by Teri Ames
“It was a week and a half ago.”
“How’d you end up with the keys, son? Did you take them from her after you killed her?”
“What? No. I keep telling you. I didn’t kill her.”
“Maybe it was a mistake. You argued, you hit her, harder than you meant to. Then, you panicked and hid her body, used her car get back to campus.”
“No. That’s not what happened.”
“Or you strangled her. It’s easy to choke someone to death by mistake.”
“No.”
“How did it happen? How did she die, Keenan?”
“I have no idea. I just wanted her to be safe––for all the good it did.”
“What did you do with her body, Keenan?”
“Nothing. I didn’t want anything to happen to her.”
“Of course not. But it happened anyway. She died anyway, didn’t she?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I think I need a lawyer.”
“You’re not under arrest. Why would you need a lawyer?”
“Because you’re turning this into something it wasn’t.”
“So what was it? What happened to Shannon?”
“I’m not talking to you any more. You’re not listening to me.”
“Okay. When you’re ready to talk, here’s my card. In the meantime, this search is going to take longer than I expected. I need to call for help. You might want to go somewhere else to wait.”
“Can I at least get my parka out of my duffle ?”
“Sorry, it’s in the room, so it’s part of the search.”
“It’s twelve degrees out. I need my parka.”
“You can have it after we clear the room.”
“You have got to be shitting me.” The kid walked away but kept looking over his shoulder. Dustin waited until he was out of sight to call for assistance.
They didn’t turn up anything else in the search. As soon as Dustin finished, he headed to the chief’s office. “Do we have probable cause to arrest him?” Dustin said.
“On what charges?” the chief said.
“I don’t know. Murder?”
“To charge a murder we either need a body or a confession. Or at least evidence of foul play. We have none of the above.”
“You’re right. But my gut says he killed to her.”
“So, try again for a confession. That might also help us find the body.”
“I doubt he’ll talk to me again. He knows we’re onto him.”
“What about getting him to submit to fingerprints? If we find his prints on the driver’s side of Shannon’s car, that proves he drove it back to her dorm. That’s solid proof he was the last one to see her.”
“He won’t willingly give me prints. I had to play all my cards to get him to consent to the search. He already mentioned talking to a lawyer. He’ll lawyer up for sure if I ask for prints.”
“Go talk to the state’s attorney first thing on Monday. See the man himself, not one of his deputies. This case is too big. Fred already told me he wants to be in from the get-go. Ask him if he can get you a court order. Maybe the Brody kid will say something when we bring him in for prints.”
“Okay, I’m on it.”
“And talk to Public Safety today. See what it’ll take to get access to the kid’s gym locker.”
Chapter 13
Monday, December 30, 2013
DUSTIN WAS always nervous when he had to talk to the state’s attorney. Fred Dutton was a career prosecutor who had been getting elected to the chief prosecutor’s job for as long as Dustin had been on the force. Nobody had tried to run against him in decades. The man clearly knew his business. When Dustin arrived, Fred was on the phone, but Dustin only had to wait a few minutes before the receptionist sent him back to Fred’s office.
“Tell me about the investigation. What’s going on?”
Dustin filled him in on the Facebook messages on Shannon’s Macbook, the trip to the Northeast Kingdom, and the searches of Shannon’s Volkswagen and Keenan’s room. “My theory is that Shannon told Keenan she slept with Jake, he got angry, and he killed her. He told me he doesn’t keep a car on campus, so he must’ve used her car to take her body somewhere and dump it. Then, he drove the car back and left it in her usual parking area. It was careless. If he’d disposed of the keys or brought the car back to the party, we might not have picked up on it.”
“It’s not a bad theory based on what you have, but I’ll need a lot more evidence before I charge anyone. And it’s still possible that Shannon drove that car back herself.”
“So, why did Brody have her keys?”
“I don’t know. What did he say?”
“He didn’t give much of an explanation.”
“That’s troubling.” Fred furrowed his brow. “Where are you going with the investigation?”
“I’m going to talk to the students as soon as everyone gets back in town. It’s hard conducting an investigation when all your witnesses are out of state.”
“Okay. What else?”
“That’s what I wanted to talk about. I’d like an order for fingerprints from the Brody kid. His prints aren’t in the system because he has no record. If we find his prints in the vehicle, it’s one more piece of circumstantial evidence.”
“Let’s look at the rule.” Fred picked up a green legal volume from the corner of this desk. He flipped through the pages for about ten seconds. “Here it is. It says we can ask for a non-testimonial order if we have probable cause to believe a crime was committed. Do we?”
“Definitely. A kid like Shannon doesn’t disappear at Christmastime unless something happened to her.”
“That’s probably true. But what crime?”
“I don’t know.”
“Maybe it doesn’t matter. The judge might cut us some slack, but we also need a reasonable suspicion that Brody is the perpetrator. I’ll draft a request for an order. I need you to write an affidavit in support. Write it like you would a search warrant request, but be vague about the charges. Make sure to be convincing that this is more than just a missing person case, and explain why fingerprint analysis might help us identify the perpetrator. I’ll file it under seal so we don’t tip our hand just yet.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll get something to you as soon as I can. Thank you, sir.”
