanted to watch the interrogation and perhaps ask a few questions of her own—especially since she believed Kelly and Jake had led her on a wild goose chase.
Bernie put Jake in a visitor’s room, away from the interrogation areas. Then he went out to the car and brought in the items we’d taken from Sharon’s bedroom and closet. After everything was logged in as evidence, he showed Theresa the fake IDs. The items in the boxes and on the laptop would help Theresa with her fraud case. We logged a few of the IDs and the photo of the teens out of evidence, took individual photos of each, and printed them out. I placed the printed sheets in a folder, planning to use them while I interrogated Kelly. We logged everything back in and sent the laptop to Computer Forensics and requested it be rushed due to having a suspect in Interrogation.
I stopped in the breakroom and picked up two bottles of water—one for me, the other for Kelly. Once Bernie and Theresa settled in the viewing area, I entered the interrogation room and set a bottle in front of Kelly.
“Sometimes it gets a little warm in here.”
And this time would be no exception.
I sat on the edge of the table a couple of feet from her, one foot on the ground and the other dangling.
Kelly peered up at me. Her smile twitched, and she looked away, staring at the concrete wall. She picked up the bottle and twisted the lid. Her hand was shaking.
Good.
Her gaze flicked in my direction. I smiled, hoping it looked happy, not like a cat telling the canary, “I got you.” No sense in sending her scurrying so soon.
I hopped off the desk, taking my water with me. “Enjoy the water. I’ll be back soon.” It often made some people more nervous when I left them alone, even if they’d done nothing wrong, which wasn’t the case here. She’d done plenty wrong. No doubt in my mind. I returned to my desk to gather my thoughts, read my notes for a few minutes, and add to Kelly’s pressure.
When I peeked into the interrogation room, Kelly had already guzzled half of the water and twisted the cap back on. People often became jittery when I popped in and out. I waited until she saw me before closing the door.
Mind games. Love them.
I went next door to see Bernie.
“Hey, Bernie. Can you check with the computer techs and ask if they’ve found anything specific related to real estate or identity theft? Maybe some type of leases, purchase agreements, or loan documents?”
“On it.” He pulled out his phone.
“Can you also have someone see if the IDs with Kelly’s photo can be matched to the checks we found in Sharon’s closet?”
“I’ll take care of it,” he said.
By the time I rejoined Kelly, she’d started to fidget. I set the folder containing the printed photos on the table and slid the sheet with a copy of the old photo I’d received from Mavis Carter in front of her. I’d printed it duplex because the girls’ names and date were on the back. She stared at it for a while then crossed and uncrossed her legs as she peeled the label from the bottle, ignoring me, or pretending to.
“Do you remember when this was taken?” I took up my previous position on the table, with one foot on the floor.
She gazed at the photo. “Maybe.” She focused on the label and shoved her hair away from her face. Her ears looked as though they were on fire.
“Who are the other girls?”
“I don’t remember them.” She picked at her cuticles. “It was a long time ago.”
“Are you saying you don’t remember their names?”
“That’s what I’m saying, yes.” She eyed the evidence bag.
“Hunh. Where was the photo taken?” I scooted closer to her, invading her space.
“Well, since we’re wearing community college T-shirts and baseball caps, I’d say it was a college baseball game.” She shrugged. “I really couldn’t tell you.”
“How old were you then?”
She flipped the sheet over. “Nineteen, I guess.”
“I’m surprised you don’t remember her.” I pointed to Jennifer.
“Why?” She peered at me. “Do you remember every picture someone took of you?”
“I might not remember every picture, but I’d certainly remember my cousin.”
She shrugged. “Whatever.”
“Yeah, whatever.” I pointed to Sharon Carter. “And her? Do you remember this girl?”
“I just said that I didn’t. Is this one of the pictures you wanted to show me when you asked me to come down here with you? I guess you’ve wasted your time. And mine.”
“I have something else.” After I removed another sheet of paper from the envelope, I slid it toward her.
She gasped then pushed her chair away from the table.
“It looks like I’ve found something you do remember. Finally.” I leaned toward her. “Tell me about it.”
She pointed to the fake driver’s license with her face but with a different name on it. “That’s not mine.”
“Then how did your face get on it?” I leaned closer to her. “Explain it to me.”
“I don’t know. I swear.”
I laughed. I was always amazed when criminals swore they weren’t lying as if that made it true. “I remember when my partner and I were at the house you supposedly rented, and you couldn’t find your driver’s license when I asked for identification.”
“That’s right!” Her eyes brightened. “Someone stole it and made this fake license.” A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, but she managed to control herself. “That must be what happened.”
