"I . . . yes."
"The Peterson boy was killed last Tuesday, I think. Wait--" There was murmuring in the background, first Howie, followed by a woman, probably Howie's wife, Elaine. Then Howie was back. "Yes, it was Tuesday. Where was Terry on Tuesday?"
"Cap City! He went--"
"Never mind that now. The police may ask you about that. They may ask you all sorts of things. Tell them you're keeping silent on advice from your lawyer. Got it?"
"Y-Yes."
"Don't let them coax, coerce, or bait you. They're good at all three."
"Okay. Okay, I won't."
"Where are you now?"
She knew, she'd seen the sign, but had to look at it again to be sure. "Burger King. The one on Tinsley. I pulled in to call you."
"Are you okay to drive?"
She almost told him she'd bumped her head, then didn't. "Yes."
"Take a deep breath. Take three. Then drive home. Speed limit all the way, signal every turn. Does Terry have a computer?"
"Sure. In his office. Plus an iPad, although he doesn't use it much. And we both have laptops. The girls have their own iPad Minis. And phones, of course, we all have phones. Grace just got hers for her birthday three months ago."
"They'll give you a list of the stuff they mean to take."
"Can they really do that?" She wasn't wailing again, but she was close. "Just take our stuff? It's like something out of Russia or North Korea!"
"They can take what their warrant says they can take, but I want you to keep your own list. Do the girls have their cell phones with them?"
"Are you kidding? Those things are practically grafted to their hands."
"Okay. The cops may want to take yours. Refuse."
"What if they take it, anyway?" And did it matter? Did it really?
"They won't. If you haven't been charged with anything, they can't. Go on now. I'll be with you just as soon as I can. We are going to sort this out, I promise you."
"Thank you, Howie." She began to cry again. "Thank you very, very much."
"You bet. And remember: speed limit, full stops, turnblinkers. Got it?"
"Yes."
"Headed to the station now." And he was gone.
Marcy put her car in drive, then put it back in park. She took a deep breath. Then two. Then three. This is a nightmare, but at least it will be a short one. He was in Cap City. They'll see that, and they'll let him go.
"Then," she told her car (it seemed so empty without the girls giggling and squabbling in the backseat), "we will sue their asses off."
That straightened her spine and brought the world back into focus. She drove home to Barnum Court, keeping to the speed limit and coming to a full stop at every stop sign.
12
Statement of Mr. George Czerny, [July 13th, 8:15 AM, interviewed by Officer Ronald Wilberforce]
Officer Wilberforce: Thank you for coming in, Mr. Czerny--
Czerny: You say it "Zurny." C-Z-E-R-N-Y. The C is silent.
Officer Wilberforce: Uh-huh, thanks, I'll make a note of that. Detective Ralph Anderson will also want to talk to you, but right now he's busy with another interview, and he asked me to get the basic facts while they're fresh in your mind.
Czerny: Are you towing that car? That Subaru? You ought to get it impounded so no one can pollute the evidence. There's plenty of evidence, I can tell you that.
Officer Wilberforce: Being taken care of as we speak, sir. Now I believe you were out fishing this morning?
Czerny: Well, that was the plan, but as it turned out, I never even wet a line. I went out just after sunrise, to what they call the Iron Bridge. You know, out on Old Forge Road?
Officer Wilberforce: Yes, sir.
Czerny: It's a great place to catch catfish. Many people don't like to fish for them because they're ugly--not to mention that they'll bite you sometimes while you're trying to get the hook out of them--but my wife fries them up with salt and lemon juice, and they taste pretty damn good. The lemon's the secret, you know. And you have to use an iron skillet. What my ma used to call a spider.
Officer Wilberforce: So you parked at the end of the bridge--
Czerny: Yes, but off the highway. There's an old boat landing down there. Someone bought the land it's on a few years back and put up a wire fence with NO TRESPASSING signs on it. Never built anything yet, though. Those few acres just sit there growing weeds, and the landing's half under water. I always park my truck on the little spur road that goes down to that wire fence. Which is what I did this morning, and what do I see? The fence is knocked down, and there's a little green car parked on the edge of that sunken boat landing, so close to the water that the front tires were half-sunk in the mud. So I went down there, because I figured some guy must've left the titty-bar drunk the night before, and run off the main road. Had an idea he might still be inside, passed out.