Dustin made two trips to the hockey locker room the next day. The first time, he searched Brody’s locker without a warrant after he secured the cooperation of the college athletics director. Unfortunately, it had contained nothing more than overripe hockey gear.
The second time, Dustin waited outside the door for practice to end. At least the Brody kid was easy to locate; the college posted the ice arena schedule on its website.
“Keenan Brody, I have a court order requiring you to submit to fingerprinting. You are hereby ordered to appear by five o’clock today at the MFPD offices.” Dustin pulled a folded copy of the court order out of his pocket and handed it to Keenan.
“I want a lawyer,” Keenan said. Spoken like a guilty person, Dustin thought.
“You’re not under arrest, so we’re under no obligation to provide an attorney. You just come to the station for prints, then you’ll be free to go.”
“What if I refuse?”
“You’ll be in contempt of court and we’ll arrest you for that.” Dustin turned and strode quickly out of the building. He was looking forward to the fingerprinting. In his experience, sometimes suspects let things slip during routine processing, especially if you were able to goad them a little. This situation was perfect for that type of thing. The kid would not be in custody, so there would be no legal requirement to issue a Miranda warning. He hoped the kid didn’t get spooked and bring a lawyer, though he doubted that would be the case. The kid was just cocky enough to think he could outsmart Dustin. Not happening.
Keenan arrived alone later that afternoon. Dustin made him wait in the lobby for ten minutes just to establish the upper hand. Then, he led him to a smal
l room set up with fingerprinting equipment and cameras.
Dustin was surprised at how much pressure he was feeling. He knew this might be his last chance to talk to the Brody kid. If the prints came back matching the prints from Shannon’s car, they would have solid evidence that Keenan had driven the car. That would make it likely that he had disposed of the body. They were still waiting on a forensic report, but there were some blond hairs found in the trunk of the car. If the forensic analysis proved they matched the hairs taken from Shannon’s brush in her dorm room, that would be strong circumstantial evidence that her body had been in the trunk of the car.
He needed to be careful here. Brody had already mentioned a lawyer a couple of times.
“Thank you for coming in. This should only take a few minutes.”
“It’s not like you gave me a choice.”
Dustin shrugged. “We just want to find the girl. Give her parents a little peace.”
“Sorry, I can’t help you.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
Keenan just glared at Dustin.
“Where’s Shannon?” Dustin asked.
“Oh my God. How many times do I have to tell you? I have no idea.”
“But you had her keys.”
“Because I didn’t want her to drive. I told you. She was drunk.” Keenan shook his head and crossed his arms. It was definitely body language that indicated lying.
“Are we going to find your prints on the steering wheel?” Dustin knew they hadn’t been able to recover any usable prints from the steering wheel, but the kid didn’t need to know that.
“Of course you are. I drove the car back to the dorm.”
Bingo. His strategy had worked. He needed to keep the pressure on to get the full confession, so he quickly asked, “Where was Shannon? In the trunk?”
“No, she left the party before I did.”
“Did you put her in the back seat?”
“No.”
“You put her in the front seat then.”
“I keep telling you, she’d already left.”
“So why’d you drive her car back to the dorm?”
“I was trying to be nice.”
“Really? Chivalry? That’s your explanation?”
“Is that so hard to believe?”
“Actually, yes.” The kid must have come up with the explanation after Dustin found the keys. He sure as hell didn’t mention anything about taking her keys to keep her from driving or driving the car back to the dorm the last time they “chatted” when Dustin had searched Keenan’s room. The circumstantial evidence against the kid was mounting.
Chapter 14
Friday, November 14, 2013
“YOU REALIZE you’ve been talking about Keenan nonstop for ten minutes,” Amy said. “I think you’re in love with him.” Shannon was walking with her friend from their dorm to their chemistry class. The air was crisp, and they were both wearing winter coats and fleece-lined boots.
“I can’t be. I told you I’m still technically involved with Jake.”
“Love doesn’t care about technicalities. Besides, whose idea was it to see other people, yours or Jake’s?”
“It was mutual, I guess. Jake didn’t want to go off to college tied down, so we agreed.” Not that she’d had a choice. “Plus, we said if we came back to each other, it was meant to be.”
“Were there any rules?”
“Rules?”
“You know, like it’s okay to date, but don’t sleep with anyone.”
“No, but I don’t want Jake sleeping with anyone else.”
“Why not? You are.”
“I know. And I feel guilty about it.”
“So, stop.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Because you’re in love with Keenan.”
“Maybe.”
Amy laughed. “Sweetie, you can’t have it both ways.”
“I know.”
“You probably ought to tell Jake about Keenan.”
Shannon knew her friend was right. Deep down she’d been thinking the same thing for a couple of weeks. “I can’t do it on the phone. Not after two years.”
