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“Did he tip his hand? Maybe he asked you a suspicious question—and you thought he might find evidence or just say something to your brother-in-law—like you said, they were friends, good friends. They even went to a football game together last year. Even if Neil couldn’t prove it, he could damage your relationship with your family. I suspect you didn’t want to kill anyone else—you just wanted to kill Neil. Maybe you set the bomb and expected it to go off when only Neil was on board. You went to his house, took all the files about Travers, Douglas, and Clark—you didn’t take the two college boys because everyone knew that Neil was looking at that case. Then you were worried because the FBI was here, we were asking a lot of questions, and looking at Neil’s cold-case investigation, and you panicked. You sabotaged the heater. Maybe you hoped that the leak would destroy the house, but you couldn’t count on it, so you took the incriminating files. Then, it wasn’t unreasonable to think that we would look for suspects among the members of the Island Protectors, so you set a smaller bomb at the West End boathouse. You didn’t mean to kill Garrett Washington—he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
He slammed his fist down on the table. “No! I didn’t set any bombs.”
Matt said, “Don’t do that again.”
“I didn’t kill all those people! I swear to God!”
It was unclear whether Damon Avila was talking about the five cold cases or the people on the boat.
Matt said, “We have a wealth of evidence tying you directly to the bombings. We found C-4 in your house. We found Neil’s files—again, in your house. We have security tape of you at a construction facility in Bellingham where the C-4 was stolen on a night that a student who you taught for two years was working.” It wasn’t true, but Matt put it out there to see if he would cave. “We have—”
“I want to see that taperight now. I didn’t steal C-4, I didn’t plant a bomb. I want to see the tape. It’s not meand I’ll prove it!”
Matt wasn’t quite expecting that level of denial. Or maybe he thought that the tape had been erased or didn’t exist. “We know from ferry security footage that you took the ferry to Bellingham the night before the C-4 was stolen. You’ll be able to see the tape during the discovery process of your trial, because we’re charging you with ten murders with special circumstances.”
“No! You can’t do that! I didn’t do anything with bombs, I swear to God, I didn’t!”
Catherine said, “A confession would go a long way to getting the death penalty taken off the table.”
Damon began to tremble. He pushed back violently from the table and Matt stood. Though the suspect had been fully searched, he was still in his civilian clothes.
But Damon just put his head in his hands. “I need a lawyer because I didn’t put bombs anywhere,” he said. “I didn’t steal C-4 or anything else. I didn’t hurt those people. I need a lawyer.”
“All right,” Matt said. “One of the deputies will book you, and you’ll be placed in a holding cell until we can transport you to the mainland.”
“What? No.”
“We found C-4 at your house and one of my colleagues nearly died. That is enough to keep you for a long time. You don’t want to cooperate? That’s fine. Don’t. We have plenty of evidence. And you know? I’m going to solve those five cold cases for Neil. I’m going to prove you killed Brian Stevens and Jason Mott because Brian accidentally destroyed your football career. That you killed Eric Travers because he got the job you wanted. That you killed Missy Douglas because she loved another man. And that you killed Billy Clark because...” He was stumped.
Catherine finished for him. “Because you were jealous that Billy Clark was getting everything you wanted.”
“So not only will you have ten special circumstance murders on your sheet, you’ll have five additional homicides,” said Matt. “And you should also know that we have an expanded warrant to search your house and the Fish & Brew for any evidence in the Rena Brown stabbing.”
“Oh, God—I did not kill Rena. Please, you have to believe me! I didn’t!”
“You’ve asked for your lawyer, so we cannot ask any more questions. Unless you would like, on the record, to waive that right and continue to talk to us.”
He stared at Matt and shook his head.
Now he looked scared more than angry. Even more scared than he had been when he walked in.
“I didn’t kill Rena. I liked her! I didn’t set those bombs. I never would. I swear.”
He didn’t say he didn’t kill Stevens or Mott. He didn’t say he didn’t kill his ex-girlfriend, or the teacher, or the student.
Matt glanced at Catherine. She had noticed the same thing.
They left the room.
“I thought he was going to confess,” Matt said when they were back in the conference room. “You did good.”
“He never denied killing the others.”
“He had a lot of denials in there, Catherine.”
“He denied planting the bombs. He denied killing Rena Brown. He did not deny killing the other five people.”
“Maybe because he knows there’s no evidence? Hard to prove?”