Officer Wilberforce: When you say titty-bar, you mean Gentlemen, Please, just out at the town line?
Czerny: Yeah. Yes. Men go there, they get loaded, they stuff ones and fives into the girls' panties until they're broke, then they drive home drunk. Don't understand the attraction of such places, myself.
Officer Wilberforce: Uh-huh. So you went down and looked in the car.
Czerny: It was a little green Subaru. Nobody in it, but there were bloody clothes on the passenger seat, and I thought right away of the little boy that was murdered, because the news said the police were looking for a green Subaru in connection with the crime.
Officer Wilberforce: Did you see anything else?
Czerny: Sneakers. On the floor of the passenger side footwell. They had blood on 'em, too.
Officer Wilberforce: Did you touch anything? Try the doors, maybe?
Czerny: Hell no. The wife and I never missed an episode of CSI when it was on.
Officer Wilberforce: What did you do?
Czerny: Called 911.
13
Terry Maitland sat in an interview room, waiting. The handcuffs had been removed so his lawyer wouldn't raise hell when he got here--which would be soon. Ralph Anderson stood at parade rest, hands clasped behind his back, watching his son's old coach through the one-way glass. He had sent Yates and Ramage on their way. He had spoken to Betsy Riggins, who told him Mrs. Maitland hadn't arrived home yet. Now that the arrest had been made and his blood had cooled a little, Ralph again felt uneasy about the speed at which this thing was progressing. It wasn't surprising that Terry was claiming an alibi, and it would surely prove as thin, but--
"Hey, Ralph." Bill Samuels hurried up, straightening the knot in his tie as he came. His hair was as black as Kiwi shoe polish, and worn short, but a cowlick stuck up in back, making him look younger than ever. Ralph knew Samuels had prosecuted half a dozen capital murder cases, all successfully, with two of his convicted murderers (he called them his "boys") currently on death row at McAlester. That was all to the good, nothing wrong with having a child prodigy on your team, but tonight the Flint County district attorney bore an eerie resemblance to Alfalfa in the old Little Rascals shorts.
"Hello, Bill."
"So there he is," Samuels said, looking in at Terry. "Don't like to see him in his game jersey and Dragons hat, though. I'll be happy when he's in a nice pair of county browns. Happier still when he's in a cell twenty feet from the go-to-sleep table."
Ralph said nothing. He was thinking of Marcy, standing at the edge of the police parking lot like a lost child, wringing her hands and staring at Ralph as if he were a complete stranger. Or the boogeyman. Except it was her husband who was the boogeyman.
As if reading his thoughts, Samuels asked, "Doesn't look like a monster, does he?"
"They rarely do."
Samuels reached into the pocket of his sportcoat and brought out several folded sheets of paper. One was a copy of Terry Maitland's fingerprints, taken from his file at Flint City High School. All new teachers had to be fingerprinted before they ever stepped before a class. The other two sheets were headed STATE CR
IMINALISTICS. Samuels held them up and shook them. "The latest and the greatest."
"From the Subaru?"
"Yep. The state guys lifted over seventy prints in all, and fifty-seven are Maitland's. According to the tech who ran the comparisons, the others are much smaller, probably from the woman in Cap City who reported the car stolen two weeks ago. Barbara Nearing, her name is. Hers are much older, which lets her out of any part in the Peterson murder."
"Okay, but we still need DNA. He refused the swabs." Unlike fingerprints, DNA cheek swabs were considered invasive in this state.
"You know damn well we don't need them. Riggins and the Staties will take his razor, his toothbrush, and any hairs they find on his pillow."
"Not good enough until we match what we've got against samples we take right here."
Samuels looked at him, head tilted. Now he looked not like Alfalfa from The Little Rascals, but an extremely intelligent rodent. Or maybe a crow with its eye on something shiny. "Are you having second thoughts? Please tell me you're not. Especially when you were as raring to go as I was this morning."
Then I was thinking about Derek, Ralph thought. That was before Terry looked me in the eye, as if he had a right to. And before he called me a bastard, which should have bounced right off and somehow didn't.
