He couldn’t argue that. He chewed on his frustration like he was chewing on a dirty rag, his mouth twisting at the taste.
“Would you mind showing me the guns you have?” Nikki asked, knowing he would say no. She knew once she was out the door she wasn’t getting back inside this house without a warrant.
“Get out of my house,” he said, coldly calm now. “I’m calling my attorney.”
Damn. Mascherino was going to kill her.
“You can call him from downtown,” she said, mentally kissing dinner with the boys good-bye. “You’re under arrest for attempting to assault a police officer.
“You know the rest of the song,” she said, pulling out her handcuffs, “but let’s sing it anyway. You have the right to remain silent . . .”
23
Lieutenant Mascherino stared at her across the desk. “Is it possible for you to go one day without offending someone to the point that they threaten legal action?”
“Apparently not,” Nikki said. She felt like she was thirteen again and sweating it out in front of the principal for filling the Home Ec teacher’s car with packing peanuts. Only the Home Ec teacher couldn’t get her fired from her job.
“Mr. Nilsen’s attorney has already called to inform us he will be suing for false arrest.”
“Yeah, he’s got that guy on speed dial,” Nikki said. “The ink’s barely dry on his paperwork.”
Not equipped for transporting a suspect, she had called from her car for backup, and had turned Nilsen over to a pair of uniforms who had taken him to be booked and put in a holding cell. He could rot in there for all she cared. He had invoked his right to an attorney. She couldn’t speak with him at any rate, being the victim of the charge against him. She had beat it back to the office and written up her report and the affidavit for the search warrant as fast as was humanly possible without forgetting to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s.
“Anyway, it wasn’t a false arrest,” Nikki argued. “If I hadn’t drawn my weapon, he would have punched a hole through my face. I’d probably be stored in his basement now with his missing wife and son.”
“He’s seventy years old.”
“So? He’s had a long time to perfect being an asshole and a bully. Ask Seley. He was aggressive and antagonistic the first time we saw him. Ask his neighbors. He has a history of bad behavior.”
“The press is going to portray you as the bully, Nikki.”
“The press?” She dismissed the idea. “Nilsen likes to make noise, but I don’t think he’s going to want to talk to the media now. He’s a suspect in a murder investigation. Feed that to the newsies.”
“Is he?” Mascherino asked. “Really?”
“He is until I’m convinced otherwise.” Nikki ticked the reasons off on her fingers. “He had a beef with Ted Duffy, he’s a red zone rageaholic, he owned a rifle of the same caliber as the one that killed Duffy, and his alibi for the time of the murder hasn’t been seen or heard from in twenty-five years. I want a warrant to find that rifle.”
“Nobody is going to give you a warrant based on your speculation.”
“I have photographs of him holding a rifle. He attempted to assault me while I was questioning him with regard to the homicide. He was subsequently put under arrest. I don’t get a warrant off that? Are you kidding me?”
The lieutenant arched an eyebrow. “Was that your reasoning for arresting him? To get your warrant?”
“Partly,” Nikki confessed. “He was going to make a big stink either way. I figured I had better have a paper trail documenting his behavior, even if the county attorney’s office doesn’t prosecute the charge.”
“Which they won’t.”
“That’s on them.”
Mascherino sighed the sigh of a long-suffering mother. “Why do I get the uncomfortable feeling you’re already familiar with this particular defense?”
Nikki shrugged. “The best defense is a good offense. I’ve got Seley digging hard on Nilsen’s past. Ted Duffy gave him a warning for taking too much interest in their teenage foster girls. I think Duffy might not have been the first person to look sideways at this guy. If Nilsen felt threatened enough, could he be violent? Absolutely.”
“Was he a serious suspect when the murder occurred?”
“At the time, he had an alibi witness. He got looked at later on, but no one thought he had sufficient motive. I disagree. I think there’s something there. Before, the focus was on bad guys Duffy had put away, or was trying to, or it was on the brother and the wife—and that’s certainly a viable theory. I’m not discounting that one at all. Both the wife and the brother made money off Ted Duffy’s death, and lived happily ever after together. But in all this time no one has cracked their story.
“Meanwhile, I think Nilsen is hiding something. He lied to me about his son being dead. What’s the point of that?”