Savage Lane (34 page)

Instead of letting Nick’s belittling tone get to him, Larry threw it back at his superior, going, “Do you mean does she have an alibi? Not really. She dropped her son at a sleepover at around seven on Saturday evening and she said she returned home afterward. There’s no reason to believe she’s lying about this, but she says that no one saw her at home until her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend arrived at approximately eleven-fifteen on Saturday evening. So is it possible she met Deborah sometime during that time? Yes, it’s possible. Do I think she did? No, I do not.”

“And what’s this based on?” Nick asked. “I mean, except your gut feeling.”

“That’s all it is, a gut feeling,” Larry said.

“Fuck gut feelings,” Nick said. “If I was going on gut feelings, I’d be pulling Mark Berman in here and booking him for murder before we found any evidence or any body. My gut was screaming at me that this guy’s hiding something, his own daughter thinks he’s guilty, for fuck’s sake. Oh, and hearsay, I’ve got lots of hearsay too. I interviewed four witnesses so far who saw the incident at the country club and they all told me that it’s common knowledge that Mark and Karen Daily are having an affair. Are they actually having an affair? Did it get out of control? Who knows?”

“You got nothing from Deborah’s car, huh?” Larry asked.

“
Nada
so far,” Nick said. “But right now it looks like she went to that parking lot to meet somebody and got into the other person’s car.”

“Doesn’t it seem unlikely that that person was Karen Daily?” Larry asked. “I mean, if there was bad blood between them after the argument at the country club, why would Deb get into Karen’s car?”

“I’m with you on that,” Nick said. “But an altercation could have taken place outside and maybe the rain washed the evidence away. Unfortunately there are no security cameras in that area, so no help there either.”

“And no witnesses,” Larry said. “That’s surprising, I think, on a Saturday night.”

“The rain probably kept kids away,” Nick said. “We did find a couple of kids who said they were there that night and they thought they saw another car, but they couldn’t remember. They might’ve just seen Deborah’s.”

“What about credit card and cell phone info?”

“We have most of Deborah’s, no red flags,” Nick said. “The credit cards going back three months look pretty normal. No trips, no hotels, no restaurants. Her cell looks normal too. Her most recent calls were to family members. Her last call was to Scott Greenberg, a divorce lawyer, which jibes with what the daughter told you, about her wanting a divorce.”

“What about Mark and Karen?”

“Not much there either. Mark certainly texted with Karen frequently and there’s phone calls too, but nothing to prove one way or another that an affair was taking place. Most of the texts came from Mark, and it definitely seems like Mark has some kind of obsession going on with her. It could just be a bored married guy looking for some action on the side. But what does that tell us about what happened to Deborah?”

“Okay, I have another theory for you,” Larry said. “What if it was all a setup? Deborah’s unhappy in her marriage, suffering from depression maybe, so she decides to disappear and ditches her car in a place where she knows there are no security cameras.”

“Okay,” Nick said, “then where’d she go?”

“Maybe she ran away, left the country,” Larry said. “She could’ve gotten into another car, or taken a cab somewhere.”

“Then why was she looking up divorce lawyers?”

“Part of the setup, to throw us off? Okay, I admit there are holes but, okay, what if it’s something else? What if it’s part of a suicide plan?”

“A little elaborate for suicide, don’t you think? What’s wrong with the ol’ slitting your wrists in the bathtub or OD’ing on pills?”

“If she was pissed off at her husband, maybe she hoped he’d be blamed,” Larry said. “Or, okay, maybe it was about her kids, she didn’t want to put them through the trauma of finding her body.”

“Interesting,” Nick said, “but before we start checking the borders, I think we have to focus on the idea that she was meeting somebody at that parking lot. There are no cameras there, and she probably knew that, so why do people meet at a spot where there are no cameras?”

“Maybe Deborah was the one having the affair, not Mark,” Larry said. “Maybe that’s why she left Saturday night without saying where she was going, and maybe that’s why she was the one looking up divorce lawyers. Maybe she met her lover at that parking lot and an altercation took place or they went somewhere.”

