Frank and I made a pit stop at our lower-level vending area and grabbed coffee for us and a water for Tammy before returning to the interview room. Once we were inside, I passed the bottle to her and sat down. She nodded a thanks.
I blew over my coffee and took a sip before resuming the questions. “Okay, back at it.” It was time to rip the Band-Aid off and hit her hard. “Who is Trevor Botty?”
The color in her face went from pink to pale in a split second. “Who?”
“Did I stutter? You heard me.”
“Sorry, but I don’t know anyone by that name. I’ve already given you a list of the few people I’m acquainted with, and Dwayne’s cell phone with his contacts is in your custody.”
“We didn’t find the name Trevor Botty or Trey Botty in Dwayne’s contact list.”
Tammy cocked her head. “Well, there you go. That man isn’t anyone we know.”
“Then why were you stalking him yesterday?”
“What! How dare you—”
I smiled. “Follow you? Like you said fifteen minutes ago, it’s a free country. And furthermore, we’re law enforcement, and legally, we can follow anyone who seems suspect.”
Tammy went quiet and stared at her lap. Frank knuckled the table to get her attention. “Hey, answer the question.”
“I want an attorney.”
“You aren’t under arrest, so no attorney privileges.”
“Then I’m leaving.”
“No you aren’t. We can hold you for forty-eight hours while we dig deeper into your lies, and trust me, come hell or high water, we’re going to figure out why you’re telling them.” I stood. “Guess if there’s nothing else you have to say—”
“What?”
I frowned. “What? What do you think? You’re going to a holding cell, where you may as well get comfortable for a few days.”
“But the shelter will be expecting me back. And what about Coby?”
“Coby will be fine, and don’t worry about the shelter. We intend to spend plenty of time there talking to the personnel.” I cocked my head toward the door. “Get up. Let’s go.” Tammy rose and walked with us to the guard’s desk. “Bill, show her to her quarters.”
“You bet, Jesse.”
We left her in Bill’s capable hands and talked as we took the two flights to our floor.
Frank questioned me every step of the way. “So how do we prove Tammy killed Trey? She isn’t talking, and we don’t have any hard evidence.”
“First thing we’re going to do is go back to the shelter and talk to the guard and Marie Booth. Then I want to check the surrounding buildings to see if any have cameras that face the parking lot. Even if the guard lies to us, we’ll still see Tammy’s car pull away if she actually did leave again later.”
As soon as I planted myself in my chair, I lifted my desk phone’s receiver. Based on my past experience of Lutz lingering at crime scenes, I assumed he was still at Trey Botty’s house, so I dialed his cell phone and waited as it rang.
“What do you have, McCord?”
“We’ve got Tammy downstairs in lockup. She lied to us numerous times, stating she had no idea who Trey was, and then she clammed up altogether. We’re going to head over to the shelter and have a talk with the guard on duty and the administrator. According to Tammy, she got the okay to roll over her unused hours, so we’re wondering if she went back to Trey’s house later last night and put that bullet in his head.”
“Then somebody would have to have covered for her.”
“That’s right, and it’s the reason we’re going to have a talk with the guard. I assume by nine p.m., all the staff are long gone.”
“Okay, let me know the outcome. There’s no evidence of the killer entering Trey’s house, so I’m about to head out. Two seventh district officers will do a walk-through, though, to see if they can locate a client book.”
“Yep. That could prove useful, especially if it shows Dwayne listed in it.” I ended the call, then Frank and I returned to the shelter.
The same woman, Jan, was behind the counter. She looked exasperated when she saw us.
“Detectives, what could you possibly want now?”
“We need to speak to the administrator and also to the guard on duty. I’d say the administrator should be first.”
She sighed, lifted her phone’s receiver, and called Marie Booth. She tipped her head toward the seating area. “She’ll be out in a minute. Go ahead and have a seat over there.”
I nodded a thanks, and Frank and I walked away from her counter. “Are we really that annoying?”
Frank chuckled. “Apparently, we are to her.”
Marie walked toward us several minutes later, and we stood.
“Detectives?”
I extended my hand. “Administrator Booth, we need a few minutes of your time.”
“Certainly. Let’s go to my office.” She looked at us as we walked. “I was told you picked up Tammy Lincoln earlier. Is she back now?”
“No, ma’am,” Frank said as she offered us seats in her guest chairs.
“I don’t understand. May I ask why you picked her up?”
“It’s part of an ongoing investigation, and we had questions for her.”
“But she didn’t come back?”
“That’s correct, and we’re temporarily holding her at our precinct. We’ll let you know when she’s released to the shelter. On another note, Tammy told us you allowed her to carry over her unused hours outside the shelter to use at other times.”
Marie looked confused. “Yes, so why is that a problem? This isn’t a jail, Detectives. We just want the residents to let us know when they’re going to be here and when they aren’t. Don’t forget, the reason the ladies reside with us is usually because of an abusive husband or boyfriend, and we don’t want them attacked by those same men while they’re outside our facility.”
“So what about the hours she can come and go?”
“Yes, between ten and four. What about them?”
“Can she leave later if she still has hours available to use?”
Marie shrugged. “I haven’t okayed that, and she’d have to sign out, anyway. I review the sign-out sheet every day to make sure all of our residents have returned before I leave to go home. There hasn’t been a problem.”
