All the Deadly Lies Page 18

  “No, it’s not. Let’s go over to the community college after lunch, pick up the brochures for next semester. We’ll check out the curriculum and see if anything appeals to you. In the beginning, maybe you should audit the course. Auditing without the upfront cost will let you know if you like school or not—”

  Piper interrupted her. “Are you telling me to leave Darryl?”

  “No, that’s up to you. No one else can decide that for you. You don’t have to make a decision today or tomorrow, or even next week. This is a big decision. Consider everything before you make up your mind. Understand?”

  “I want you to tell me what to do. I respect your opinion. Please. I need help,” Piper begged.

  “No, you don’t. What you need is the support and friendship I can give you. In the end, it’s your life. You pick how you want to live it or who you want to love. I’ll be there no matter which way you go.”

  “I know you will. If I stay with him, how will you treat Darryl?”

  “The same as I’ve always treated him. He’s your husband, Piper. I wouldn’t jeopardize your marriage.” Mia picked up the check.

  * * * *

  Jake gave Mia a quick call while he waited for Louie.

  “How are you today? See, I asked first.” He laughed.

  “A rough day. How was yours?”

  “The same, I’ll fill you in later. We picked up Chloe Wagner a little while ago on suspicion of killing her sister. I wanted you to know.”

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No. When’s a good time to call you back?”

  “Anytime, I’ll be home working.” She sounded upset.

  Chapter 17

  On their way to the interview room, Jake asked, “So, what did Sophia say?”

  “Oh, you know. The usual—she wants to have another party. I told her to let me pay off the last one first.” Louie laughed.

  Sophia had shouted with joy when he had told her. Her exact words brought a smile to his face—I’ll be waiting for you, Louie, with a big private party for two with lots of champagne. I’ll even be wearing the little red number you gave me for Christmas. No, he wasn’t sharing.

  “I’m sure she said more.”

  “Why?” Louie asked.

  “You got the biggest grin on your face. On second thought, please don’t share. I’ll be jealous.”

  Slipping into interview mode when they reached the door, Louie pushed the door open. With a somber expression, he blanked his face. Jake thanked the officer inside the interview room. It was a CYA move to have her there. With the way Chloe had been behaving, he thought it was wise to cover his ass in case Chloe tried to pull a sexual harassment charge on him.

  * * * *

  First thing Jake noticed, Chloe hadn’t lawyered up—either brave or stupid on her part.

  “Chloe, let’s get started,” Jake said, handling this stage of the interview.

  “You arrested me for a murder I didn’t commit because you couldn’t control your dick. What do you expect to accomplish here, Jake?”

  Ignoring her, Jake said, “We didn’t arrest you, we picked you up for questioning in light of new evidence discovered today, and we’re holding you until we can verify a few things pertaining to that evidence. I’m going to reread you your rights, record, and videotape this interview.” Jake reread the Miranda rights. “Do you understand your rights?”

  “As I stated before, Lieutenant, I’m not stupid. Of course I understand my rights. Once again, I didn’t kill my sister or anyone else. Do you hear me?”

  “I hear you. Let me record who’s present in this interview before we move forward.” Jake read all the pertinent information into the recorder. When he finished he asked, “Do you understand you’re under suspicion for the murder of your sister, Shanna Wagner?”

  “Yes, I understand my freakin’ rights. I’m telling you again, I didn’t do it. Why are you doing this to me?” She pounded her fist on the table as she spoke.

  Jake continued. “We understand you’ve waived your right to an attorney at this time?”

  “Yes.” Realizing the seriousness of her situation, Chloe’s answers were subdued. About damn time, he thought.

  “We’re here today because the ring belonging to your sister, Shanna, turned up in her room, in the home you share with your parents. Do you know how it got there?” Jake never took his eyes off her face. He looked for telltale signs of deceit.

  “No, I don’t.”

  “No explanation, Chloe? This would be the time to come clean. Your parents have been through enough.”

