Madison brushed past him into the condo. “Can we come in?”
Hargrove raised his arms in the air. “Seeing as you’re already inside, why not?” He latched the door shut behind them.
She spun on her heels. “We ran into Christina Dunn on our way in.”
“I’m not sure—”
“She said she was here seeing a friend. You’re friends, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah, she mentioned you got Lacy a job working at the company she manages.”
“That’s right.”
It was obvious he wasn’t going to offer up why he hadn’t said anything about it earlier.
“Does your wife know about your affair?”
“Excuse me?” He raised his voice and shared eye contact with the both of them. “You have a lot of nerve coming in here—”
Madison glanced at Terry. “He’s really defensive.”
“I’m defensive because every time I turn around you’re accusing me of a wrongdoing.”
“But I shouldn’t be because you’ve done nothing wrong?”
“Yes. Exactly.”
“Huh.” Madison paced a few steps.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“How you got Lacy a job and held that back from us. You had known about her before she showed up at Kendal’s. That’s been proven between when you got this apartment and secured her job.”
“I didn’t think it mattered.”
“Avoided truths create doubt. Doubts can foster deceit, and deceit, to me, equals a lie.”
“I didn’t think it mattered,” he repeated himself.
“You convinced her to approach Kendal, didn’t you?”
Hargrove’s eyes filled with sorrow. “I didn’t expect him to reject her. She was getting her life together. I felt horrible.”
Madison needed more to feel empathy for the man. She thought on Kendal’s advice to Hargrove when they had first met the two men at the house.
“Do you go see women other than your wife? Kendal mentioned that’s what you get for fooling around with a ten-dollar whore.”
Hargrove looked to Terry, his eyes coated with a defensive spirit. “Yeah, in reference to himself!” Hargrove gestured a hand between him and Madison. “You might get a better response from people if you asked them questions and believed their answers.”
“People lie all the time.”
“I’m not sure what Maurice told you, but he doesn’t know me either.”
“He thinks he does.”
“Well, that’s all it is. He doesn’t know me.”
“Still stuck on why he would say that. You said he meant it in reference to himself?”
His expression hardened.
“Your wife doesn’t have any idea does she?”
“You can both leave now.” He made a movement toward the door. Madison stood in front of him.
“Lacy was pregnant.”
Hargrove’s brow compressed and his eyes misted. His legs buckled under him, but he regained his composure before falling or losing his balance. “I had no—” He shook his head and stopped talking.
“Is there something you should be telling us before we find out?”
Hargrove stood there.
“Did she threaten to go to your wife?”
He still didn’t say anything.
“You loved her? Were you going to be there for her and the baby?”
“I’m not saying it again.”
“Did you know that Lacy also had another guy? She met up with him all the time at a motel on the east end. She met him where you got her the job.”
“I didn’t kill her.” His voice was weak. He headed for the couch and dropped into it.
Madison and Terry followed him but remained standing.
“Did you kill him?” Madison asked.
“Who?” He lifted his head to look at Madison.
“Lacy’s lover is also dead. He died around the same time Lacy did. It must have made you angry, though, after all you did for her. And then she takes your baby into the bed of another man.”
“It’s not my baby.” He rose to his feet.
“How can you be so certain of that?”
“I told you it wasn’t like that with me and Lacy. I keep telling you that, but you’re not hearing it.”
“Are you willing to provide DNA to prove that?”
He studied Madison’s face. “Whatever it takes to make this go away.”
“Just one more question. When Lacy showed up at Kendal’s house, was she high?”
“No, absolutely not.”
-
Chapter 51
MADISON AND TERRY HEADED TO the lab after seeing Hargrove through the process of having his DNA collected.
In the lab, Jennifer was standing over a table peering into a microscope. She didn’t look at them when they came in.
“Have any updates for us? Where’s Cyn?”
“Out having a smoke.”
Cynthia walked into the lab as if on cue and everyone turned to her. “I was missed, I see.”
Madison walked over to her, scrunched up her face, and waved a hand in front of her nose. “And you smell.”
Cynthia stuck her tongue out at Madison.
“When are you going to stop smoking? You know it’s not good for you.”
“When are you going to stop acting like my mother?” Both women locked eyes. Cynthia smiled first.
Madison gave way. “Fine. Die of lung cancer.”
“Nice. You could have left it at fine, but nope, just one more dig. Bitch.”
Both women shared a laugh. It came to an end when they both sensed the other two pairs of eyes on them. Jennifer looked all serious, and her eyes questioned if now was a good time to be fooling around. Terry’s jaw was slightly open as if in shock Madison was all right with being called a bitch.
“It’s okay, Terry. You should know by now. I’m allowed, you’re not,” Cynthia said. She must have picked up on the same thing as Madison.
“Just as she’s really all right with me reciprocating and bossing her like a mother,” Madison added.
