Ross pulled some strings and within the hour, he and Eames were on an hour-long flight to the Capitol. Once there, he rented a car and they arrived at the 5th district station house a little more than two-and-a-half hours after Logan had called Eames.
They were directed to the office of Quentin Gerrold, the district captain, and Ross introduced himself and Eames. Ross had done this dance before, and he knew enough to make nice with the locals. He explained that Goren was his detective, on loan to the FBI for a profiling project, and he diplomatically demanded to know why he was being held.
"We brought him in for questioning in connection with the murder of a woman he was seen with the night she died."
"Do you have any evidence?"
"Enough to bring him in."
"Such as?"
Gerrold smiled. "You know that's something I can't divulge, Captain Ross."
So, he wanted to play hard ball. Ross knew that game, too. "I brought his partner with me. Do you mind if we watch the interrogation?"
"Not at all. My detectives should be about ready."
"How long has he been here?"
"A couple of hours. He's been cooling off in one of our interrogation rooms."
"Was he difficult?"
"No, not difficult, but definitely not happy to be here."
"Who ever is?"
With a smile and a nod, Gerrold led them out of his office to the observation room that overlooked the interrogation room Goren had been shut in, alone, for nearly three hours. Logan was there with Turner and Decker; Murphy and Sanchez conferred with each other in hushed tones on the other side of the room.
Ross shook Logan's hand and said hello. After introducing Ross to Turner and Decker, Logan moved over to stand by Eames, whose attention was riveted to Goren. When Logan appeared beside her, she slid closer to him and he put his arm around her. Neither of them spoke, but no words were necessary.
Decker came over to join them as Turner talked to Ross. Quietly, Logan introduced them. "This is Bobby's FBI partner, Alan Decker. Alan, this is Alex Eames, his partner back home."
Decker smiled. "It's nice to meet you."
She studied him for a minute. "Isn't it your job to keep him out of trouble?"
Decker laughed. "I do my best, but I can't be with him all the time."
She nodded. "I know the feeling."
Logan watched Ross step out of the room with Gerrold and Turner, then he jerked his head at the two detectives who stood on the other side of the room, raising his voice so they would hear him. "Those two goons over there are the ones who want to play games instead of looking for the real killer."
Murphy stepped toward him, but Sanchez grabbed his arm. Gerrold would have a cow if they started a fight right there. Logan glared at them defiantly until Eames touched his arm. "Mike, don't," she murmured to him.
He made a noise and turned his attention back to her. "Yeah, they're not worth it," he said in mock agreement.
She turned her attention back to Goren and her heart did a small flip. He didn't deserve to be in there on the other side of the table. She looked at Logan, then at Decker before looking back in at her partner. "What is his connection to the victim?" she asked.
"He was seen talking with her at a bar the night she died. Apparently, he's the last one they can find who was seen with her," Decker answered.
Logan watched closely for her reaction, but she was careful to hide it well. Decker was also watching her. He'd connected the dots and was assuming that Goren's partner, Alex Eames, was the same Alex who had visited last weekend, the same Alex with whom he was in a relationship. He wondered how they managed that, but he certainly wasn't going to out the relationship, presuming he was right with his assumptions.
Eames set her jaw and looked at Decker. "Then they're wrong. There's another person they are missing." She looked at Murphy and Sanchez. "They're missing whoever killed her. That was the last person who saw her alive."
"Bring us a better suspect, and we'll leave your boyfriend alone," Murphy retorted.
"He's my partner," Eames replied, her tone as condescending as she could make it.
Logan moved closer to her in a gesture of solidarity as Sanchez moved off the wall to stand beside his partner. They were facing off as Ross, Turner and Gerrold returned to the room. Ross took in the situation in an instant and addressed Eames and Logan. "Stand down, both of you."
"That goes for you two as well," Gerrold told his detectives.
Murphy glared at the out-of-town officers. "He's a murderer. He doesn't deserve your loyalty."
"If you knew him," Eames snapped. "You would never say that."
Beside her, Logan growled, "You're gonna eat those words, Capitol Boy."
"Says who, New York?"
"All right, that's enough," Gerrold ordered. "Don't you two have a job to do?"
