‘Eyewitnesses are rarely reliable,’ Howie said. ‘The fingerprints are iffy, but eyewitnesses …’ He shook his head.
Ralph jumped in. ‘I’d agree, at least in most cases. Not in this one. I interviewed someone recently who said Flint City is really just a small town. I don’t know if I buy that completely, but the West Side is pretty tightly knit, and Mr Maitland here is widely known. Terry, the woman who ID’d you at Gerald’s is a neighbor, and the girl who saw you coming out of the woods in Figgis Park knows you very well, not just because she lives a little way down from you, on Barnum Street, but because you once brought back her lost dog.’
‘June Morris?’ Terry was looking at Ralph with frank disbelief. ‘Junie?’
‘There are others,’ Samuels said. ‘Many.’
‘Willow?’ Terry sounded out of breath, as if he’d been punched. ‘Her, too?’
‘Many,’ Samuels repeated.
‘Every one of them picked you out of six-packs,’ Ralph said. ‘No hesitation.’
‘And was the photo of my client perhaps wearing a Golden Dragons cap and a shirt with a big C on it?’ Howie asked. ‘Was that one perhaps tapped by the finger of the questioning officer?’
‘You know better,’ Ralph said. ‘At least I hope you do.’
Terry said, ‘This is a nightmare.’
Samuels smiled sympathetically. ‘I understand that. And all you have to do to end it is to tell us why you did it.’
As if there might be a reason on God’s green earth that any sane person could understand, Ralph thought.
‘It might make a difference.’ Samuels was almost wheedling now. ‘But you should do it before the DNA comes back. We’ve got plenty, and when it matches those cheek swabs …’ He shrugged.
‘Tell us,’ Ralph said. ‘I don’t know if it was temporary insanity, or something you did in a fugue state, or a sexual compulsion, or just what, but tell us.’ He heard his voice rising, thought about clamping down on it, then thought what the hell. ‘Be a man and tell us!’
Speaking more to himself than to the men on the other side of the table, Terry said, ‘I don’t know how any of this can be. I wasn’t even in town on Tuesday.’
‘Where were you, then?’ Samuels asked. ‘Go ahead, lay it on us. I love a good story. Read my way through most of Agatha Christie in high school.’
Terry turned to look up at Gold, who nodded. But Ralph thought Howie looked worried now. The stuff about the blood type and the fingerprints had rocked him hard, the eyewitnesses even harder. He’d been rocked most of all, perhaps, by little Junie Morris, whose lost dog had been returned by good old reliable Coach T.
‘I was in Cap City. Left at ten on Tuesday morning, got back late Wednesday night. Well, nine thirty or so, late for me.’
‘I don’t suppose you had anyone with you,’ Samuels said. ‘Just off on your own and kind of gathering your thoughts, right? Getting ready for the big game?’
‘I—’
‘Did you take your car or the white van? By the way, where did you have that van stashed? And how did you happen to steal one with New York plates in the first place? I’ve got a theory about that, but I’d love to have you confirm or deny—’
‘Do you want to hear this or not?’ Terry asked. He had, incredibly, begun to smile again. ‘Maybe you’re afraid to hear it. And maybe you should be afraid. You’re in shit up to your waist, Mr Samuels, and it’s getting deeper.’
‘Is that so? Then why am I the one who can walk out of here and go home when this interview is over?’
‘Cool it,’ Ralph said quietly.
Samuels turned to him, cowlick springing back and forth. Ralph saw nothing comical about it now. ‘Don’t tell me to cool it, Detective. We’re sitting here with a man who raped a kid with a tree branch and then tore out his throat like … like a fucking cannibal!’
Gold looked directly up at the camera in the corner, now speaking for some future judge and jury. ‘Stop acting like an angry child, Mr District Attorney, or I’ll terminate this interview right here.’
‘I wasn’t alone,’ Terry said, ‘and I don’t know anything about a white van. I went with Everett Roundhill, Billy Quade, and Debbie Grant. The entire Flint High School English Department, in other words. My Expedition was in the shop because the air conditioner died, so we took Ev’s car. He’s the department chairman, and he’s got a BMW. Plenty of room. We left from the high school at ten.’
Samuels looked temporarily too perplexed by this to ask the obvious question, so Ralph did it. ‘What was in Cap City that would take four English teachers there in the middle of summer vacation?’
‘Harlan Coben,’ Terry said.
‘Who’s Harlan Coben?’ Bill Samuels asked. His interest in mystery stories had apparently peaked with Agatha Christie.
Ralph knew; he wasn’t much of a fiction reader, but his wife was. ‘The mystery writer?’
‘The mystery writer,’ Terry agreed. ‘Look, there’s a group called the Tri-State Teachers of English, and every year they hold a three-day midsummer conference. It’s the only time everyone can get together. There are seminars and panel discussions, that sort of thing. It’s held in a different city each year. This year it was Cap City’s turn. Only English teachers are like anyone else, it’s hard to get them together even in summer, because they’ve got so many other things going on – all the paint-up, fix-up stuff that didn’t get done during the school year, family vacations, plus various summer activities. For me it’s Little League and City League. So the TSTE always tries to get a big-name speaker as a draw for the middle day, which is when most attendees show up.’
‘Which in this case was last Tuesday?’ Ralph asked.
‘Right. This year’s conference was at the Sheraton, from July 9th – the Monday – to July 11th, the Wednesday. I haven’t been to one of those conferences in five years, but when Ev told me that Coben was going to be the keynote speaker, and the other English teachers were going, I arranged for Gavin Frick and Baibir Patel’s dad to take the practices on Tuesday and Wednesday. It killed me to do it, with the semifinal game coming up, but I knew I’d be back for the practices on Thursday and Friday, and I didn’t want to miss Coben. I’ve read all his books. He’s great on plot, and he has a sense of humor. Also, the theme of this year’s conference was teaching popular adult fiction in grades seven through twelve, and that’s been a hot-button issue for years, especially in this part of the country.’
‘Save the exposition,’ Samuels said. ‘Get to the bottom line.’
‘Fine. We went. We were there for the banquet lunch, we were there for Coben’s speech, we were there for the evening panel discussion at eight PM, we spent the night. Ev and Debbie had single rooms, but I split the cost of a double with Billy Quade. That was his idea. He said he was building an addition on his house, and had to economize. They’ll vouch for me.’ He looked at Ralph and lifted his hands, palms out. ‘I was there. That’s the bottom line.’
Silence in the room. At last Samuels said, ‘What time was Coben’s speech?’
‘Three o’clock,’ Terry said. ‘Three o’clock on Tuesday afternoon.’
‘How convenient,’ Samuels said acidly.
Howie Gold smiled widely. ‘Not for you.’
Three o’clock, Ralph thought. Almost the same time that Arlene Stanhope claimed to have seen Terry putting Frank Peterson’s bicycle into the back of the stolen white van, and then riding away with the boy in the passenger seat. No, not even almost. Mrs Stanhope said she’d heard the bell in the Town Hall clock announce the hour.
‘The speech was in the Sheraton’s big meeting room?’ Ralph asked.
‘Yes. Right across from the banquet room.’
‘And you’re sure it started at three.’
‘Well, that’s when the TSTE chairman started her introduction. Which droned on for at least ten minutes.’
‘Uh-huh, and how long did Coben speak?’