“The bitch thing, okay, but the mother thing,” Cynthia was smiling, “that’s pushing it a little.” The light switched in Cynthia’s eyes. “What are you guys looking for anyway?”
“Results.”
“Well, you’re about to have a bunch of them and I’ll be giving them to you all at once. I will share this news with you, though. The abrasions on Lacy Rose’s knuckles didn’t have any epithelial, however, the finger that the landlord first dug up.” Cynthia paused to smile. “It did.”
“And?”
“And I don’t have the results for you yet.”
“Come on.”
“Your case isn’t—”
“I know it’s not the only case, but I need something.”
“I’ve done my best to rush some things through for you, but I can’t do it with everything or no one else would get results.”
“Okay, what about the shovel? I’m sure it’s been analyzed. You said you have results for us but want to hand it all over at once? Give me this. Were there any fingerprints lifted from it? Were any a match?”
“I actually just got to the shovel today.” She must have noticed Madison’s look. “Don’t even start.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, I know. Hang on and I’ll compare them to your two key suspects right now.”
“Not even so much suspects in this aspect. They pretty much confessed to burying her. Proof is a lovely thing, though.”
Madison leaned against a table while the computer analyzed and cross-compared the prints from Hennessey and Bates with those pulled from the shovel. The computer chimed.
“All right. H
ere’s your proof.”
Madison read the screen. “Bates.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Hennessey’s story was he came home and found Lacy dead. Bates’s story is she was already dead when Hennessey called him down to help get rid of the body. Based on the prints, he was the only one who buried Lacy. And we already have the results on the gun we got from Bates’s apartment. Hennessey’s prints were on there. They were in on this together. Has it been confirmed if that’s the gun that killed Lacy yet?”
Cynthia glanced at Terry. “She has no patience, does she?” Back to Madison. “Sam’s got it. She’s probably firing rounds into Jell-O now.” She smiled at them due to her loose terminology.
The “Jell-O” she referred to was a product scientifically designed to be a close match in density and consistency to that of muscle tissue.
They left the lab and headed to see Samantha—Sam, as she preferred to be called. Madison found it ironic how one girl in the lab was set against having her name abbreviated and the other one preferred it.
“The gun we pulled from Bates’s apartment had Hennessey’s prints along with Lacy’s,” Madison said, recapping what they knew to brainstorm with Terry. “Okay, what are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that Bates may be telling the truth. He helped to get rid of Lacy’s body. Now that’s been confirmed with his prints on the shovel.”
“My thinking is why was he smart enough to wear gloves and keep his prints off the gun, but not enough to do so when it came to the shovel.”
“Nerves?”
“Exactly. He is telling the truth. He wasn’t there when Lacy, or Hennessey, pulled the trigger. He had time to think and prepare mentally when it came to hiding the gun. The burial of Lacy’s body was last minute, thrown upon him. He would have been emotional and irrational.”
“Yes, nervous.”
“Yes, Terry.” Madison smiled at him.
They stepped into the room and saw Sam with the gun pressed into the opening of a testing chamber. The inside was full of the material designed to simulate the reaction of human flesh.
Sam wore earmuffs to stifle the noise. She called out that she was going to fire and eased back on the trigger. A bullet lodged into the composite.
Sam was all of four-ten in height, and her nest of brown curls reached her shoulders. She pulled the muffs off when she noticed them and set the gun down.
“I take it that it’s too soon to ask if the bullet striations are a match,” Madison said.
Sam glanced at the chamber and laughed. “A little, but I am getting closer. We know that the casing found at the apartment is a match to this model of handgun. I still need to verify that it belongs to this specific gun.”
“All right, well the minute you know, call me.”
“Will do.”
Madison and Terry left Sam and headed to the interrogation room where they would be questioning Bates some more.
Outside the room, Madison said, “We’ve got to work this guy hard this time. He knows more than he’s telling us.”
“We’ve got his prints on the shovel. Wonder what he’ll think about that.”
They opened the door. Bates picked at the end of one of his dreadlocks; he let it go when they came in.
“I’ve told you everyt’ing.” He looked through them. “I don’t know what more yous want from me.”
“The truth.” Madison sat across from him. Terry walked behind him. “You told us Hennessey found her dead and wanted your help to bury Lacy’s body.”
“That’s the truth, man.”
“We have proof of that.”
His eyes lit. “Then I can’t be charged with murder.”
Madison let his comment go. “We have proof that you buried Lacy. Your prints were on the shovel.”
She tossed a morgue photo of Lacy on the table. She would withhold the fact Hennessey’s prints were on the gun. There was more here to uncover, possibly including an explanation for Thorne’s death.
Omitting some truths, she continued. “There is no sign of Hennessey anywhere. Nothing connecting him to this except for the fact that he lived in the house with her.”
