The Art of Deception b-8

by Ridley Pearson

  The artwork, if it could be called that, amounted to travel posters of beach resorts showing scantily clad bronzed women enjoying bright sunshine while surrounded by palm trees and umbrellas.

  He caught her staring. “I was an Internet travel agent until the meltdown happened. Put most of us out of business.”

  “And now?” LaMoia asked. “I don’t think we established your employment, Mr. Neal.”

  “A little of this, a little of that. Between jobs right now.”

  “Between women, too,” LaMoia muttered.

  “Mary-Ann was helping with the rent?” Matthews said.

  Neal shrugged. “A little. You’ll hear it from the maggot anyway, if you haven’t already.”

  “The brother,” LaMoia clarified.

  “He’s a parasite, and don’t look at me like I’m the pot calling the kettle black because it’s my apartment in the first place, my car, my things. I’m between jobs is all, and Mary-Ann helped out. So what?”

  LaMoia said, “Sit down, Mr. Neal,” an order, not a request.

  Neal displayed his disgust as he slouched into the grasp of the green monster, outwardly reluctant in this act of obedience.

  Matthews purposefully stood over by the table, out of Neal’s peripheral vision but with a clear view of him, temporarily pushing away the continuing concern for Margaret’s whereabouts and the confusion over both Ferrell Walker and Nathan Prair that had robbed her of sleep. She focused on the suspect, alert for every twitch, every nuance as he reacted to LaMoia’s line of questioning.

  With his detective’s notebook lying on his pressed blue jeans, LaMoia said, “You mentioned your car. What kind of a car is it, please?”

  “Ninety-two Corolla.”

  “Color?”

  “Kind of gold.”

  “Champagne?”

  “Right, champagne.”

  “You said the car was yours?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Only yours?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You have the only set of keys, or did Mary-Ann have a set?”

  “Listen, we weren’t married.”

  LaMoia said, “So she did not have a key.”

  “People who spend a lot of time in boats, they don’t make the best drivers. Mary-Ann … she was a danger in that car.”

  He repeated, “She did not have her own key.”

  “You’re real quick, Sergeant.” Neal craned his neck then to locate Matthews. “I figured you were probably snooping around while the sergeant here held me riveted with his line of questioning.”

  “You figured wrong,” she said. “We’re trying to show some respect by coming to your home, rather than dragging you downtown. We’re trying to get to the truth of what happened to Mary-Ann.”

  LaMoia said, “I didn’t see a champagne Corolla out on the street on our way in.”

  Neal shook his head and grinned at the same time. “So you knew about my car before you asked me. Is that supposed to scare me or something, Sergeant?”

  LaMoia responded, “I know a lot of things before I ask you, Lanny. That’s why your answers count so much.”

  “I know what you guys are thinking.” He wormed his hands together and wouldn’t look at LaMoia, interpreting the spill patterns in his worn brown rug instead. “But that’s bullshit, and we both know it.”

  “What are we thinking?” LaMoia asked.

  “Don’t hand me that. You know, and I know. So that’s that.”

  “Yeah,” LaMoia agreed, “that’s pretty much that.”

  “It doesn’t make me good for this.”

  “A person’s history is an inescapable thing, Lanny. Think about it. We got it down in black and white that you like to backhand your women.”

  “That stuff’s not admissible.”

  “So you’re a lawyer now. What happened to travel agent?”

  LaMoia’s comment won another spark of eye contact between the two, and Matthews saw a conflicted personality working hard to contain himself. Lanny Neal wanted to release some of the pent-up anger he was feeling but was smart enough to know that would work against him.

  LaMoia said, “Let’s get back to the location of that Corolla.”

  “Parked in a space out back.”

  “Has it been to the shop recently?”

  “No.”

  “Been to the car wash?”

  “Oh, yeah, I spend a lot of time at the car wash with the soccer moms in the minivans. You got me nailed, I can see that.

  Reading me loud and clear.”

  “I need a straight answer on this one, Langford. You have or have not cleaned the car in the past six days?”

