I ate the sandwich and even enjoyed every bite. Every once in a while, Mulholland or his partner, Susan Telesco, a tall blonde with jeans and a turtleneck, would try to engage me in conversation. I would shake them off and remind them that I had invoked my right to counsel. Three hours later, Benedict showed up. The four of us—Mulholland, Telesco, Benedict, and yours truly—sat around a table in an interrogation room that had been done up to not be overly intimidating. Of course it wasn’t as though I had a lot of experience in interrogation rooms, but I always expected them to be somewhat stark. This one was more a soft beige.
“Do you know why you’re here?” Mulholland asked.
Benedict frowned. “Really?”
“What?”
“How did you expect us to answer that exactly? With a confession perhaps? ‘Oh yes, Detective Mulholland, I assume you’ve arrested me because I shot up two liquor stores’? Can we skip amateur hour and just get to the heart of this?”
“Listen,” Mulholland said, adjusting himself in the chair, “we’re on your side.”
“Oh boy.”
“No, I mean it. We just need to clean up some details, and then we all go home better people for what happened.”
“What are you talking about?” Benedict asked.
Mulholland nodded at Telesco. She opened a folder and slid a sheet of paper across the table. When I saw the mug shots—front view, side view—my blood hummed in my veins.
It was Otto.
“Do you know this man?” Telesco asked me.
“Don’t answer.” I wasn’t about to, but Benedict put a hand on my arm just in case. “Who is he?”
“His name is Otto Devereaux.”
The name sent a chill through me. They had shown me their faces. They had used at least Otto’s real name. That could only mean one thing—they never intended for me to leave that van alive.
“Recently, your client stated that he had an altercation with a man matching Otto Devereaux’s description on a highway in Massachusetts. In that statement, your client said that he had been forced to kill Mr. Devereaux in self-defense.”
“My client retracted that statement. He was disoriented and under the influence of alcohol.”
“You don’t understand,” Mulholland said. “We aren’t here to bust his chops. If we could, we’d give him a medal.” He spread his hands. “We are all on the same side here.”
“Oh?”
“Otto Devereaux was a career scumbag of almost biblical proportions. We could show his full oeuvre, but it would take too long. Let’s just lead with some of the highlights. Murder, assault, extortion. His nickname was Home Depot because he liked using tools on his victims. He enforced for the legendary Ache brothers until someone decided that he was too violent for them. Then he worked on his own or for whatever desperate bad guy needed a true sicko.” He smiled at me. “Look, Jake, I don’t know how you got the drop on this guy, but what you did was a blessing for society.”
“So,” Benedict said, “theoretically speaking, you’re here to thank us?”
“Nothing theoretical about it. You’re a hero. We want to shake your hand.”
No one shook hands.
“Tell me,” Benedict said, “where did you find his body?”
“That’s not important.”
“What was the cause of death?”
“That’s not important either.”
Benedict said, smiling broadly, “Is this really the way to treat your hero?” He nodded toward me. “If there is nothing else, I think we will be leaving now.”
Mulholland glanced over at Telesco. I thought that I saw a small smile on her face. I didn’t like it. “Okay,” he said, “if that’s how you want to play it.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning nothing. You’re free to go.”
“Sorry we couldn’t help,” Benedict said.
“Don’t worry about it. Like I said, we just wanted to thank the man who took this guy out.”
“Uh-huh.” We were both standing now. “We can find our way out.”
We were nearly out the door when Susan Telesco said, “Oh, Professor Fisher?”
I turned.
“Do you mind if we show you one more photograph?”
They both looked up at me as though they couldn’t be bothered, as though they had all the time in the world and my answer was meaningless. I could look at the picture or I could walk out the door. No biggie. I didn’t move. They didn’t move.
“Professor Fisher?” Telesco said.
She slid the photograph out of the folder facedown, as if we were playing blackjack in a casino. I could see the glint in her eye now. The room dropped ten degrees.
“Show me,” I said.
She flipped over the photograph. I froze.
“Do you know this woman?” she asked.
I didn’t reply. I stared at the photograph. Yes, of course, I knew the woman.
It was Natalie.
“Professor Fisher?”
“I know her.”
The photograph was black-and-white. It looked like a still frame from some kind of surveillance video. Natalie was hurrying down a corridor.
“What can you tell me about her?”
Benedict put a hand on my shoulder. “Why are you asking my client?”
Telesco pinned me down with her eyes. “You were visiting her sister when we found you. Would you mind telling us what you were doing there?”
“And again,” Benedict said, “why are you asking my client?”
