Innocent in Death (16 page)

“Camera.” She narrowed her eyes at the mirror. “Really.”

“Five gets you ten on it. Want me to have a look?”

“You do that.” She moved to search the bath. “Stay out of the toy drawer.”

“Aw. Lieutenant Spoilsport.”

10

THEY FOUND NO EVIDENCE LINKING WILLIAMS to the poison, or Craig Foster’s death, but they found plenty to tangle him up. Eve ordered in a team of sweepers, just to tie it off, then prepped for the interview.

“We’re going to start with the murder, standard routine questions,” Eve told Peabody. “He hasn’t lawyered up. Feels too cocky.”

“You ask me, this guy thinks with his cock most of the time.”

“You got that right. So we use it. Just a couple of girls. From that quick preview of the discs McNab dug up, this one likes multiples. So we poke at him about the vic, then we jam him with the illegals we found in his place, then we work him on the murder again.”

Juggle it, Eve thought as she went into the interview room. Keep him off balance.

“It’s about damn time. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting?” Williams demanded. “Do you have any idea what it does to my professional reputation to have a couple of police goons pull me out of class?”

“We’ll get to that professional reputation in a minute. I need to log this interview in, give you your rights and obligations. Formalize it.”

“My rights?” His body twitched, as if he’d experienced a small electric shock. “Am I under arrest?”

“Absolutely not. But this is a formal interview, and there’s procedure designed to protect you. Do you want something to drink besides that water? Coffee—it sucks—a soft drink?”

“I want this done so I can get out of here.”

“We’ll try to keep it moving.” She logged in for the recorder, read him the Revised Miranda. “Do you understand your rights and obligations in this matter, Mr. Williams?”

“Of course I do. That doesn’t make this any less annoying.”

“I’m sure it doesn’t. Now, let’s go over your movements on the day Craig Foster was murdered.”

“Christ! I’ve given you my statement already. I’ve cooperated.”

“Listen.” Eve sat, stretched out her legs. “This is a homicide, and one that took place in a school where minors have been involved and affected.”

She turned her hand over, palm up, in a gesture of what-can-I-do. “We have to dig for every detail. People often forget details, so we routinely repeat interviews.”

“We’re sorry for the inconvenience,” Peabody added with an understanding smile. “We’ve got to be thorough.”

“Fine, fine. Try to get it right this time?”

Oh, yeah, Eve thought. Very cocky and used to intimidating the girls. “We’ll do our best. From your previous statement, and the statements of others, you saw and/or spoke with the victim at least twice on the day of his death. Is this correct?”

“Yes, yes, yes. In the fitness center, early, then in the lounge just before classes began. I told you.”

“What did you and Mr. Foster talk about in the fitness center?”

“We didn’t. I told you that.”

Eve flipped through the files. “Mmm-hmm. But you and the victim did have occasion to have conversations previously.”

“Well, Jesus, of course. We worked together.”

“And were those conversations less than friendly?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Eve folded her hands on top of the file, smiled winningly. “Then let me be clear. When Mr. Foster pinned your ears back about fishing in the work and parental pool for sex, would you consider those conversations of a friendly nature?”

“I consider that question insulting.”

“It seems from the statements we have from women you harassed or seduced, many of them found your advances and behavior insulting.” She closed the file and smiled again. “Come on, Reed, we know the score, you and me. These women didn’t complain. They liked the attention, they liked the excitement. You didn’t slap them around and rape them. It was consensual, and Foster—from what I gather—poked his nose in where it didn’t belong.”

Williams drew a deep breath. “Letme be clear. I’ve never denied that I enjoy a certain amount of sexual success with women. It’s not illegal for me to enjoy that success with coworkers or with parents of students, for that matter. Unethical, perhaps.”

“Well, it actually is illegal to perform sexual acts in an educational facility when minors are present. So, if you had that success during school hours, on school grounds—where you kept a supply of condoms—you’ve committed a crime.”

“This is bullshit.”

“It is sort of nitpicky, I grant you, but I have to follow the law. I can talk to the PA about giving you the brush on that, but I need to get the details on record.”

“I never had sex with anyone in an area the students could access.”

