by D. A. Brown
In the hallway, Kilhanny wouldn’t look at her or Dillingham.
“Look, we’ve got a neighbor putting him there around the time of the murder and leaving in a hurry. We’ve got his fingerprints on the weapon, and we’ve got a motive. The neighbor said the stepdad was a real asshole.”
“The fingerprints don’t mean a thing,” Sophia said.“He lives there.”
Kilhanny shot her a look.
“She’s right, and I want a confession anyway.” Dillingham turned to Sophia. “How do you feel about it?”
“I’m not afraid of him, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“So you’re good with doing the interview alone? I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but we do things a little differently around here.”
“Well, he’s either going to talk to me or not at all. I don’t see any downside here.”
A woman spoke angrily in the hallway, outside of the holding cell area.
Sgt. Taylor walked ahead of the woman.
“Is my son in there?” Her eyes darted between the three detectives and then back to the sergeant. She stepped toward the detectives, evading the outstretched hand of the sergeant.
Slapping the closed holding cell door, she screamed, “Jared. Don’t say a word to these bastards. Nothing. Do you understand?”
Dillingham and Kilhanny each grabbed an elbow and escorted her out of the holding cell area and down the hall. Sophia waited until they were out of sight. She opened the door to the holding cell and peered in.
“Still want to talk?”
“Sure. I hate that bitch. Besides, she can’t invoke for me. I’m seventeen.” Jared smiled and stretched his legs under the table. “Let’s do this.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Sophia sat across from Jared and noted the time and date on her note pad. “I have to advise you that you’re being video and audio recorded.”
“Yeah, I can read.”
She read him his Miranda rights and had him sign the form including the extra language that applied to juveniles.
“So, why did you have my name and number with you.”
“I got it from Halifax. He said I could trust you.”
“Ok.”
“And I know, from stuff I’ve heard, that you’re involved in that thing with his sister.”
“But you’re here for something else, right? Are you telling me there’s a connection between your stepfather and what happened to Barrett’s sister?” She looked up from her notepad where she begun to make notes in the margin about questions to ask.
“There’s a connection between Ed and Barrett’s dad, I guess. Yeah.”
“Who’s Ed?”
“He’s my stepfather. Or was, I guess.”
“Got it.”
Jared looked up at the ceiling. “Can we just get this over with? I mean, I know I’m supposed to ask for a lawyer…”
“Sure. Tell me what happened.”
“I don’t know exactly how they were doing it, but I know that Ed and Barrett’s dad knew each other, and I also know that Ed was into some fucked up shit involving kids. At least that’s what it looked like on his computer.”
“Where is that computer?”
“It’s in my backpack. One of the cops took it when they picked me up.”
“And how do you know Ed and Stewart Halifax know each other?”
“I saw them arguing in a car at school. Halifax was really hot. He looked like he was going to pound Ed.”
“You don’t know what they were arguing about?”
“No.” Jared yawned.
“You know what Jared, I’m going to step out for a moment and make sure that computer is still in the backpack. I’ll be right back.”
“Whatever.” Jared leaned forward and rested his head on the table.
Sophia stepped outside. Kilhanny gave her a sideways glance and then looked at the brown paper bag on the floor outside the door. A cell phone rang, beeped and vibrated from inside the bag.
“I just want to make sure that computer is in his back pack.” She reached into the backpack and turned off the laptop.
“Is that his phone?” She pointed to the bag.
“It’s been going off non-stop. “ Dillingham put his hands in his pocket and leaned against the wall. “You better get back in there if you’re gonna keep him talking. Don’t give him time to change his mind.” He walked out into the hall.
Sophia looked at Kilhanney. “What’s his problem?”
“He really doesn’t like it when other detectives horn in on his investigations.”Kilhanney said.
“I’m not horning in on anything. I don’t control this kid.”
“Yeah, well this is a homicide case, and you’re not homicide.”
“So what do you suggest?”
“I suggest you go in there and get a confession, detective. I’ll smooth things out with Dillingham.”
A young, lanky patrol officer peered into the holding cell hall. His radio crackled with chatter.
“Sorry to interrupt, but I don’t think my partner told anyone about the second phone.”
“I don’t know anything about a second phone,” Sophia said.
“The kid tried to slough it as we drove up. We found it in between a bush and the bus station. I’d be careful how you handle it. Looks like it’s got some blood on it.”
Sophia looked into the paper bag. A second phone sat at the bottom. She grabbed a pair of latex gloves from a box next to the jail elevator and pulled the phone out, marrying it up with the one from the bag on the floor.
“What do you think you’re going to do with those?” Kilhanney asked.
“I’m going to ask him about them.”
Jared lifted his head off of the table as Sophia entered the room. She sat down and put the phones in front of him.
“So, is this your phone?”
“Never seen it before.”
“Really? Well, let’s take a look.” Sophia navigated to the contacts and scrolled to Jared’s name. “This is really a strange coincidence.” She turned the phone so Jared could see his name. “This is you, right?”
“I don’t know.”