Murphy and Sanchez stormed from the room, more determined than before to prove Goren's guilt.
Goren sat silently in the interrogation room, unaware of the storm brewing on the other side of the one-way glass. He studied his hands as he tried to distract himself. By his estimation, he'd been sitting there for a couple of hours, maybe a little longer. That was a tactic he knew well, leaving a suspect alone in an empty room to think about what he had done. Of course, in his case, he had not done what they wanted him to think about, but his busy mind was still occupied by dark thoughts. He couldn't get the image of the crime scene photo out of his mind. He could not reconcile the image of the victim with his memories of the laughing, flirty woman he'd spent the evening with almost a week ago. Anyone who might have observed them that night—although he was at a loss to understand why anyone would be interested—would not have had much of a stretch in imagining they had hooked up after leaving the bar. He wondered if she stayed at the bar and who she would have picked up after he left her. He felt bad about leaving her, especially now. What the hell had happened to the gentleman his mother had raised? He should have walked her home, at least. But then...then she could have coaxed him inside and he'd be in an entirely different world of trouble. No, he'd done the right thing. He'd stayed faithful and proved himself a better man than William Goren. But still...what would Eames think?
His roaming thoughts came to an abrupt halt when the door opened and Murphy strolled in, followed by Sanchez. He wondered which one was going to play the good cop and try to befriend him, to catch him off guard in the hope he would confess, and which one would play the bad cop and try to bully and intimidate him. He knew the game well and would not fall prey to either tactic. Of course, he had nothing to confess, which meant this was going to be a long interrogation. Murphy and Sanchez were out for blood-his blood.
Murphy sat across from him and Sanchez stood against the wall by the one-way glass, watching. That was something else he and Eames often did. One partner went in for the attack while the other watched for weakness. Goren remained silent, returning their scrutiny.
Murphy spoke first. "Tell us again, Agent Goren: where were you Friday night into Saturday morning, between midnight and four a.m.?"
They were gunning for him with all barrels, and he knew they would ask him repeatedly what he had done Friday night, hoping to find the inconsistencies that would tell them he was lying. There would be no inconsistencies, though, because he was telling them the truth. With some suspects, prolonged interrogations and leading statements could confuse them into a false confession that would hold up in court. Although it was a tactic he never stooped to using, he had seen it done many times. He preferred to elicit confessions from the guilty, not beat or intimidate a confession from the innocent just because they were weak. He would rather file away a case as unsolved than get a false confession from an innocent person and send someone to jail who did not belong there. Unfortunately, all cops were not that ethical and he had to play the game their way. He spoke slowly, with exaggerated patience, as though they were slow to understand. "I already told you—I left the bar, walked around for a while and then went home. I drank a few more beers and fell asleep watching television."
Murphy leaned forward in his chair. "You were identified by the bartender at Sal's, Goren. He said you were getting cozy with Miss Morton. Are you trying to tell us that a beautiful woman like that is willing to hook up with you and you turn her down?"
"That's exactly what I'm telling you."
From his place beside the one-way glass, Sanchez asked, "Are you gay, agent?"
"What?" Goren replied as he looked at him, surprised by the question. "No. Why?"
"That would explain why you turned down such a hot lady."
"That isn't the only reason," Goren responded.
"What other reason could you have for turning down a real looker who obviously wanted to get into your pants?"
"I have my reasons."
"Which are?" Murphy pressed.
"Which are mine. All you have to know is I left the bar without her."
"And then what?"
"And then I walked around for a little while and went home. I had a couple more drinks and I fell asleep on the couch."
"Watching TV...What was on?" Sanchez asked.
"The news."
"What time was it?"
"I don't know. I didn't look at the time. But you can check my phone records. I talked with my friend Mike Logan just before I went home."
"So you called your buddy to tell him what you did?"
Goren sighed. "No. He called me. I told him I was just walking. He said he was on his way down for the weekend, so I went home."
Murphy leaned back in his chair and rubbed his balding head. "You see, Goren, here's our problem. We have a dead woman and you were the last person seen with her. You claim that you were either out walking alone or at home alone at the time of the murder. That gives you no alibi. What are we supposed to think?"
