Darcy’s voice quivered as she spoke.
“That’s extremely interesting to me,” I said. “I’m very glad you did tell me this, Darcy. Because what you just told me is very important to my investigation. It’s a good thing, okay? You didn’t betray him.”
The phone went deadly silent as my words hung in the air. I suddenly felt very awake and forgot about my anger. Darcy had revealed a key piece of information that could really help me, and even if I couldn’t see the big picture yet, I sensed that some of the puzzle pieces had fallen into place. This was the connection I was looking for.
She broke the silence. “He was such a good man. Why anyone would ever hurt him, I just don’t understand. They all loved him.”
I couldn’t help feeling a pang of sadness for Darcy, who clearly had been so devoted to her employer. I reached the barrier island and took the turn down A1A toward my town and the police station as I softly said, “We’ll do our best to answer that question, Darcy. That’s why I’m here.”
FIFTY-FIVEBILLIE ANN
As I entered the station the next day, my steps were light, and my heart was pounding. I had to push away my gut-wrenching meeting with my former partner in order to focus on the case.
A hush seemed to fall over the entire building as Chief Doyle rushed out of his office. There was an urgency in his stride. He signaled for me to follow him back in, and I obeyed, dread filling me as I crossed the threshold.
Now what?
The office was dark and smelled of stale coffee. Chief Doyle took a seat behind his large mahogany desk and gestured for me to do the same.
“Chief, I got some news on the way back here,” I said. “The pediatrician was Emma Clemens’s doctor. That’s our connection. Cassandra was her babysitter; this guy was her doctor. I can’t help thinking that it is almost like this killer wants to erase any trace of Emma. Does that make any sense? Like we didn’t believe she existed at first, because there were no records of her, no birth certificate, and so on, and someone is killing off anyone who could confirm she was real.”
He exhaled and rubbed his forehead. “Here we go again.”
I was taken aback. “I thought you were onboard with this. What happened?” I asked him.
He sat up straight. “I called you in here for another reason. I need you to listen, Wilde.”
I nodded, feeling like a child in the principal’s office. “Yes, sir.”
“We got a DNA test done on this,” Chief Doyle said gravely.
He opened a drawer and pulled out a small bag, placing it on the desk in front of me. His face was lined with worry, so deep that it almost seemed like he aged right before my eyes. In the bag was a lock of hair.
“It matches the hair of Pete Perez, Cassandra’s father.”
I felt my stomach clench as I realized what he was implying. On the one hand, I desperately wanted to give Pete the benefit of the doubt; after all he had just lost his only daughter. But then there was also the pain in his side that had me worried, and the fact that he was lying about it. And the fact that he let Marissa live in his house for free. Could he really be behind Dr. Henderson’s murder? Why?
With conflicting emotions coursing through me, I took the bag from Chief Doyle’s hand and studied it closely.
“The hair was found in Henderson’s apartment close to the body. They believe he might have fought for his life and then pulled it out of the head of his attacker.”
“Why have I not heard of this before?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I don’t know, Wilde. I don’t know where you are half of the time these days. A lot of stuff was found in his apartment, and I can’t even keep track of it, but this one is the only one that matches someone that can actually serve as evidence. Are you going to fight me on this? Are we going to have a problem here?”
I shook my head. “No, sir. Of course not.”
“Okay, good,” he said and sat back in his chair, folding his hands over his stomach. “Now bring him in.”
He was fixing me with an intense stare. “I’m sorry,” he added. “I know he just lost his daughter and that it is a lot right now. But it has to be done. My guess is he killed both Henderson and Cassandra. Your case is solved.”
“Why would he kill his own daughter?” I asked.
He threw out his long arms. “Who knows? Maybe she saw something? Maybe she threatened to tell on him. Maybe it was the other way around. Maybe he was abusing his daughter and the doctor saw something and threatened to report him. Lots of possibilities here. That’s what you need to ask him about.”
I nodded reluctantly and turned to leave the office. I didn’t feel good about this, but he was right. It had to be done. I just couldn’t figure out how this related to Emma, or if this was evidence that it didn’t at all. Maybe Pete could answer that if we could get him to talk. Taking a deep breath to steady myself, I replied resolutely, “Yes, sir, I understand. I’ll do whatever it takes to bring him in.”
With that, I stepped out of the office.
FIFTY-SIXBILLIE ANN
We got Pete Perez in the next day, early in the afternoon. Luckily, he came willingly, as we had a local patrol drive by his house and ask him to come to the station. Tom and I did the interrogating. We went at it for hours, asking him about the murder of Bryan Henderson. We had him dead to rights with a lock of his hair found at the crime scene that matched his DNA profile. However, he remained steadfast in his claims of innocence.
“I don’t even know who the guy is,” he claimed. “I have never seen him before in my life.”
“I know that’s not true,” I said. “I spoke to Dr. Henderson’s nurse, and she said you brought in Marissa and Emma Clemens. You knew him.”
That shut him up. He stared at me, biting the inside of his cheek. “Okay, so I did know of him. I’m a son of undocumented immigrants myself. I knew not to ask questions when Marissa came to me. I knew she was going to need a pediatrician, one who wouldn’t ask any questions either. So, I asked around and that’s how his name came up. But that doesn’t mean I killed anyone.”
I knew the Chief wanted this guy to confess, so we could move on with booking him. I was trying my best, especially since I knew the Chief was watching us through the one-way mirror. I didn’t want to let him down and knew my career depended on me solving this case.
I leaned forward and said, “Pete, you’re not fooling anyone. Just tell us what happened.”
Pete’s eyes darted around the room as if searching for an escape route. Finally, he muttered, “I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about. I have nothing to do with this. I can’t keep saying the same thing over and over again. You have to believe me.”
Tom chimed in, “Don’t lie to us, Pete. The evidence is right here. You can either confess now or make things harder for yourself down the line.”
Pete shook his head vigorously and said, “I swear on my mother’s grave that I didn’t do it. Why won’t you believe me?”
