“What?” Kins asked.
“Why someone who we think went to such effort to plan the deaths and disappearance of two women would shoot a third and leave her in his own bed.”
“Nothing in this case has made sense,” Kins said.
Zhu lowered his cell and looked at Tracy. “Graham Strickland’s attorney called the station. He said Strickland called him twenty minutes ago sounding distraught about a dead woman in his loft and someone trying to ruin his life. He’s willing to turn himself in.”
“That’s good news,” Tracy said.
“Yeah, but he wants to talk to you first.”
CHAPTER 29
Zhu wasn’t happy about conceding to Graham Strickland’s request to speak to Tracy before turning himself in. To Zhu, Strickland was a suspect in a brutal murder, and if Zhu had had his way, he would have stormed Phil Montgomery’s office with a SWAT team, slapped handcuffs on Strickland, and hauled his ass downtown to an interrogation room in the Police Bureau.
Tracy didn’t feel like placating Strickland either, but she had a different agenda; she wanted to know what Strickland knew about the disappearances of Andrea Strickland and Devin Chambers, and she might not get a better chance to find out. Strickland no longer had any leverage and was likely scared. The combination might just wipe the smug expression from his face and cause him to tell the truth—or at least some of the truth.
“If he wants to talk, let’s let him talk,” Tracy explained to Zhu. “It might be our only chance to get information out of him. At some point his attorney will convince him to keep his mouth shut. You’ll get your chance to arrest him after he talks to me.”
“I don’t like feeling like I’m being played,” Zhu said.
“Welcome to the club,” Kins said. “This guy is a piece of work.”
“He is,” Tracy agreed, shooting Kins a look to let him know he wasn’t helping their situation. “But the landscape has changed considerably. He’s a suspect in two other deaths, and I’m curious as hell how he’s going to explain it.”
Zhu and his superior relented and Kins drove Tracy to Phil Montgomery’s office. Kins waited in the building lobby with the others as Tracy went up in the elevator. Montgomery met her in the area outside his law-firm door. He looked spent, as if he’d just returned to his office after a full day in trial. He still wore a tie and a dress shirt, but he’d tugged the knot from his neck and rolled up his shirtsleeves. Two half-moon-shaped perspiration stains ringed his armpits.
“He’s in bad shape,” Montgomery said.
Tracy didn’t much care, but she wanted to hear what Strickland had to say, so until she believed he was trying to manipulate her, she’d play nice.
“Do you think he’s suicidal?” she asked.
“Maybe. He hasn’t said much.”
“You made sure he has no weapons?”
Montgomery nodded. “Of course. I think we can both agree that this is tantamount to an interrogation while in custody.”
“Agreed,” Tracy said. She held up her phone. “So, I’m going to tape this. I’ll read him his Miranda rights.”
“Then for the record I’m going to advise him against this.”
“I understand,” she said.
Montgomery opened the door and led her inside the lobby. They moved past the receptionist’s desk. “He’s in the conference room.” Montgomery turned left, continuing past an empty cubicle and a darkened office. He stopped outside a closed door, pausing to look back over his shoulder at Tracy as if to say, Are you ready?
Then he pushed open the door.
Graham Strickland looked up from his seat at the far end of the room. His forearms rested on the conference room table, hands wrapped around a mug of some drink. Behind him, the floor-to-ceiling windows offered a view from downtown Portland to the distant green foothills. Though he was wearing the same clothes he’d had on that afternoon, Strickland no longer looked so neat and put together, and he wasn’t displaying the same cocksure smile or arrogant demeanor. His shoulders slumped. His eyes appeared sunken and his gaze distant and unfocused. He had the sullen expression of a kid who’d been caught doing something bad and knew the punishment was going to be severe.
Montgomery walked around the table to the chair beside his client and set down his legal pad and ballpoint pen. Tracy made her way down the opposite side of the table. She pulled out a chair directly across from Strickland.
When seated, Montgomery said, “I’ve told Detective Crosswhite I consider this an interrogation in custody, Graham. As such she’s going to read you your Miranda rights.”
“And I’m going to record our conversation,” Tracy said, putting her phone on the table directly between them and pressing the “Record” button.