  “They have, but you can ask all you want and I’m still going to tell you the same thing each time you ask. I didn’t put the ring there. I don’t know how the ring got there. Yes, I want this to be over for my parents and myself. We need to get on with our lives. If that’s selfish of me, so be it,” she said with passion. “My sister and I didn’t always get along, but I loved her. Loved her, Jake. I would never hurt Shanna. You don’t have a clue who Shanna was. You’ve learned nothing in all this time you’ve investigated her case. You’ve missed the most important aspect of her,” Chloe said, cocking her eyebrow at him.

  “What do you mean?” Louie asked, taking over the questioning.

  “It means what it means. You’ve never questioned what I thought should be a flag.” She shrugged.

  “Not good enough. What does it mean?” Louie asked again.

  “In my parents’ eyes Shanna was a Miss Goody Two Shoes who did nothing wrong. She wasn’t. Shanna enjoyed a different lifestyle than us. She was confused about her sexuality. Right before her death she had started to experiment by dating men.” Chloe didn’t elaborate.

  “Please state for the record what you mean about her lifestyle.” Jake understood the direction of Chloe’s statement. He wondered what game she was playing.

  “Oh, Jake, do I have to spell it out?” She waved a hand in the air.

  Her voice quavered, and her eyes filled with tears. Jake ignored it as an act.

  “Yes.”

  Silence filled the room. For the first time since he’d known her, Chloe seemed withdrawn, even contrite. Dropping her head, she refused to meet Jake’s eyes.

  “Chloe?”

  She looked up, tears clinging to her lashes. “Lesbian, Jake. She was a lesbian. Or maybe she was bisexual. Shanna was experimenting with both men and women. She was confused.”

  It annoyed him she’d stoop to this level, acting as if she was protecting her sister’s reputation. Did she have no boundaries? Not once in the last few months did anyone even hint that Shanna played for both teams, and even if she did, what did it matter?

  “There’s nothing wrong with being gay. Attitudes have changed about it. But in all our interviews nobody’s ever hinted at her being bisexual. Why are you saying it now?” Jake asked.

  “The great investigator missed an important piece of information!” She flung her hands out, mocking him. “I’m shocked. Attitudes here in Wilkesbury have not changed. In the business world, Shanna wouldn’t get hired if she flaunted it. Plus, she never would have disappointed our parents. That’s why she never outed herself. We didn’t get along all the time but mostly we argued about one subject.”

  “What subject?”

  “We fought about her choice of partners.”

  “Who were they?”

  “Her friend Meryl—now there’s one vicious bitch, if you ask me. She thought she owned Shanna. She went nuts every time Shanna dated a guy. I’d say she even hated Mark Cavilla.”

  “Did she date anyone else?” Louie asked.

  “One or two of the girls at school until it started to be a problem. The girls, from what I understood, stayed friends.”

  “Who were they?” Jake asked.

  Before Chloe could answer, he threw out another question, “Why did
n’t you tell us this at the beginning of the investigation? Why now?” Jake’s mind kept circling around the statement.

  “I didn’t want you to label her—push the case aside. More important, I didn’t want our parents to find out. I never thought it caused her death, but now I’m not sure.” Chloe started to cry.

  Jake had no sympathy for her. “Chloe, your father believes you put the ring in Shanna’s room.”

  “I know,” she whispered.

  “Did you?” Louie handed her some tissues.

  Officer Jones continued to stand at attention inside the door. Her face void of expression.

  “No, I didn’t. Jake, please look at me. Yes, I get crazy sometimes. But I didn’t kill my sister. I didn’t put the ring there,” she said, pleading with him to understand.

  “Who did then?” Jake asked.

  “I don’t know. Why don’t you ask Meryl? She was over last week visiting my parents. She cozied up to my mother. Mom told me Meryl wanted to hang out in Shanna’s room for a while because she missed her. Mom thought it odd. She considers Meryl a sweet person.” Chloe said with disgust.

  “You don’t like Meryl?” Louie asked.