“Okay, that’s a plus. But you did have sex in areas the victim could access. Correct?”

“Possibly, but we’re talking about a grown man. I’d like to know exactly what you meant about some women being insulted, giving statements about their relationship with me.”

“I can’t tell you the names, part of the agreement with them. Like I said, it’s obvious to me it was consensual. Who knows why they’re circling now.”

“I’d say it’s the upset about the murder,” Peabody put in. “These women aren’t used to talking to cops, so when they do, especially about something as shocking as murder, things just jump out of their mouths. We’ve got to follow up, Mr. Williams. It’s not exactly the kind of work we like doing. Live and let live, in my opinion, when it comes to this area. But we’ve got to get it taken care of.”

“I had sex, nobody got hurt. End of story.”

“But Craig Foster disapproved,” Eve prompted.

“For a guy with that hot a wife, he was pretty puritanical.”

“You move on her, too?”

“Just felt her out when he first came on staff. At that point, she was too into him, into them. Now, a few months more, the marriage gets routine, and I might have given her another sniff. But there are plenty of others. I’m good at what I do.”

“Yeah. I bet. Craig might’ve been a little jealous of that. You think?”

Williams lifted his brows. “I never thought of it that way, but yes, maybe. Probably, in fact. He was a nice enough guy, and a damn good teacher, I’ll give him that. For the most part, we got along fine. He did get nosy, and a little pushy, about some of my activities. Personal ones.”

“Did he threaten you?”

“I wouldn’t call it a threat.”

“What then?”

“A lecture.” Williams rolled his eyes.

“Did this lecture cause you to cease those activities?”

“I was a little more discreet, you could say. A little more choosy.” He lifted a shoulder. “No point in stirring things up.”

“But you weren’t worried about him going to Mosebly with his disapproval, or even over her head to the board?”

He smiled now, serenely. “I never figured he’d have the chops for that. He didn’t like making waves. Basically, it was a nonissue for me.”

“Well.” Eve tugged on her ear. “It may not have been one for him, especially if he was aware that you used illegal substances in some of those private activities.”

“What?”

“Street name Whore, street name Rabbit, which we found in your bedroom toy chest. Oh, didn’t I mention that with the information gathered and statements taken we were able to secure a warrant to enter and search your residence? Bad boy, Reed. Bad, bad boy.”

“This is outrageous! This is entrapment.”

“This is the warrant.” Eve slid the hard copy from the file. “We take a very dim view on the use and possession of these particular substances, no live and let live about it. So does the PA. I bet the board of Sarah Child and the teachers’ union also take dim views.

“And here’s something else,” she continued, and for the first time, he began to sweat. “It makes me, with my suspicious mind, wonder if a guy who can score those particular items might just be able to score enough poison to eliminate a threat. He put the pressure on you, didn’t he?”

She rose now to walk around behind him, lean in over his shoulder. “Interfering little bastard, shoving his puritanical views into your personal life. You have a good thing going. Coworkers, support staff, mothers, guardians, caregivers. Like plucking plums off a low branch for a guy like you. He was going to cut you off from that branch, he jeopardized your job. No, your whole career.”

“No, it wasn’t like that. No, he didn’t.”

“Sure he did. Others might have known, or suspected, but they looked the other way. No skin off theirs. But this one, he takes it on himself to do something about it. Lecture you? Asshole had no right, did he? And there he is, day after day, in your face, keeping his eye on you in case he doesn’t like what you’re up to. Sitting at his desk every day with his neatly packed lunch from home. Routine. Boring. And a sticky thorn in your side. Where’d you get the ricin, Reed?”

“I never had any ricin. I didn’t even know what the hell it was before this. I didn’t kill anyone.”

“It must’ve pissed you off that Mirri Hallywell would rather study with him than roll around on that big red bed with you. It’s a fucking insult. You had to take him down. Had to do it. So you slipped out of class while he was away from his, and you took care of it. Quick, easy. Done.”

“That’s a lie! That’s crazy. You’re crazy.”

“There are ways to soften this, Reed. Say he was blackmailing you. Stalking you. A constant threat. It was him or you. You had to protect yourself.”

“I never went near his classroom that day. I didn’t kill him, for God’s sake. I was with someone when I left my class that morning. I have a witness.”