"No second thoughts. It's just that moving so fast makes me nervous. I'm used to building a case. I didn't even have an arrest warrant."
"If you saw a kid dealing crack out of his knapsack in City Square, would you need a warrant?"
"Of course not, but this is different."
"Not much, not really, but as it so happens, I do have a warrant, and it was executed by Judge Carter before you made the arrest. It should be sitting in your fax machine right now. So . . . shall we go in and discuss the matter?" Samuels's eyes were brighter than ever.
"I don't think he'll talk to us."
"No, probably not."
Samuels smiled, and in that smile Ralph saw the man who had put two murderers on death row. And who would, Ralph had little doubt, soon put Derek Anderson's old Little League coach there, as well. Just one more of Bill's "boys."
"But we can talk to him, can't we? We can show him that the walls are closing in, and that he'll soon be so much strawberry jelly between them."
14
Statement of Ms. Willow Rainwater [July 13th, 11:40 AM, interviewed by Detective Ralph Anderson]
Rainwater: Go on and admit it, Detective--I'm the least willowy Willow you ever saw.
Detective Anderson: Your size isn't at issue here, Ms. Rainwater. We're here to discuss--
Rainwater: Oh yeah, it is, you just don't know it. My size is why I was out there. There are ten, maybe twelve cabs waiting around at that panty palace by eleven o'clock most nights, and I'm the only woman. Why? Because none of the customers try to hit on me, no matter how drunk they are. I could have played left tackle back in high school, if they let women on their football team. And hey, half those guys don't even realize I'm a gal when they get in my cab, and many still don't know when they get out of it. Which is just hunky-dunky with me. Only thought you might want to know what I was doing there.
Detective Anderson: Okay, thanks.
Rainwater: But this wasn't eleven, this was about eight thirty.
Detective Anderson: On the night of Tuesday, July 10th.
Rainwater: That's right. Weeknights are slow all over town since the oil patch more or less dried up. A lot of the drivers just hang around the garage, shooting the shit and playing poker and telling dirty stories, but I got no use for any of that, so I'm apt to go out to the Flint Hotel or the Holiday Inn or the Doubletree. Or I go out to Gentlemen, Please. They got a cab-stand there, you know, for those who haven't drunk themselves stupid enough to try driving home, and if I get there early, I'm usually first in line. Second or third at worst. I sit there and read on my Kindle while I wait for a fare. Hard to read a regular book once it gets dark, but the Kindle's just fine. Great fucking invention, if you'll pardon me for lapsing into my Native American tongue for a minute.
Detective Anderson: If you could tell me--
Rainwater: I am telling you, but I've got my own way of telling, been this way since I was in rompers, so be quiet. I know what you want, and I'll give it to you. Here and in court, too. Then, when they send that kid-murdering sonofabitch to hell, I'll put on my buckskins and my feathers and goofy-dance until I drop. We straight?
Detective Anderson: We are.
Rainwater: That night, early as it was, I was the only cab. I didn't see him go in. I got a theory about that, and I'll bet you five dollars I'm right. I don't think he went in to see the pussy-prancers. I think he turned up before I arrived--maybe just before--and just went in to call a cab.
Detective Anderson: You would have won that bet, Ms. Rainwater. Your dispatcher--
Rainwater: Clint Ellenquist was on dispatch Tuesday night.
Detective Anderson: That's correct. Mr. Ellenquist told the caller to check the cab-stand in the parking lot, and a cab would be there soon, if not already. That call was logged at eight forty.
Rainwater: Sounds about right. So he comes out, right over to my cab--
Detective Anderson: Can you tell me what he was wearing?
Rainwater: Bluejeans and a nice button-up shirt. The jeans were faded, but clean. Hard to tell under those arc-sodium parking lot lights, but I think the shirt was yellow. Oh, and his belt had a fancy buckle--a horse's head. Rodeo shit. Until he bent down, I thought he was probably just another Oilpatch Pete who somehow held onto his job when the price of crude went to hell, or a construction worker. Then I saw it was Terry Maitland.
Detective Anderson: You're sure of that.
