Found Innocent

by Carolyn Arnold

  Bates sat there, blinking rapidly.

  Terry slammed his hands on the table. “Answer the question.”

  Bates jumped. “It doesn’t really matter what I say now, does it? I’m going to prison.”

  Madison nodded. Bates visibly swallowed.

  Terry walked around the table and stood beside Madison.

  “Do you believe Hennessey found her dead?” Madison asked.

  Bates shook his head. “Someone was going to pay us to kill her. And before you ask, I don’t know his name.”

  She thought back to what Hennessey had said to Bates. It wasn’t supposed to be like that. Maybe he never expected to feel any remorse, or it could be because of the mess it made.

  “You have no idea who paid you?”

  “He paid us cash. He left it in an envelope in the mailbox. A few hundred up front, a grand upon completion.”

  For a mere thirteen hundred they were willing to kill Lacy, a woman Bates professed to care for. It was disgusting.

  “Why did this man want her dead?”

  “Don’t know. Don’t care.”

  Madison slammed a fist on the table. “You want anything to work in your favor, get talking.”

  Bates rolled his eyes. “He said that she needed to go.”

  “How did he communicate with you?”

  “E-mail.”

  “We’ll need to see it.”

  “Can’t.”

  Madison exhaled loudly. “What do you mean can’t?”

  Silence.

  “You better start talking.”

  “He contacted us through a video game.”

  “A video game?”

  “Yeah. Online you can set up friends and have private rooms. You can communicate via messaging.”

  “Which game and what’s the guy’s name on there?”

  Bates sucked in on his bottom lip. “I want to talk a deal.”

  Madison scoffed laughter and looked to Terry. “He wants to talk a deal.” She faced Bates. “Guess it depends on what you have for us.”

  “You need to have played a round with ’em or be live friends.”

  “Live friends?”

  “Xbox.” He stared through them as if they were ancient not to know about it.

  “Okay. Name?”

  “His handle is Slayer1962.”

  “WE’VE GOT TO GET A hold of a gaming system and find this guy. There has to be some way for them to trace back usernames to billing addresses.”

  “There is—” Terry’s words froze when Madison stared at him. “What? I like to play sometimes.”

  “You play video games?”

  “Yes, I do.” He seemed proud of that fact. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

  “Terry, you’re thirty-one years old.”

  “I fail to see your point.”

  Madison laughed. “Who’s going to be the biggest kid in the house, the new baby, or you?”

  “Hey.”

  He trailed her as she headed back to their desks. They sat down across from each other.

  “What if the altercation between Hennessey and Lacy wasn’t the result of him forcing drugs on her? What if it was a struggle for the gun?” Madison asked.

  Terry’s eyes sparked with the revelation she had. “Hennessey wanted to be the one to pull the trigger—”

  “We could be looking at this the wrong way. Maybe in her altered mind, she did choose to kill herself.”

  “Remember Hennessey’s prints on the gun.”

  “Still strange, though. If you were going to kill someone, why do it in your house? Why not somewhere that has no connection?”

  “You know who we’re dealing with here.”

  “Suppose you’re right. Remember when we went and saw Peter Hargrove’s wife?”

  “His nephew was there.”

  “He was playing a video game.”

  “You think this will tie back to Hargrove? Why would he want her dead?”

  “Going back to my original theory, maybe Lacy was going to cross the line and cost him everything.” Madison went quiet, mulling over the different angles. “We can’t just go running back to Hargrove though.”

  “A fourth time is too much?”

  She narrowed her eyes. “He willingly gave us his DNA. It was almost too easy to get it. But first things first. Since you’re all savvy on the gaming thing,” Madison whirled her hand in a circulation motion, “see if you can track the player down to a real name and address. I’ll go update the sarge before he smells the leads in the case and accuses me of not communicating.”

  “It’s a good thing I’m sitting down or I’d fall down.”

  She smiled at him, knowing that his comment had to do with the fact she usually did all she could to avoid status updates.

  “Don’t you have phone calls to make?”

  Terry laughed. “It shouldn’t be too hard to get the information we need anyway. Every live account—that means connected to the Internet for live gameplay—requires a credit card and home billing address.”

  She came back thirty minutes later and she could tell by Terry’s face that he already had his answer.

  “The address for the account is twenty-one thirty Barber Avenue. That’s Peter Hargrove’s—”

  Madison was already on the move.

  THEY PULLED TO A STOP out front of the Hargrove residence. Three squad cars with five officers came as back-up.

  Madison directed four officers. “Two of you go around back. The other two of you watch the front.” She turned to the fifth officer. “You come with us.” She rapped her knuckles on the door.

  “Stiles PD. Open up!” She knocked again and repeated the request. “One last chance! Stiles PD!”

  She stepped aside, freeing the way for the officer to forcibly enter.

  “Stiles PD! We’re coming in!” She motioned to the officer.

  The door opened just before the officer lunged at it.

