Chapter 27
Friday morning
Detective Parker leaned back in the conference chair with his hands behind his head. “I’m leaning toward the wife. Statistics support my choice. Harriet has a powerful motive and no confirmed alibi. That trust fund of hers is worth over five million dollars.”
Officer Joy Williams stood in front of the white board in the Murder Room and pointed to a picture of Harriet Lansing. “Okay. Let me be devil’s advocate. How did she get him to the green bench sculpture? She’s not a big person. There are no drag marks at the scene, so presumably, he was carried and carefully arranged.”
Detective Parker lifted his eyebrows. “The gravel area around the green bench sculpture could easily have been raked or swept clear of marks.”
“What if that assumption is wrong? What if he was only injured somewhere else? Let’s say he was rendered unconscious. Then, after using his inhaler, he recovered enough to make it over to the bench. This could still be an accident.”
“But the autopsy report is clear about the body being moved shortly after death. Dr. Gray noted signs of lividity in two separate areas. One was for a short time and one was more long-term.”
“It still could have been an accident and then he was moved. Why do so many people have a motive to kill him?” asked Officer Williams.
Detective Parker lowered his arms and leaned forward so the front legs of his chair returned to the floor. “That’s a good question. His reputation as an emerging artist was rising. His work was beginning to get global recognition. The exhibition at the Dali was a smart move. The art pieces that were sold at the reception are worth many times their purchase price. Would someone have killed him to increase their value? You can ask about the sold pieces and who bought them. ”
Officer Williams made a note on the white board and turned to face Detective Parker. “That’s reaching a little far, don’t you think?”
“Maybe.” He smiled. “So you can tell when I’m grasping at straws, can you? That’s good. Another question is would Dennis have threatened Lucas Brown with telling the director that he was using the gardens to help out the homeless vets?” He paused. “Also, what kind of information have you received from Savannah about Dennis’s time as an apprentice?”
“She discovered a connection to other members of his gang, but she didn’t yet know how many are still in the area or, for that matter, how many are even still alive. She found the name of the social worker. His name is James Armstrong. She went to see him. She thinks he might know more about Dennis and the other apprentices than he told her. She’s still making more connections with the files that her dad encrypted.”
“You need to follow up with Mr. James Armstrong and see if your badge will extract more names. Those encrypted files are a pain.”
“Certainly, sir.”
“Our problem director, Gina, has been continuing to avoid an interview. She needs to be questioned again, but I think you should give it another try before I resort to more formal demands on her.”
“What line should I take?” Joy pulled out her notebook and poised her pen to take notes.
“We need to catch her in a lie. Any lie. It can be about the delay of the guest list. It certainly makes no sense that it would take this long to get the list to us even with computer problems. It can be about any errors you might find on the list of employees that were present for the reception. Use your intuition to see if you can find a discrepancy. That will give us a strong reason to bring her in for formal questioning with a lawyer present.”
“When did you ask her about the guest list?”
“At our first meeting on Monday morning. It’s now Friday morning. You can tell her that I’m in a blind fury and have started the process of serving her with a warrant.” Detective Parker stood up. “In truth, I’m slammed right now, so I want you to temporarily—notice that I said temporarily—take the lead on this. Follow up with Gina and talk to the social worker.”
“Are you going to the candlelight memorial service tonight?”
“No, I’ll be stuck here wrapping up paperwork on my last two cases. I think it would be helpful if you went. Take note of who attends and what their reactions are. It might be a complete waste of time, but emotions run high at these events and something may come up that will narrow our investigation.”
Officer Williams nodded. “I’ll stop by here on my way back and type up a report.”
“I’m confident that you will have something new to tell me about tonight.”