Page 49 of Dirty Looks

I rubbed at my temple, trying to ignore the headache that was gathering there. “Alex Wheeler. He lives on the Lidle property. Said he’s worked there for seven years.”

“Ahh, well,” Jack said, raising his brows. “Looks like you might need to talk to Alex again. He’s got a statutory rape conviction. Looks like it was pleaded down to indecency with a minor, and he did a year in jail. Spent some time on the sex offender list for almost a decade.”

“I don’t like coincidences,” I said.

“I’ve never been a big fan of them myself,” Jack said.

There was a knock on the door and Martinez stuck his head in.

“Come on in,” Jack said. “Good timing.” And then he filled him in on what we’d just discovered about Alex Wheeler.”

Martinez whistled. “I guess that’s not information you want to disclose to an investigating officer when you’re looking for a child killer.”

“How’s Kitty Lidle?” I asked.

Martinez shook his head. “Doctors aren’t expecting her to make it through the night. I did get confirmation though that she’d been given a large dose of promethazine. Apparently she had an adverse reaction and went into respiratory failure instead of just going into a deep sleep. It caused her to have several mini-strokes, and now she’s got bleeding on the brain. They’re keeping her comfortable until all the family can be gathered and a decision can be made.”

“We just talked to Everett Lidle,” Jack said.

“How’s he doing?” Martinez asked.

“About like you’d expect. Falling apart at the seams. He’s the one who told us about Alex Wheeler. Said there was some dispute over hiring him because of his background. But Kitty Lidle insisted upon it.”

Martinez grunted. “Hope that’s not a choice that’s come back to bite her. You want a crack at Astrid Nielsen? We’re heading into the interrogation room.”

“No,” he said. “You two have a vibe already. I’m heading home to pick up Doug and his computer. We’ll be set up in conference room A when you’re finished. Any luck on surveillance cameras around the park?”

“I don’t know if it’s luck,” Martinez said. “But out of all those houses there was only one house that’s upgraded to the twenty-first century. But the angle is from the opposite side of the park. Derby is trying to clean it up but he said it’s a shot in the dark. The footage is pretty grainy.”

“We’ll see if Doug and his computer girlfriend can work his magic on it,” Jack said.

“I’ve got to admit that computer freaks me out,” Martinez said, blowing out a breath. “Did no one seeTerminator? That computer is a robot. She’s probably going to kill us all.”

I couldn’t say I disagreed with him. I’d had the same thought.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Martinezand I watched Astrid Nielsen through the two-way window for a few minutes. Holding her in lockup for the last few hours hadn’t seemed to have any effect on her. She looked calm and composed, and her uniform was hardly rumpled.

“She’s waived an attorney,” Martinez said. “She literally gets caught red-handed killing a man and she’s waived her right to counsel. What sense does that make?”

“Maybe she thinks she’s justified,” I said.

“Doesn’t mean she’s not going to prison,” he said. “Murder is murder, no matter what you think your cause is. And you’ve already discovered that Alan Goble wasn’t the man who murdered and raped Evie Lidle, so there’s a deeper motivation there somewhere.”

“Ahh, a woman scorned,” I said.

“You have everything you need?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

There was nothing special about the interrogation room. It looked like every interrogation room on any cop TV show. It was small and windowless, and the color was a dingy yellow that looked like it had been painted with urine. There was a two-way mirror, a metal table, and four chairs.

“Ms. Nielsen,” Martinez said as we walked in. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

Her mouth curved in an ironic smile, but she didn’t say anything.

“You remember Dr. Graves?” he asked.

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