“Yeah, they sort of can.”
“What?”
“A friend of Tyler’s said you record your practice sessions.”
“That’s right.”
Decker held up the phone. “You recorded your ‘Hong Kong practice session’ from that night on a voice memo on your phone.”
“So? I do that a lot.”
“We never had much reason to look at the memo until Lou Perry’s alibi came up, and a few possibilities occurred to me. We played the recording for Perry. He said it was pretty much verbatim what he heard from you that night between one and nearly two.”
“Of course it was. I was getting ready for my second Zoom with the client in Hong Kong then.”
“Not between one and two o’clock you weren’t.” Decker held up the phone again. “Voice memos are time stamped. You recorded your Hong Kong practice session starting at ten fifty, which is shortly after Tyler went to bed, and you finished it at five minutes before midnight.”
“Then how the hell did Perry hear it at one o’clock?”
In answer Decker opened the French doors, went out on the balcony, and set the phone on the top of the waist-high wall that encircled the balcony. “You put it here, turned the volume all the way up, hit play, and left. That made Perry think you were up here the whole time. You used Tyler’s electric bike parked in the foyer. You took it down the back stairs, most likely. On the bike using the motor you could cover the two miles in a few minutes. You went to Julia’s house. You killed her. And then you came back here in plenty of time to clean up and do your next meeting at two.”
“That is crazy.”
“You recorded the Zoom videos, Barry. We watched them. You had on a different shirt between the first and second ones. Why was that?”
“I…I spilled something on my shirt.”
“The geolocator on your phone shows it never left here that night.”
“Because I never left here that night. Look, this is all bullshit. A good lawyer would make mincemeat out of it. You think I murdered my wife and came back here and did a Zoom!”
“You used the word ‘butchered’ before. How did you know that? Because you were the one who did it.”
“You’re nuts!”
“Perry told us he also called up to you around one twenty. But you didn’t answer him.”
“I didn’t hear him, obviously. I was focused on practicing for my next Zoom.”
“No you weren’t. You were probably still at Julia’s. You finished with her, planted your evidence, and rode back here. At that time of night no one would be in the elevator or stairwell to see you coming back in with the bike and the bloody clothes. You cleaned up, changed your clothes, threw the bloody ones in the washing machine, and got ready for your next Zoom. Later, you showered to get the rest of the crap off you.”
“That is all a fantasy, nothing more.”
“‘Res ipsa loquitor’？”
Davidson just stared at him.
“Tyler highlighted the legal phrase in the law dictionary in his bedroom. That phrase was on the card left with Julia’s body. I talked to the medical examiner this morning. She said when Tyler came to ID the body—because you were too upset to do it—the card in the evidence bag was out and clearly visible. I think Tyler saw it. And I think he had heard his mother use that phrase before. With you. And he wanted to know what it meant.”
“You leave my son out of this!” Davidson said warningly.
“I’m not sure that’s possible, Barry. The way I see it, either you killed your wife—or Tyler did. Or you did and he covered up for you. That’s accessory after the fact. That means prison time for him. And he can kiss his college dreams goodbye.”
“Bullshit!” Davidson lunged at Decker, but Decker easily pushed him away. Davidson fell back against his desk.
“I’ll sue your ass off!” bellowed Davidson.
“He was also looking up information on bipolarism. Is that what he thinks you have?”
“My son loves me.”
“Yes, he absolutely does. So are you going to tell us the truth and save him? Or are you going to take your son down with you?”
“What did you mean he was covering up for me?” Davidson said darkly as he slowly got to his feet.
“He washed your clothes that night. They must have still had stains on them even after you laundered them. Then he spilled your drink on purpose, the first time we met you and him. He did that so he could run another load. Probably to get the blood out of the machine and the drains, and all that. Even though you never really can. We’ll be checking that next. Julia Cummins’s blood shows up in one of your drains, Barry, it’s over, for both of you. So what’s it going to be? You, or both of you?”