  “No, I hate how she controlled Shanna. It began when they met in the first grade. Most of our fights were about Meryl.”

  “What day did she visit your mother?” Jake said.

  “I’m not sure. You’ll have to ask my mother.”

  “Will she remember?” Louie asked.

  “Oh yeah, she loved the distraction and Meryl.” Chloe looked off into the distance.

  “Did you see your sister on the night she disappeared?” Louie asked.

  “No. I saw her on Thursday night. I told you in my original interview and again in our other interviews. I went over to her dorm on Thursday. Mom made Shanna some food she wanted me to take to her. After I dropped it off, we went out to McDonald’s for a bite. Shanna insisted we make it an early night because she needed to study for an exam the next morning. I never saw her again.” Jake saw Chloe become lost in the memory of her sister.

  He cleared his throat twice before Chloe looked up at him. “We’re going to break at this time.” He and Louie stepped out. He motioned for Officer Jones to follow him. “Officer Jones, Ms. Wagner may stay in this room until we return. Will it be a problem with your sergeant?”

  “No, sir,” Officer Jones replied.

  He stepped back in with Jones. “This interview has ended. It’s now seven twenty-five PM on May eighth. This interview will resume at a later time.”

  He and Louie left the interview room. Louie started to speak. Jake held up his hand. “Not until we’re in my office.”

  The minute they were in his office, Louie started in. “You don’t believe her, do you?”

  “I don’t know what to believe. We have the interviews tomorrow with Meryl and Mark. We’ll wait until we complete them all before we make a decision. In the meantime, I want to verify with Chloe’s mother that Meryl did visit her last week. It’s strange a week after Meryl’s visit, the ring shows up. Or maybe Chloe had waited for the perfect opportunity to hide the ring. Or Meryl planted it when she visited the last week. This could go in either direction. It still points to Chloe for hiding pertinent information. Perhaps she hoped it would turn up when her parents cleaned out Shanna’s room and they would give it to her. Most parents know their children and her father had doubts when we asked him. You have to wonder why. What are your thoughts?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe Meryl’s playing them against each other? She said she considered them more her parents than her own. For what purpose, I don’t know.” Louie scratched his head.

  “I know this is going to make you crazy, Louie, but I don’t want to hold her overnight.” Jake watched his words land. Prayed Louie would come onboard.

  “What are you, nuts? Of course it’s gonna make me crazy. After all the trouble we went through to get the damn warrant. What’s your logic here?” Louie looked at Jake as if he’d lost it.

  “I jumped the gun. Go ahead and say I told you so. I’ve got a doubt niggling at the back of my head. I don’t want her locked up if she doesn’t deserve to be. Let’s keep her here while we go to her parents’ house. See if anyone visited them tonight, or if anyone called the station.”

  “Who could’ve called?”

  “Let’s wait and see. I want to talk to dispatch before we leave. I also need to leave Shamus a voice message.”

  Jake went back to the interview room, called Officer Jones out and gave her instructions. Next, he went in to speak with Chloe.

  “Chloe, I’m going to verify a couple of things in your story. We’ll be back in an hour or so. You might want to reconsider whether you want a lawyer or not. You can wait in this room with Officer Jones, or you can go back to holding. What’ll it be?”

  “I’ll wait here. I don’t need a lawyer. Why are you being nice?” Her eyes filled with suspicion as she studied him.

  “I’m not being nice. I’m being thorough and want to clear up a few things in your statement. Maybe you won’t have to spend the night here.”

  “I’m telling the truth, Jake,” she said, her expression filled with hope.

  “We’ll be back,” Jake said.

  Outside the room, Jake checked his watch. “Damn, Louie, the vet’s closed.”

  Chapter 18

  Jake pulled up outside a modest, yellow ranch house built in the eighties, before the era of big colonials. It had a well-manicured lawn, edged with flowers in the first stages of bloom. He found the flowers hopeful, and maybe the Wagners did too. The door opened before they got to the top step.