Sophia put the phone down and looked at Jared. “Look, you said you’d talk to me and I took that to mean that you’d be straight with me about what happened. And that includes what’s been happening, because I’m guessing that this guy,” she pulled open a file and ran her finger down the sheet, “this guy Ed, wasn’t exactly in the running for father of the year.”
Jared smiled. “Are you trying to get me to admit I did this?”
“Did what, Jared?”
“Whatever it is you have me in here for.” He shifted in is chair and ran his hand through his hair.
“You know why you’re here.”
A text message popped up on the face of the phone. Sophia flipped the phone around to see it. It read ‘full of grace.’
“Who’s this?”
“Don’t know.”
“But we’re in agreement that this is Ed’s phone?”
“Sure”
“And that you had it on you when the cops stopped you.”
“I guess so.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“Yes.”
Sophia scrolled to the beginning of the text conversation. It was several screens long. The first line read, ‘Ecc 3:1, the season is now.’
She showed the screen to Jared. “This mean anything to you?”
“Nope.”
At the top of the conversation was a phone number and the name, ‘Mary.’
“Who’s Mary?”
“I don’t know. Some chick from church, maybe?”
“Church?”
“Ed was involved in some church down south. I don’t know the name of it. Something Redeemer.”
“So this is Ed’s phone and you don’t know who Mary is?”
“Yep.”
Sophia noticed that during older text conversations, Ed had replied ‘Hail Mary’ e
very time ‘Mary’ texted ‘full of grace.’
The phone shuddered again. “I ned to tlk. Call asap.”
Sophia set aside the phone and sat back in the chair. She knew at least a couple of guys were watching her through the one-way glass.
“Tell me what happened.”
Jared looked up. “Starting when? When my mother met and married the prick, or today?”
“Start whenever you want.”
“From the day she brought him home, you know, to… well… basically to let him fuck her…” Jared looked up at Sophia. “He treated me like shit. Like I was in the way. He was a total freak from his gnome collection to his weird friends, his fucked up car, all of it. A while back I got onto his laptop and I found some stuff…” He shifted in his chair and looked at the glass.
“What kind of stuff?”
“Kids.”
“I’m not following you, Jared.”
“Naked kids doing stuff…”
“Stuff?”
“Sex stuff. I found these sites, online sites, in his browser history on his laptop, and then I found a bunch of hidden files that had thousands of images just like it.” Jared put his head in his hands. “And I found pictures that look like they were taken at the church.”
“Have you ever seen Grace Halifax, Jared?”
Jared hung his head. Tears started to drop into his lap.
“I saw her on there. “
“On the laptop?”
“And on the internet. At that New World site.”
“Let me get you some Kleenex, ok?” Sophia reached out and touched his hand.
As she stepped out of the room, Tommy met her.
“You’re doing great, kid.” One of the homicide guys must have called him at home.
“We need to get a search warrant for that phone, Tommy.” She handed him a torn piece of paper from her legal pad. “Here’s the number. It’s him. It’s Stewart Halifax texting him.”
Tommy took the sheet of paper and headed to the office. He almost broke into a run getting to the stairs.
“And get someone from the U. S. Marshal’s service to start pinging that phone. I want that bastard.” Dillingham and Kilhanny came out of the video room.
“He’s gonna give it up, but get to the homicide. I don’t want him getting all hinkey after discussing the kiddie diddling stuff. He really did a number on the vic. His head looks like someone drove over it with a hummer.” Dillingham chuckled. “Sounds like he did the rest of us a favor.”
There were still pieces of the case that weren’t fitting together. Where did the rest of the assholes fit in? Loveschild, Martins, David and most importantly, Marcus Burton.
Sophia dialed George. It went to voicemail.
She glanced at her watch. It was a little after six AM. The early guys were starting to trickle into homicide. Her guys on the sixth floor would hear the rumors soon and make their way upstairs to eavesdrop or offer to help.
Jess popped her head into the hallway.
“Hey, can you take Paulson up to Dr. Halifax’s house and sit on him?” Sophia said. “If he leaves, tail him. I have a feeling we’re going to hook him up today.
“Sure. How’s it going?” Jess said. She glanced into the camera room to get a look at Jared.
“He’s doing ok. We haven’t gotten around to the murder yet. He’s pretty emotional.” Sophia looked down the hallway. “Where did they take his mother, do you know?”
“I think she’s back in homicide. I saw Turner and Wayne interviewing her. She was pretty calm. Think she could have killed the victim?”
It had dawned on Sophia for a moment, but she could see a lot of blood on Jared’s t-shirt, there was blood on Ed’s phone and the cuffs of Jared’s jacket were ringed in red.
“He did it. But I think he’s got a decent case for this, if you ask me. Maybe the mom will back him up, maybe not. In any event, he’s a juvie, and Ed was a monster.”
Jess started down the hall. “I’m going to grab Paulson and get up there.”
Sophia was about to go back in with Jared after she grabbed him a Coke and some chips, when Dillingham stopped her in the hall.