  “Whoa!” Peter Hargrove stood there looking at all of them as if they had gone mad.

  She handed him the warrant to search his premises.

  “What’s this?”

  “Put your hands behind your back!” Madison yelled at him. “Now!”

  Hargrove tossed the warrant to a nearby hall table, turned, and placed his hands behind his back.

  Terry moved past him toward the television area where the boy had been playing before. He opened cabinet doors until he found the gaming console. He turned on the television and the console and found the right input.

  “What is this about?” Hargrove protested.

  “Are we looking good?” Madison asked Terry.

  A window opened on the screen, saying “Sign into Xbox Live.”

  Terry said, “Oh yeah, we’re good. His account name is Slayer1962.”

  -

  Chapter 52

  “YOU THINK HE PAID THE kids to kill the girl?” Sergeant Winston stood with his hands on his hips, his paunch tugging on the fabric of his shirt.

  “The account links back to his house,” Madison said.

  They had fully updated the Sergeant on how the Xbox account that hired Hennessey and Bates to kill Lacy traced back to Hargrove. He had approved the request for them to obtain a search warrant, but he wanted to discuss things further.

  “Still, can you prove he’s the one that propositioned these kids? Could anyone log on under his handle? What’s the man’s motive?”

  “Lacy was pregnant—”

  “From what I understand, we still don’t know who the father is.”

  “No, but it’s being worked on. But even if he wasn’t the father, he put everything on the line for her. He set her up with healthcare and a condo. He finds out she’s hooking up with this other guy, Kevin Thorne. Maybe he got jealous
when she didn’t return his affection and thought he’d take care of it. He didn’t care if Hennessey and Bates went away. They were part of Lacy’s downfall.”

  “And if he is the father of her baby, she could have threatened to go to the wife.” The Sergeant finished the line of thought.

  Madison nodded. “A possibility we’ve also considered. Even if she never slept with Hargrove, say if the baby isn’t his, she could have threatened him and tried to bribe him somehow.”

  “Only one way to find out.” Winston gestured through the glass toward Hargrove inside the interrogation room.

  “Maddy, before we go in there…”

  Madison stopped outside the door. “What is it, Terry?”

  “The sarge brought up an interesting point. He said how do we know if it’s Hargrove?”

  Her foot started tapping. “I’m listening.”

  “Anyone could have logged on as Slayer1962.”

  “What do you mean? And you’re bringing this up now?”

  “Just thought of it, but all anyone needs is the handle and the password that goes with it.”

  “Ah shit. Now where does this leave us?”

  “Still looking for more proof.”

  “YOU THINK I KILLED HER?” Hargrove asked when they came into the room.

  Madison took a seat, and Terry jingled the change in his pocket, walking behind Hargrove.

  Madison opened a file folder on the table. She pulled out a morgue picture of Lacy.

  “Get that away from me.” His voice cracked. “She was a wonderful girl.”

  “A wonderful girl who slept around, did drugs and bribed you—”

  “You’ve lost your mind. Have you gotten the results back on my DNA?”

  “Did she threaten to go to your wife about the two of you?”

  “There’s no point talking to you about this.”

  “You’re looking good for conspiracy to commit murder.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You play video games online correct?”

  “Yes. What does this have to—”

  “You go by the online name of Slayer1962?”

  “Yes.” His eyes searched hers.

  “Do you know these people?” She tossed photos of Hennessey and Bates across the table.

  He picked each of them up.

  “Do you know them?” She repeated her question.

  His eyes slowly lifted from the photos. “Yes.”

  “Did you approach them to kill Lacy?”

  “Who is telling you this? Are you getting it from him?” Hargrove pressed a finger onto the photo of Hennessey. “He was no good for her. He hooked her on drugs in the first place. He beat on her.”

  “Our concern right now, is did you approach them to kill her?”

  “I’d have no reason to want her dead.”

  “Your Xbox handle.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Slayer1962 paid two people to kill Lacy.”

  “I didn’t.”

  Madison thought on Terry’s words—basically anyone could log on to a handle name with access to the password. The truth of it cast darkness over her suspicions.

  “Anyone else play under your handle?”

  “My ten-year-old nephew uses the console but come to think of it, he doesn’t log online. His mother, my sister, doesn’t think it’s good for kids to be exposed to the online world.”

  “If it wasn’t you, who else had access to your—”

  A knock came on the door.

  Terry answered to Cynthia and turned to Madison.

  Madison spoke to Hargrove. “One minute.”

  “Sure.”

  She stepped into the hallway.

  “I have your results on the fetus in Lacy’s womb, but I guarantee you that they’re not what you were expecting.” Cynthia handed the folder to Madison.

  She read the results and passed them to Terry.

  “Are you sure about this?” Madison searched her friend’s eyes.

  Cynthia nodded. “It’s the science, Maddy. It doesn’t lie.”

