The Defenseless (18 page)
Authors: Carolyn Arnold
Paige and Zachery went into the animal shelter and were greeted by Alisha holding onto the cat again.
“You’re back?” Alisha regarded Paige’s hand. “The warrant?”
“You would be correct.” Paige gave it to her. Although happy the legality had finally come together, she couldn’t help but wonder why some were issued so much faster than others. “Would Kim Delaney be here?”
“Absolutely. I will get her for you. Actually, why don’t you just follow me back?” Clutching the piece of paper, Alisha ran her hand down the cat’s back, loose hairs flying out in its wake.
Kim Delaney was at her desk, tapping away on the keyboard. She stopped typing, but didn
’t seem as pleased to see them as Alisha had been. “Agents?”
“They have a warrant, Kim.” Alisha handed the paperwork over and stepped back.
Delaney examined it and dropped it on her desk.
“Well, then. It seems I can help you out. If you want to have a seat while you wait, this will take a while.”
Alisha slipped out of the room.
“We understand it will, but if you could answer a few quick questions first,” Zach said.
“Sure.” The single word was drawn out.
“Kent Fields. He was a large donor, but did he ever get hands-on involved?”
“I don’t think so. He was too busy with his publishing career. Otherwise, I think he would have. Kent Fields—what a tragedy there.”
News spread fast, and bad news had wings.
“It was. We had asked you before about any volunteers who would get really upset over animal abuse cases.”
Delaney nodded.
“We got the impression you had some names.”
“There are so many of them. Honestly, even I get worked up. To witness what people—we’ll say
people
in quotations—do, it breaks my heart. They are more animal than the animals.”
“You had told us about how the charges work last time we were here. There would be a lot of anger when this is being executed I would assume,” Paige said.
“Absolutely. It’s in the core of mankind—at least I believe so—to find justice. We know that we’re only the first step in getting this for those animals. The rest is out of our hands.”
“Did you ever have anyone become physically violent at one of these scenes, or afterward?”
Delaney gave it a few seconds, deep in thought.
“I do remember this guy from years ago. Darn, what was his name? He actually put his hands on the dog owner’s neck. A few of us had to pull him off.”
“And you don’t remember his name?” Zach asked.
“No, sorry. It should be written up in a file somewhere. I’m not sure. You’ll be getting everything I have.”
“You mentioned most of you get angry. Anyone else stand out to you?”
“There is someone.” Her eyes flickered as if she hesitated to share the name. “He would see what these people did and say that there’s one thing that could move him to murder. Thing is, he didn’t strike me as a violent person, but the way he would get this twitch in his cheek when he spoke about it.”
“About
it
?”
Delaney leveled eyes with Zach.
“He said he’d have no problem repaying these people in kind for their treatment against these animals. Said that they deserved it for what they had done.”
“You mentioned he’d speak about it
after
seeing what they had done. Was he a volunteer?”
There were several seconds of silence that followed Turner
’s question to Larson about whether he should give us any details. I had an inkling, and I was certain Jack did as well.
“Should you tell us
what
?” Jack asked, nailing in the fact that we needed answers now.
“Brent just came from Howell’s place,” Larson said. The ever-present grin had finally subsided. “We’re just doing our jobs.”
“Just doing your jobs? Hmm.”
“Listen it’s not like it’s illegal to talk to people. You can’t stop us…free speech and all.”
“Why did you go?” Jack asked Turner.
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
“You’re the one who covered the story originally, when Howell was charged. I’m sure his wife wasn’t too happy to see you.”
Turner
’s mouth gaped open. No words came out.
“How did she react to seeing you there?”
Larson held both hands, palms out, motioning for Turner to lay it all out there for us.
“We hear everything over the police scanners. We knew that Howell was missing. We also know about his past. Obviously.” Turner’s eyes went between Jack and me. “It was decided since I had history there, I would cover the piece. I actually fought for it.”
Regret was evident on both Turner
’s and Larson’s faces.
“I’d like to know why you fought for it,” Jack said.
“Really? It’s big news. Two men have been killed and another one goes—”
“Jump ahead to the real reason.”
Turner pressed his hands on his thighs, and then one of them reached down and brushed the top of his laptop bag. Seemingly content it was still there, he angled his head to the left and continued.
“It was my opportunity for a breakout story.”
“It’s only about the ratings?”
Jack didn
’t seem convinced, and I held my suspicions as well. Here we’d had a man who had easy access to all animal abuse cases the paper had covered and a direct connection with Howell. Now he was eager to talk to the man’s wife? Was it just out of hunger for front-page placement, or was it to get close and find out how the investigation was being handled? A means of prodding the woman into saying things the police had asked her about?
“I can see you doubt me, both of you, but that’s all it was, I swear.”
“So you didn’t go there to get close to the investigation?”
“Yeah, but not in the way you’re implying.”
“Hmm.”
“No, seriously.” He held up his hands. “I covered this man’s case. I know you know that. But I just felt the story needed to be told by me. No one else. I was there when that dog was brought into the shelter. Well, I wasn’t there, I saw it anyway. It was barely alive and then it was pronounced.”
Turner
’s voice held grief and anger.
“Sounds like you were quite mad about it.”
“Of course I was. Have you ever seen an abused animal…after?”