“We ran up the victim. This church he belongs to is pretty popular. There’s a few of them, but according to the wife, the one he went to was downtown. But there is one south of here and one on Queen Anne.”
“Ok, thanks.” Sophia started to turn but Dillingham stopped her.
“You know who else was a member, according to the kid’s mother?”
“Who?”
“Burton.”
“Chief Burton?”
“Yep. I guess he left them hanging.” Dillingham chuckled at his own joke.
“Let’s talk about what happened at home.”
Jared tucked his hair behind his ears and looked at his hands. He scraped dried blood from underneath his fingernails onto the table and then swept it onto the floor.
“I hacked into his account and saw a bunch of pictures of kids.”
“Including Grace?”
“Yes.”
“Can you describe the pictures, Jared?”
Jared looked at Sophia. Tears welled in his eyes. “I’d rather not.”
“But they were disturbing, illegal?”
“Yes.”
“Go on.”
“Ed beat me, he burned me with a lighter.” Jared pulled back his jacket sleeves to reveal small, melted patches of skin.
“What else did he do?”
“He didn’t rape me, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Ok.”
“Mostly, he smacked me around when my mom wasn’t home.”
“Did you tell your mom?”
Jared smiled. “Sure.”
“And?”
“And she didn’t believe me. She’s a lawyer. Everybody lies to her. She lies for a living.”
“But you’re her son, Jared.”
Jared looked at the floor.
“What happened today?”
“He came home, started beating me. I tried to fight him but he’s too strong.”
“You couldn’t get out of the house, get away?”
“I shouldn’t have to leave my home.”
“Fair enough. But you fought him anyway?”
“He attacked me. I hit him with one of those fucking gnome things.”
“Gnomes things?”
“Those ceramic trolls he collects. I picked it up and smashed his head in with it.” Jared pushed his chair back from the table and stood up. “Is that good enough for you?”
“Sit down.”
He pulled down his tee shirt and leaned against the wall. “I’m done. I did it. Get me a fucking lawyer.”
Tommy was at his desk. She was spent, as though she’d run a marathon.
“Any luck?”
“Oh, you’re gonna love this, Beni.” Tommy was smiling.
“Subscriber comes back to Stewart Halifax on that incoming number.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“Yep. He’s got two phones on the account. I’m waiting for the paperwork to come in via email. I think you better start writing up a warrant for the Halifax house and his computer.”
Sophia sat down. “Barrett, George and Grace are in danger.”
“As long as he doesn’t know we’re onto to him, they’re ok. He’s not going to hurt his own kids, especially not Grace. Fuck, she’s been his bread and butter.” Tommy leaned back. “God, I’d love to crush his skull.”
“Me too. But we won’t, right?”
Tommy laughed, stood up and tried to flatten out the creases in his pants. “Nope. I’m done.”
“Good.” Sophia picked up her phone.
“Hey, Soph. What was that phrase on the phone that got your attention?” Tommy was sitting rigid, staring at his monitor.
“’Full of Grace’. And then there was a text that answered ‘Hail Mary’ a couple of times like it was a greeting or something.”
“Well, I’ll be goddamne
d…” Tommy stood up and pointed to his computer screen. “Look at this. It’s the billing information from the phone company.”
Sophia leaned over.
Billing info: Stewart L. Halifax and Mary G. Halifax.
“Mary. Her first name is Mary.” Sophia sat at her desk and pulled up the screen to run WASIC and DOL. She flipped through her file to get Ginny Halifax’s date of birth and typed it in.
The Department of Licensing screen popped up as Sophia scrolled through and deleted the information she didn’t need and that’s when she saw it - Mary Ginnifer Halifax.
Ginny Halifax was Hail Mary. She was pimping her own child.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Sophia called Barrett’s cell phone. He answered on the second ring.
“Barrett, it’s Detective Benedetti.”
“Hey.”
“I need you to listen very carefully to what I’m about to say.”
“Is something wrong?”
“Is anyone at home with you?”
“Grace and George are downstairs. And my mother is glued to her fucking iPhone texting away like always. She’s in a shitty mood.”
“How about your Dad?”
“At work, I guess. I don’t know. Why?”
“You need to get George and Grace out of the house right now.”
“Why? What’s going on? Is it my Dad?”
“No, Barrett, it’s not.”
“That’s good then, right? I was wrong about him.”
Sophia held back. “That’s right. You were wrong about your Dad. I need you to get out of there. Take the kids to Volunteer park.I’ll meet you there.”
“I can’t tell my Mom?”
“No. Just go. Now.”
Grace and George scrambled to their feet as soon as Barrett announced a trip to the park.
“Grab your stuff. We’re going on an adventure,” Barrett said.
He peered over the railing from upstairs as he led George and Gracie to the front door. There was no sign of his mother.
As they made the landing, George cried out. “Mommy, we’re going on an adventure.”
“Ssh, George. It’s a surprise.”
“What’s a surprise?” Ginny Halifax stood at the end of the hallway.
“We’re going to the park. No big deal. Won’t be gone long.”