Chapter 34 – The Inquisition
Lynn was not looking forward to the day ahead. Matt Murdock was coming to CSIC to question her about Tom’s kidnapping, mutilation, and murder. Her biggest worry was that she would say something that could get her, and maybe even Dave, in trouble with the police. She couldn’t say anything that might lead Murdock to discover the bad stuff she had done – hacking into personal, business, and government computers; changing bank account information; and worst of all, murdering Alexei.
As Lynn walked into the CISC lobby the receptionist told her that Murdock was waiting for her in the conference room. She thought about making him wait for five or ten minutes, but decided that might antagonize him. So she dropped her purse and laptop off in her office and went to meet her inquisitor. That’s how Lynn viewed the interview – as an inquisition.
“Good morning Detective Murdock. I see you already poured a cup of coffee. Let me get a cup and we can begin.” Lynn already had her fill of coffee this morning but she thought pausing for a sip now and then might give her time to think before responding to his questions.
“Good morning to you, Lynn. Go ahead and get your coffee; I’m in no hurry this morning.”
One tactic Lynn had come up with was to delay her answers and go off in irrelevant directions so he would run out of time and leave, but she could see that wasn’t going to work.
Lynn sat across the conference table from Murdock. “Okay, I’m ready. Fire away with your questions.”
“Before I get into that I want to tell you how this is going to go. I’ll ask direct questions and you’ll give me direct answers. None of the ‘It’s not relevant,’ or ‘You don’t need to know that’ stuff I’ve been getting from you. I need to know everything you know, then I’ll decide what’s relevant. Are we clear on that?”
Lynn gave him a smart-ass “Yes sir!” for an answer. He sighed and started his questioning.
“Let’s start with Tom Gutierrez. How long have you known him? When did you first meet him?”
“I’m not sure exactly. He was a friend of my husband, Jack Preston, before Jack and I met. We got together about a year and a half ago, and I met Tom shortly after that. Before Jack retired Tom worked in the Federal Remediation Agency, the FRA, with him.”
“What’s the FRA? I haven’t heard of that.”
She gave Matt another smart-ass answer, but with a smile. “If I told you I would have to shoot you.”
“I told you I wanted direct answers, not your usual beat-around-the-bush crap.”
“Oh, that was pretty direct. Jack and Tom were agents for the FRA. What they do is highly classified. Jack could only hint at it to me.”
That took Murdock by surprise. He thought, am I getting into some international spy stuff here. Is that what this is all about? “Does this case have anything to do with their work? Was Zarah Savvin a spy also?”
“I didn’t actually tell you that Jack and Tom were spies. You jumped to that conclusion yourself.”
“So they weren’t spies?”
“Well, that’s not exactly true. But I can definitely tell you that Zarah’s kidnapping of Tom had nothing to do with Tom or Jack’s agency connection.”
Murdock didn’t look satisfied with her answer, but things were definitely not what they seemed to be. He thought for a minute before continuing. “I want to know more about your husband – Jack Preston. What was his full name?”
Lynn replied “That’s not relevant,” but after seeing the look Murdock gave her she went on. “Jackson Joshua Preston. He died a few months ago when my home in Colorado burned to the ground. . . . My granddaughter with him.” Lynn choked a bit on that last comment.
“Oh . . . I’m sorry, Lynn. I won’t ask any more questions about your husband. I’ll take your word that none of what happened here has any connection to your husband. Is that a true statement?”
“Well, not exactly.”
Murdock threw up his hands. “There you go again! This is getting us nowhere. I could ask you questions all day and leave here with nothing useful.”
Lynn paused for a moment. “Look, Matt. Why don’t you let me tell the story my way. Then if you have any questions, I’ll try to answer them.”
Matt slowly shook his head. “Alright. I guess I’ll have to be satisfied with doing it your way. Go ahead.”
