Chapter 9

"Tell me again why we're back here? Didn't we already interview this guy?" Maria asked as she followed her partner up to the third floor of an apartment building.

"We did. But we're missing something. You and I both know that Monroe left his kid in the car a lot longer than the few minutes he's claiming." Danny stood at the top of the staircase, looking right and left until he found the apartment he was looking for.

"Yeah. Agreed, but we haven't been able to find anyone who can place him anywhere in this neighborhood on the day of the incident. And we confirmed this Mathis guy was out of town on that day."

Danny stopped in front of 3A and turned to look at his partner. "Maybe so, but I think we're missing something, so we're gonna start right back at the beginning until we find it."

"All right," Maria conceded. She knew why he was working this case so hard, in between all of the other cases they already had; there was no point in arguing. She would probably do the same. And she could only guess where the approval for all of the overtime they'd put in on this case came from.

Danny knocked on the door to the apartment and waited.

Ray Mathis opened the door, surprised to find the two detectives from his friend's case. "Detectives? Can I help you?"

"Yeah, Mr. Mathis. Could we speak to you for a moment? We just have a couple of questions to ask you so we can tie up some loose ends on your buddy's case," Danny said.

Mathis stepped back and opened the door wide to allow the detectives in. "Sure. Come on in. I don't know what else I can offer. Like I told you before, I wasn't home the day Brian came around, when everything with the baby happened."

"You did. We're just trying to dot our I's and cross our T's. I'm sure you can understand," Danny said as he stepped into the apartment.

Mathis closed the door and motioned them to the couch while he sat down in a side chair. "Okay. Ask away."

"We may have asked this already, but did you ever meet Aidan? Did Brian talk about him?" Danny asked.

"I never met the baby. Brian told me about the mother when she got pregnant and told him it was his. Brian said it had been a casual thing and she had a lot of issues and said he was certain it wasn't his kid," Mathis answered.

"Okay. Did he ever mention the baby or the mother again after that?"

Mathis shook his head and shrugged. "Once in a while. He'd mention how pissed he was that she was trying to come after him for child support. Said she was always dumping the kid on him because she thought he was his responsibility too. Said they were even trying to get him to do a DNA test, but he didn't want to play their game."

"That's odd, no?" Maria asked.

"What do you mean?" Mathis responded.

"Well, if he's so certain it's not his kid, why not do the DNA test to prove it?" Maria reasoned.

Mathis shook his head, trying to think of how best to respond. "Listen, he's my friend and all. We'd get together and I was usually his sounding board and vice versa. That whole situation seemed messy and I never really wanted to stir the pot."

"I take it you didn't agree with his position," Danny pressed on.

Mathis released a soft laugh and looked away from the detectives. "If it were me, I'd probably do the test and get it over with. But Brian was certain it wasn't his kid and I had no reason to question him. I assumed he had it all under control cause I hadn't heard him bring it up in a while." He turned back to the detectives. "Brian's not a bad guy. I know you all charged him with that baby's death, but he wouldn't have done that."

"Ray?"

Mathis spun around in his chair when a woman stepped out of the bedroom behind him. The blonde eyed the two detectives sitting on the couch.

"Hey, Jen, these are the two detectives that are working Brian's case," he explained and turned back to face Danny and Maria.

The woman stopped in her tracks and paled slightly at the mention of Monroe's name. Mathis hadn't seen it, but Danny and Maria didn't miss her reaction at all.

Danny stood to greet the woman. "I'm Detective Reagan. This is Detective Baez. And you are?" he asked.

"This is my girlfriend, Jennifer," Mathis responded for her.

Danny reached out to shake her hand. "Nice to meet you, Jennifer. What's your last name?"

Jennifer extended her own hand. "Davies."

"Do you two live together?" Maria asked the startled woman.

Jennifer stood next to her boyfriend and crossed her arms in front of her. "Uh, no. I don't live here," she replied with a tight smile.

"So you weren't here on the day that Aidan Monroe passed?"

"No," she answered quickly.

"Like I said, I was out of town. That was actually the day I flew out - that morning. Jen was here, but she left for work not long after I went to the airport. And I didn't get back until a few days later," Mathis added.

"So I take it you have your own key?" Maria asked.

"Yeah." Jennifer's face went from pale to flushed rather quickly.

Danny reached into his jacket and pulled out a pen and small notepad. "What time would you have left for work that day?"

