“I’ve updated the forensics from our end, too, just in case,” she says. “Mr. Armstrong’s DNA wasn’t in the system for some reason. I’ve also brought all of our files, and all our documented evidence. I assumed you’d need to see all of it, so I made copies.”
Woody casts a brief glance at Juliet. He knows, she thinks. He knows I had Cam upload the DNA before it was officially our case. Crap.
He calmly refills his coffee cup. “Juliet has recused herself from the investigation, which is unfortunate but necessary. I’ll handle the new files, make sure they’re disseminated among our people, and Juliet’s second-in-command, Dr. Bai Ford, will go through all the DNA and run it again, just in case something was missed.”
“Got it. Good idea. We were using the state lab for our DNA analysis when this case was going on. Now we have our own, in-house, and the evidentiary protocols are a bit tighter than they used to be. The backlog at TBI was insane back then.” Starr hands over two manila folders, one thick, one thin. She looks over at Zack. “Sir, this is the time when you might want to stretch your legs. We need to discuss some details that might be disturbing.”
“I’m staying, if you don’t mind.”
“Suit yourself,” Starr says, flipping open the thick file. “The autopsy shows Vivian Armstrong was stabbed twice, one a slice across the neck, the other a penetrating wound to her stomach. There were no prints on the murder weapon outside of her own, and the blood pool indicated she died where and when she was stabbed. The ME put her time of death at approximately thirty hours before she was found. Whoever did this had a big jump as far as getting away with the kid. Also—” she glances at Zack for a second, then back to the page “—Vivian was being treated for depression.”
“Depression?” Zack jerks upright in his seat. “What are you talking about? She wasn’t depressed. She was about to have her first baby. She was overjoyed.”
“She had high levels of an antidepressant in her system, sir. It was in the autopsy report.” She looks over to Parks again, who nods his go-ahead. “You weren’t aware your wife was being treated?”
“No. Not at all. I was with her all the time the last few weeks. I didn’t see her take any drugs. I certainly didn’t find any. Did you?” He asks Parks, who shakes his head.
“The evidence list doesn’t have any nortriptyline on it, no. No one asked you about it when you were...”
Zack almost laughs. Parks is trying to be delicate. “When I was considered the prime and only suspect? No, no one asked me about antidepressants. I’d remember.”
“Well, this was an addendum to the original autopsy report. The tissue tox screens take a long time, and like I said, we didn’t have our own lab then. It came back months later. Do you know if your wife was seeing a psychiatrist before her death?”
“No. She was working with University’s midwife program, saw their doc when she had to. But that’s it. She never mentioned she wasn’t feeling well or that there might be a problem. But I wasn’t there the whole time.” There is a mournful note to his voice and Juliet has to stop herself from reaching for his hand.
“We talked to the midwife program, and she didn’t disclose it on her record. But we dug further. Mr. Armstrong, were you aware your wife spent time in a mental hospital when she was a teenager?”
61
“Excuse me?” Zack realizes his mouth is open, closes it. “A mental hospital?”
“That’s right. From June 1993 to January 1998, Vivian was in and out of the inpatient program at University Hospital. We have a subpoena being served for the records today.”
“I didn’t know. She never told me. But why wouldn’t Gorman tell me? Or ask me? Or investigate it?”
Juliet catches a glimmer of fury coming off of him. Either he really hasn’t been told, or he is a fantastic actor.
Starr shakes her head. “We don’t know. And we’ll never know, as he’s gone now, too.”
“Which is another thread that we need to pull,” Parks says. “I don’t want to send anyone off on a wild goose chase, but it feels wrong to me that Gorman died a day after meeting Mindy. He’d been researching her for a very long time and finding the note that said Colorado in his files tells me he was of a mind that Mindy was the Armstrongs’ lost child. He came to meet her—I think to see her in person to prove it to himself, maybe see if he could grab some DNA somehow. There was only a cursory autopsy done, his family requested no autopsy, and since he died of blunt force trauma from hitting the rocks as he went off the cliff and witnesses saw him falling, the ME agreed.”
“It’s something that happens out here a lot more than you’d realize,” Woody interjects. “People go off-piste and run afoul of the mountains. Unfortunately, it happens several times every winter.”
“Off-piste?” Parks asks.
“Off the approved trails.”
“Gotcha. I’m sure it does happen. But I’m a cop, which means I have a suspicious mind. Everyone attached to this case is dead. The mother, the doctor, the investigator. I think it’s all related.”
Silence sets over the table and everyone takes that in. Juliet glances at Zack.
“Zack said the same thing,” Juliet says finally. “He’s right. Do you think this person is watching us? I mean, my sister freaked out a little while ago, convinced we were being tracked somehow. I think she sees this connection, too, and she is scared to death.”
“We’ll need to speak with her next, obviously,” Woody says.
“Woody, I’ve interrogated her ten ways from Sunday, and she’s at a loss. She doesn’t know anything.”
“Thing is, Juliet, she might know something but not know she knows it. You know?” Starr says. “Sorry to sound like Dr. Seuss there, but we’d definitely like to sit down with her and have a chat.”
“Be my guest. She’s as prickly as a rattlesnake these days, so don’t be surprised if she comes across edgy when you’re talking. She’s been very disturbed by all this, and to have Mindy be so ill...”
“It’s hard when secrets come to light,” Zack says. “I’ll testify to that firsthand. What I want to know is if all of this—” he waves a hand at the files, and the cops “—is going to find out who killed my wife. Because that’s the focus for me. We’ve found my daughter. Now I expect you to find my wife’s killer.”
“It’s a legitimate ask, and we are going to do our best,” Parks replies.
“I want more than your best. I want answers. I want some justice for Vivian. I know we have a lot of dead people surrounding this case, but my wife...” His voice cracks, and this time, Juliet puts a hand on his arm. She notices him reach down with the other to fondle the dog’s ears. He takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry. It’s been a difficult couple of days.”
Starr taps her fingers on the files. “We all want that, Zack. We do. That’s why we’re here, in Colorado, conducting this investigation, to find out who is responsible for tearing your life apart. And we will get to the truth. You focus on saving your daughter’s life and let us focus on finding the suspect. Deal?”
Four strong faces stare at him expectantly.
“Deal.”
“Good. Here’s the other thing,” Parks says. “We are going to need to release a statement to the media. We’ve taken the liberty and already prepared some verbiage.”
He passes out the statement Dan Franklin, Nashville Metro’s spokesperson, has drafted at Parks’s behest. They all read it, and Juliet watches Zack’s face as he takes in the reality he is about to be dumped into. The statement is short, and simply says new information has come to light in the Armstrong investigation, and more will be forthcoming when there is information to be released. It is just enough to pique the media’s interest without turning them into baying wolves.
“This looks good to me,” Woody says. “I’d just like to add that CBI is involved as well, if you don’t mind.”
“Not a problem.”
Woody drains his coffee cup, sets it down with a plunk on the table. It feels so final, so real, all of a sudden. Juliet takes a deep breath, and he notices.