"I know what you're thinking, and you're wrong."
"Prove it, amigo," said Sanchez. "That's all you gotta do and you can be on your way."
Behind the one way glass, Eames watched her partner. "Has he asked for a lawyer yet?"
"Not yet," Gerrold answered. "But he's not under arrest yet. At the moment he's just a person of interest."
Ross looked at his counterpart. "Level with me, captain. Are you going to arrest him?"
Gerrold hesitated before nodding. "Yes. He was the last person seen with the victim and he has no alibi. We don't have a better suspect, and I have the mayor and the brass breathing down my neck to make a break in the case. Tell me what you would do."
Ross waved a hand. "Are you telling me there's an uproar over this one murder only six days out?"
Gerrold hesitated again before answering, "It's not just this one murder. We believe that Ms. Morton is the fifth victim of the same killer. That's why I'm getting pressure."
"Five victims?" Ross said, incredulous. "Captain, I can't see Goren taking one life. Five is unthinkable."
Decker looked at Turner, who was also surprised by the information. There was no doubt now that Turner would have to ask for help in proving Goren's innocence. The SAIC nodded and Decker spoke up. "The Bureau sometimes works with a local agency that uses applied psychology to determine if someone is being truthful. They've been a big help on several cases for us. Captain Turner already spoke with Dr. Cal Lightman, and he's willing to help us out on this." He turned to Eames and added, "Let them get a read on him and then we can find him the right defense attorney."
Turner said to Ross, "Cal Lightman is supposed to be the world's leading deception detection expert. Let's see what his interpretation is. I trust Dr. Lightman."
"And if he says Goren's lying?" Gerrold asked.
"I'll abide by their determination," Turner replied. He was putting all his eggs, and Goren's, in Cal Lightman's basket.
Gerrold studied the agent-in-charge warily. "Why are you sticking your neck out for this guy, Turner? Are you aware that he's the son of Mark Ford Brady?"
The room went very still. The information about Brady surprised both Turner and Decker. Although Logan, Eames and Ross knew, they were not aware that the information about Goren's paternity was public knowledge. Eames grasped Logan's hand tightly and he squeezed back. "How did you know that?" Ross asked, suspicious.
"We've done our homework on this guy, Captain Ross. When he popped up on our radar, we began to dig. He's anything but squeaky clean."
Decker spoke up, his voice tinged with rage. "That doesn't make him a killer, Captain Gerrold. I just can't wrap my brain around this guy as a serial killer. He doesn't fit the profile. I don't care who his father was."
"Profiles can be wrong."
"And evidence can be misinterpreted, especially when you're looking at it with your mind already made up about what you want it to say."
Gerrold's eyes narrowed. "Or what you don't want it to say, agent."
"So let Lightman decide," Turner insisted.
"Fine. We'll let his group have a go at him, but I want Lightman to know this is a rogue cop gone bad."
"That's a lie!" Eames snapped, at the end of her patience. She had no tolerance for anyone bad-mouthing her partner—her lover—and she'd had enough. Logan put his arm around her waist to keep her from going after Gerrold.
Ross lightly touched her arm, addressing Gerrold. "Is that how you play the game here?" he asked. "You taint your experts before they can render an opinion? Is your evidence that weak, if you have any evidence at all?"
Turner stepped in to mediate. "All Lightman knows is that I have an agent in some trouble for something he may or may not have done. That's all he will know until he requests information to help him with his case, not yours, Captain Gerrold. I don't know about you, but I don't want the wrong man sent to prison."
Decker watched the captains battle it out as he moved to stand by Logan and Eames. Gerrold and his men were out for blood, pressured on all fronts to solve five brutal murders. If they could pin the blame on Goren, they certainly would, claiming the case was solved...until the next body turned up. And Decker knew for certain it would turn up because the detectives had stopped looking for the actual killer as they focused on the wrong man. Some poor young woman was going to pay for their mistake with her life, unless they found the real killer soon. But in order to find someone, they had to be looking...
Decker was determined to clear his partner so they could find the right guy before another woman lost her life...and he trusted Cal Lightman to help.
