Crimes of Memory (A Detective Jackson Mystery) (19 page)

“Oh the glory.” Schak smirked as he chewed. “I’m glad I didn’t end up on that case. Doing Jackson’s grunt work is tedious enough.”

“I wish we had grunt work for this case,” Jackson said. “It’s weird not having phone or banking records to look at.”

Evans pushed away her half-eaten sandwich. “Speaking of grunt work, has anyone looked at the video footage from the storage unit?”’

Crap.
Jackson had almost lost track of it. “I gave it to Joe at the crime lab. But if he hasn’t gotten to it yet, one of us needs to do it this afternoon.”

“With any luck, it’ll show Patrick Brennan leaving with blood on his hands.” Schak finished his soda and looked at Jackson. “Should I take the board?”

“Sure.” Schak’s writing was awful, but Jackson couldn’t make Evans do it every time. It was too sexist.

The board was already filled with the names of the bank robbers and their ex-wives and/or widows, plus Patrick, the brother who had probably known about the robbery, if not participated in it. Jackson had booked Patrick into the county jail on obstruction of justice charges and requested that he not be released. But sometimes it happened anyway. Without a history of violence, Patrick was a low-risk inmate.

Jackson got started. “A gas station employee saw Cooper leave work the day of his murder with a woman who has curly light-brown hair and a suntanned face.”

Evans blinked in surprise. “That sounds like Maggie Brennan, Danny’s widow. She told me she hadn’t seen Cooper.”

Lying bumped her up the list of suspects. “We’ll go question her again right after this meeting.”

“When did Cooper leave with her?” Schak asked.

“At four in the afternoon when his shift ended.”

On the board, Schak added Maggie to the timeline of Cooper’s death, and Jackson turned to Evans. “Didn’t you say Danny’s widow hated Cooper?”

“That’s what she implied. She blamed him for getting Danny hooked on meth and involved in the bank robbery.”

“Why would she pick him up from work, then lie about it?” Jackson mused.

“She wanted to ask him about the money.” Evans said what everyone was thinking.

“But he’d been out of jail for six weeks,” Jackson countered. “Why wait? Why did two people from his past both suddenly visit him the day he died? Something must have happened to trigger it.”

“We’ll bring Maggie in and ask her.” Evans was ready to jump up and go.

“What else do we know?” Jackson looked at Schak.

“I canvassed the area around the storage business this morning but didn’t find any witnesses or learn anything. No one seemed to know that people were living in the units.”

“What if Maggie and Patrick were there at the same time?” Evans speculated. “They may have been working together to pressure Cooper to tell them where the money was.”

“Possibly.” Jackson remembered the autopsy. “Here’s an odd detail. Cooper was most likely shot with an arrow. Then the assailant pulled it out and stabbed him in the same area three or four more times.”

Schak sat up straight. “Patrick has a bow on his wall.”

“But why stab him after shooting him with the arrow?” Evans’ forehead furrowed. “Was Cooper still alive?”

“The pathologist thinks he died quickly.”

“So the perp must have had hostility toward him,” Evans said. “And shooting him with an arrow wasn’t satisfying enough.”

“That doesn’t rule out either Maggie or Patrick.” Jackson visualized the two rows of storage units and tried to imagine where the perp had stood. He or she had to have been close, because the daylight had been fading at the time of death.

“How close do you have to be to kill someone with an arrow?” Evans had taken the same mental path.

“I asked Konrad and he didn’t know for sure. He’s going to find an expert to help us out. But he thinks that piercing the heart or neck could be lethal even from a distance of thirty or forty feet.”

“We need to round up Patrick’s bow and arrows for comparison,” Schak said.

“I’m waiting for the subpoena. But we can’t forget Todd Sheppard, the neighbor,” Jackson added. “He could have killed Cooper, then gone down the road to toss the weapon. Just because we didn’t find it in the nearest dumpsters doesn’t mean Sheppard is innocent.”

“Patrick was also there in his storage unit and fighting with Cooper over the Bible.” Schak scratched his buzzed head. “Did he walk away, then turn back and shoot him? He must have had the bow with him.”

“The fact that he has a bow and was with the victim right before his death is probably enough to convict him.” Evans sounded sure.

