Penner opened the door to the interrogation room and went in, closing it behind her. She took the chair that the Captain had been using and moved it around the table so that she sat next to Millar.
‘Captain pissed?’ Millar asked, seeming a little more calm than before.
‘Yeah, kinda. Not your finest moment,’ Penner said.
‘Well, put yourself in my shoes.’ Millar looked at her. ‘I’m telling you, I had nothing to do with this. I know it looks bad, but why would I kill three strangers? Or anyone for that matter?’ Millar said.
‘You’ve got to try and think of who could have done this then,’ Penner told him.
‘I told you, I think it’s that Grant guy. I haven’t trusted him since day one,’ said Millar.
‘Okay, let’s just say that it was Grant. How would he have made the connection of the three victims back to you?’ Penner asked.
‘Internet search. Didn’t you say that he was the one who found the online story with a photo of two of the victims? All the wrestling matches are reported on, be it local paper or school paper, and they all end up on the Internet. Not hard to find information if you know what to search for,’ Millar said.
‘Okay, I’ll give you that, but how did he know you had any connection with wrestling?’ Penner asked. ‘It’s not like anyone here knows that much about your private life…or would be talking about it to him, right?’
‘Probably from my books. We know he’s read them. And I talk about Tina in my author write-up on the back of my books. Again, an Internet search would bring up a lot of info on her, with all the awards that she’s won,’ Millar said. The longer he talked, the more he thought Grant had something to do with it.
Penner stood up, opened the door and had a look in the hall, which was empty. No one was watching through the one-way glass. She closed the door again and sat down, moving her chair closer to Millar’s. ‘I have to ask you about this,’ she said quietly, pulling a small plastic bag out of her pocket.
Millar took the bag, wondering why Penner was whispering. He realized it was because the room was miked to the hallway. He looked at the bag. ‘A button?’ he whispered back. Penner nodded. ‘What about it?’
Penner grabbed a sheet of paper off of the pad the Captain was using earlier and wrote on it, passing it over to Millar.
‘It’s from a dress uniform. I found it at one of the crime scenes. Your dress coat was missing a button.’
‘I lost that button years ago,’ Millar said. ‘Tina used to use my coat for dress-up. I think it was lost in one of the old houses. Besides, if I was going out to kill someone, and I said if, why would I wear my dress uniform?’
‘Easiest way to get someone to go with you, if you’re dressed like a cop?’ Penner suggested.
‘Pointing my gun at them would probably be easier,’ Millar said, sliding the bag back to Penner. ‘This is absurd. Look, I need you to do some background checks on Grant. Where did he come from, what’s his story? Any black marks on his file.’
Penner put the bag with the button back in her pocket. ‘Alright, I’ll see what I can find out. But you really need to start thinking of who else might have done this. You said it could have been someone you put away?’
‘Yeah, but I don’t know who,’ Millar said. ‘I’ve put a lot of people away over a long period of time. It could be hundreds of people. Maybe someone’s family member who got locked up. I really don’t know.’
‘Keep thinking. I’ll be back,’ Penner said, standing up and leaving the room again.
Millar looked around the empty room and contemplated just getting up and going home.
‘Take a seat,’ the Captain said to Grant when they entered the second interrogation room. Grant was visibly shaken.
‘Sir, I understand the process here, but I swear, I had nothing to do with this. Why would I want to frame another cop?’ Grant asked, sitting down.
The Captain didn’t respond. ‘Right, I want to know the details before, during and after each of the homicides. So, you were first on the scene for the first murder, correct?’
Grant opened up his notebook to the night in question. ‘Yes, sir. As I said in the report I filed the next day, I had been called to a complaint about a suspicious individual over on Fifth Avenue at around eleven forty-five. When I was driving over, I noticed someone sitting by the Terry Fox statue. When I came back that way two hours later, I noticed they were still sitting there, so I went to investigate and called it in at one forty-five.’
‘So when you first noticed the person sitting there, you just drove by. You didn’t actually go over to see them up close?’ the Captain asked.
‘Well, no, sir. I was on the way to a call so I just carried on. I didn’t have any reason at that point in time to go check on them. Besides, you know the area. I thought it was just someone who’d had too much to drink,’ Grant said.
‘Are you sure the person you saw before midnight was actually the victim?’ the Captain asked.
‘Sir?’ Grant said, feeling like he was on trial. ‘I assumed it was the same person, sir. It would have been a bit of a coincidence that two people were sitting in the same spot only a couple of hours apart.’
‘There seem to be a lot of coincidences in this case, Constable. Too many for my liking,’ the Captain said. ‘So, where were you before you got called out and noticed the person for the first time?’
Grant flipped through his notes. ‘I had started my patrol at around eleven fifteen. Shift start was at eleven, and by the time I got my assignment and all, it was probably quarter after. I was down in the market area, walking around, when the call came in.’
‘Busy night?’ the Captain asked.
‘Not particularly, sir,’ Grant said. ‘Pretty quiet actually.’