“Have you been driving around with an expired license?”
“Of course not. I wouldn’t do that!”
I picked up the license copy and held it close to her face. “This expired two years ago. Why would someone take your license and make one that’s expired?”
“My purse was stolen a while ago, too. Someone must’ve found it.”
“Yeah, maybe that’s it.” I cut her another smile. “Again, why would someone duplicate an expired license?” I got up, circled the table, then leaned on it. “I don’t know … s
eems pretty stupid to me.”
She lifted a shoulder. “Hey, nobody ever said criminals were smart.”
“Right. I certainly never said it.” I smiled and eyeballed her until she looked away. I shuffled the sheets in the folder. I had another surprise for her, and I dropped the paper on the table.
Kelly squinted at it then glared at me.
“When did you become a licensed real estate agent?”
“I’m not!” She folded her arms and scooted farther from the table, the chair scraping the tile floor. “That’s not mine, either.”
“Yet, it says Kelly Simon, your maiden name.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s mine.”
I pulled up a chair and set it right next to hers, invading even more of her space. “Do you know what I don’t understand?”
She leaned away. “No. I guess you’re going to tell me, though.”
“I don’t understand why you didn’t walk away. You saw law enforcement all over the place at the house. Why didn’t you walk away?”
She sneered. “Why should I? I paid the money for that house and she … he wasn’t returning my calls when I wanted my money back.”
Someone knocked. I got up and sauntered over to open the door. Theresa was waiting outside. I joined her in the hall and shut the door, leaning against the wall.
“You’re not going to believe this. Since she’s a teacher, her prints are on file. Rudy matched them to prints on some of the IDs. The other prints belonged to Jane Doe—I mean Sharon Carter.”
“We’ve got her, but I want a little more before I wrap it up here.”
“So, she and Sharon were involved in this scheme.” She pursed her lips. “The Moore house and who knows how many others?”
“I think so, but there’s more to it.” I pushed myself away from the wall. “I’m going back in.” I stepped into the room, and Kelly jumped.
“Oh, it’s you.” She narrowed her eyes, her elbows on the table. “I really don’t know if I can help you with those IDs.”
“No?” I got in her face again. “Really?”
She pushed away from the table and crossed her arms once more.
“How do you think I got those IDs?” I grinned.
She stared at the ceiling, chewed on her bottom lip, and shifted her gaze to the other side of the room. “No idea.” She scowled when she looked at me—thinking, I guessed.
A little late for that.
“How do you think I got them?”
“I don’t know …” She shook her head.
“Do you think your friend wouldn’t give you up to save herself?” I scoffed. “You’d be surprised at what people will do to save their own skin. I’ve got to tell you, it’s shocking.”
“She’s not my friend. I told you. I don’t even know that girl. She just happened to be standing there when someone took my picture with my cousin.”
She’d spoken about Sharon in the present tense.
Interesting.
“Now, you do know your cousin?” I pushed the photo toward her. “Point her out to me.”
She glared at me. “You already know which one she is.”
“Point her out anyway.” I stared her down.
Her gaze slid to the photo. She jabbed at it. Her finger landing on Jennifer.
“All right.” We were getting somewhere. “You know what I think?”
She sneered. She looked like the Grinch before his heart grew three sizes.
“The tears and worry when you were looking for your lease and driver’s license were really because you were afraid you were caught in your scheme.”
She gave me an eye roll. Someone knocked on the door, and it opened. Theresa waved me out into the hall. I joined her and slammed the door behind me.
“Dr. Moore called again. He found out there’s a deed recorded on their house, and they didn’t know anything about it. He’s pissed,” she said.
“Can you call him back and tell him I’ll talk to him about it later today?” I glanced at the closed door to the room where Kelly sat. “In the meantime, I’d like you to take the lease documents Kelly gave you and see if you or the techs can find them on that laptop. Now we know a deed has been filed, look for that or anything related to it.”
“Will do. I’ll let you know.” Theresa hurried down the hall.
I went back in the interrogation room to get the folder. Although she hadn’t been arrested and hadn’t asked for an attorney, I placed a uniformed officer outside the interview room and gave him instructions to arrest her for identity theft if she tried to leave. She also hadn’t asked about Jake, who was still cooling his heels in the other room—I wasn’t worried about him. We hadn’t found any of his prints or his face on the IDs, and Kelly had signed the fake lease—not him. Back at my desk, I wrote up a search warrant for Kelly’s car and residence after getting their new address from Jake. I handed it to a uniformed officer to file and browsed through fingerprint reports and other evidence.