“I still want to know why Maggie Brennan picked up Cooper from work that day, then lied about not seeing him.” Jackson
looked at Evans. “Did you learn anything at the storage place this morning?”

“I’ve talked to almost all of the people who rented units in the same row as Craig Cooper and Todd Sheppard. Nobody even knew the men were there.” Evans glanced at her computer tablet. “And Mary Akers, who has the unit across from Cooper’s, was at the storage place Tuesday afternoon and didn’t see anyone or anything unusual.”

Jackson’s phone rang and he looked at the ID:
Joe Berloni
. He answered and pressed the speaker button. “We’re in a task force meeting. What have you got for us?”

“I found some prints on the victim’s bicycle that belong to Patrick Brennan.”

“Thanks, Joe. He admits to being at the scene, but we’ll ask him about the bike. Have you looked at the video?”

“Sorry, but I haven’t had time yet.”

Jackson suppressed his irritation. They were all overworked.

Schak got up. “I’ll go view the footage now.”

Jackson and Evans stood too. Time to get back to work.

Maggie Brennan lived in a single-wide in a mobile home park off Bailey Hill. She stepped outside just as Jackson and Evans parked on the narrow winding street. Maggie was slender with a mass of curly hair and carried a black apron.

Evans was already out of her car and hurried to block the path between the porch where Maggie stood and the blue Nissan truck she was about to get into.

“I can’t talk right now. I’m on my way to work.” Maggie’s wary hazel eyes darted between Evans and Jackson, as if sizing up who was more of a threat.

“It’s not optional,” Jackson said. “Either answer our questions here and now or come with us to the department. I’ll give you
a minute to call your boss and let him know you’ll be late.” He moved toward her. “We might as well go inside.” A steady drizzle had come down all morning.

“If my boss calls someone else in, I’ll lose the shift. I can’t afford to miss a night of tips.” Her voice wavered with desperation.

Jackson couldn’t let himself empathize with her. A man was dead, and Maggie had lied to them. She could be desperate for many reasons. Maggie pressed her lips together, grabbed her cell phone from her purse, and made the call. Jackson and Evans followed her into the house. A teenage girl sat on the couch reading a book. She looked up, startled. The young woman had Maggie’s tall, slender build, but her flat nose and pinched-together eyes matched Danny Brennan’s mug shot.

“Jenna, excuse yourself.” Maggie gestured for the girl to leave.

Jackson remembered that Evans had said Maggie’s daughter was seventeen. They would question her too, but not at the same time as her mother. He looked around the small home. Cluttered but clean and no signs of drug or alcohol consumption. The couch faced a large television and was the only place to sit in the living room.

“Let’s do this at the table,” Jackson said. The hard kitchen chairs and eye-to-eye level would be more conducive to questioning. Except for the cat sleeping in the middle of the wooden surface. Maggie nudged it until it fled. Jackson took back his
clean
assessment.

They sat down, with Evans next to him the way they would in the interrogation room. Jackson jumped right in. “Why did you pick up Craig Cooper from work on Tuesday?”

Maggie’s lips trembled. “It was raining, so I gave him a ride home.”

Evans snorted. “You just happened by?”

Silence.

Evans leaned forward. “Why did you lie to me and say you hadn’t seen Craig Cooper?”

“It just seemed easier.”

“Easier than what?”

More silence.

Impatience made Jackson bristle. “Tell us exactly what happened or I’ll charge you with obstruction of justice and haul you to jail.”

More trembling lips. “Craig called and said he wanted to see me. He said he wanted to make amends. I resisted at first.”

“Why did you change your mind?” Jackson asked.

Maggie shrugged. “It seemed like the right thing to do.”

Evans tapped her notepad. “You told me yesterday you hated him.”

“I still do.” Maggie’s voice turned bitter. “He got Danny started on drugs, then talked him into that robbery. But I finally decided that if Craig was trying to make amends, I should hear what he had to say.”

Yeah, right.
“You thought he might offer you some of the cash. You hoped that was what he meant by
making amends
.”

She nodded, unashamed. “Why not find out? He owed me. And Jenna. It’s his fault Danny’s gone and we live like this. With me killing myself waiting tables at nearly fifty, and Jenna being so insecure and needing special help.”

There was so much to ask, but Jackson had to stay focused. “What did Craig say when you saw him?”

