Chapter 10

Stiffly holding her hands down to her lap as if they would leap up and attack her, Linda McGrue's crackled as she screamed. "You don't understand!"

Calleigh sat across the table, coldly facing the girl. "Perhaps you can explain so I will understand."

Linda had refused legal counsel. Her voice turned into a whine. "Sean said he loved me but he wouldn't stop seeing all of those other girls! He insulted me, made a fool of me!"

"So, you shot him."

"I didn't think I had hit him. I didn't mean to kill him. That was an accident."

Frank stood leaning against a window frame. He removed his hand from his jaw. "Wouldn't a slap have been as effective?"

Linda stared down at her hands as they twitched. "I tried that once. I walked right up to him in front of the others and smacked him. Two of the girls laughed at me and the rest hovered around Sean as if I had hit him with a baseball bat.

"Maybe I should have." Ms McGrue's forehead knitted showing she'd never had botox injections.

"Describe what happened that night in the club." Calleigh had to be sure the events expressed by Ms. McGrue coincided with the forensic evidence.

"Sean said to meet him there if I wanted to talk to him."

"How did he know you wanted to talk to him?"

"I'd called him to tell him again how I felt about him being with other women. He'd been ignoring me, not calling, not inviting me over to his place."

"Gee, after getting slapped, I wonder why?" Frank's tone of voice was belligerent. "You can't have it both ways."

Calleigh glanced up at Frank. Anyone who didn't know her wouldn't have recognized the look she gave him was a silent warning to stay out of her case or hear her wrath later.

Frank shifted uncomfortably under the tiny woman's admonishment.

"So, you went to meet him. Was he there?"

"Yes. He was at a large booth. I didn't think anything of it at the time. It was early, before the band started playing and quiet enough to talk."

"You told him you didn't want him being with other women? What was his reaction?"

"He said the others never meant anything to him."

"And, did you believe him?"

"The way he kissed me after he told me, I did. It was so sweet and nice."

"Then what made you change your mind about him?"

"After a couple of drinks, I had to go to the Powder Room. I was fixing myself up, ready for a great evening, when Tracey Capella came in. She had the nerve to tell me I'd better hurry before the booth filled up and there would be no room for me. I asked her what she meant and she said that she and Brittany and Dawn were there already and she heard him say he was expecting more."

After a long pause, Calleigh urged, "Is that when you went out to shoot him?"

"Not until after I had told that cold fish that they had all better go home because Sean was mine now. She goes, 'Oh pul-eeze, you don't mean anything more to him than any of us do.' I was going to go up to her to slap her silly when she got all tall on me and said, 'Don't even think about it. There's nothing to get mad at. You'll get your share.'

"Like I want to share! So, I went out to see for myself. I could see the booth from the hallway and I was shocked to see Sean surrounded by women after he'd promised to be faithful to me. He couldn't even wait a day!" By this time, she'd pulled her hand out and had begun gesturing ending the last statement by slamming both fists on the table.

"The rest of what happened was just surreal. I was coming out of the bathroom. The other shooting started and people were running everywhere. I saw Sean jump up, shoving the other girls out of his way. I don't remember the rest very well." Her voice trailed off.

"What do you remember?"

"I think I pulled the gun out of my purse and pointed it at him. After that, all I can remember is running down the alley. I must have been halfway to the street and I was thinking, 'forget about this, forget about it.' I must have shot Sean and then run out. I threw the gun away someplace because when I got home, I didn't have it."

"Where did you get the gun in the first place?"

"My mother bought it for me when I started college. She said even the fancy college boys could be a danger."

"And the second gun? The one you fired at me and Lieutenant Caine?"

Ms McGrue blinked. "I'm sorry. I really am. I just wanted you to go away and leave me alone. I had to figure out what to do. When I heard you, I guess I just lost it. I think I would have turned myself in when I was ready. I'm really sorry."

"That isn't how it works, Ms McGrue. You can refuse to come in for questioning, but to say you will and not show up, not answer your phone, that has a way of peaking our interest.

"Now, where did you get the second gun?"

"My father said the one my mother gave me was next to useless and gave me a bigger one. It was too big to carry around so I kept it at home."

"You say you can't remember shooting Sean?"

"I think I remember aiming at him, wanting to shoot him, but, no, I don't remember doing it."

Satisfied, Calleigh nodded at Frank and left the room with him. When Frank closed the door, both walked out of Lucy's line of sight.

"We got her, Cal. Opportunity and a hell of a lot of motive."

"She thought she had found love and he played her but good."

"Those others didn't help the situation." Frank did not like mean girls.

