AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Who is Selma Waite?” the lawyer asked.
“Miss Evans’s predecessor,” Connor said, keeping his gaze fastened to Archie’s face. “She died under very mysterious conditions. Fell down a flight of stairs and broke her neck, but there were no other major injuries. No other broken bones, and only minor bruises.”
“I didn’t kill her, either,” Archie whispered. “That was Crawford.”
Kit shrugged. “Too bad he’s not here to confirm or deny. You’re on your own, kid. And it doesn’t look good. You stole money from old people. Even if we can’t pin a murder charge on you—and we will work very hard to make that happen, by the way—you’ll have to hope a jury believes that you did not commit grand larceny.”
Archie leaned over to whisper in his attorney’s ear. He must have asked what the sentence was for larceny. The young man’s lips curved in relief when he heard the answer. “Three years? That’s all?”
“Per count,” Connor said. “And we’ll make sure that we charge you for every time you dipped into Shady Oaks’s money. We’ve got your financials from the boxes in your mom’s garage, remember? You made deposits into your offshore account every month for two years. How many years in prison did we figure, Detective McKittrick?”
“Twenty-four counts,” Kit said. “Times three years each. I might not be a genius like you, but even I can calculate that that’s seventy-two years. You’ll never make it to Shady Oaks, Archie. You’ll die in prison. And even if it’s half that, that’s still thirty-six years. And don’t forget, there’s a dead cop in the middle of all this. Juries don’t generally like entitled young men who own fancy boats they bought by stealing from retired people they murder. So, what are you gonna do?”
Kit and Connor had no idea if the prosecutors would take that approach to charging and sentencing, but it had been done before and Archie’s lawyer seemed to know this.
“What do you want from him?” the lawyer asked.
“We want access to that server, for starters,” Kit said. “We want a signed statement detailing how the theft occurred, and how Crawford figured out how to steal the money to begin with. We want to know about the death of Selma Waite and we want to know where Archie hid the coins.”
Archie frowned, appearing confused. “What coins?”
“The coins that were stolen from Benny Dreyfus’s room,” Connor snapped. “Four million dollars’ worth. Crawford was the last to have them.”
Archie shook his head vehemently. “I do not know anything about coins and I didn’t kill Kent Crawford. I’ll admit to the rest—for a deal. But not murder, because I didn’t do it. Crawford was the killer, not me.”
Kit stood up. “Give us a minute. We’ll be back.”
She and Connor went back to the observation room, where Navarro was pacing. “I don’t know,” the lieutenant said. “Do you believe him?”
“I do,” Sam said quietly. “I don’t think he killed anyone. You didn’t find the coins in any of his things, did you?”
“No,” Goddard said. “We searched his apartment, his mother’s house, and all the boxes he’d moved into her garage. We searched the house his friend was living in, all their cars, and the boat. If Adler’s hidden them, he’s done a good job.”
“I think his confusion concerning the coins was genuine,” Kit said slowly. “But I don’t know about Crawford’s murder. He might have done it.”
“I think it’s more likely that Crawford would have killed Adler,” Connor said. “Crawford was pulling in a lot of money before Adler came along and then they had to split it. And then they had to split it again when Evans came into the picture.”
Kit sighed. Connor was probably right. “Adler’s the best option we have for Crawford’s murder right now, although he’s too tall to have been the person who took the coins out of Shady Oaks early Saturday morning. Let’s get his statement on the money theft and let him believe murder is still on the table. Mainly because he’s an arrogant ass.”
“He is that,” Sam agreed. “Where is Miss Evans?”
“We picked her up as she was leaving for work this morning,” Navarro said. “She’s waiting in the next interview room. She thinks she’s here to answer questions about Crawford. Get Adler’s statement about how she came into the picture. I want her to roll on Adler. I also want to know when Crawford started stealing—and if the director before Selma Waite knew anything about it.”
“What about Crawford’s killer?” Kit asked, frustrated with herself because she’d dropped the ball on Waite’s predecessor, JoAnne Tremblay.
“We need to beef up our search for whoever he was banging,” Navarro said bluntly.
“He was with someone?” Sam asked.
Kit nodded. “With someone in the motel room where he was found, sometime before he died.”
Sam nodded once. “Okay. Got it. Maybe Adler knows who they are.”
“Can’t hurt to ask.” Kit turned to Jeff. “What do we need Adler to provide for server access?”
Jeff handed her a sheet of paper where he’d neatly printed exactly what he needed. “This. I may need more to get to the files we’re interested in, but this is a start. Would he know about Devon Jones? Because I searched the key-card logs and her key card was used at several entry points the night Mr. Dreyfus died.”
Goddard shook his head. “We verified her alibi. Devon Jones was at the ER with her daughter all night.”