“I don’t know,” Nick said. “Don’t you think it’s a little weird that a woman in her forties would meet her lover in the parking lot of a high school?”

“No weirder than her meeting Karen Daily there,” Larry said.

“The problem is we haven’t found anybody who’s even suggested Deborah was fucking somebody. All I hear about is Mark and Karen. And there was nothing on Deb’s phone to suggest that.”

“People who cheat get disposable phones,” Larry said.

“Yeah, so?”

“Can we take a closer look at the call histories on their phones? See if any numbers are called frequently from month to month.”

“What’ll that get us if we don’t know whose numbers they are?”

“We can recheck the credit card info,” Larry said, “see if anybody bought a disposable phone and charged it. I worked on a case a few years ago where a guy thought he was being clever, using a disposable, but he bought it on his AmEx. Once we had the phone number we were able to pull up his texts and calls from the carrier.”

“Sounds like a long shot, but we’ll check it out,” Nick said. “I still think our priority now has to be Mark and Karen, trying to find holes in their alibis.”

“Speaking of alibis, there was one thing that struck me as a little odd in my talk with Karen Daily today,” Larry said. “I’m really not sure what to make of it.”

“Okay…” Nick seemed intrigued.

“Well, she told me her daughter’s boyfriend saw her at home Saturday night. I asked her what her boyfriend’s name is and she said, ‘Owen Harrison.’”

“So?”

“So I knew that name sounded familiar and I asked her if it’s the Owen Harrison whose mother is Linda Harrison and she said, ‘Yes, it is.’ I didn’t question her further about it, because I didn’t think it necessarily meant anything, but it’s still nagging at me.”

“You lost me,” Nick said.

“About three years ago Owen Harrison’s ex-babysitter disappeared,” Larry said. “Her name was Melanie Foster.”

“Right, right, I was working Narcotics, but I remember that case,” Nick said. “Melanie Foster. College kid, going to Oneonta. But she was a runaway, right?”

“That’s what her parents thought, and still think. She’d threatened to run away before and, even though her life seemed stable at the time, it seemed like the most likely scenario. There was nothing to indicate otherwise, anyway, but it’s been three years and no one’s heard a word about her.”

“So what does this have to do with Owen Harrison?” Nick asked. “Was he a suspect?”

“No, not really,” Larry said. “He was home with his mother at the time Melanie was last seen, that was his alibi, but I remember a feeling I got when I interviewed him, a feeling that something was off. He was, I don’t know, too slick, too cool for somebody his age. I thought he may have had a relationship with Melanie. People had seen them together, and some of Melanie’s friends suspected something was going on, but I couldn’t prove they’d had an actual relationship. Then, today, I thought it was odd when his name popped up again.”

“Okay, so his name popped up,” Nick said. “What does that mean? So he’s dating Karen Daily’s daughter. What does that have to do with Deborah Berman?”

“Nothing, I guess.”

“Exactly, that’s why…” Nick looked like he was having a brainstorm. “Hold up a sec.” He opened his pad, said, “Yeah, I thought that sounded familiar. Owen Harrison’s name popped up at one of my interviews today too.” Nick was looking at a page in the pad. “At the country club today, I was doing a follow up with Jenna Frisco, the bartender at the club, and I asked her what other club employees witnessed the fight and one of the names she mentioned was Owen Harrison.”

“I think it’s worth looking into,” Larry said. “If Owen works at the country club he could’ve met Deborah there. And if he was involved with Melanie there’s a chance he was involved with Deborah.”

“That’s a lot of could’ves and chances,” Nick said.

“True, but I’m telling you, there’s something off about this kid,” Larry said. “He’s a smooth operator. Deborah could’ve been lonely in her marriage, felt adventurous. Maybe he’s the one she went to meet at the high school parking lot. If we check Owen’s phone records we might find something.”

