The Pursuit of Lies (Book #4, Paradise Valley) (19 page)

“Oh, yes, of course, I know that. But let’s act as if you were profiling Allison Laraway’s killer, what would you say? You know—what is your gut telling you here, Doc?”

“Hmmm, let me see.” He paused and his gaze drifted up to the left side of the screen.

From watching Dr. Walter’s facial expression and eye movements, Emily could tell he was honestly trying to think it through.

“As you already know, Ms. Laraway was stabbed nine times in the chest. It appears, because of the minimal blood loss, that the first stab went directly into the heart and stopped it, whether by accident or on purpose, I can’t say. But what I can tell you is that Colin, or whoever stabbed her, must have been extremely angry.”

“How do you know that?”

“This stabbing reminds me of the movie
Psycho
—you know that old movie?”

“Is this really necessary?” Kingsley asked.

Dr. Walters halted and turned toward the man. “You’re only here to observe, Detective, so please let me continue.” He came back to the screen and went on. “The
Psycho
movie, where Norman Bates stabs the woman in the shower at the Bates motel, like this?” Dr. Walters demonstrated the furious stabbing with his right arm flying up and down.

“Yes, I remember that old movie. The guy was really nuts. I had nightmares for months after I watched that scene. But what does that movie have to do with this murder?”

“Well, sorry to say, that’s the way Ms. Laraway was killed. Whoever stabbed her had to be filled with rage like ol’ Norman Bates.”

“What do you mean?” Kingsley asked. “Colin Andrews stabbed the woman.”

Dr. Walters whipped his head around toward the off-camera voice. “Detective, please.”

Emily caught movement in her peripheral vision. Colin was standing off to her side. His eyes were lit up and his arms were flailing about excitedly. From where he stood, Emily assumed he could see the computer screen without being picked up by the laptop’s camera.

Keeping her hand low, she wagged it around, attempting to shoo him away, trying not to let on that she noticed him, so the doctor wouldn’t pick up the fact that someone else was in the room with her.

“That’s exactly the kind of thing I was looking for, Doc.” It was time to end this conversation. “I truly appreciate your help. We’ll find whoever did this horrific thing and put him away.”

Detective Kingsley jumped into camera view behind the medical examiner. “We already know who did it.”

“Emily, you really believe Colin Andrews didn’t do it?” Dr. Walters asked.

She could see Kingsley spin away in exasperation. “I’m sure of it, Doc,” she said.

“Well, call me anytime, Ms. Parker, if you have any more questions. I’ll do whatever I can to help see that the right person is put behind bars for this heinous crime.”

“Thanks, Doc. I’ll be in touch.” Emily closed the program and turned toward Colin, whose eyes were bulging and his face growing red, as if he was about to explode. “What is it?”

“I think I know who might have killed Allison. Like Doc Walters just said—Bates!”

“You mean like Norman Bates?”

“Yes, but the guy’s name is Kevin Bates. Hearing his last name again made me think of him.”

“Was he on the list?” Emily asked.

“No, because the records probably show my partner as the arresting officer.”

“Okay, so tell me, who is Kevin Bates?”

“When I was still a patrolman, there was an accident where a little girl was killed. She was about six years old, riding her bike, and she was hit by a car. My partner and I were first on the scene.”

“Did the driver stop?”

“Yes, but it was too late. The little girl died on impact.”

“How does this Kevin Bates fit in?”

“He was the girl’s dad.” Colin paused, appearing to think back over the accident. “The driver claimed the girl darted out into the street from between the parked cars and he couldn’t stop in time.”

“I don’t understand. Why would the girl’s dad want to set you up for murder? It sounds like nothing more than a terrible accident.”

“The driver was a twenty-one-year-old college student who lived in that neighborhood. His father was a police detective I knew, and he showed up on the scene about the same time my partner and I did. Mr. Bates claimed the driver was texting while he was driving, that he saw the phone in the guy’s hand, but when we went to search for the phone, it was missing. The driver started to deny it and his father told him not to say anything.”

“Did you believe him?”

“We searched the car and the driver, but we didn’t find a phone on him.”

“Do you think his father could have taken it to protect his son?”

