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But what?
They had several of the other gymnastics parents who could testify to hearing Liliana Blanchet calling the Cortezes racist animals. They had social media posts and comments tying Gia Cortez to a racially tinged campaign against Eloise Blanchet. Cell phone data put them at the scene of the crime. Their car was spotted on video in the neighborhood. In a world where slam-dunk cases were rare, this one was shaping up to be just that.
Except, he still felt like they’d missed something.
Sam called to check in. “How’s it going?”
“Everything about this outcome feels wrong to me.”
“The evidence doesn’t lie, Freddie. That’s what you have to believe in.”
“I believe in it. I just can’t believe someone would commit mass murder over a middle school gymnastics competition.”
“I agree, it’s unreal. But we’ve seen all sorts of crazy reasons for murder. How often does it make sense?”
“Rarely,” he said with a sigh.
“You’re looking for something to make sense that will never make sense to us as people who don’t understand how anyone could ever commit murder, especially the murders of four innocent kids.”
“Yeah.”
“You did a great job. You followed the evidence to where it led you, and you’ve put together a case that’ll hold up in court.”
“I’m glad you think so.”
“I do think so.”
“They’ve informed the public defender that they’ll be getting their own lawyer. I’ve made calls to the three they asked for. No response yet. I hate to break it to them, but they might not find a lot of lawyers willing to represent people who’d shoot kids in their beds.”
“True. You did great, Detective. I’m so proud of you.”
“Thanks. You know that means everything to me.”
“Finish up and go home to your wife.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Talk to you in the morning.”
Freddie put down the phone, feeling slightly better after talking to her. If she was pleased with the outcome, then he should be, too. He went downstairs to the city jail, where the Cortezes were being held together. Archie’s team was monitoring the camera trained on their cell, as they’d hoped the Cortezes would say something to each other to further cement the case against them.
They perked up when they saw Freddie.
“Are you releasing us?” Pascal asked.
“No. I’ve come to tell you we’re also charging you, Pascal, with the murders of the Blanchets. You’ll be arraigned in the morning.”
Pascal’s face turned ghostly white. “That’s not possible. We didn’t do it!”
“We have your social media posts showing your hatred of Eloise. Thanks to your cell phone data, we can prove you were at the home, your car was spotted in the neighborhood on multiple cameras the night of the murders, and you had motive after she called you racist animals.”
“How can this be happening when we didn’t do it?” Gia asked on a high-pitched wail. “Tell him, Pascal! We didn’t do this! What about our children?”
“I’ll be back in the morning.” Freddie hoped a lawyer would take their case so they could get the case into court as soon as possible. He didn’t give a crap about what became of people who’d murder children in their beds.
As he walked away, Gia continued to wail and scream to be let out of there to get home to their children. Freddie ignored her and went upstairs to submit his report.
He wanted to get back to reviewing Stahl’s cases, expecting to find more irregularities.
