How could he convince the cop it wasn't his stash they'd found in the stables, even though it was? He always brought marijuana back with him from his visits to Mexico, but only for his personal use, not to sell.
Usually he brought enough to last for six or eight months, sometimes a whole year.
Terjo coughed and swallowed the phlegm in his throat. It scared him to think he could be charged with drug dealing and maybe sent to prison for a very long time. Before the cops arrested him at the stables, he'd used a rag to rub the Baggies clean of any prints. That should help, but what if they found some seeds or stems in the RV, which was likely? How could he explain that?
He needed to come up with a convincing story. He tried to think of something the police lieutenant might believe. *** 'Sorry to keep you waiting,' Sal said as he entered the interrogation room and placed a tape recorder on the table.
'Who's watching me through the mirror?' Terjo asked.
'My new boss,' Sal said, easing himself into the chair across from Terjo.
'I think he wants to make sure I know how to do my job. Help me out and cooperate, Santiago. I don't want to look bad.'
'I already told you everything.'
'Give me a minute,' Sal said. He turned on the recorder, identified himself, and gave specifics of who he was interviewing, why, and when.
'There, that's out of the way. What did you say before I turned the machine on?'
'That I told you everything,' Terjo said, giving Molina a friendly smile.
'But we haven't talked about the scissors,' Sal said.
'The scissors?'
'They're expensive German-made, just like my wife's.'
'As;?' Terjo replied, pulling at an earlobe.
'So, I'm wondering if you ever saw Mrs. Terrell use those scissors, or scissors like them.'
'I don't think so,' Terjo said.
'But she has a lot of stuff she doesn't really use much.'
'Maybe she used them as kitchen shears,' Sal said.
'Or for cutting string and wrapping presents.'
'Maybe.'
'Are the scissors yours?' Sal asked.
'No, pero I keep some in my toolbox.'
'We found those.' Sal rubbed his chin.
'Do you think the killer brought the scissors with him?'
Terjo shook his head.
'You shook your head,' Sal noted.
'Nobody does that.'
'I agree. Most people don't carry scissors around with them. That tells me something.'
'What?'
'The killer was someone Terrell knew and let into the house.'
'A lot of people come to the house, making deliveries, visiting.'
'I have the list of names you gave me. Does anyone special come around a lot?'
'Alexandra Lawton. She is Senora Terrell's neighbor.'
'Killing someone with scissors is something a woman is more likely to do,' Sal said.
'She would never do such a thing.'
'You must know Ms. Lawton pretty well to call her by her first name.'
'She asked me to do so.'
'Maybe you used the scissors as the murder weapon.'
'I have no reason to kill Senora Terrell. She has been very good to me.'
'Does Lawton have a boyfriend?'
'Who knows? It is not my business.'
'Have you seen her with men?'
'yes, but they are strangers to me.'
'What about Terrell? Did she have men friends who came to visit;?'
'I don't spy on my boss.'
'Did you know that Terrell and her husband were getting a divorce?'
MI knew.'
'An attractive woman like Mrs. Terrell must have had a boyfriend or someone she was seeing. After all, she'd been separated from her husband for nearly two years.'
'I know nothing about that.'
'Your English is very good,' Sal said.
'I studied it in school as a child.'
'How far in school did you go?' Sal asked.
Terjo tensed and stalled momentarily, mentally counting the number of years his brother had been in school.
'Eight years.'
'And they taught you English?' Sal asked, leaning closer, breaking into Terjo's space.
'I didn't think Mexican schools did that very much.'
'Everybody wants to learn English so they can come here,' Terjo said defensively.
'What was the name of your school?'
'It is gone. The government closed it many years ago.'
'You must have been a good student.'
'I learned more English when I came to this country.'
'I'm thinking maybe Lawton killed Mrs. Terrell because of jealousy,' Sal said.
Torque?'
'Because you were sleeping with both of them.'
'That's not true.'
'Somebody had sex in Terrell's bedroom before the murder. Was it you?'
Terjo rubbed his nose.
'I would never do that.'
'The hair samples we took will tell us,' Sal said.
'Then you'll know what I say is true.'
'I hope so, for your sake,' Sal said.
'Still, we've got this marijuana thing to deal with.'
'I think maybe some kids left it there,' Terjo said, the tone of his voice rising slightly.
'Kids?'
Terjo spoke quickly.
'Sometimes they use the stables when I'm not around. They get in through the open stalls to the corral. A couple of times they even broke into the RV.'
'I see.'
'I've found empty beer cans and used rubbers in there before.'
'In the RV?'
'Yeah, and the stables.'
'How did they get into the RV?'
'Sometimes I forget to lock it.'
'When was the last time this happened?'
'Maybe two weeks ago.'
'Did you call the police and report it?'
'No. Nothing was stolen, nada.'
'Did you report any of the prior incidents?' Sal asked.
