The brakes on the lime-green LTD were squeaking when they came to a halt in front of Mears's apartment along Rollins Road.
Unlike the last time, the landlord wasn't around to grant them entry, and with it, a quiet approach to their suspect, so Mike opted to ring the bell of a neighboring apartment belonging to an older lady who finally buzzed them in after a slew of questions aimed to make sure they weren't vacuum sales people.
The hallway to Mears's apartment was dark except for a single lightbulb dangling from the ceiling. A couple dents in the drywall and torn wallpaper here and there only added to the run-down feel of the old building.
Just like before, Mike nodded on the heavy oak door, standing off to the side a bit in case a shot was fired.
He hadn't forgotten about Rudy's stern warning to be careful, even opt to come back and return another day if things seemed to become too dangerous for them to tackle.
As such, he'd 10-20'd their position upon arrival, all clerks in the office aware and prepared to send backup should they not hear back from them within forty-five minutes. It was a schedule Mike was intent to stick with to keep them both as safe as possible under the questionable circumstances.
Thankfully, so far, things seemed to be going according to plan when a sleepy-eyed Daniel Mears opened the front door, his expression changing from surprise to slight dread and annoyance. Closing the door again for a moment to undo the chain, he finally let them in with an inaudible grunt and pointed to the living room.
"You know where to sit down, Lieutenant…", Mears said, then took a detour to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of water, "And just what can I do for you and your friend today?"
They waited until the disheveled man returned from around the corner and carelessly dropped into his wooden chair, offsetting his nervousness by making the water in his glass swirl violently.
"This is my partner, Inspector Stephen Keller.", Mike began and pointed at the young Inspector, "And we'd like to ask you a few more questions, if we may. For starters, why don't you tell us a little bit more about your relationship to Ethan Morris."
Ensuring to keep his voice calm, Mike slowly sat down in front of their suspect, Steve flanking him on the left but deciding to stay on his feet, be ready in case Mears tried to make a run for it.
The other man shrugged dismissively, then leaned back.
"He is my ex-wife's brother. I know Ethan quite well. We hang out together sometimes."
"What kind of interests do you guys share?", Mike continued, not giving Mears much time to weave another web of lies.
"Well…we like to go out drinking after work. Watch the baseball game. Talk…that sort of stuff…", crossing his arms in front of his chest as he stumbled through the explanation, Mears let his eyes drift back and forth between both detectives, before they ended up on Steve's .38, "What is this? You brought armed backup for a simple questioning? Would you mind getting to the point please? I have work to do."
"Sure. We can do that.", Mike countered with a feigned smile, then glanced over at his partner who took an extra step away from their suspect, keeping the revolver out of the wrong hands.
"We're curious to find out how this…this whole friendship between you and Ethan evolved, seeing that there were so many complaints about domestic issues at your house. Was he not aware of the issues between you and your ex-wife? After all, Betsy is his sister. You'd think he'd be affected by that."
"Ethan knows she is a great liar. Why do you think she never called the cops, hm? Cause they would have come out and seen that everything is fine and that she's lying.", Mears growled back, "So that never had anything to do with thing. Ethan and I just like to hang out, that's all. He's not my only friend, you know? I have other guys I hang out with at times."
"What about other women?", Steve tried from his side of the table, "Did you ever hang out with other women while you were married? Tried to…oh, I don't know…change things up a bit?"
"Who wouldn't, if you're married to the devil herself?"
Scoffing, Mears took a sip of water, his eyes travelling back to Steve's .38 as if the revolver was beckoning him. When he noticed the two detectives watching him, he limited his reaction to glancing down at the floor.
"Might her name have been Brandi LaRue?"
Upon Mike's direction question, he shook his head with an annoyed grin.
"Why are you asking me if you already know all these things?"
"Because we want to hear your answer.", the Lieutenant fired back, his tone growing more serious with every question, "Because you were one of the people last seen with her. What happened to her, hm, Daniel?"
"How would I know? That was a couple of years ago. She probably ran off with somebody, laughing at all the work that has gone into trying to find her. She was that kind of girl. Loved attention."
"Was she? Or did you guys have a fight and things got…oh, I don't know…out of hand?"
"Oh, come on now…"
Shaking his head at the ridiculous notion, Mears clenched his jaws, his brown eyes growing dark and distant.
"I didn't hurt her. That's ludicrous. Her and I went out for a bite that evening but that was it. She didn't tell me where she was headed."
Mike glanced over at Steve, grateful to have caught Mears slipping for the first time, losing his cool in a situation that would demand it.
Deciding it was time to raise the odds at the dangerous poker game they were playing, he remembered the phone records Betsy had been talking about- the ones, they were currently still waiting to retrieve from the phone company.
"You told your wife that you hadn't seen her all day, and yet, you show a dinner being charged to your credit card that evening. You also called Ethan Morris three times in a row early the next morning. What was that all about?"
