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I knocked on the Bannings’ door casually, hoping whoever was inside would think it was Dorian. A woman about fifty, wearing yoga pants and a loose T-shirt, opened the door wide and looked surprised to see me standing there in a coat and tie.
I said, “Mrs. Banning?”
She smiled and nodded. The bangs of her light hair almost hung to her eyes.
I kept my cheerful, used-car-salesman smile and said, “I talked with Kyle the other day. I just wanted to show him something.” Vague and friendly gets you into a lot more places than stern and official. Both cops and vampires have to be invited into a home before they can enter, so I threw in, “May I come in?”
She motioned me inside and said, “Of course.”
I knew her manners would kick in before her sense of caution. As I stepped across the threshold, I realized I’d cleared my first hurdle. I was inside the apartment.
Chapter48
MY HANDS FELTclammy as I took in my surroundings. There was a whole lot that could go wrong with this plan. Now that I was inside the Bannings’ apartment, I knew I had only a few minutes. My goals were simple: find Kyle Banning and start talking. Who knew what could happen next?
Thanks to Walter Jackson, I had a fair amount of information about the family. A sixteen-year-old brother named Jaden also lived at the house. The mother, Joan Banning, had just let me in and was still in the friendly, chatty mode.
The father had been a wildly successful attorney and now seemed to be winding down his career as general counsel for a major insurance company. I had read an article about him that insinuated he got the job as part of a settlement with the same company. It didn’t sound ethical, but I wasn’t in a position to judge ethical behavior right now. I had just fooled my way past a trusting woman. Essentially, I was trespassing.
Then things broke my way. A shirtless Kyle Banning came out of a side bedroom, clearly having just woken up. He rubbed his eyes, then brushed his light-brown hair out of his face. I couldn’t help but notice his ripped physique. He had an honest-to-God eight-pack for a stomach, with good biceps and broad shoulders.
His mother turned and looked at Banning. She still had a smile on her face. Until her son said to me, “What the hell? I thought I already told you to get lost.”
I said in a friendly tone, “Actually, you said it was your policy not to speak to the police at work. I assumed that meant I could talk to you here.”
His mother was obviously no stranger to dealing with police officers. She realized she’d made a serious error. But I was already in the apartment. I had nothing to lose.
I said to Banning, “Give me fifteen seconds. Let me show you two photographs and then if you think it’s smart for me to leave, I will. Simple as that. No other obligation for you other than looking at two simple photographs.”
Banning was frustrated but couldn’t pass up a fair deal like that. Maybe it was the financial analyst in him. The easiest way to solve a problem was usually the most direct. I was a problem I was sure he wouldn’t mind getting out of his life. That’s why I wasn’t surprised when Banning made a curt motion for me to follow him into a den.
I’ll admit that when I walked into the room, the view took my breath away for a moment. I could see from one side of the reservoir to the other. I could even see people relaxing in the park on a Saturday morning.
I didn’t waste any time. I reached into my pocket for the two photographs Walter Jackson had printed out for me. I stepped over to a walnut desk with legs that were hand carved with decorative maple leaves. It made each leg of the desk look like a small tree.
Banning stepped over to me. He looked down at the two photos. In one he was posing with Suzanne Morton. In the other he was standing next to Estella Abreu. The young man studied the photos for a moment, then looked up at me and said, “So what? I’m in photos at parties. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
I took a moment to gather my thoughts and say exactly what I thought would hit home. “In both of these recent photos, you’re in the company of women who subsequently became homicide victims. Do you know what the odds are of knowing two different murder victims? I was wondering if you could explain this.”
Kyle Banning was clearly uncomfortable and fumbled for words. “What do you mean, homicide victims?”
“That sentence only has one meaning. These two women were both found dead not too long after you were seen with them at parties.” Now I was starting to gear up to hit him with some questions about his whereabouts and how he knew the girls. I felt like my ploy had worked perfectly.
Then a shadow fell across the doorway. I turned that way to see a man in his late fifties, wearing slacks and an Izod shirt. His graying comb-over didn’t do him any favors.
The man said, “Kyle, don’t say another word.” He pointed his right index finger at me. “You need to leave. Right now.”
Chapter49
MR. BANNING GLAREDat me from the doorway and used his excellent authoritarian voice to get his point across. A teen I assumed to be the little brother, Jaden, stood behind the father, trying to see what was going on.
Mr. Banning looked directly at me and said, “This interview and future interviews are over. Kyle wants an attorney.”
Banning whined, “But, Dad, you don’t understand. This is—”
His father cut him off with a raised hand before Banning could finish his sentence. I imagined he had done that a lot when the boys were young. The move clearly terrified them. I based that assumption on the fact that Banning shut his mouth the second the hand went into the air.
His father said, “No, Kyle,youdon’t understand. A cop like this doesn’t care about rights or privacy. He just wants to clear a case.”