“Are you guys going home for Thanksgiving?”
“No, the break is too short to fly across the country. I’d been planning to go down and stay with Jake at his dorm for a few days, but that was before Keenan. Now I need to come up with a new plan. I might just stay here.”
“I have an idea. Come home with me. We’ll go out in the city. You can have Turkey Day with my family and you can get together with Jake without having to stay with him. You can tell him about Keenan in person.”
It was the perfect solution. “Do you think your parents would mind?”
“Of course not. We have plenty of room. They’ll love you.”
“Thanks, Amy. Now I just have to figure out what I’m going to say to Jake.”
“You still have two weeks. You’ll come up with something.” She hoped Amy was right on that count as well. The problem was, she didn’t want to think about it.
KEENAN SLIPPED into his seat just before the professor started her lecture. His friend Aarav Chadha looked at him out of the corner of his eye but didn’t smile. Aarav was slight and dark with wire-rimmed glasses and a perpetually creased brow. They had met during freshman orientation and become friends when Keenan had commented on Aarav’s well-worn copy of The Stand.
“You like Steven King?” Keenan had asked.
Aarav had tensed and looked around, as if he expected that Keenan was talking to someone else, before answering. “Yes,” he said slowly.
“Me, too. I’ve read all his books. He might even be the reason I’m an English major. I want to write books someday.”
Aarav nodded and his shoulders relaxed. “I’m an English major too, although my father doesn’t approve.”
“Why not?”
“He’s an engineering professor. He thinks the only things worth studying are math and science.”
“So you’re the family rebel?”
“No, that’s my Uncle Raj. He’s in jail in India.”
“Really? Are you from India?”
“No, I’m from Baltimore. My parents moved to the U.S. when my dad was in graduate school.”
They had continued talking and discovered that they shared many of the same favorite books. And it turned out they had a few of the same classes the first year. They had frequently had lunch together after their writing seminar.
When the lecture was over, Keenan watched Aarav pack up. “Are you okay?” Keenan asked.
Aarav shrugged.
“What’s going on, Aarav? We haven’t talked much lately.”
“You’ve been busy.”
“Yeah, it’s hockey season. I’ve been out straight between school and hockey. I lift in the morning, then we’re on the ice from four to six every day. It feels like I’m always rushing to get to the dining hall before it closes.”
“You’re always with the team when I see you.”
“That’s just ‘cuz we usually all walk over together after practice. Is there something you want to talk about?”
“Not really. I thought maybe you were mad at me.”
“Not at all. It’s just my busy time of year, and”––Keenan grinned––“I met a girl.”
“Okay, that explains it,” Aarav said. He sounded disappointed, but he smiled. “You want to have lunch today?”
“I can’t. I promised Shannon I’d meet her for lunch.”
“That’s her name? Shannon?”
“Yeah, she’s great. You want to have lunch on Monday?”
Aarav nodded.
“Better yet, let’s try for lunch every Monday. I miss talking with you.”
Aarav’s smile gleamed. “Maybe you can help me figure out how to ask out this girl in my poly sci class.”
Chapter 15
Thursday, January 2, 2014
“I WANT the truth. Who did this to us?” Olivia Dawson sat in the chief’s office and
wiped a tear from her cheek with the back of her hand. The woman look gaunt. The chief figured she hadn’t slept in almost two weeks. Her husband was motionless in his chair. Their private investigator, Evan Halliday, leaned against the back wall of the office with Dustin. Halliday’s eyes had been on his phone since entering the room.
The chief shook his head. “At this point, we can’t be sure.”
“That’s not good enough.”
“I assure you, we will not stop investigating until we have answers, but that doesn’t mean we’ll find them.”
“I just want my baby back.” Olivia was sobbing. Her husband seemed too wrapped up in his own grief to console her.
The investigator lowered his phone and stepped forward. “We need to know everything that’s going on with this investigation.”
“I assure you,” the chief said. “I’m not holding out on you. There just isn’t much there.”
“What about the new boyfriend?” Halliday said.
Dustin looked at the chief and raised an eyebrow in obvious question. The chief nodded at him. “At this point, he’s our prime suspect,” Dustin said. “Our only suspect.”
“So, get him to tell you what he did to our daughter.” Olivia sounded understandably bitter.
“I’ve spoken to him multiple times. He denies any involvement.”
“And you believe him?”
“Not really.”
“So, do something to get him to talk.”
“Believe me, I’ve tried.”
“So, arrest him. That’s what they do on TV,” Olivia said.
The chief knew he needed to regain control of the conversation. “There just isn’t enough evidence,” he said.
“What exactly do you think you have?” Halliday said, without looking up from his phone. He appeared to be texting.
“We have a motive. Apparently, Shannon was planning to tell Brody she had been with Jake over Thanksgiving and that she still had feelings for Jake. We have evidence of a phone conversation between Brody and Shannon the night she disappeared.”
Evan nodded but continued to text. “You also have opportunity. According to the file, you can put them at the party together. Are there any new developments?”