I had to wait. The mention of Michelle Luna had affected the justice. He was visibly emotional for a moment. Then he focused back on me. “As far as I know, Michelle and Emily never met each other. They were actually quite opposite. Michelle was on the wild side and also reckless. She had her own demons.”
“Is that what choked her to death in Baltimore? A demon? Or did Emily smoke one too many cigars?”
“Now you’re just trying to be cruel. Saying something like that doesn’t further your investigation. All that does is play on my emotions.”
I didn’t care if I hurt his feelings. When this was over and I had found Emily’s killer, if it wasn’t him, I’d apologize. Until then he could kiss my ass.
Justice Steinberg held up his hand and said, “We’re not getting anywhere. I hope someone finds Emily’s killer. I really do. I also hope you go back to New York City soon.”
Then I found myself alone and surrounded by toilet parts.
Chapter 65
I immediately drove back to my hotel. I’d gotten in the habit of driving through the parking lot once to see if there was anyone suspicious hanging around. Although I was pretty sure I’d already run through the entire list of people who planned to threaten me.
I got to my room, pulled out my notepad and everything I’d collected on the case. I spread a few sheets of paper on the small desk, some on the bed, and a few more on the cheap sofa. I didn’t realize how much information I’d gathered until I stepped back. My room looked like a disaster scene at a recycling plant.
I also considered my conversation with Justice Steinberg. People think that a cop needs to hear a confession during an interview for it to be worthwhile. That is absolutely not true. Every interview teaches you something. It may teach you that the person you’re interviewing has nothing to do with the crime. But there are dozens of levels between that and a confession. For one thing, Justice Steinberg had been much less interested in talking about Michelle Luna’s death than in talking about Emily Parker.
The mention of Michelle Luna’s name had seemed to throw the justice off a little bit. But my perception didn’t confirm a theory or motive. There were plenty available. Protecting the justice’s reputation was the most likely possibility.
As far as suspects go, the justice was believable. I’m not saying I’m a human lie detector, but after a hundred classes on interviewing and twenty years of asking the tough questions, I have a pretty good sense of when people are lying. Justice Steinberg was a smooth operator who was smart and well educated. But if he had committed a homicide, he didn’t have the street sense to hide it. I was leaving open the question of whether he’d ordered someone else to do it.
Then I looked at the details of both murders. They were similar but not identical. Michelle Luna had been choked from behind. That’s how the Baltimore forensic people were able to lift DNA from the back of her earring. The medical examiner in DC had said Emily was strangled with two hands by someone facing her. Then she was dumped in the water. They were unable to recover any usable DNA from the body.
The DNA from Michelle Luna’s murder was the only physical evidence that meant anything right now. The biggest problem with a DNA sample is that you need a sample from a suspect to compare it to. The earring sample had been run through the DNA databases and had received no hits. That meant it was up to someone to supply a sample from a suspect not in the database. That gave me a whole host of new problems to think about.
Maybe I’d been too focused on this investigation. I’d really been looking only at Emily Parker’s murder. I should’ve been looking at it like two murders. And if there was evidence connected to only one victim, I could run with that.
Then I thought about my suspects. Jeremy Pugh was still in the mix. Leaving out the idea that it was two random murders, I kept coming back to Beth Banks. A good upbringing and education could disguise a lot of traits. Maybe she was smart enough to hide the fact that she was a killer.
I wasn’t sure if Roberta Herring could do anything more for me. I also had no more support from Bobby Patel. But by stepping away from Bobby, I was stepping away from some of the arbitrary rules he had laid down.
It looked like I had a lot of work still to do.
Chapter 66
My phone rang and knocked me out of my deep thoughts on this case. I almost couldn’t take my eyes off the bed where the papers were still spread out. I figured the call was probably Bobby. He’d realized he’d been a dick and wanted to apologize. Maybe I did like working with that guy more than I thought.