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Before I could answer, Terri jumped in. “You don’t think jabbing a needle into someone’s neck isn’t dangerous? You’ve worked with cops long enough to know how much shit we put up with. Now you want us to give a pass to your dirtbag client after he stabbed Mike”—her voice raised to almost a shout—“in the goddamn neck with a needle?”
I could tell Terri’s outburst made Linda Beam uncomfortable. Her client could be facing some serious time.
Terri gained control of herself and said, “Your client didn’t know if Mike had some kind of allergy to ketamine. There’s no telling how he could’ve reacted.”
The lawyer took a breath and tried to keep her tone more conversational. “As I said earlier, Dr. Sloan is a trained professional. He knew it was just a small dose.”
Usually, I’d think that was bullshit. Just a lawyer lying on behalf of a client. A very common occurrence. But I knew Linda Beamand I believed her. At least a little bit.
I said, “Linda, are you arguing that stabbing people in the neck with a needle and injecting them against their will should be a misdemeanor?”
“Of course not. I’m just wondering if we could come to some sort of arrangement.”
Terri said, “We can arrange for your client to spend the next three to five years in prison. Unless we can pin a homicide charge on him, in which case he’ll spend a lot longer there.”
Sloan blurted out, “I swear to God I didn’t kill anyone. I just panicked when Detective Bennett was talking to me. I don’t know what I was thinking. I just…”
His attorney couldn’t shut him up. The lawyer barked, “That’s enough.” She followed it with a nasty look. It felt like if they were alone, she might have slapped him. I was on board with that.
Linda looked at us both and said, “Dr. Sloan would be willing to talk to you without any reservation. He’ll tell you everything you want to know about The Girlfriend Experience and anyone he knows connected to it. In return, we find a suitable assault charge instead of attempted murder.”
I leaned in and said, “And what can he tell us about The Girlfriend Experience?”
“Does that mean we have a deal?”
I remained silent while Terri gave the stink eye to Sloan. This was more enjoyable than watching TV in the evening. At least it was more compelling.
Chapter83
AFTER SOME NEGOTIATIONover the phone between Linda Beam and an assistant district attorney, we were all set to interview the veterinarian Thomas Sloan. Linda had done a good job of preparing him to answer quickly and honestly. She probably had to tell him a hundred times that nothing he said would get him in more trouble than he was already in. That was a hard concept for most people to comprehend. Especially one who’d never faced serious criminal charges before.
I established pretty quickly that Sloan didn’t know Allie Pritz. He didn’t know about how The Girlfriend Experience had been created or was administrated. And he didn’t know any of the three girls who had been murdered. He studied each photograph and was adamant that he had no knowledge about what happened to them.
Terri said, “How did you find out about The Girlfriend Experience in the first place? Where did you get a phone number to call?”
Sloan tried to brush his dirty hair out of his eyes. He was fidgety and seemed to have a hard time focusing. He gathered his thoughts and said, “A guy named Perry Martin used the service and gave me the phone number to call.”
I blurted, “Perry Martin, the football coach at the Wolfson Academy?”
Sloan gave me an odd look and said, “You know him?”
“I’ve met him.”
“He was my son’s football coach. He’s a fun guy. He went into great detail about how he tried to see one of the girls every few weeks during this time of the year. He said it helped focus him on Friday nights when he had to call plays.”
I groaned inside. How had we come to another possible suspect so quickly? It was starting to feel like an unending parade. I took a moment, then said, “When did the coach tell you this?”
Sloan shrugged. “I don’t know. The first time would’ve been over a year ago. Several of the fathers at the school talked about the service.”
I wrote down a few names Sloan gave us. I wasn’t sure how useful it would be but would have Walter Jackson run backgrounds on them.
“Did you ever use the service or just call it?”
His hesitation told me what the answer would be. I just wanted to hear the details.
Sloan said, “Yeah, I met a girl who went to a party with me thrown by a pet supply company. All the vets in northern New Jersey and New York were there. I think her name was Nicole.”
“What happened?”