  The directness of LaMoia’s question sobered Neal. He sat up straight-the kid in the classroom caught doodling-suddenly understanding the severity of LaMoia’s questions.

  “What’s with that?”

  “An answer is all.”

  “Have not. What? You think in killing her I drove her to the Ballard Bridge and tossed her? You want to search the car? Is that it?”

  She’d gone off the Aurora Bridge. Matthews made mental note of the mistake.

  “If you wouldn’t mind,” LaMoia glanced over at Matthews, “it might help to clear this up all the more quickly if I took a look at it, yes.”

  “Have at it.”

  Another look between Matthews and LaMoia. LaMoia said, “The lieutenant’ll stay here while I go down and check it out.”

  Neal clearly didn’t like the idea. He appeared to weigh the value of dissenting but indicated a hook by the apartment door where a set of keys hung.

  “I won’t be going into the vehicle,” LaMoia corrected. “I won’t even be touching it. A cursory, external examination is all.”

  “Because you don’t have a warrant. Are you guys charging me with something?”

  “Should we be?”

  “Fuck no! I’m just asking what’s going on here.”

  “What’s going on,” LaMoia replied flatly, “is that I’m going to go out and look at your car while Lieutenant Matthews asks you a few questions.” He added, “Do you have any problem with that?”

  “No … problem,” he confirmed, reluctantly.

  LaMoia left the apartment and Matthews moved around to the same chair in front of the green couch and faced Neal. The man’s demeanor changed noticeably, which came as no great surprise to her. Accustomed to controlling women, Neal would believe he could gain the upper hand over Matthews. It occurred to her that she couldn’t rule him out as the man watching her from the parking garage. If those kids had lied about the khaki clothing, then anyone could have been up there watching her.

  “When was the last time Mary-Ann was in your car, Mr.

  Neal?”

  “What is all this with the car? Why do you have to hassle me? I didn’t do anything to Mary-Ann.”

  “When you say you didn’t do anything, exactly what do you mean? Anything of a violent nature, is that it? Because we know you had sexual relations with Mary-Ann-you’ve already told us about that. You cohabitated here in this apartment,” she reminded. “You argued, at least you implied as much. I need to advise you, Mr. Neal, that we take your answers seriously.

  They’re being written down, and we’re assuming you’re making every effort to aid us in our investigation. Are you going to tell me now that you never struck Mary-Ann, never threatened her, never abused her in any way or fashion-because when you make a sweeping statement like the one you just made, you force me to reconsider every other answer you’ve given us.”

  “I didn’t kill her,” he said, though he sounded much less convinced, and Matthews made note of the last minute of their exchange. As she was writing he said, “She was in the car all the time. Okay? Maybe not every day, but all the time.”

  “Did you ever strike her when she was in the car?”

  “I’m not saying I ever hit her.”

  “Do you need for me to repeat the question?” She found herself interested in his ability to pay attentio
n to the questions and identify some of the traps she was trying to lay. Neal was no stranger to such interrogations, if she had to guess. Her colleagues in Special Assaults didn’t keep track of the number of times a person was brought in for questioning-but had they, she believed Neal’s jacket would be littered with such interviews.

  “I never hit her when she was in the car. Never hit her, period.”

  “Was Mary-Ann ever in an accident in the vehicle?”

  “Damn near, the way she drives.”

  Matthews noted the present-tense answer, wondering at the same time if Neal had yet to fully accept Mary-Ann’s death, or if it was merely a slip of the tongue. Guilt and remorse could play tricks on the brain. “Should I repeat the question?”

  “No accidents, okay?”

  She let the tension in the air settle, like waiting for smoke to clear. “Then you could see no reason, no explanation, for any of Mary-Ann’s spilled blood being found in or on your vehicle-this nineteen ninety-two champagne Corolla?”

  “Blood?” His eyes went wide and she could feel his chest knot with panic. He was wondering how she’d jumped to this, thinking what he’d overlooked, what she’d led him into.

