“You OK?” said Mr. Mosley, as the officer shut the door.
What Randall wanted to do was to tell the lawyer, and anyone else who wanted to listen, that he was innocent. He glanced at the two-way mirror and pictured Laurie staring at him dispassionately. He didn’t know for sure, but this appeared to be the room he’d been taken to on the day he was arrested for Annie’s death. He recalled the lawyer from that time telling him a similar thing about remaining silent. He couldn’t recall if he’d done so that first time, but once the evidence began piling up he’d continued pleading his innocence until he’d been instructed that the plea bargain was the best way forward. But as the interview room opened, and Laurie and a second detective entered the room, Randall decided that this time he would take his lawyer’s advice and not talk.
It only took Laurie a few seconds to realize the interview was a waste of time. The way the lawyer, Neil Mosley, sat bolt upright, his arms crossed, with Frank Randall shrinking away to his side, made his opening words inevitable.
“My client would like to assert his right to remain silent,” said the lawyer, as Laurie took a seat opposite with Remi.
“We’re not charging Mr. Randall with anything. We would just like to ask him some questions,” said Laurie, looking past Mosley to Frank, who shifted in his seat.
Had she really got it so wrong about him? He’d done a terrible thing in his past and that had to be taken into account, but Laurie hadn’t thought him capable of killing Grace. If he had, then she feared what it said about her. She’d thought Frank was someone who had killed his wife, for reasons even he wasn’t sure about, but had never considered him a potential habitual murderer. If Filmore and the others knew about the time she’d spent with the man over these last months, she would be ridiculed; and if he was guilty, rightly so.
“That’s fantastic,” said Mosley. “Then Mr. Randall can be on his way.”
“Answer a few questions and we’ll see what we can do.”
Mosley chuckled and Laurie didn’t much care for the sound. “That’s a good one.”
“Frank, just tell us where you were on Tuesday night.” Maurice had claimed to have dropped Randall off on Wednesday morning, but they hadn’t been able to verify that yet.
“Don’t answer that,” said Mosley. “Please, Detective Campbell. I know you’re doing your job, but Mr. Randall has asserted his rights. He won’t be talking tonight, and I don’t believe you have any reason to be holding him here.”
Remi leaned toward the man and his client. “A young woman has just been killed in the same manner as Mr. Randall’s former wife, Annie Randall,” he said as Laurie placed pictures of Grace Harrington’s corpse on the table. “The wife Mr. Randall murdered.”
Frank squirmed and looked away from the photos; Mosley seemed unaffected by them.
Laurie wanted to pull Frank aside and demand he tell her what had happened. It still just did not compute that Frank had attacked and killed Grace Harrington. He wasn’t that old, but his mobility was severely limited due to his leg injury. And even if he had the strength, that type of brutality seemed beyond him.
But maybe that was what Annie Randall had thought, too.
She’d make one more attempt at questioning him.
“All we need is a reason not to keep you here overnight, Frank. Just tell us your movements on Tuesday evening and I’ll see about letting you get home.”
“I believe you’ll be allowing my client home the second this interview is over,” said Mosley. “Unless you want to charge him, which I would strongly advise you against.”
“Thank you for the advice,” said Remi.
“Let me remind you that you have nothing beyond a dubious link to a very old homicide investigation.”
“At present,” said Remi.
“Exactly, Detective Armstrong. If you should ever be in a position to offer us more, then we’ll be happy to discuss. Until then, my client will not be speaking.”
“Frank,” said Laurie, “this will only make things worse for you.”
“I am presuming that is not a threat, Detective?”
“If he leaves here without so much as an explanation for where he was that night, everyone will presume his guilt. I’m trying to protect him.”
“Very commendable, I’m sure. Now, if we could wrap this up.”
The song was the same during Maurice’s interview. Like Frank, he’d been advised to assert the right to remain silent, though he had to be reminded of this on a couple of occasions by Mosley. Laurie understood why the lawyer had instructed the brothers to take this course of action, but that didn’t make it any less frustrating. What she needed was for forensics to be pushed through, but those results could be days away.
“I don’t think we have any option but to let them go,” she said to Filmore, back in the lieutenant’s office.
“Who is this Mosley guy?” said Filmore. “Never come across him before.”
“He’s employed by Maurice Randall’s church group. A coalition of some thirty churches nationwide.”
“That’s all we need. Some high-octane attorney throwing wrenches into the works.” Filmore shook his head. “You’ve been looking through the Annie Randall case. Anything there that can help us?”
“The injuries seem identical, but we need to wait for the autopsy report. Annie Randall’s body wasn’t discovered for three days after she was killed, whereas we think Grace Harrington died in the last eighteen hours. I think it’s too circumstantial to charge him now.”
Filmore sighed. “We won’t even have enough to get a warrant to search his house for the murder weapon. Fine, do your best to keep this quiet, and send a patrol car to watch Randall. He’s not to leave Galveston, though. Tell that lawyer that, will you?”
Laurie left the office and told Remi of the decision not to charge Frank. “That will not go down well,” said Remi, glancing over at Warren, who was busy diverting the attention of some of the civilian staff from their work. She made the agreement with Mosley that Frank would be released on the condition that he stayed in Galveston. The agreement wasn’t legally enforceable, but Mosley agreed to it readily enough.
As Laurie watched the lawyer drive Frank and Maurice away, it dawned on her that she would no longer be able to visit Frank in his house. He was an active suspect now, and she would only be able to see him on police business. She hadn’t appreciated how much she’d enjoyed those visits, and she was surprised by the intensity of her sadness now that they were denied to her. She understood that talking to Frank had been a way of keeping close to David during a period where they were anything but. She’d learned some things about David’s childhood, and his relationship with his mother, both things David had always been reluctant to talk about. Ridiculous as it felt, without Frank in her life she wondered if she and David had any future together.
The thought occupied her during her run later that evening. Filmore had left for the night, and insisted her team go home and get some rest in preparation for the days ahead, but Laurie had been too hyped to sleep. She’d left her apartment building with no destination in mind but soon found herself following the same route Grace had taken on her final run. She’d stopped outside the Harrington house, and had considered checking in on the family, but it had been late and they would be in mourning. She tried to put herself in Grace’s position as she started her run again, imagining what it was like once more to be a pissed-off teenager and what would have motivated her to take a different route. The obvious answer to that was the lure of her ex-girlfriend, Mia Washington, who she’d spoken to on the day she’d gone missing. Mia had been informed of Grace’s death and would be at the station tomorrow for further questioning. Laurie ran by the girl’s apartment building and wondered what she was thinking. If she was anything like Laurie had been as a teenager, she would be shouldering all the blame for Grace’s death. It highlighted the unknown impact that unexpected death, especially violent unexpected death, had on the wider world. Grace’s death would be felt way beyond her immediate family and friendship circle. It would touch on everyone at her school and in the community. If Annie Randall’s death was anything to go by, it would rock the island city and the state for years to come. Even if it wasn’t needed, that was motivation enough for Laurie to make sure the person responsible was brought to justice.