“Hey, Syd.” Bernie brought over reports he’d been working on, and I told him about the deed on the Moore house. He said Monica Stewart had called and left a voicemail. She had a meeting planned for the next day with Joan Moore about Vincent’s will and wanted to know if we had anything new on the investigation of his murder. One of us would return her call later. Things were moving forward at speed.
“I think we need to take a run out to see the Moores or have them come here.” I glanced at my watch. “We can go now and leave Kelly to stew for a while.”
“Good idea. Let’s go.” Bernie grabbed the recorder from his desk and we headed out the door.
When we reached our car, Bernie’s phone rang. I waited before opening the door.
“Oh my God. I’m on my way.” He raced toward his personal vehicle, shouting over his shoulder, “Khrystal’s in labor!”
30
I leaned against our car, my heart pounding. “I’ll call you later! Drive carefully!”
Bernie raced from the lot, rear wheels spinning. If he didn’t kill himself first, the next time we met, he’d be a dad, for Pete’s sake. I walked around to the driver’s side and slid behind the wheel. My phone buzzed.
“Valentine.” It was Dr. Moore. He told me he’d been called away and was on his way to the hospital. We agreed to talk later and disconnected. Since driving to Palm Springs was no longer on the agenda, I made time to call Brad. He picked up right away but sounded out of breath.
“Hi, Sydney. What’s up?”
“Just checking in. What are you doing?” I fired up the car, turned on the air conditioning, and sat still.
“The reno is done! I’m running around taking pictures so I can list it. I’ve got you on speakerphone.”
“That’s great! I’m happy for you!”
“I’m hoping this sells fast. It’s fairly high end, and I’ve staged it well, I think.”
“Text me a couple of pictures for now. I’d like to see it soon, though.”
“You bet! I’ll do it as soon as we get off the phone. Are we still on for dinner later?” He’d taken me off speakerphone, and his voice sounded less hollow.
“I think so. I’ll confirm in an hour or so. Is that okay?”
“Perfect. Call or shoot me a text.”
We said our goodbyes, and I hung up. My phone vibrated in my hand and I looked at the caller ID. “Hi, Theresa.”
“Sydney, where are you?”
“In the parking lot outside the station. Why?” I glanced at my watch.
“Monica called again. She found a business card inside the envelope the will was in. It was stuck in a corner at the bottom.”
“Whose card is it? Joan’s?”
“No. Someone named Arnie Lancaster. It says he’s the paralegal in Joan’s law practice.”
“Wait a minute. Monica told us a messenger gave her the envelope.”
“I guess a messenger still could’ve delivered it. I’d think Joan’s card would be in there instead, or both of their cards—not just hi
s.”
“Is there an address or anything on the card?”
This sounds like something we need to investigate.
“No, but I’ve run him through the DMV and have an address. It’s close to here. I couldn’t get through on your phone, so I called Bernie. He asked me to send someone to pick up the guy and bring him here. Mr. Lancaster should be here soon, personally escorted by Bryant and Lopez.”
“Excellent. I’m on my way.” I disconnected and called Joan Moore as I returned to my desk.
“Hello?”
“Mrs. Moore, this is Detective Valentine. I have a few things I need to discuss with you before we can release your house.”
“Okay,” she said warily. “When can you be here?”
“Well, I don’t have time to drive to Palm Springs now. Something has come up and I won’t be able to make it until tomorrow afternoon. If you could come here, we may be able to release your house today.” I strolled through the station, heading to my desk.
“Well, all right,” she said after a slight hesitation. “I’ll be there in half an hour.”
“That would be good. I’ll see you soon.”
By the time I ended the call, I’d reached my desk.
Theresa gazed up at me from my visitors’ chair, with her feet on my desk, ankles crossed. “Is this Lancaster guy going to be an interview or an interrogation?”
“Not sure yet.” I plopped into my chair and put my feet on the desk next to hers. “What do you think?”
“I think you should see how he is. I bet he knows something. Are wills usually personally delivered by paralegals?”
I had no idea. “Let’s ask Mr. Lancaster if he delivered it when he gets here.”
Theresa chewed on her lip. “Hmm. Maybe.” She didn’t seem to have bought the explanation. Then again, neither had I.
“Well, she’s coming in shortly.”
“Are you going to ask about the will?”
I nodded. “That and some other things. Has there been any progress with Sharon Carter’s laptop?”
“The guys found various real estate forms, including purchase and lease agreements, loan documents, and employment verification. We matched up some of the names on the forms with the IDs. As expected, both Sharon and Kelly appeared to have been involved.”
Criminal Negligence Page 18