“Could have, but I couldn’t accuse him. I had no evidence pointing to that.”

“Couldn’t you have gotten his phone records from the cell company?”

“We did. It showed he had received a text about five minutes before the accident, but it didn’t show him sending one out. The last thing it showed was a call to his father.”

“You think he might have been writing a text and it was never sent? Maybe even erased by the father before anyone saw it?”

“It could have happened that way, or it could not have. It was all conjecture. I was trying to make detective, so accusing a senior detective of something like that without any proof would have been suicide to my career.”

“So, you think that’s why Kevin Bates might have it out for you? After all these years?”

“No, that’s not even the half of it.”

“What else happened?”

“As you can imagine, after losing their little girl, he and his wife were grief-stricken. Then, seeing the young man that killed his daughter get off scot-free…well, that just made him absolutely furious.” Colin shook his head slightly. “That’s a bad combination.”

“What happened?”

“The young guy was still in college and Bates apparently stalked him, waiting for a chance to confront him. He waited for the kid outside of a bar a bunch of the college kids liked to hang out at. The kid came out one night by himself and wandered down the street to his car. Bates was waiting for just this kind of opportunity. He had a baseball bat, and he beat the guy within an inch of his life. Put him in intensive care. The kid nearly died.”

“How did you know it was Kevin Bates who attacked him?”

“When the driver was up to it, he gave our sketch artist a pretty good description of his attacker. I recognized him from the drawing. Worse yet, the young man’s dad, the detective, recognized him too. I had just made junior detective that week, so I grabbed my partner and we hurried to the Bates’ house to make the arrest before the driver’s dad got there.”

“You think the other detective would have hurt Mr. Bates?”

“He was pretty much of a hot head, so yeah, I think he would have beaten him badly before arresting him. Probably accuse him of resisting arrest.”

“What happened after that?”

“I was called to testify at Bates’ trial about the vehicular accident that set the whole thing in motion. His wife sat a couple of rows behind him and cried through the whole thing. He was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.”

“Poor guy, losing his little girl like that,” Emily said.

“It gets worse.”

“How?”

“His wife was so distraught over the loss of their daughter, and then with her husband being sent to Folsom Prison, I heard she committed suicide a few months later.”

“Oh, Colin,” Emily gasped.

“We’ll have to see if he’s out of prison yet and where he is,” Colin said. “I don’t know for sure if Bates is our guy, but he’s certainly worth checking out.”

“Does he have the tech skills to pull off this frame job?”

“Yeah, I believe so.” He nodded. “As I recall, he was a software engineer of some sort. And I remember hearing he had mad skills, the kind of person who could probably hack into the Pentagon’s network if he wanted to.”

~*~

Colin shot off an email to one of his contacts in the SFPD and asked for all the information he could gather on Kevin Bates. He received an immediate reply, stating he’d get back to Colin as soon as he had it collected.

Next, Colin phoned his good friend SFPD Detective Charlie Spencer, who had been digging up information on the felons that Colin and Ernie had given him. Charlie had approached the suspect, Bruce Younger, the man that made the trip to California necessary, and they had set an appointment to meet that day at three p.m.

“I’ll pick Younger up and you can question him, Colin.”

“I’m sure you know I can’t do it at the police station. We’ll have to pick another location.”

“Yeah, I figured. Where do you want to meet? Golden Gate Park? Ghirardelli Square?”

“Somewhere there are no security cameras.”

“How about the beach across from Playland? Or the parking lot of the Cow Palace?”

“The beach sounds best. Emily and I will be in disguise, but I’d rather avoid any cameras, if possible.”

“Disguise? How will I know you?”

“I’ll have a brownish-red wig and dark mustache, and I’ll be with a good-looking blonde.”

“Talk about standing out in a crowd,” Charlie chuckled.

“As long as no one can pick me out of a line up, I’m good with that.”

“Okay then, meet us at the northern-most bench between the beach and the parking lot.”

“Thanks, Charlie. See you at three.”

~*~

Colin and Emily said their good-byes to his folks, once more wearing their disguises. Following the tearful farewell hugs, they were on their way to confront Bruce Younger.