"No one helped. Linda is one of those who's family is just well enough off to send her to the good schools but she's too poor to join in the other kids' games unless they say so. I don't think she even understood the rules of the game. Maybe she didn't get it was a game for these kids."

"I guess we're going to have to book her for both shootings."

"No, Frank, don't bother. I don't think she did shot Sean."

"You just agreed she did!"

"I agreed she had motive but whether she could have, in fact, I doubt. It's just not adding up. Remember, there were no fingerprints on the gun. That means she would have had presence of mind in all that flurry of people running and shooting to wipe the gun clean. She's more the type to have panicked and blacked out for a few minutes, avoiding even the thought of wanting to injure Sean. She wouldn't have had the presence of mind to wipe a gun clean as she was running. She may be clinically mentally ill, Frank, I don't know. For now, all we've got her on for sure is shooting blindly and hitting Horatio in the process.

"This is one time I wouldn't mind calling in the Wild Eyed Wonder Woman to see if the girl is nuts. I think she was pushed too far, once too often. Maybe she snapped."

Calleigh's eyes popped wide. "Frank! You have a soft spot for a perp? And you want to get a psych eval? Either you've been holding out on me or I've ruined you!"

Frank sneered. "Oh, get over yourself woman! Let's discuss how much of what's been ruined later tonight. For now, I'll drop down and send Dr. Brandt up here and then write my report on the interrogation."

"I'm looking forward to this evening!" Calleigh was tempted to toy with her hair but knowing there were too many eyes seeing every move in this house of glass, she stood straight and as tall as she could. "Meanwhile, I'll start Linda on writing her version of what drove her to shoot at us through the closed door. By the time Sally gets up here, she might have something to work with."

Herrero pulled himself up to his full height and still had to look up to the redhead in front of him. "We have two men who have been on the force since 1996. Both still do patrol. What about it?"

"I just need to interview them, find out their routine, take a look at their cars." Horatio had a way of bending his head and seeming to look up to shorter people. He knew he didn't have to be less threatening to a fellow officer but it couldn't hurt, either.

"I can do that myself and send you a report." The captain's chin rose defiantly.

Horatio was sympathetic with the protection this man wanted to afford his men. While he examined his fingers, he searched for a way to break through the brick wall Herrero presented and get his own job done. "That isn't how this works, Alphonso. There is no way any of this is going to reflect badly on you or this division."

"I do my own work with my men, Horatio!"

The CSI Lieutenant knew Herrero was only doing what he himself would do; protecting his team. "Not in this kind of a case. Homicide and Forensics is a Miami-Dade sector and you know it. This is no longer only a cop accosting women in the field. We are finding links between the two sets of crimes."

Herrero was fighting a losing battle and Horatio could see that he knew it. He hoped silence would allow the captain to see his way clear to showing Horatio a room where he could conduct the interviews. The next step would be to hope either of those patrolmen hadn't suddenly disappeared or called in sick.

"Officer Dickenson, how long have you been in the force?"

"Since 1996, Lieutentant."

"And you do most of your patrols alone?"

"Yes, for the last five years or so. Budget cuts, y'a know." Dickenson's northern Alabama drawl pleasantly slowed his words.

"Is the Flats Farm part of your area?"

"Not really, but I've been there when we're bustin' up drug parties." He paused as if he remembered something. "I think one or two of the guys stop there for breaks, though."

"But not you?"

In spite of a fairly fit figure, Dickenson had one of those round faces that made him look chubby. His cheeks spread as he grinned. "Nah. I have a place of my own on my beat." He squinted his eyes for a moment. "Does this have anything to do with Toler's girl bein' killed?"

"I don't know yet, officer. Thank you for you help." Horatio knew that the officer was perfectly aware that he might be lying about the link between the killings. Nothing in the rule book said the interviewer/interrogator had to tell the truth.

While waiting for Officer Mike Price to come in from his beat, Horatio talked with Eric about his examination of Dickenson's patrol car.

"The tires have been changed too recently to know if they could be a match to any tread prints Wolfe took. If there ever was anything inside, he had cleaned it out as procedure dictates after each shift. I took dirt samples from inside the wheel wells and what I could find inside the engine. I'll do a comparison with what we have from the murder sights and the ones where we know women were attacked."

"Good work, Eric. And now, unless I'm mistaken, I think that is our next officer in question."

"I understand Herrero had made arrangements with an extra officer to take over Price's patrol while he came directly from his route. That means plenty of trace." Eric had a grin like a hungry tiger looking at a crippled buffalo.