“Who?”

He opened his mouth, shut it tight. Then he stared hard at the table. “I want a lawyer. I demand my right to speak to a lawyer. I’m not saying anything else until I have one.”

“Okay, but just FYI? You’re under arrest for possession of illegal substances and for dispensing them, we’ve got that from your naughty camera. You can contact your lawyer before you’re booked.”

Eve went through the interview in her mind, and added to her murder board. She had stills of the bottles from his sex drawer, and linked him on that board with Laina Sanchez, Allika Straffo, Eileen Ferguson, Mirri Hallywell. Who else had he approached? she wondered. Who had he succeeded with, failed with?

She needed to review all the discs from his bedroom camera. And wouldn’t that be fun? At least she had McNab picking through the building’s security discs for the last three days. Though she doubted they’d score in that area.

She got coffee, but it wasn’t working for her. She was tired to the bone, and caffeine wasn’t going to change that. She put in a request to subpoena Williams’s financials. With the illegals charge, that would be a dunk.

She checked her messages to find Nadine Furst had called twice to remind her of airtime, to wear something appropriate, to ask if she had any solid leads on the Foster case.

Nag, nag, nag.

And why hadn’t Roarke buzzed in to nag her?

Too pissed at her for flipping him off that morning, she thought. Well, she hadn’t been the one with a former playmate on her fucking pocket ’link.

She started to sit, started to sulk, and Peabody poked her head in. “Williams’s attorney is here, and guess who it is.”

It took Eve one beat. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

“I don’t know whether or not I shit you as I didn’t say it was—”

“Oliver Straffo? What kind of sick irony is this?”

Peabody’s face moved to sulk at having her scoop dumped. “Well, he walked in, big as life, and is advising his client to make no further statements, answer no more questions until they consult. Then he wants to talk to us.”

“Hmmm.” Eve glanced at her board where she had Allika Straffo’s picture lined up in Williams’s shooting gallery. “This should be interesting.”

Who knew what about who? Eve wondered, and thought of Allika, the kid. How was she going to find out who knew what about who without blowing the situation up in the faces of the innocent?

Maybe Straffo had a right to know his wife had tossed up her skirts for a slime like Williams. But it wasn’t her job to rat out a foolish wife unless it closed her case.

“Eggshells,” Peabody murmured as they stepped toward the interview room.

“What? You want eggs?”

“No, I meant we’re going to have to walk on eggshells here. Be really careful,” she explained.

“I thought it was something like ‘You can’t make scrambled eggs without breaking some.’”

“No, it’s ‘You can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs.’ But this is more like the opposite in the food-saying spectrum. Eggs have been broken, but we don’t want to crush the shells.”

“It’s a stupid saying because if the eggs are already broken, who gives a damn about the stupid shells?” Eve wanted to know. “But I get it. Let’s go.”

She saw immediately that Williams had his confidence back. A high-powered defense attorney could do that for a suspect, guilty or innocent. Straffo sat in his conservatively and perfectly cut suit, hands folded on the table.

He said nothing until Eve started the record.

“One of my associates is already drafting a motion to have the warrant you secured invalidated, and the search deemed illegal.”

“You won’t get it.”

He smiled a little, gray eyes hard as steel. “We’ll see. In the meantime your attempts to involve my client in the murder of Craig Foster are ludicrous. Sexual indulgence isn’t a crime, nor is it a route to murder.”

“Sex and murder walk hand in hand like lovebirds, Straffo. We both know it. The victim was aware of your client’s
indulgence
on school property, during school hours. Which is, as you also know, illegal.”

“It’s a misdemeanor.”

“And grounds for dismissal from the educational facility. Even, as I’ve done my research, grounds for the revocation of the license to teach in this state. Self-protection also walks along with murder.”

“You don’t have even a blurry circumstantial case, Dallas. You have suspicion of what may be inappropriate and unwise behavior. You have no evidence that my client and the victim ever argued. In fact, I can and will provide statements from their coworkers that they did not and were, in fact, on friendly terms. You have no link to the murder weapon and my client, no witnesses that saw him enter the victim’s classroom on the day in question, because, in fact, he did not so enter.”