"Why's that important?" Mathis asked suspiciously.

"Mr. Mathis, we are just trying to get a clearer picture of Brian's whereabouts that day. He said he came by here for just a minute and left when he got no answer. We just want complete confirmation of that. It would be in his best interest, obviously, if we have that," Maria responded, then both she and Danny looked up at the woman, waiting for her response.

"Okay. Makes sense," Mathis answered, agreeing it would be helpful to Brian.

"Probably around 8:30," Jennifer said.

"Probably?" Danny asked. "You wouldn't be certain about that?" he looked up from his notebook to eye the woman.

"I start work at nine. I wouldn't have left later than that and still made it there in time," she said a little tersely.

Danny nodded. "Where do you work?"

"Downtown. I'm a receptionist at a realtor's office."

"What's the name?" Maria asked.

Jennifer looked down at her boyfriend, her eyes a little wide. His eyebrows wrinkled somewhat at her hesitation.

She looked back at the detectives and responded, "Dalton Moore Realty."

"Great. So you went to work until what, like five-ish?" Danny asked.

"Six. I work until six," she responded as she averted her eyes and hugged herself tightly.

"And you would have gone back to your own place after that?" Danny continued.

"Yeah. Like Ray said, he was out of town," she answered.

"Okay. Great. You've been a lot of help," Danny said with a forced smile.

xxxx

Danny and Maria walked into Dalton Moore Realty the very next day at 9:30 a.m., not surprised at all by the shocked expression on Jennifer Davies' face. She was in the middle of a call when they approached her desk and the young woman stuttered back a response to the caller before transferring them.

"Detectives. What are you doing here?"

Danny was thumbing through some color printouts of listings that were laid out along the reception counter and cringed at the prices. "Not looking for real estate, I can promise you that."

Maria half rolled her eyes at her partner. "You seemed a little guarded when we spoke to you last night with Ray around. Wanted to check in with you again about the time you reported for work on the day in question."

Davies stared back at them with wide eyes. "I told you..."

"Yeah, we know what you told us. But you seemed a little unsure." Danny looked over her shoulder at the other employees buzzing around the office. "Do you by chance have an office manager or a boss who has a timesheet or something that would confirm your hours that day?"

"Ah, I..." Jennifer stammered.

Maria leaned against the counter and spoke softly to the woman. "Listen, Jennifer. We can make this simple, either you come clean with us about whatever it is you're not telling us or we get your office involved. Either way, you're going to end up at the precinct for questioning."

"Can we please talk in there?" she asked as she motioned over to a small conference room.

"After you," Danny replied and followed the two women into the room, closing the door behind him.

Jennifer walked to the other end of the table and inhaled deeply. Danny shot his partner a quick look.

"I didn't come into work that day," Jennifer whispered.

"Come again?" Danny asked.

"I said I didn't come into work that day," she repeated.

"You stayed at Ray's didn't you?" Maria asked.

"Yes," Jennifer confirmed.

"Was Brian Monroe with you?"

"Yes."

"Walk me through that day," Danny instructed.

"Brian and I have been seeing each other," Jennifer confessed. She shook her head and crossed her arms. "Ray left on his trip early that morning and I called Brian. We were supposed to meet up. He was closer to Ray's than my place so he was going to come over. I waited over an hour and then he tells me that his ex had dropped off her kid at his place. Said he was going to find somewhere to leave the kid and to hang tight. I ended up waiting pretty much all day."

"Wow. You must really be into him," Maria said sarcastically.

"What time did he show, Jennifer?" Danny asked.

"It was just after three. But I'm not sure exactly what time," she responded.

"Is this another one of your 'approximations'," Danny sniped.

"No, it was a little after three, I just don't know the exact time. I wasn't looking at a clock when he knocked on the door, but I had the TV on, flipping channels and a little before he came over I had it on the news channel and it said three o'clock in the corner."

"So he comes over, what do you two do?"

A look of guilt washed across her face.

"Well, I think we can guess what they were doing," Maria sniped back.

"Were you two drinking?" Danny followed up.

"Yes."

"What time did he leave?" he asked..

"It was five. He left and I went into the bedroom to shower. I remember seeing the clock on my way to the bathroom."

Danny and Maria looked at each other. They had him.

Danny moved to the door and said, "We're going to need you to come down to the squad. We'll have to take your formal statement, so you may want to let your boss know you'll be missing another day."