As they drove to the beach, Colin pulled over and made a quick call to Ernie to let him know he was all right, that he and Emily wanted to get away for a long and relaxing drive through the Sawtooth Mountains, and that they may not be back until the next day.

“Don’t worry about me, Ernie. Emily is taking good care of me. We just need some time away to think things through, figure out where to go next in the investigation. When we get back, we’ll hit the case hard again.”

“I don’t understand, I thought you were hot to find the killer,” Ernie replied.

“I am, but we can’t do much until we hear back from our friends in the SFPD. Trust me, Ernie, a day or so away from the case will do me good.”

“But—”

“Please, just trust me, Ernie.”

With that done, Colin focused on the task before him. Having Kevin Bates now on his radar, it was a toss-up which one of these guys would move into prime-suspect position. Until he could personally interrogate Younger, he had to consider both men as Allison’s possible killer.

As they drove across the city, Colin’s mind filled with questions about Bruce Younger. What could be so important that Younger would only speak with him and adamant it had to be in person? This whole clandestine road trip was at his insistence.

It had better be worth it.

Colin glanced over at Emily, who had been unusually quiet during the drive. “Are you okay over there, Babe?”

Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest and her expression looked serious as she stared blankly ahead. “I’m fine.” She turned toward him, and he noticed her eyes were moist. “I was just thinking about your mom and dad. They’re such sweet people. This must be unspeakably difficult for them.”

“I’m sure it is, especially on top of Dad’s heart attack. I don’t want to be the cause of him having another. Just one more reason to solve this case fast. The sooner we find the real killer the better.”

“Yes,” she muttered, turning and looking out the passenger window, “the sooner the better.”

Colin pulled the Honda into the parking lot abutting the beach, across from the historic Playland amusement park. He squeezed the car into a space, cordoned off from the sand by a row of old railroad ties.

He slipped a pair of sunglasses on, as did Emily, hoping to give their identities additional protection. Climbing out of the vehicle, he scanned the beach for the park bench located farthest to the north.

“Down that way,” he called to Emily as she exited the car, pointing to the right.

He reached out for her hand as he came around the front of the car, grasping it and leading her to the appointed meeting spot. She took a seat on the bench and gazed out over the Pacific Ocean, gray as it reflected the dark cloud cover. Colin stood beside her and visually searched the area for the detective and Mr. Younger.

He spotted two men approaching and recognized them as they came closer.

“Andrews?” Detective Spencer asked as he came within a few feet. He threw his cigarette on the sand and twisted his shoe over it before stopping in front of the bench. He was about the same age as Colin, but the years had been harder on him. Straight black hair slicked back made his prominent nose even more so. He wore the typical sport coat and tie that had seen better days.

Colin put out his hand and Charlie grabbed it and shook it.

Emily rose from the bench, her blonde locks ruffling in the ocean breeze. She pulled her cropped leather jacket tighter around her chest and crossed her arms over it.

“Charlie, this is Emily Parker.” Colin wanted to add that she was his fiancée, but thought it best to keep that information from Mr. Younger.

Emily offered her hand, as well, and Charlie grasped it. “Nice to meet you, Charlie.”

“Colin tells me that you’re a private eye.” His eyes slowly roved from her face, down her long shapely legs covered by her fitted jeans, to the toes of her high-heeled black boots and back up again. “Not like any private eye I’ve ever seen.”

“You’d better watch it,” Colin warned. “She’s not just a pretty face.”

“Brains too?” Charlie asked.

“And skills,” Colin said. “Emily can take down a man twice her size and outshoot most.”

Emily gave Colin a half-smile, apparently appreciating his assessment of her.

“Every man’s dream—a sexy woman with a gun.” Charlie snickered and turned his gaze to Colin. “And you remember our friend, Bruce Younger, don’t you?”

“Of course. Have a seat, Bruce.” Colin motioned toward the bench.

“I’d rather stand.” Bruce Younger didn’t look like your typical criminal, more like a college student. He appeared to be in his late twenties, clean-shaven, with his wavy chestnut hair cut in a modern shaggy style. His clothes were trendy but understated, layers of grays and black.