  “It’s a simple enough question,” she said, “or would you like me to repeat it as well?”

  “What’s all this about?”

  “The question concerns possible explanations for blood found in your-”

  “I heard the goddamn question. I asked what it’s about.”

  Neal gave the impression of genuine surprise at her implication they might connect Mary-Ann’s blood to his car. She didn’t trust this impression, but she took note of it nonetheless.

  If he could play his girlfriends, then why couldn’t he play investigators? Guys like Lanny Neal grew accustomed to playing everyone around them to get what they wanted. It made him difficult to read, and she found it even more difficult to trust her own assessments. Domestics-and this had every indication of being just that-usually cleared on a confession or a statement by the guilty party. Some eighty percent of domestic homicides were cleared through confessions to the first officer to arrive on the scene. Lanny Neal was bucking the odds, but it didn’t let him off the hook.

  LaMoia stepped through the door without knocking. “Hands in plain view, Mr. Neal,” he said strongly, approaching the couch. “Keep them on your knees.”

  Matthews understood immediately where this was headed-Neal did, too, for that matter. She stood out of her chair, wishing LaMoia had consulted her first. She’d softened up Neal with her questioning, might have gotten to a confession if LaMoia had given her some time. He then asked Neal to stand and carefully patted him down, searching for weapons. This completed, he delved into the cushions and cracks of the green monster-she didn’t envy him that job-brushed his hands off, and set the suspect back down into the couch.

  “Are you familiar with court-ordered search warrants?”

  LaMoia asked Neal.

  Matthews wondered if the pat-down had been motivated by real evidence or LaMoia’s desire to imply the discovery of real evidence. With LaMoia, one could never tell. She continued to believe she knew where this was headed, though for the first time she began to question from what it had come.

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ve applied by phone for permission to search and seize your property, Mr. Neal. Specifically, your car. I’m well aware that we already had your verbal permission to inspect the vehicle, but this more formal step is necessary to protect what we call the chain of custody, in terms of evidence collection. Do you understand?”

  “Not really. The warrant stuff, sure. But why?”

  “I thought you might tell me,” LaMoia said. “It could save us all a lot of time.”

  Matthews told the suspect, “What we were just discussing is of relevance here.”

  His face reflected a mixture of annoyance, anger, and uncertainty. “If there’s blood in that car, I’ve got no idea how it got there. None.”

  Matthews informed LaMoia that they’d just been exploring various possibilities for any such evidence. She dropped the hammer with, “… since we know that Mr. Neal has the only key to the vehicle.”

  “It’s not the only key,” he spoke up. His eyes pleaded for understanding. “You asked if Mary-Ann had a key. She didn’t.

  But it wasn’t the only key. I’ve got one of those spare key things inside under the driver-side rear wheel.”

  This news hit her like a bomb, and she could see it had with LaMoia as well, though he hid it cleverly from Neal, disguising it as a yawn that he covered with his hand. He wanted Neal thinking he was bored. Anything but.

  “A second key,” LaMoia said.

  “Rear wheel, up on the axle. One of those magnetic boxes.”

  Matthews asked, “And you would expect that key to be in place at the moment?”

  “Last time I used that was a good two months ago. It’s gotta be there.”

  “Locked yourself out?” LaMoia asked.

  “Over on Forty-fifth. We’d gone to that Thai place … Viet-namese … whatever it is. Mary-Ann’s birthday.”

  “I’m going to check it out,” LaMoia informed Matthews.

  “You okay here?”

  “Fine,” Matthews said.

  “I hit a bird last week,” Neal volunteered. “Right side of the car, right?” he called out after a retreating LaMoia.

  LaMoia stopped. “With your permission, Mr. Neal, I’m going to check for that key.” He waited for a response.

  Neal looked back and forth between the two, clearly weighing cooperation versus objection. He looked as if he might ask a question of Matthews, but she made no effort to encourage this. If LaMoia was operating on a bluff, the wrong answer now could sway Neal to start protecting himself-the last thing she and LaMoia wanted.