His question put me back in time, to when Deb was home. It was impossible for her to watch those television commercials that depicted neglected or injured animals. In contrast, I couldn
’t imagine it having the same effect on Jack. Turner was trying to elicit empathy from the wrong man.
“I’ve seen worse,” was Jack’s answer.
His
statement was enough to cloak the room in silence. I figured he referred to both his job with the FBI and his military service.
His phone vibrated and he answered.
His eyes shifted from Larson, and then settled on Turner.
“We’re with him right now.”
Turner swallowed roughly and audibly. He reached for the bag at his feet and picked it up. He was good at reading body language and when Jack told him he
’d be coming with us, he was calmer than Larson, who yelled out behind us.
“I’ll get you a lawyer. Don’t say anything.”
’s future.
Brent Turner
’s confident demeanor had been replaced by panic. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes jabbed about the room. I imagined he was thinking about his future and how it was a bleak projection.
The lawyer that Larson had promised still hadn
’t shown up, and Turner, who must have been more eager to get things moving along, waived away his right.
Jack sat across from him in the interrogation room. I stood behind him, against the wall.
Jack laid out a bunch of pictures in front of Turner, one by one, putting them on the table with dramatic flair.
First, the one of Simpson with his dog, followed by his body in the alley.
Second, Ellis and his dog, then his mangled body.
Third, Howell and his dog.
“It looks like we might be missing a picture,” Jack said.
Turner refused to glance at the photos.
Jack raised his voice. “
You killed these men.”
“I didn’t. I swear to you.”
“You got really angry when animals were abused.”
“Who told—yes, I did. I do. It’s wrong on so many levels.”
“Yet you reported on these cases. You put yourself around them.”
“I didn’t have much of a choice.”
“Hmm.”
“These men,” Jack pressed a finger, first to the photo of Simpson, and then Ellis, “these were old cases, dating back twenty-six years ago.”
“Yeah, I was just a baby.”
To hear him put it like that made me realize how young I was in the scheme of things myself. Turner and I were only two years apart.
“Doesn’t matter. They were killed in the last couple of weeks.”
Jack put down photographs of Karl Ball and Dean Garner.
“Who are they?”
Jack smiled. It was predatory.
“You sure you don’t know who they are?”
“Should I?”
“They went missing back in two thousand nine and ten.”
“Well, I don’t even know who they are.”
“But you know who this is?” Jack put a professional photograph of Kent Fields on the top of the rest.
Turner glanced down only for a split second.
“Of course I do.”
“What did you think of Mr. Fields?” Jack leaned back in his chair.
“I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”
“Just that. You knew him.”
“I knew
of
him.”
“Hmm.”
Turner looked past Jack to me.
“I don’t understand. Obviously you know more than I do.”
“You were up for the same award, against a Pulitzer-winning journalist. It must have been quite an ego boost.”
Turner gave a slight nod, as if by doing so it was a confession of wrongdoing somehow.
“But you didn’t win, did you? He claimed the award at the very end. Crushing your dreams.”
“I moved on.”
“But that wasn’t the first time you ran into Kent Fields, was it?”
Turner rubbed his hands together on the table.
“I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”
“Let me refresh your memory. You both went to the same university.”
Turner blurted out a laugh.
“Years apart.”
Jack
’s face remained stoic. “But he came back to deliver a lecture, didn’t he? One you were in attendance for.”
“How do you know all this, and what are you implying? Please just tell me.” Turner addressed his words to me.
Jack turned toward me as if tagging me to take over.
I pushed off the wall.
“We believe that you framed Kent Fields for the murders of Simpson and Ellis. When things got messed up, meaning he died, wrapping his car around a tree, you had to change your victim pool.” I had elaborated on Fields’s cause of death to prompt a reaction. Turner provided none.
“Victim pool? Framing Fields? No, no way. You’re saying I’m the killer?” Turner retched into his mouth and swallowed it back down. “You can’t prove any of this.”
“Here’s the wonderful part. We can hold you for at least forty-eight hours without needing to charge you. That will give us plenty of time to ensure we have all the evidence we need.”
“No. Please. I’ll tell you anything you need to know, but I didn’t kill those people.”
Turner ran a hand through his hair, his eyes were moist with tears. Fear was embedded there.
I’m sure he was rethinking his decision to waive his right to a lawyer.
“Listen, those stories? It wasn’t my idea. It’s where the new guy starts out.”
“You seem to bring a lot of passion to the table though. The manager at the shelter said you would be willing to murder an animal abuser. She said, and I quote, that you would have ‘no problem repaying these people in kind for their treatment against these animals.’”
Turner held up a hand and took a deep breath.
“What she said, it’s true. I did say that, but I didn’t act on it.”
“We’ve got two bodies and three missing people. Somebody acted on it,” Jack said.
“Yeah,
somebody
, not me. Like I said, I’d rather be reporting other kinds of stories. You mentioned people went missing in two thousand nine and ten? I was still living in California.”
“You told us not long ago that you fought to have this story about Howell.”
“About him going missing, not about him abusing the dog. Local news, animal abuse, they’re not going to advance my career. I don’t have a choice about what I write. I’m told what to write.”
He probed my eyes and then Jack’s.
“I didn’t kill anyone.”
“You said you are assigned these stories. By whom?”
I glanced at Jack. He beat me to the question.
A knock came on the door, and Jack
’s glare had me jumping to answer.