Rainwater: Hand to God. The lights in that parking lot are bright as day. They keep it that way to discourage muggings and fistfights and drug deals. Because their clientele is such a bunch of gentlemen, you know. Also, I coach Prairie League basketball down at the YMCA. Those teams are coed, but they're mostly boys. Maitland used to come down--not every Saturday, but a lot of 'em--and sit on the bleachers with the parents and watch the kids play. He told me he was scouting talent for City League baseball, said you could tell a kid with natural defensive talent by watching 'em play hoops, and like a fool I believed him. He was probably sitting there and trying to decide which one he'd like to cornhole. Judging them the way men judge women in a bar. Fucking pervo deviant asshole. Scouting talent, my wide Indian ass!
Detective Anderson: When he came to your cab, did you tell him you recognized him?
Rainwater: Oh yeah. Discretion may be somebody's middle name, but it ain't mine. I say, "Hey there, Terry, does your wife know where you are tonight?" And he says, "I had a spot of business to do." And I say, "Would your spot of business have involved a lap dance?" And he says, "You should call in and tell your dispatcher I'm all set." So I say, "I'll do that. Are we headed home, Coach T?" And he says, "Not at all, ma'am. Drive me to Dubrow. The train station." I say, "That's gonna be a forty-dollar fare." And he says, "Make it in time for me to catch the train to Dallas, and I'll tip you twenty." So I say, "Jump in and hold onto your jock, Coach, here we go."
Detective Anderson: So you drove him to the Amtrak station in Dubrow?
Rainwater: I did indeed. Got him there in plenty of time to catch the night train to Dallas-Fort Worth.
Detective Anderson: Did you make conversation with him on the way? I ask because you seem like the conversational type.
Rainwater: Oh, I am! My tongue runs like a supermarket conveyor belt on payday. Just ask anybody. I started by asking him about the City League Tourney, were they gonna beat the Bears, and he said, "I expect good things." Like getting an answer from a Magic 8 Ball, right? I bet he was thinking about what he'd done, and making a quick getaway. Stuff like that must put a hole in your small talk. My question for you, Detective, is why the hell did he come back to FC? Why didn't he run all the way across Texas and down to Old Meh-hee-co?
Detective Anders
on: What else did he say?
Rainwater: Not much. He said he was going to try and catch a nap. He closed his eyes, but I think he was faking. I think he might have been peeking at me, like maybe he was thinking of trying something. I wish he had. And I wish I'd known then what I know now, about what he done. I would have pulled him out of my cab and tore off his plumbing. I ain't lying.
Detective Anderson: And when you got to the Amtrak station?
Rainwater: I pulled up to the drop-off and he tossed three twenties on the front seat. I started to tell him to say hello to his wife, but he was already gone. Did he also go into Gentlemen to change his clothes in the men's room? Because there was blood on them?
Detective Anderson: I'm going to put six pictures of six different men down in front of you, Ms. Rainwater. They all look similar, so take your t--
Rainwater: Don't bother. That's him right there. That's Maitland. Go get him, and I hope he resists arrest. Save the taxpayers a piece of change.
15
When Marcy Maitland was in junior high (that was what it was still called when she went there), she sometimes had a nightmare that she turned up in home room naked, and everyone laughed. Stupid Marcy Gibson forgot to get dressed this morning! Look, you can see everything! By the time she got to high school, this anxiety dream had been replaced by a slightly more sophisticated one where she arrived in class clothed but realizing she was about to take the biggest test of her life and had forgotten to study.
When she turned off Barnum Street and onto Barnum Court, the horror and the helplessness of those dreams returned, and this time there would be no sweet relief and muttered Thank God when she woke up. In her driveway was a cop car that could have been the twin of the one which had conveyed Terry to the police station. Parked behind it was a windowless truck with STATE POLICE MOBILE CRIME UNIT printed on the side in big blue letters. Bookending the driveway was a pair of black OHP cruisers, with their lightbars strobing in the day's growing gloom. Four large troopers, their County Mounty hats making them look at least seven feet tall, stood on the sidewalk, their legs spread (as if their balls are too big to keep them together, she thought). These things were bad enough, but not the worst. The worst was her neighbors, standing out on their lawns and watching. Did they know why this police presence had suddenly materialized in front of the neat Maitland ranchhouse? She guessed that most already did--the curse of cell phones--and they would tell the rest.