“Why?”
“I like his body and he’s fantastic in bed,” she answered, knowing it wasn’t any of his business and not bothering to hide her sarcasm.
Margolis smirked, but there was no humor behind it. “Before we begin, let me set the ground rules. For starters, the fact that you’re here at all is simply because I told you I’d look into your allegations, and because I told you I’d be in contact. Because your tires were slashed in addition to possible stalking violations, this is a potential criminal investigation, and in such an instance, ongoing investigations are generally not discussed. Still, because there’s also the potential for a civil no-contact order – the Fifty-C – I’m choosing to meet with you and keep you as informed as I think appropriate. Also, keep in mind that because Lester Manning has not been served a Fifty-C, he has – like everyone else – certain and expected rights to privacy. In other words, I’ll tell you what I think is important, but I won’t necessarily tell you everything I know. I also want to add that most of what I’ve done has been via the telephone. I’ve had to rely on a detective friend of mine in Charlotte for a few things, and frankly, I’m not sure how much more I’m going to be able to ask of him. He’s already gone out of his way, and like me, he’s got cases that are higher priority. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Good,” he said. “First I’ll walk you through the approach I took, then a bit of what I learned.” Opening the folder, he pulled out his notes. “My first step was to familiarize myself with all the background information, so I perused the relevant police files. That included everything having to do with the first assault on Cassie Manning, the arrest and conviction of Gerald Laws, court documents, and finally, information regarding the murder of Cassie Manning. After that, I reviewed your first stalking report – the one you made after you received the notes in Charlotte – and I spoke to the officer in charge of that particular case. It wasn’t until late Tuesday evening that I felt like I had a pretty good grasp of everything.
“Now, with regard to Lester Manning, I’m comfortable telling you what you could probably learn on your own with a simple public records search.” He glanced down again. “He’s twenty-five years old and unmarried. High school graduate. He doesn’t own any real property and there are no cars registered in his name. He lists his phone number and address as the same as his father’s. With that said, I’m not sure how much time he actually spends there.”
Maria was about to ask a question, but Margolis held up his hand to stop her.
“Let me finish, okay? You’ll understand why I say that in just a couple of minutes. Now, I can share the next bit of information because I think it’s important to the Fifty-C, but I’m not going to go into heavy details because those may or may not be important to any future criminal case, all right?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Since Cassie’s death, Lester has had some problems with the law. He’s been arrested four times, but not for anything violent or dangerous. It’s all minor stuff – trespassing, vandalism, resisting arrest. Things like that. It turns out that Lester has a fondness for squatting in vacant houses. In each case, the charges were eventually dropped. I haven’t looked into the reasons, but in cases like these, it’s usually because there was little actual damage.”