“ What's happened?” asked Richard.
“ The monitor on Judge DeCampe's credit cards. They got a hit, and the guy using her cards is in custody. It could be our man.”
“ Good news,” Richard replied. “Who is the chap?”
“ Some older man; they think he's homeless, a transient.”
“ Then maybe her attack was a random crime of opportunity, after all,” said Clemmens.
“ Maybe… maybe not. The guy swears he just stole a wallet out of a purse he found lying in an underground parking lot.” Jessica started for the hallway and the elevator. She wanted to be first in line at this new lead. “Washington PD's bringing him in now. Let's have a talk with the guy.”
Interrogation of the homeless man who might have witnessed something in the parking lot had to be carefully handled. Jessica and Richard both immediately decided this on seeing the shaking, hulking figure in the interrogation room. The man's face seemed catlike-rawboned and pointed. Richard agreed with Jessica's quick assessment of their possible witness/suspect. “Ganging up on the frightened figure with too many in the room will only terrify the poor, bedraggled devil more than he is already.”
The man stood as tall as a grizzly bear, and he had a mountain man's scraggly appearance, replete with out-of- control hair and beard. He seemed bent on hiding himself away in a large overcoat as well. The general impression and smell was that of a cave dweller out of time or an Old Testament prophet newly stumbled from the desert.
Jessica asked, “Richard, I would like you to stand aside for Shannon Keyes to join me inside the sweat box with the suspect.”
Keyes, standing near enough to hear the request, jumped in at the chance, showing her eagerness to question the lead. “Whatever you think best, Jess.” Richard's tone remained calm, mild. If he were upset, no one could possibly know. As it turned out, Jessica's choice was a good one. The frightened man fixed on the two women as friendly faces; he smiled back at them as they entered the room. The chain from his handcuffed wrists rang out in a metallic clang whenever he moved slightly. Like a toneless human wind chime, Jessica thought. Jessica had stopped J. T. at the door along with Sharpe, knowing J. T. had limited experience in interrogation, and when Eriq Santiva, hearing of the break in the case, appeared at die interrogation door, Jessica asked him to remain outside; when he tried to bully his way in, pull rank, she challenged him at the door, saying, “You said I would be in charge of the case if I came on, Chief. What's changed?”
Chief Santiva's eyes said that he had every intention of entering and confronting the suspect.
Jessica eased him out of the room and closed the door behind her, leaving Keyes alone for a moment with the suspect. “Shannon's a lot easier on the eye and a great deal less threatening than you, Eriq, and with this guy, we need to be less threatening, not more. He's squirrelly and jittery as a starved cat,” Jessica told Santiva.
“ Oh, and you're not threatening, Jess?” asked Santiva, his eyes challenging her now.
“ I didn't say we shouldn't lean on the guy. Just trust me. I think Keyes might give us some insights we might otherwise miss.”
“ You told me you didn't need her help, remember?” he whispered just before she turned and reentered the interrogation room, closing the door on him.
Jessica felt great relief that Santiva hadn't managed to bully his way past her. He could easily have pulled rank, but perhaps even he knew that he'd have scared the hell out of the possible witness, and in doing so perhaps shut the frightened man completely down. So J. T., Santiva, and Richard now listened and watched via the one-way mirror, while the stranger, Keyes, took a bold run at the only man who might shed some light on what had happened to DeCampe.
'Tell us what you saw just prior to finding the purse, sir,” Keyes asked the man.
Jessica felt a stifling heat inside the interrogation room, and this, combined with the suspect's body odors, made her slightly ill. Beneath the layers of hair and dirt, Warren Paul Marsden had the facial characteristics of an aristocratic man who'd stepped out of time, and he was huge and daunting, even while sitting, where his head came up to Jessica's breastbone. With Jessica at almost six feet, this placed Marsden at nearly seven feet high, and yet this grisly Grizzly Adams look a like had somehow escaped the attention of the parking garage attendant? The question begged an answer, and it further corroborated a growing suspicion that the attendant was either on drugs and busy the entire night on a binge of his own, or knew a hell of a lot more than what he'd given up. Now that the attendant was reported dead, it appeared his secrets would never be revealed, making Mr. Marsden here even more valuable to the case.
“ You've got to tell us what you saw in the garage, Mr. Marsden,” Jessica began cajoling the man in her most encouraging tone.
Marsden's straight mouth twisted into a wry grin, and his keen, twinkling, intelligent eyes, which seemed at odds with his condition, traveled from one to the other of these people who were suddenly interested in him. “Been some time since somebody called me Mr. Marsden. Hell… one time it was Dr. Marsden. Was a choirboy before I lost everything. Model citizen, not a day of debt, and a nice home and Millie meeting me every night at the door with… with her unconditional love. She was all the family I had.”
“ I'm deeply sorry for your loss, sir,” Shannon Keyes offered.
He gulped back a tear and said, 'Funny how things turn on a dime.”
“ Isn't it so,” agreed Keyes.
Jessica had lost all patience with the man. She stood and paced around him, fuming, working to control her anger.
“ I was a school superintendent You believe that? Respected, you believe that? Not as if I expect you to, not looking at me now.”
“ Where was this, sir?” asked Dr. Keyes.
“ Everyone in Jasper, Georgia, held me in high esteem, even though they all called me a damn Yankee.”
“ Then you're not originally from Georgia. I didn't think so,” said Jessica from behind him.
“ You got that?” he asked. “How'd you know, no ac-cent?”
She frowned and from behind his back threw up her arms for Keyes to see.
Marsden continued spottily speaking. “I was born in Zion, Illinois. Went to college at Northwestern. Went through the ranks of teaching. Got my Ph. D. on the job. Took the position in Georgia. It was my dream… a dream come true, but it all came apart, as you can tell from my current situation.”
Jessica, having gotten hold of her anger, commiserated, saying, “I know how that goes. Things fall apart. Three years ago, I was on my back in a hospital, out of money, out of a job, shafted by my employer, when my hubby tells me he wants a divorce,” she lied.
“ Life sucks rocks, like the kids say, huh?” he replied, his eyes now fixed on Jessica, who had come around to face him while telling her make-believe tale of woe, designed to put them on the same side.
“ With me, it all went to hell when… when Millie… when she died.”
Keyes bit her lower lip and stared across at Marsden, who saw her struggling to hold back her emotions. “We're all very sorry to hear of your loss, Mr. Marsden,” she offered.
“ In my private time with Millie… well, she was all I had, my whole life outside the job, but I should've given her more of my time, you know?”
“ Sure… sure,” replied Jessica.
“ Should've devoted myself to her. She certainly did as much for me. Before the disease struck.”
“ Disease?” asked Shannon.
“ She contracted a rare disease. Blood disorder. Ripped my heart out to watch her slowly succumb. Doctors all said it was only a matter of time; best I could do was make her comfortable in the end.” Marsden rose as if under some invisible force. “She came into so much pain in the end, so I… I put her down myself, you see, and afterward… I couldn't just go on with life as if… as if everything were the same as before. No way of doing that…”
“ Easy, Marsden,” cautioned Keyes through clenched teeth, hissing, when suddenly the huge man came up out of his seat. Jessica had to reach up to put a hand on his shoulder, but she was right up with him, toe-to-toe, eye meeting eye. Something in Jessica's stem gaze caught firm hold of the lean giant, and he dropped back down into his seat, almost toppling it with the sudden impact of his weight against it.
Once righted, he allowed his legs to fully extend and relax beneath the table. With a shaking hand that he