From his position, Mike could see Mears break out in a sweat, his forehead growing glassy, while he ran a nervous hand through his dark curls.
"Betsy is lying again, I see. I never said that I hadn't seen her all day. Are you…are you sure you got the right records?"
"Mh hm.", the Lieutenant countered with a knowing smile, before cocking his head in Steve's direction, "That's detective work 101. We talk to witnesses, we call up phone companies, all the works. Now, imagine our surprise when none of that information could be found in the initial case file on Brandi that we had the police department here in Burlingame fax us over. It's almost like you never talked to anybody about seeing her, or her going missing. So why don't you tell us what really happened, Daniel? Clear up some of that…that confusion and tell us your side of the story."
Lowering his glance for a moment, as if to gently coax Mears toward taking that first step into the right direction, Mike let his eyes drift over the barren dinner table, noticing the absence of the red box of cigarettes he was sure didn't belong to their suspect.
"I didn't touch her, I swear to you…", Mears finally said and wiped the sweat off his forehead, his cheeks flushed in agitation.
"But somebody did…", Steve added from his corner, causing the other man to nod.
"The moment I started seeing Brandi, Ethan, he ehm…he laid eyes on her too. Who wouldn't? She was gorgeous."
Duly noting the use of past tense in his remark, Mike tapped his partner's side, coaxing him to start taking notes of the interview for Mears to sign off on.
"Did Captain Morris see her that evening? After you guys…you guys enjoyed dinner?"
"No. We both ended up seeing her. To…you know…have sex. She offered it and I knew that Ethan was interested so we let him join us."
Biting his tongue at the remark he wasn't quite prepared for, Mike remained perfectly still, having an increasingly bad feeling where the conversation was headed.
"First we had dinner and then her and I went to meet Ethan at his place because his wife wasn't home. And we, you know…we did our thing. After a couple of hours, I went home but her and Ethan were still going at it. That's the last time I saw her."
Swallowing the nausea that was beginning to build up in the back of his throat, Mike contemplated the situation and Mears's' bold move to double-cross the Homicide Captain.
And while it all smelled too good to be true, he remained neutral, keeping his expression stoic as he listened on.
"Captain Morris never told you how the night ended?", Steve asked, a slight tremor in his voice.
"He did not. I tried to call him after I got home but he didn't answer."
"Can you tell the Lieutenant and me what do you think happened?"
"I don't know. I just don't know, guys…", Mears whined and buried his forehead in the crease of his elbow for a moment, a juvenile act for a cold and calculating individual such as him, "It's possible they had a falling out. Heck, maybe his wife came home. I never heard the whole story. Just that…"
It was the sudden unfinished sentence that caught Mike's interest and he raised his head, staring intently into the other man's cold brown eyes.
"Just what?"
"I don't know. It's just that…I don't even know how to put it…I…I think he may have murdered her or at least brought her to the park and killed her there?"
Checking to his left to make sure that Steve was still eagerly taking notes, Mike licked his lips, trying to sort his racing thoughts.
"And what makes you think he did that, Mister Mears?"
"Just the way he was talking one time when he got really drunk. That the park, that he played there a lot as a kid and knows the pond and that all his problems go to the pond to die. He was with some of his other buddies at the time and it seemed like a weird figure of speech but under the circumstances, I think it warrants a second guess."
"Lab techs checked the entire area, Michael. There were no additional bodies.", Steve said softly, not giving the statement much time to manifest itself in their heads as a legitimate lead.
"So, you did find the kid, didn't you! I had a funny feeling. That makes this whole thing even scarier. Well, for what it's worth, that area around the pond is too swampy to bury a body anyways, at least if you don't want to have it found.", Mears countered defensively, "I bet you, I know exactly where he hid her body though. There's a perfect spot right by it."
"Do you think you could take us there?", Mike asked, only to receive a headshake.
"I will show you guys, but it's gotta be under the premise that you offer me protective custody or something like that. I don't want to get dragged into this mess and I don't want Ethan to know I told you all this. If he is capable of killing another human being, he'll do the same to me if he finds out."
The first solid testimony and a chance at the recovery of another body made Mike ponder the request for a moment, knowing that any verbal promises could easily be overthrown once they had enough evidence to charge Mears with the Saunders killing, possibly even giving them a chance to use Morris to flex their power.
It was an unexpected twist in a case that had made its way up the police ladder too far for this case, screaming of corruption, withholding of evidence and out and out murder.
Chances were, if Morris was neck-deep involved when it came to Brandi's killing, he would have the perfect motive to hide any evidence Mears left behind after the Saunders's killing- one murderer covering up for another.
And they may have just broken that unspoken promise wide open with Mears's testimony.
"You have my word.", Mike lied and stood up from the table to get ready to leave, "You will not get dragged into this mess."