“That you know of,” Frank said. “Is there a chance your guard might have turned a blind eye and allowed Tammy to leave last night without signing out, or back in, later?”
“I highly doubt it.”
I took over the questioning. “How many guards do you have, and is the facility guarded twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week?”
“It is, and we have three guards who each work eight hours a day and two more who put in twelve-hour shifts on weekends. Are you insinuating that the night shift guard allowed Tammy to leave last night, and why then?”
“We can’t discuss the details with you, ma’am, but we need to speak to him too. Also, what time does the staff leave here nightly?”
“There’s only five of us, and we’re usually gone by five thirty or six at the latest.”
I pulled my notepad from my pocket. “So the name of the night shift guard?”
“Well, that depends. We have the three p.m. to eleven p.m. guard and the eleven p.m. to seven a.m. guard.”
“I’d say the three to eleven guard.”
“Then you’d have to come back when he’s on duty or go pay him a visit at home.”
I glanced at my wristwatch—it wasn’t even noon yet. “Yeah, we’ll pay him a visit at home. Do you have his address?”
She tapped her computer keys then read his name and address to us. We thanked her and walked out.
As Frank drove, I slammed my fist into my open hand.
“What?”
“Damn it, the trailer is being delivered later today, and I don’t have a free second to go home and accept the delivery.”
“How about Dean? He can look it over for you and make sure it’s up to par.”
“Yeah, I better give the trailer sales office a call and let them know that Dean will be signing for me. I know Dean won’t mind.”
I groaned as I thought about our workload. Without the killer in custody, I was more than sure I’d be working over the weekend, and our short camping trip would be scratched. I was thankful Hanna was a loving woman who understood my demanding career, but I certainly didn’t want canceled plans to become the norm.
I made both calls and had just hung up with Dean when we arrived at the guard’s modest tan brick house on South Poplar in the Bridgeport area.
Frank waited until I pocketed my phone. “Everything good?”
“Yep, the trailer delivery is under control.”
“Okay, let’s see what Mr. Ken Evans knows.”
We walked down the short sidewalk to the front door, and I rang the bell. In less than a minute, the door cracked open, and a slender sixty-ish man with gray hair peered out at us.
“I’m not buying anything, so you may as well move along.”
I showed him my badge, and we introduced ourselves and told him why we were there.
“Mr. Evans, we have a few questions for you about one of the residents from the shelter.”
“My word, did something happen?”
I pointed at the partially open door. “May we come in? Our questions shouldn’t take up too much of your time.”
“Oh, sorry. Yes, of course.” He backed up and allowed us to pass through. “Right this way, Detectives.”
We walked through the narrow foyer then took one step down into a cozy living room with a brick fireplace that matched the house’s façade. Mr. Evans offered us seats on the couch and faced us from a chair on the other side of the coffee table.
He rubbed his hands together as he leaned toward us. “So what’s this all about?”
I conducted the questioning while Frank took notes. “We understand you’re the second shift guard Monday through Friday at the women’s shelter. Is that correct?”
“Yes, sir. Looking forward to retirement in a few years, but until then, it’s an okay gig.”
“Sure. And you worked last night?”
“Yep. Can’t even remember when I last called in sick.” He chuckled. “I’m a pretty healthy guy, thanks to vitamins, exercise, and green tea.”
I nodded and gave him a quick smile. “Mr. Evans, you know Tammy Lincoln, a resident at the shelter, don’t you?”
“I do but not well. It isn’t like the residents hang out with the staff or the guards. We’re actually kind of invisible except when the resident comes and goes. We might get a hello or goodbye from them when they sign in and out, but that’s about it.”
“So you aren’t close to her or any other resident there?”
He swatted the air. “Nah. I do my job, read articles on my phone, or bring in a book to read. Kind of a quiet job.”
I glanced at Frank to see if he was ready for me to continue. He tipped his head.
“Did Tammy leave the premises yesterday?”
Ken scratched the stubble on his cheek. “Not during my shift, she didn’t. Couldn’t tell you about earlier or later, though.”
“You wouldn’t turn a blind eye if she wanted to leave after the staff went home?”
“Hell no. I need this job, plus it’s a cakewalk. I wouldn’t risk doing favors for anyone. What if something happened to the resident? It would immediately come back to me for allowing them out after hours, and I’d be fired.”
“So Tammy has never received preferential treatment from you?”
“Nope. Like I said, I don’t hang out with the residents, plus she could be my daughter.”
“Did you see her at all yesterday or last night?”
“Don’t think so. All the activities that go on are behind closed doors. I sit at my desk and only see people when they come in and go out.”
“What about the door that opens to the parking lot?”
“The residents can’t go out that way. There’s an alarm on it. They can only use the front door.”
I nodded at Frank and stood. “I think we have about all we need. Thank you, sir, and we appreciate your time.”
Outside, we climbed into the cruiser and left.
“What do you think?” Frank asked.
“About him?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m not feeling it. That guy seems as innocent as they come. Let’s go back and check for stores that face the shelter’s parking lot. Maybe we’ll get lucky with a camera.”
Frank nodded. “Okay, it can’t hurt. Plus, it’ll tell us without a shadow of a doubt whether Tammy did or didn’t find a way to slip out into the night.”