“Hey, I love the Patriot Act as much as the next cop,” Nick said, “but we can’t go around checking phone records based on hunches.”

Larry knew Nick was right, but said, “There’s always a way to get a warrant. If we can prove he’s a suspect.”

“A suspect based on what? We have nothing on him.”

“Yet,” Larry said.

“Look,” Nick said, “if you want to check out Owen because he witnessed the fight at the club and may give us some info we don’t have, go for it. But right now it’s just a theory, like all the other theories, and we still have to focus on Karen and Mark, and to see if we can find a witness at that parking lot. I have to go take a leak.”

Nick walked away, down the hall.

Larry went into his office, sat at his desk, when his cell vibrated. As always, he was happy when he saw “Stu” on the display, but he didn’t have time to get into a conversation right now.

“Hey, how are you?”

“Okay,” Stu said.

“Sorry, I’m swamped right now, bro, can we talk later?”

“Actually, we can’t.”

“Everything okay, man?”

“No, not really.”

Larry went over, shut his office door, and said, “Where are you?”

“Driving.”

The line was silent. Now Larry was seriously concerned; this wasn’t like Stu at all. “Are you sure you’re okay? Where are you driving to?”

“Nowhere. Just driving. I told Janet I was going out for milk.”

“What’s going on? Talk to me, man.”

Long silence.

“Stu, you—”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay… It’s just…”

Stu was normally talkative, very direct.

“You’re scaring me, bro,” Larry said.

“Sorry. It’s just… well, Janet’s suspicious. She knows I’ve been out a lot, and she seemed to believe my excuses, but now she’s suddenly asking lots of questions. I don’t know, maybe because of what’s going on with Mark and Karen in the news. Maybe it put ideas in her head or some shit.”

“Fuck,” Larry said, though he was thinking,
Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe they needed openness, transparency. Maybe they needed to get this all out in the open and put an end to the sneaking around bullshit
.

“It’s bad, man, it’s bad,” Stu said. “She asked me point blank if I’m cheating on her. I said no, of course, but I’m a shitty liar. I can’t keep up a lie, not for a long time anyway. I’m afraid she’ll start checking up on me now, and I’m afraid the kids’ll find out and… I can’t deal with that kind of drama in my life, I just can’t.”

“Maybe it’s—” Larry was going to say “for the best.”

But Stu cut him off. “She said she’s been suspecting something for a while. What’s the word she used? Aloof. Yeah, she said I’ve been acting aloof. See, I told you I’m a shitty liar.”

“I’m sorry,” Larry said, but he was more relieved than sorry. He was glad that the secret was getting out, that a door was finally opening to a future with Stu.

“I’m sorry too, man,” Stu said. “You know I didn’t want it to end this way.”

It was happening—Stu was talking about ending his marriage. The moment Larry had been fantasizing about for months was finally here. He could stop living in fear that he would lose the love of his life, and they could start building a future together. They could wake up every day in the same bed, plan trips, do the things that all couples do and take for granted. Except they’d never take anything for granted. They’d always cherish their time together.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be there for you, bro,” Larry said. “I’ll help you through it.”

“
Through
it?” Stu asked. “What do you mean,
through
it?”

“Your break up with Janet,” Larry said. “I know it’ll be rough, but I’ll be there for you.”

“Whoa, I’m not talking about leaving my
marriage
,” Stu said. “Are you fuckin’ high? I told you I’d never do that.”

Stu had never told Larry this, that was bullshit, a total lie, but Larry was too shocked and confused to get upset.

“Wait,” Larry said. “What… w-hat’re you—”

“I’m sorry man, it’s for the best,” Stu said. “We can’t see each other anymore, and you can’t call me or text me either. I need a clean break now, no contact.”

“What?” Larry had heard Stu, but he couldn’t fully comprehend the meaning of the words. This wasn’t right—this wasn’t right at all. How had this gone from fantasizing about a life together to no contact, from life to death, in just a few seconds?