You have the right to counsel. Ifyou cannot afford an attorney, an attorney will be provided for you. Do youunderstand these rights, Mrs. Pagone?”
“I do.”
“Would you like to have an attorney present?”
“No,” she says. “I waive counsel.”
“Do you understand that I am recording this conversation?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. I’d like to go over a few things since we spoke twodays ago. First, do you have anything you’d like to say?”
“No.”
“Okay.” Czerwonka is dressed better today than two days ago.He’s wearing a crisp blue shirt and a nice silver silk tie. She figures he’sexpecting to be on camera today.
“Mrs. Pagone.” The detective reaches into a bag at his feet.He sets a large plastic bag on the table. In it is a single platinum earring.“We recovered this earring from your jewelry box yesterday. Do you acknowledgethat this is your earring?”
“I won’t answer that.”
He nods. “Can you explain to me why I found only oneearring, and not two, at your house?”
“No comment.”
“Mrs. Pagone, I’m giving you the chance to explain this forme. We found the second of these two earrings at Sam Dillon’s house.”
She stares at him. “That’s not a question.”
“Do you have any explanation for that, ma’am? How one ofthose earrings found its way to Sam Dillon’s house?”
“No comment.”
“No comment,” he repeats. “You won’t provide us anyexplanation?”
“I have nothing to say.”
“Are you familiar with a brand of fingernail polish called‘Saturday Evening Red’? Made by Evelyn Masters?”
“I have nothing to say.”
“That was the brand of polish found on the broken fingernailat Mr. Dillon’s house.”
Allison nods. Again, no question pending.
“We also found that polish in your home,” he says. “And wefound cotton balls in your garbage that contain that polish, along with tracesof nail-polish remover.”
She stares at him.
“Did you recently remove that nail polish from yourfingers?”
“No comment.”
“Were you romantically involved with Sam Dillon?”
“I already answered that, last time, Detective.”
“You said ‘no,’ last time. Is that still your answer?”
“I have nothing more to say.”
Czerwonka is not deterred. “Are you refusing to answer anyquestions at all, Mrs. Pagone?”
“It looks that way.”
“Let me-let me be candid with you, Mrs. Pagone. We have ahair follicle that looks a lot like yours, recovered from Sam Dillon’s home. Ithas the bulb still attached, which means there’s DNA. We now have a sample ofyour DNA and I think there’s going to be a match. What do you think?”
She shakes her head.
“And you know we’re going to do a DNA test on thatsweatshirt,” he adds. “You think that’s going to be your blood we find on there?Or Sam Dillon’s?”
“You’ll find what you find.”
“We’ve got your fingernail, we’ve got your earring, and wehave a silver Lexus SUV-like the one you drive-seen at Sam Dillon’s home aroundone in the morning, and we’ve got you returning to your house with mud all overyou, a little before two. We’ve got you going to Dillon’s office in the capitalthe day before he was murdered. You were shouting at him. By all accounts, itsounds like he was dumping you. Ending your relationship.”
Allison folds her arms.
“I’m giving you this chance to explain this to me, Mrs.Pagone. Look.” Czerwonka makes a face, leans on his elbows. “I could see whyyou don’t want to admit being involved with Dillon. He works alongside your ex.You two probably wanted to keep it quiet. I get that. I’d probably do the samething, if it were me. And then the thing gets complicated. He says some awfulthings to you. Breaks your heart. I’ve been there. You-you’ve had a tough go ofit. A divorce, then a rebound, then that guy dumps you, too. Your head, it’snot where it should be. You’re not doing anything like a cold, calculatedmurder. It’s like the heat of the moment, you just snap. That’s not Murder One,Mrs. Pagone. You’ve been a lawyer. You lawyers call it diminished capacity,right? Manslaughter, maybe. Maybe-who knows? Temporary insanity.”
Allison rolls her neck. She’d like to reach over and smackthis guy.
“That’s not life in prison. That’s not a needle in your arm.But see, you don’t help me out here, I have to see this thing the way it looks.Premeditated murder. I have all I need, right now, Mrs. Pagone. How we chargeyou is up to you now, not me.”
“I have nothing to say, Detective,” she says. “Do whatyou’re going to do.”
“Just-” He raises a hand. “Just talk to me about Sam. Weknow you two were an item. You told your daughter, Mrs. Pagone. Just tell mewhat you told her.”
“Do what you’re going to do, Detective. I’m not sayinganother word.”
Joe Czerwonka’s lips move into a grim smile. He shakes hishead, as if to say, you had your chance. “I’m going to place you under arrest,Mrs. Pagone,” he says, rising to his feet. “For the murder of Samuel Dillon.”
ONE DAY EARLIER…
Special Agents Shiels and McCoy for Mr. Raycroft.” IrvShiels places his hands behind his back and slowly paces the county attorney’ssuite. Raycroft has cut himself a nice piece of the floor in the countybuilding, separated himself and his assistant from the rest of the masses andspent a decent sum on redecorating. McCoy, having spent a career in publicservice, can only imagine how that one played with the rest of the office.
“Shiels and McCoy.” An office assistant, organizing books ona shelf to their right, looks at them. “Weren’t they a music group?”
Shiels stares at the young man blankly, then looks at McCoy.
“Please come in, Agents,” Raycroft’s secretary says, holdinga door open for them.
County Attorney Elliot Raycroft comes out from behind amahogany desk. Another man, on the dumpy side and younger, stands as well.
Introductions all around. The guy with Raycroft is RogerOgren, the lead prosecutor working the Sam Dillon homicide. Ogren oversaw thesearch of Allison Pagone’s home by the County Attorney Technical Unit today.The CAT unit handles all crime-scene work these days, with the police servingonly as an assist.
“This is of interest to you?” Raycroft asks as he sits athis desk. The man is mid-fifties, on the slender side, a little creepy inMcCoy’s opinion. The way he looks at you, sizing you up, looking for the angle.His hair seems to have come from a bottle, trailer-hitch rust, she’s thinking.
Shiels nods. “We are looking at Allison Pagone forsomething. It’s something that we cannot discuss at this time. It’s something,let me be clear, that I’m under orders not to discuss.”
Raycroft looks at his sidekick, Ogren, and smiles. His teethare too perfect. He must use those whitening products they have now. Must comein handy, only a month before the March primary. Raycroft is unique