  -

  Chapter 53

  MADISON WENT BACK IN WITH Hargrove while Terry stayed in the observation room. She didn’t say a word but paced, her focus steady on Hargrove.

  “What is it you want from me?” He laid both hands flat on the table in front of him.

  “Earlier you identified Hennessey and Bates. How?”

  “I met them.”

  “Elaborate.” She remembered both Hennessey and Bates had said they didn’t know what Hargrove looked like. If they did, it was likely they would have pointed their finger at him for Lacy’s death by now.

  “I followed Lacy home one night.”

  “Why did you follow her?”

  “I was curious what this guy looked like—especially this Hennessey who beat on her. I also wanted to know where to point the cops if anything happened to her.”

  “And something did.” Madison dropped into a chair. “Who has access to your gaming password?”

  “Well, I guess only me and my wife.”

  “No one else?”

  “Not that I can think of.”

  “Did you notice a change in Lacy?” Madison’s thoughts were on what Bates had said about her being withdrawn and sad. He was the only person who mentioned that about her.

  Hargrove nodded. “She called me about a month ago.”

  “That’s when we placed her time of death. Why bring this up now?”

  “I know I should have said something earlier, but I didn’t want to taint her memory. She was high.”

  “Do you remember the time of day and what day of the week?”

  “Thursday night I think. It was really late.”

  “She said she did something.”

  The timeline would fit with the day of the week Thorne died.

  “What did she do?”

  “She wouldn’t tell me. She just kept saying sorry. I assumed it was because she was using again.” He analyzed Madison’s expression. “Is there more to this? What did she do?”

  Madison didn’t answer his question but rose from the table.

  In the observation room, Terry said, “You didn’t tell him the results.”

  “He doesn’t need to know right now.”

  “Maddy?”

  “I think Lacy killed Thorne.”

  “Come again.”

  “I think she killed him. Maybe he didn’t want anything to do with her. Maybe she gave him the drugs to cheer him up because he lost his job, and he went unconscious. This makes a little more sense now.”

  “What are you thinking? I know when you get that look.”

  “Lacy could have thought he was dead.”

  “She could have panicked and slit his wrists to make it look like a suicide,” Terry continued with her line of reasoning.

  “We might never know for certain. We’d have to put the razor in her hand.” Madison let out a sigh. Her thoughts were on the fact that she wouldn’t have satisfying answers to provide Vilma, except for the fact her fiancé likely didn’t leave this world willingly. She continued. “Lacy could have realized afterward what she had done. Maybe he came to when she cut him, but it was too late. There was no turning back or undoing what she had done. She didn’t know there was a good chance the drugs would have killed him anyway.”

  “Oh God.” Terry rubbed the back of his neck as if a genie in the bottle would magically appear and provide answers.

  Seconds passed. Madison sifted her fingers through her hair.

  “If Hargrove didn’t proposition Hennessey and Bates to kill Lacy, who did?”

  “He said only his wife and nephew had access to the gaming console.”

  “And only the wife was
apparently able to go online.”

  “The kid wasn’t.” Terry finished the thought.

  “The wife knew Lacy, but she didn’t understand her husband’s need to help her to the extent that he was. It would make her suspicious of an affair.”

  “Suspicious enough to kill?”

  “Why not? People have killed for a lot less. Who had the most to lose?” As their eyes met, Madison saw a fire in her partner’s eyes. “I think you’re thinking what I’m thinking.”

  -

  Chapter 54

  MADISON SLIPPED INTO THE CHAIR across from Hargrove. Terry stood by the door, hands in his pockets but not jingling change.

  “Why do you keep leaving the room?” Hargrove searched her eyes.

  “You said only your wife and nephew were on the Xbox?”

  “My wife wouldn’t do what you’re talking about.”

  “But you’re certain no one else had access to your gaming information?” She couldn’t feed him the name in her mind. She wanted him to say it.

  Hargrove shook his head briefly, and his forehead compressed as if he had a migraine. “Maurice? Maybe?”

  “He would know your password?” Madison remembered clearly how the man felt it was his responsibility to take care of Hargrove, how he felt everything the other man did would reflect on and affect him.

  “We’d play sometimes.”

  Ironically, Madison never saw Maurice Kendal as the type to sit down and play a video game.

  “I can see it on your face. We didn’t play often. But there’s always work to do. Sometimes you have to let go and unwind.”

  “Was he at your place when you played?”

  Hargrove nodded.

  “Is there any way he could have logged on as you?”

  “There was one time I went to log on, come to think of it, and it said the account was in use. I chalked it up to a technology error. A few minutes later, I was able to get in. You think he did this? He wanted to kill Lacy?”

  “You tell us. He thought you were sleeping with her.”

  “With Lacy? I don’t know why he’d—”

  “He said you sleep around on your wife regularly.”

  “Me? No. I haven’t been unfaithful a day in my life. I haven’t even looked at another woman since my wife.”