“Jack had a friend, Jim Norton, who had retired to the Caribbean with his life savings. Norton fancied himself a ladies man, so he rented a condo on the beach tried to pick up young women for one night stands. One of the women was Zarah Savvin, from the condo next door to his. It didn’t take him long to get invited to her place for the evening. That’s the last anyone heard of him. When Jack couldn’t reach him, he sent his friend Tom down there to check on Norton. He discovered Jim was seen at the bar with Ms. Savvin on the night he disappeared, so he went to the bar himself that night and let her pick him up. When they went to her apartment she tried to do the same thing to Tom, but he ‘got the drop on her’ as they say in cop movies. He tied her to a chair and called the local police. I told you the rest earlier – about how she went to prison for several murders and escaped recently.”
“Yes, I checked on that and what you told me is exactly what happened. Remind me where you got that information about Zarah.”
“The internet.”
“That’s funny. I had my computer guys try to find the same information and they had no luck.”
“It’s all in how you search the web – and where you look. I’m gifted in that area. Actually I’m not all that gifted. I learned most of it from Jack before he was killed.”
“Killed?? You said he ‘died’ in the fire, now you say he was killed?”
Damn. My first slip up. Where can I go with this?
“Yes. He was murdered. The fire was arson. You can check with the Telluride, Colorado police chief.”
“Who did it? Have they been caught?”
“Yes. . . He was caught and executed.”
“Executed? Colorado doesn’t have a death penalty.”
Another slip up. I have to get off this subject.
“Incarcerated. I meant to say incarcerated. . . . But I spent a lot of time wishing he would be executed.”
“I can understand that, Lynn. You must have been very angry.”
“Yes, I was. And that anger put me into a deep depression for a couple of months.”
“Again, I’m sorry. But let’s get back to . . .”
“No, let me get back to my narrative about Tom and Zarah. The Telluride situation had nothing to do with that.” Actually it had a lot to do with that, but I can’t go there.
“Alright. But I’m making a list of all the questions I want to ask, and it’s getting pretty long. Go ahead with your story.”
“There’s not a lot to tell after her prison escape. Somehow she got back east and tracked Tom down. Her anger at Tom for giving her up to the police probably festered in prison, so when she escaped he was number one on her to do list.”
“What about the notes Ms. Savvin included with the body parts she sent? Your name was included in them. Why would she be after you?”
Lynn thought Uh oh. I forgot about the notes. I hope Dave didn’t tell him about Zarah’s phone call. She took a long sip of her cold coffee while she thought up an answer.
“Ms. Savvin somehow found out that it was Jack who sent Tom to the Caribbean to find Jim. She told Tom before he left her tied up that someday she would get even with both him and Jack.”
Murdoch rolled his eyes, indicating that he didn’t believe it. “Come on, Lynn. You can do better than that. This story gets more unbelievable by the minute.”
“I . . . I need a bathroom break,” Lynn said as she got up from her chair and quickly left the room. Murdock just sat there, adding to his notes.
Lynn went straight to Dave’s office and entered without knocking. “Dave, I need your help. His questions are pushing me toward telling what really happened, not just with To
m, but about Jack and Alexei and stuff. What can I do? Get a lawyer?”
Dave thought about it for a minute, then said “Come on. Let’s go back in there.”
Matt was surprised to see Dave as he and Lynn came into the room. Dave sat down next to Murdock while Lynn returned to her seat across from him.
Dave turned to Murdock. “Matt, you and I go way back, so you trust me, don’t you? Because I have to know I can trust you.”
Murdock seemed to sense where Dave was going with this. “Absolutely, Dave . . . unless it’s about a crime she committed.”
“It’s about that last phrase. Lynn, Jack, Tom, and even me, have been involved in some pretty shady things over the past few months. Trust me when I say it was to stop some very dangerous things from happening to this country. In the process Lynn has broken several laws, but in every case it was justified by circumstances. She’s worried that if she has to tell you about these things, you might have her prosecuted.”
Murdock glanced over at Lynn, who was looking down at her lap, and back to Dave. “You’re putting me in a tight spot, here. Technically, if I know about a crime I’m required to report it, even if it occurred somewhere else.”
“Well, unless you want her to bring in a lawyer and plead the fifth on every question, you need to figure out a way that you can deal with this.”