Bates shifted straighter in the chair. “No, you have it wrong. He—”
“He what? Did he kill her and then ask for your help to get rid of the evidence?” It hurt Madison to refer to a once-living individual as evidence.
“It’s not like that.”
“The fact of the matter is that’s exactly what it looks like. Drugs were forced on her. Did you know that?” Madison ran with her gut feelings.
“No. No.” His head shook, sweeping his dreadlocks across his face in the motion.
“She didn’t want to do drugs anymore did she? You didn’t like that fact.” Madison settled into the chair and flung her arm over the back of it. “We’re thinking Hennessey did come home to find Lacy dead.”
His eyes lit and read, you believe me.
“We believe you killed her and left her there. I mean it would explain why you came running to help him out.”
“It’s not like that—”
“Why not call nine-one-one?”
“We were scared.”
Madison laughed. “You’re a drug dealer and you were scared?”
“No, we were. Scared. And I don’t deal drugs anymore.”
“Hennessey did, though, didn’t he? We have a witness who is willing to testify to his buying drugs the day that she and her lover died.”
“Don’t know—”
“Please don’t say you don’t know what she’s talking about,” Terry said into Bates’s ear.
Bates turned his head to the side to look at Terry. “I don’t, man.”
“Oz. The Wizard’s Cocktail. Hear of this?” Madison reined her interview back.
“You think he killed her with drugs? I thought she was shot?”
“She was shot, but by whom is still a mystery.”
“Hennessey said he found her like that.”
“We think you know more than you’re telling us. Hennessey bought Oz, two vials. We have two dead people in his circle. Coincidence? Do you want to go down with him?”
Bates went silent. His facial expression relaxed.
“You let him hide the gun in your home.” She studied his response. “There were no prints on the gun other than Lacy’s and Hennessey’s. We know a dead girl never walked it upstairs to your apartment.”
“I never touched it.” Bates lifted his shoulders and let out a deep breath.
“We know you’re telling us the truth about helping bury her, but why did you do it? Why not turn on Hennessey?”
His eyes glazed over.
“It makes me wonder what you’re hiding from us. Did he have something even larger on you? Something he could hold over your head? What was it?” Madison softened her approach at the end hoping to draw him out. There was truth in this mess, but Madison couldn’t see it clearly yet.
His two hands covered his face.
“If you talk to us, we can help you. If you don’t—”
“None of it went according to plan.” Bates looked at her, but Madison didn’t say anything. “He came home, a’ight. Found her dead.”
“It doesn’t explain the struggle.”
Bates now avoided eye contact.
“Lacy struggled with someone. We believe it was to avoid being shot up with a drug known on the street as Oz. She hadn’t used for weeks prior to that.”
“You know about—”
Madison cocked her head.
Tears filled Bates’s eyes. “I loved her. Hennessey, he used her. Thought she was a good ticket item. When he found out about her rich boyfriend, the condo, the job she got, he held it over her. Told her she didn’t deserve any of it.” He wiped tears from his cheeks. “There was a spar
k of life startin’ in her. Hennessey hated the freedom she reached for. I think he hated it more so because she was having success with it. I loved seeing her happy.” Bates sniffled. “But she got into drugs again. She had told me the day before she died that she didn’t deserve life.”
Madison thought about their theory of the killer manipulating Lacy into pulling the trigger, bringing her down with thoughts that she wasn’t worthy of a second chance. She still wasn’t fully buying what Bates’s was saying, but she would play along.
“Did she say why?”
“Yeah, she listed off several reasons.” His eyes met Madison’s and sparked with sarcasm.
“Mind sharing one?”
“Her baby.”
So, he knew about that. “Why would that make her feel unworthy?”
“She thought of it as a gift but didn’t think she deserved it.”
This was the first time they heard about this. Everyone they had asked told them she seemed happy. “Okay, so do you know why she went from determined to change to feeling unworthy?”
He slowly shook his head.
“When you got downstairs to help dispose of Lacy, what was Hennessey like?”
“He was freaking out. Said he never expected it to be like this.”
“To be like this?”
Bates looked at her and Madison knew from his eyes there was so much more that he wasn’t saying.
“What aren’t you telling us?”
“I don’t know.” Two hands lifted in surrender. “That’s what he said.”
“And you didn’t ask what he meant by that?”
“Lacy was dead. In front of me.”
“Where was the gun when you came into Hennessey’s apartment?”
“It was on the floor beside her.”
Madison thought about the scenario. If Lacy had shot herself, the hand that had held the gun would have dropped down to her lap and the gun would have slid to the floor. But that would be easy for Hennessey to figure out and stage for Bates’s benefit.
“Did he say anything else to you?”
“Just that she was high—”
“She wasn’t dead when he came home.”
Caught in a lie, his eyes deadlocked with Madison’s.
“You said that Lacy was dead when he came home. If she was, how did he know she was high?”
Found Innocent Page 20