  Neal said, “What the hell?” LaMoia opened the door but did not leave. He turned to Neal and nodded faintly, sending the man a signal. “You have my permission,” Neal conceded.

  If a randomly placed key existed somewhere on the car, any decent first-year defense attorney could shred their attempts to lay blame on Neal for any damaging evidence collected. Confusing Matthews further was Neal’s willingness to cooperate with the search. His earlier conviction and brief prison time, when combined with what was obviously an above-average intelligence, should have prevented him from making any such agreements. Guilty or not, she thought.

  “I hit a bird,” he repeated for her benefit.

  “Sure you did,” she said, trying her best to sound utterly unconvinced.

  “No key, Mr. Neal,” LaMoia announced when he returned less than five minutes later. “I checked the same location behind all four tires.”

  “Yeah?” His bravado seem to crumble. Matthews had seen this dozens of times before: that point when the lies collapse under the weight of truth. “Then it fell off somewhere…. Or maybe … I never put it back after the last time.”

  “Sure.”

  “I’m telling you …” But he couldn’t think how to complete the thought.

  LaMoia was just getting warmed up. “Crawling around under the car just now, you want to know what I found?” He asked this to Matthews, as if Neal weren’t in the room.

  “What’s that?” she answered.

  “Some hair. A nice little smudge of blonde hair and blood.

  Bottom of the rear bumper, and more on the bottom of the gas tank. Rear of the vehicle,” he said, for Neal’s sake. “You ever hit a blonde bird, you scumbag? Backing up? Maybe you’d like to start doing some talking, on account SID is going to collect all that physical evidence-including, I want to bet, some blue cotton fibers from the sweatshirt that you, yourself, put Mary-Ann in that night-and you’re going to lose any chance you had to put us, or the court, on your side of this. You understand how that works, don’t you? You’re no stranger to the process.”

  “An argument,” Matthews said, seizing on LaMoia’s discovery of this evidence. She felt energized, gripped by ad
renaline.

  “Maybe she shoved you. Hit you. Swore at you. All that affects the way the lawyers look at a domestic.”

  “But if that evidence piles up ahead of time,” LaMoia said, “then what the hell do we need you for? How the hell you going to get anyone to listen if we’ve already got you in the bag?”

  “We’re listening right now, Mr. Neal,” Matthews said. But Neal looked as paralyzed by LaMoia’s announcement as she felt.

  Every time they had a leg up on this guy, he threw her into doubt with an unexpected reaction. She cautioned herself to work the Boldt method-listen to the victim, follow the evidence, discount witnesses, and ignore the suspect completely until all the facts were in. She tended to react emotionally to suspects, at least on a surface level, and to trust that reaction. It was this opposite approach of theirs that made their combination such an effective team. With LaMoia, things were a little different. He tended to cut to the chase, go for the heart and then leave it to her to show the suspect the error of his ways. She added, “We won’t be around forever, Lanny. This thing will be out of our hands soon,” she said, wondering if they could be so lucky, “and into the hands of the attorneys. At that time, your chance of gaining any points for cooperation pretty much disappear.”

  “I don’t know anything about any blood being under that car.”

  “That’s the wrong answer,” LaMoia said. His cell phone rang. “And you know what that is?” he asked the suspect, viewing caller-ID. “That would be my court order coming through to search this dump.” He silenced the ringing of the phone with the push of a button and held the device to his ear. “LaMoia,”

  he announced into the phone. “Talk to me, darlin’. Tell me what I want to hear.”

  Voice Male

  A blinking message light was no great surprise to Matthews as she returned to her office that evening. In what had become an automatic gesture, she dialed in to retrieve her voice mail, which announced that she had six messages. She cringed as she intu-itively anticipated that at least one of these could be from Deputy Sheriff Nathan Prair. He’d attached himself to her once before, and now, with their renewed acquaintance, with the description of the brown uniform in the parking garage, she felt nearly certain she would need to deal with him again.