Matt sat still for several minutes, deep in thought. Dave was about to terminate the interview and take Lynn out of the room when Matt looked up and gave his answer. “Here’s how we will handle it. I will preface every question I ask from here on with the word ‘hypothetically.’ And you, Mrs. Preston, will begin your responses with ‘hypothetically speaking.’ That will keep us all out of trouble and give me the information I need to sort this out. Does that work for you?”
Lynn looked at Dave, who nodded, then back at Matt. “Okay. We have a deal . . . hypothetically speaking, of course,” she added with a smile. Dave thanked Matt and left the room.
Murdock pulled his notebook and pen over in front of him. “Lynn. May I resume my questioning now?”
“Go ahead . . . Matt.”
He went down his list of questions and Lynn gave him direct hypothetical answers. As the pieces started to fall into place in Matt’s mind he smiled and thought, This woman is amazing! How did she hold up through all that’s happened to her. He knew he had one more tough question, though, and he hoped it wouldn’t push her away.
“I have one more issue to cover, Lynn. It might touch on some emotional issues for you, but I have to ask.”
Lynn sat up straight and prepared for the worst. “Go ahead.”
“When we were wondering where this woman lived before prison, you went off to do some computer magic and came back with an address in Alexandria. It belonged to one Alexei Brusilov. Why did you think she might have lived there too?”
“Zarah worked for Brusilov in his private security business. They were pretty close, so I searched some computer data and found where he lived. It was a long shot, but it was all we had.”
“I sent the FBI there immediately, if you recall.”
“Yes. What did they find?”
“This Alexei Brusilov was quite a character. He had files on several illegal activities he and his agency were involved in. If we ever find him, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.”
“Did you find anything related to Savvin?”
“Yes. She was definitely spending time there before she went to prison. But she returned there recently, after her escape. There was a vehicle in the carport that was stolen from the Las Vegas airport the day after her escape. They also found a wall safe that had been opened recently.”
“What was in it?”
“False identity papers for her and Brusilov, and information on a shared bank account with a large amount of money in it. She has made several withdrawals from it in area ATMs over the past week. We alerted the bank to notify us as soon as she uses it again.”
“So there’s a chance you might catch her?”
“A very good chance.”
That scared Lynn. Zarah knows where to find Brusilov’s body. If she gets captured she will definitely tell the authorities and I’ll go to jail. But not if I find her first and get even for what she did to Tom. Lynn tried to hide the flicker of fear on her face, but Matt noticed it.
“So here’s my last question for you, Lynn. Actually two questions. First, how did you know to search for the name Alexei Brusilov? Did you know him?”
“. . . Hypothetically speaking, let’s just say our paths crossed. . . . He tried to kill Jack and me a couple of times.”
That raised Matt’s eyebrows – again. “Here’s the last question. I checked with the Telluride police chief – he sends his regards, by the way – and found that you husband and your granddaughter were both shot in the head before the fire started. Were Brusilov and Savvin responsible for their murders?”
Tears welled up in Lynn’s eyes. She felt a constriction in her chest. But she fought it off. After she recovered she looked Matt in the eyes and said “Brusilov, but not Savvin. She was in jail already. Alexei Brusilov shot Jack and Selena . . . and O’Malley.”
“Who’s O’Malley? His name hasn’t come up before. The police chief didn’t say anything about him.”
“O’Malley was a her, not a him. And she was my Irish setter.”
Murdock was about to say he was sorry again, but that seemed superfluous at this point. His face told Lynn what he was feeling.
Lynn steeled herself for the final question – what happened to Alexei. When Matt didn’t continue Lynn asked, “Aren’t you going to ask me the final question?”
“And what question would that be, Lynn?”
“How about what happened to Alexei?”
Matt paused briefly, put his notebook and pen back in his coat pocket, then answered, “I don’t see that it’s relevant to our case here. I’m finished.”
The tears came into Lynn’s eyes again, but they had nothing to do with her loss. “Thank you, Detective Murdock.”
He reached across the table to shake her hand, but held it for a moment. “This probably is not the best time to ask, Mrs. Preston, but could I take you to dinner sometime?”
Lynn laughed. “I would like that, Detective Murdock.”