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Underneath this was a record of three different interviews with him at a police station. Valerie knew that it was unlikely this had happened by chance. If the police pulled him in three times, it was because they thought he knew something.
Freeman's details were attached to the sheet of paper, and Valerie quickly entered them into her computer. The FBI database showed that he was currently incarcerated for assault.
It was late. The drive to the prison where he was being held was two hours away.
But Valerie knew she wouldn't be able to sleep with this information running around her head. She had to go and question the man and figure out for herself if Robert Freeman was her father's murderer.
CHAPTER TWO
Valerie had sat staring through the glass of the visitor room at Warmarsh Prison for thirty-three minutes. She knew the exact amount of time because she kept glancing nervously at her watch.
The cold metal and fluorescent lighting of the place didn't faze her. She'd been to a hundred of such places before in her career, chasing down leads, often from prisoners who had some insider knowledge about a fugitive or murder suspect.
This time was different. This time, she was waiting to meet Robert Freeman and discuss her biological father's murder with him.
Valerie kept glancing between her watch and the phone handset attached to the window in front of her. Soon, she would have some answers. But she wondered if there would be more questions too.
A door opened on the other side of the glass. Valerie swallowed slightly, steadying her nerves as best as she could. She then saw a large man being escorted into the room by a prison guard. He was tall and broad, with dark hair graying at the temples. He had a thick beard that covered most of his face.
He sat down on the other side of the window, glared intently through the glass, and then picked up the phone on his side.
In turn, Valerie picked up the phone handset on hers to begin their conversation.
A gruff voice spoke on the other end, "what's the FBI want with me?"
"We're investigating a cold case," she said. This wasn't strictly a lie or a truth. She hadn't been assigned her father's case, but shewasinvestigating it. "You're Robert Freeman?"
"That's me."
Valerie looked at the man on the other side of the glass. He was large and, even in his fifties, he could have throttled the life from most with his wide, powerful hands. Valerie had studied his own files back at Quantico. Robert Freeman had a long criminal record, mostly for assault and battery. But he'd also done time for armed robbery and drug trafficking.
She knew from her research that he'd been out of prison for less than a year when her father was murdered. And he'd been living in the same city as Jake Wilson at the time.
"I'm here to talk to you about an unsolved murder case," Valerie said into the phone. "Jake Wilson."
Freeman's eyes narrowed at the mention of the name. "Not this again ... what about him?" he asked gruffly.
"He was killed twenty years ago," Valerie replied. "You were interviewed by police in connection with his murder. Three times, in fact."
Freeman shifted uncomfortably in his seat and stared at Valerie through the glass. She could see the wheels turning in his head.
"Yeah, so?" he finally answered.
"In the file, the police report states that you had been going drinking with Jake Wilson the night he was killed?"
"Circumstantial," he grinned. "That's why the pigs couldn't put anything on me. Not then, not now."
Valerie's stomach turned. She wondered if she was staring through the glass at her father's murderer. Staring at a face that grinned back at her with menace.
She knew she had to keep her cool, no matter how much she wanted to reach through the glass and wipe that grin off of his face.
"I was never charged with anything," Freeman continued. "I got my alibi from three different people who were at the bar that night. I stayed; Jake left. Then he was taken and killed."
"If you didn't kill him, then who did?"
Freeman laughed. "Who knows? Some gang in the neighborhood, maybe. Or maybe he just pissed off the wrong person and got what was coming to him."
As Valerie gazed at Freeman, she felt her heart sinking. This man seemed totally unrepentant for his past crimes, and he showed no signs of remorse or guilt for Jake's death. That meant he was either a psychopath, or he genuinely had nothing to do with his death.