  “Lieutenant, Detective,” Joe Wagner said with a dour expression plastered on his face as he blocked the doorway.

  “Hi, Joe. Can we come in?” Jake asked.

  “I don’t want to disturb my wife. Can we talk out here?” Joe continued to block the doorway.

  “No, Joe. We need to speak to you and Anna,” Jake said.

  “Why? It’s after eight o’clock. This can’t wait? I don’t want you upsetting her,” he fumed. “I can’t take any more of your questions or your accusations today, Lieutenant.”

  “I’m sorry, but this is important,” Jake said.

  “Jesus, will this never end?” Joe slumped his shoulders.

  “Will what never end?” Louie asked.

  “The pain, the suspicion—I don’t know, everything.” He held out his hands, palms up.

  “You didn’t ask about Chloe. Why?” Jake asked.

  “Why? I don’t understand.”

  “Don’t you want to know where she is?” Louie asked, jumping in again.

  “It’s Friday night, she goes out after work with some of the girls.”

  “No, Joe, we brought her in after work tonight. She’s down at the station, being questioned.” Jake watched Joe’s reaction, registering shock and surprise simultaneously.

  “I should’ve been notified. She needs a lawyer. Why didn’t she call?” He bombarded them with questions. “You can’t tell her mother you suspect Chloe. It would kill her. I know what I said today. I was distraught. But I know in my heart, I know she didn’t do it. She couldn’t.” He stared them down.

  “What we have to ask your wife is important,” Jake said. “Did you have a visitor today or tonight?”

  “Yes.”

  “Who?” Louie asked.

  “Meryl Drake dropped in. She left about five minutes ago. Why? Will Chloe be home tonight?”

  “What did Meryl want?” Jake asked.

  “Oh, to visit, she said she missed us,” Joe answered.

  “Did she visit last week?”

  “Yes. Why?”

  “Did she go into Shanna’s room for anything?” Louie asked.

  “She needed to lie down. Why?” Jake continued to ignore Joe’s qu
estions.

  “How long did she stay last week?” Jake asked.

  “I got home after she’d been here for a while. She visited for a little over an hour. Meryl’s visit picked up Anna’s spirits.”

  “Do you know what they spoke about?” Louie asked.

  “She talked about Shanna, their childhood, how much she loved us,” Joe said.

  “How much Shanna loved you?” Jake asked.

  “No, how much she, Meryl, loved us. How she’d always be there for us. Why?”

  “Let’s go in the house and talk to your wife.” Joe stepped back. Jake steered him into the living room. Louie trailed behind them.

  When the three of them entered the room, Anna asked, before looking up, “Did Meryl forget something, honey?”

  “No, Anna. Lieutenant Carrington and Detective Romanelli are here,” he said in a controlled voice.

  “Oh? Why? Hello, Lieutenant, Detective,” Mrs. Wagner said as her head came up, glasses perched on her nose.

  “It’s Sergeant now. Please don’t get up,” Louie said.

  “Why don’t you take a seat and explain why you’re here.” Anna folded her hands together. Her knuckles whitened as she braced to hear them out.

  “We have a few follow-up questions for you if you don’t mind?” The woman looked fragile. Jake didn’t want to be the one who pushed her over the edge.

  Anna nodded, pointing to the chairs.

  “When Meryl Drake visited you last week, what did you speak about? How long did she stay?” He sat in the overstuffed blue chair.

  “She talked about Shanna, as she always does, and the childhood they had, which for Meryl wasn’t great. The girls fought sometimes. Of course, they’d always make up later, like children do. Meryl’s parents are both alcoholics. She spent a lot of time here. Like the rest of us, she misses Shanna.” A tear spilled down Anna’s check.

  “Anything else? Did she ask about anything in particular?” Jake pushed.

  Mrs. Wagner thought for a few moments. “Meryl did ask me if she could lie down in Shanna’s room for a while. It was a strange request that bothered me at first. I asked her why. That’s when she explained that she had a headache.”