‘So, anyone see you?’ the Captain asked, staring at Grant with an intensity that made him nervous.
‘Possibly, sir, but not that I’m aware of. I don’t remember talking to anyone.’ Grant flipped through his notebook desperately.
The Captain made some notes. ‘Right, so the second murder. Where were you before the call came in?’
Again, Grant flipped through his book. ‘I was with Detective Penner. We were at a taxi stand interviewing cab drivers about whether or not they had seen anyone the night of the first murder. We were still there when the call came in about the second murder.’
‘Okay. And for the third, dispatch wasn’t able to get in touch with you, correct?’ the Captain asked.
‘Not right away, no, sir,’ Grant said. ‘I was in the shower when they tried calling my house, and I didn’t have my cell turned on. When I finally saw I had a message I listened to it and turned my cell back on, which is when I got all of their messages.’
‘And that was at what time?’ the Captain asked.
‘Around one in the morning, or thereabouts, sir,’ Grant said, referring to his notes.
‘So, as Millar blurted out, why were you showering at one in the morning? Don’t you usually shower before shift, so before you were supposed to report at eleven that evening?’ the Captain asked.
‘Honestly, sir, after I found out I was off for the night, I needed to find something to do,’ Grant explained. ‘I was going to go home, but I wasn’t tired at all. I had slept during the day getting ready for the night-shift. Plus, I was excited that I was going to get the chance to work with Detective Penner. And I was hoping I would get to continue to work with Detective Millar at some point, which doesn’t seem too likely now. Anyway, I decided to go to the gym to get a workout in. I didn’t have a towel in my car so that’s why I went home to shower.’
‘Can anyone corroborate this?’ asked the Captain, already assuming the answer would be no.
‘Actually, sir, at my gym you have to scan your membership card on the way in and out, so there should be a record of when I was there. Here’s their number, if you’d like to call,’ Grant said, handing the Captain his membership card.
‘Alright, I’ll make a call and find out if they can confirm what you’re telling me. Do me a favour, go grab me another coffee. I should have been home by now,’ the Captain said, picking up his phone.
‘Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,’ Grant said as he left the room.
‘Never thought I would be investigating two of my own for a triple murder,’ the Captain murmured as he dialed the gym.
After leaving Millar in the interrogation room, Penner went straight to her office and logged into her computer. She was starting to feel sick to her stomach. This evening was not going how she had thought it would. She honestly thought they would have interviewed Millar for twenty minutes, come to the conclusion he had nothing to do with it and they would be back to working on finding the real killer. Together. ‘Now it seems like Millar is looking guilty to the Captain and here I am investigating another one of our own,’ she thought. She opened up the program where she could do personnel searches and typed in Grant’s name. As soon as she hit enter, his information flashed up on the screen. As he had said, before joining the force he had been a paramedic for five years. He was single, no dependents listed. From what she could tell here, he hadn’t had any major issues, either on the job or in his personal life. Just an all around squeaky clean guy. Part of her was hoping she would have found something. She had nothing against Grant—she actually thought he was a good cop and she liked working with him—but she would have given anything to prove that Millar wasn’t their guy. ‘There’s got to be something we’re missing,’ she said out loud. Whatever it was, she wasn’t seeing it.
With a coffee cup in each hand, Grant knocked on the door of the interrogation room he had just left. The Captain signalled for him to enter.
‘Thank you, ma-am, you have been very helpful. Thanks. You, too.’ The Captain hung up the phone. ‘Well, Constable Grant, your gym confirmed your story and it seems that you were there when you said you were. Thanks,’ he said, taking one of the coffees. ‘Now, between the gym and getting home, did anyone see you?’
‘Honestly, sir, I don’t know. I may have seen my neighbour, but I don’t rightly remember. I know it’s important, but unless I write stuff down, I don’t remember. That’s why I take so many notes. And when I’m not on the clock, there’s no need to write stuff down,’ Grant said, wishing he could come up with something that would prove his innocence to the Captain.
‘Understood,’ the Captain said. He rubbed his eyes. ‘Okay. Here’s what I’m thinking. Are you willing to take a polygraph?’
‘A lie detector test, sir?’ Grant was surprised. ‘Well, I guess, but why?’
‘Because there are periods of time we can’t verify where you were,’ the Captain explained. ‘I know these things aren’t foolproof, but right now it’s about the best thing we have. If we can figure out that you’re not lying and do the same with Detective Millar, then we can start concentrating on figuring out who’s actually behind framing him, right?’
‘Fine with me, sir. I know I had nothing to do with this,’ Grant said. Truthfully, he was a little nervous. He had never been hooked up to a polygraph before.
‘Alright, I’ll make the arrangements. I’ll see if our technician is still here, in which case we can do it in the next fifteen minutes or so. Otherwise, it may be an hour or two,’ the Captain said, picking up his phone again. ‘Go find Penner. Let her know what’s going on. Oh, and I would recommend you stop drinking coffee. It could give a false positive.’