From the start, there was something in Price's demeanor in the interview room that set up a red flag for Horatio. He tried to set it aside; the man's tenseness could have been nothing more than a dislike of a small space, for being questioned. Yet, there was more to it, Horatio was sure.

Price finally leaned back in the chair and crossed his heavily muscled arms. Even seated and without his weapons, the grey eyed, mustached man was an imposing figure.

Being more comfortable standing, Horatio let a few seconds pass before starting the interview. A habit of many years, he leaned a shoulder against the wall to one side of the small table. Then he began; after confirming that Price had started his service in 1996, he questioned his current route of patrol and his routine.

The veteran officer seemed to have no problem saying he often stopped at the Flats Farm to finish reports, to sit in the shade waiting for a call. "Some days, you know, you just gotta get out of that freakin' sun for a while!"

"Did you ever see Mitzi out there?"

"Toler's kid?" There was the slightest pause. "No. She wasn't the kind that went in for what went on there."

"The parties, you mean."

"I'm pretty sure I would have recognized her in the busts we made out there."

"What about seeing her out there alone?"

Again that slight pause. "Not that I can remember…Hey, wait a minute! You aren't thinking I did anything to her?" Price began to rise out of the chair.

"Sit down, please. Why, Officer Price, would I think that?" There were times when Horatio could menacingly purr his voice. He stood upright and spread his legs. "I'm just wondering if you ever saw her out there alone or perhaps with a single friend, something like that?"

Relaxing, Price shook his head. "No, never. I mean, you couldn't miss that yellow bug, now could you? And I wasn't out there on the day she was found! That was my day off."

"How about the night before?"

"I was on a double shift until two in the freakin' morning! I was shitfaced tired when I got home, but not shitfaced if you get my drift. I got off duty and I went home. You need to make something of it? Go ahead!"

"I hope I won't have to."

He thanked Price for coming in and dismissed him.

Picking up the video of the interviews he found Eric still working on the car.

"Plenty of trace inside. I won't know what it is until I can analyze it all. I don't think it's anything since the car is generally used by two or three different officers in any twenty-four hour period."

"And seeing as how they have to clean their cars after each shift, we may be where we started in that regard."

"One thing I did discover while talking with the motor pool guy here. To save money, when they change tires, they take the one in the best shape to use as a spare. The tires on this car were changed just yesterday and the best is in their spare wheel collection in the garage now."

"I'm assuming you took an impression of Price's spare?"

Eric put on his goofy grin. "Is the Pope Catholic?"

A few minutes later, he and Eric headed back to the lab.

Unfortunately for Horatio, when he arrived, Sally was just finishing up with Linda McGrue. Although he hadn't seen her face during the shooting or at all until then, seeing her gave the side of his head a twang. Perhaps that was the problem; knowing she had shot blindly, not at him in particular had brought down that wall he had between himself and people who shot at him. Somehow, random shootings that injured him or others were most annoying; gave him the urge to go in, grab the perpetrator and to say, 'How dare you?' and want to throw the book at them.

Even so, when Sally looked up from her interviewing process and saw him standing there and smiled, his wound felt soothed, his antipathy waned slightly. Before she could turn back to her current subject, Horatio held up the video cassette to indicate he wanted her to look at it when she was done.

Three hours later, Sally laid a folder with her notes about the two interviews on Horatio's desk.

"Long story short, I'm thinking Price is your man both for the assaults and the murders. Not only does he feel entitled to whatever perks his position might offer, he is aggressive when challenged. Mitzi was probably his first act of violence that ended in murder. She knew how police should behave and since her father is a detective, didn't think she was in danger when she objected to his advances."

"He strangled her then threw her into the silo. That seems odd behavior for a police officer."

"It drove him over the edge. Besides, police aren't trained in what the newly dead people look like. Ordinarily, even if they think they've verified it, police let the medic do the final pronounce. You know that. He wanted to make sure she was dead after he'd strangled her. The thoroughness from his police academy days had him make sure. That's probably why he dumped her from the top of the silo. Maybe he was more confident with Thalia Duda a little later. So he didn't disturb the body after he'd pushed her over the railing."

Looking up from his chair, Horatio said, "We still can't put him at either crime scene for sure. 'If' he did it, you have the reasons but that's all."

"Two hours of analysis and you say 'all'?" She pointed at the folder.

His smiled. "Your work will be crucial in the courtroom. Our work has to show if there's reason for him to be there in the first place."

Sally's face showed her frustration. "Yeah, yeah! Excuses, excuses!" She turned to leave and shot over her shoulder, "Just remember who to thank when you get a conviction."

Without a pause, Horatio returned with, "Dinner tonight?"

Just as the door closed, he heard, "Sure! Call me."

TBC