“That he was sorry for everything. And that he would start giving me a little money every month as soon as he could.”

“Did you ask him about the robbery cash?”

Another bitter twist of Maggie’s mouth. “He said he hadn’t seen the money since Danny ditched him after they did the job. I never believed that. Danny didn’t cheat his friends.”

No, just the bank.
“What do you think happened to the money?”

“Craig probably stashed it and was living like a monk to fool us all into thinking he didn’t have it. I’m surprised he didn’t get the hell out of town.”

Jackson wondered if Maggie had the money and was planning her own escape. “Where did your conversation with Craig take place?”

“In my car. I dropped him off at the storage unit he calls home and that was it.”

“What time was that?”

She shrugged. “Four thirty or so. It was a short ride.”

“Where did you go after that?”

“I stopped at Jasper’s to buy a lottery ticket, then came home.”

Jackson planned to show her photo at the deli/gaming center to verify her story. He didn’t trust this woman.

Evans cut in. “That’s not what you told me yesterday. You said you worked the lunch shift, then went home and watched a movie with your daughter.”

“I did. I just didn’t mention giving Craig a ride because I knew you would harass me about it.”

“You know it’s a crime to lie to a police officer.”

“It’s a crime to be poor too. And you’re keeping me from earning a living.”

Her defiance surprised Jackson. “I’d like to talk to your daughter.”

Maggie’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“Standard procedure.” Jackson stood to summon the girl. She was seventeen and he didn’t need her mother’s permission.

Maggie squeezed her hands together. “Go easy on Jenna. She’s fragile.”

“I’ll get her.” Evans headed toward the short hallway.

“Second door on the right,” Maggie called out.

“Why isn’t she in school?” Jackson asked.

“She graduated early.”

After a moment of knocking and calling Jenna’s name, Evans opened the door and stepped into the room. A moment later, she came back into the kitchen. “Jenna’s not in her room.”

Jackson looked at Maggie. The trailer wasn’t big enough to have many hiding places. The woman shrugged. “She probably left. She doesn’t like cops.”

“Why not?”

“She saw them kill her father.”

Pangs of guilt and sympathy resonated. Jackson knew what a parent’s death could do to a child. He had to push his concern aside. “We need to verify your alibi. So Jenna has to talk to us. Please call her and tell her to come back.”

Maggie grabbed her apron. “I’ll do what I can, but either way, I need to go to work. Money never comes easy to me.”

Was that a veiled reference to the robbery money she’d never gotten her share of?

“She’s probably next door. I’ll go check.” Maggie started to leave then turned back. “Jenna lacks social skills. Don’t judge her by that.”

Maggie went out back the way her daughter must have. Jackson followed, stood on the wooden landing, and watched as Maggie knocked on the trailer next door.

“What do you think?” Evans asked.

He glanced back. “Maggie is hiding something.”

“Agreed. I think she’s still pissed that she never got her hands on Danny’s robbery haul.”

After a few minutes, Maggie came back with Jenna. The shy dark-haired girl wouldn’t meet his eyes. Jackson gave her a gentle smile. “Thanks for coming, Jenna. Let’s sit down at the table.”

She took a seat, and Maggie hovered behind her daughter, clutching her work apron. The mother clearly wanted to leave but didn’t want to abandon her daughter.

Jackson glanced at Evans and she took the lead. “Did you know Craig Cooper?”

“Yes. He was my father’s friend.”

“When did you see him last?”

“I don’t know. He used to babysit me when I was little but that was long ago. I called him Uncle Craig.” Jenna seemed to look past Evans, not making eye contact.

“What about this last Tuesday, March twelfth?” Evans probed. “Where were you that afternoon?”

“I went to a movie with a friend and came home around five.”

“What did you see?”

“
Mirror Mirror
. It was directed by Tarsem Singh.”

The girl seemed socially awkward, yet she was intelligent enough to graduate from high school early… and retain odd details. Did she have a mental condition? He let Evans continue, thinking she might get better responses.

“Was your mother home when you got here?”

“No.”

“When did she get home?”

Jenna paused, seeming to concentrate. “I don’t know. I was reading. But it was before dinner.”

“What time did you eat dinner?” Evans’ tone was soft and patient, and Jackson was pleased.