Chapter Six
After finding the Wiseman in the box at the church, the case was kicked into high gear. Just as the detectives figured it would be. Vega had put a rush on it to forensics, hoping to find fingerprints or blood splatter, anything to connect it to their crime scene.
As they waited for the results, Lucas had worked feverously on narrowing down their search for the local blue, four-door Pontiac Sunbird that had been spotted at their crime scene on the night of the murder. After showing the witness several pictures of different year models, he had been able to narrow it down to the models between the years of 1993 to 1994. This had proven to work in their benefit, considering the car hadn't been very popular and even less popular in current registered models still on the road, this cut their list down in size considerably.
Lucas smiled brightly as he thanked whoever he was talking to on the phone, beaming with pride, Angie noted as she watched him amused. He eagerly hung up the phone, only pausing briefly to collect a piece of paper from the fax machine before heading over in their direction.
Vega grinned, noticing the younger detective's excitement. "This should be good," he whispered under his breath to Angie.
This caused her to grin and bite her bottom lip in an attempt to muffle the laugh that struggled to escape her. Either Lucas was oblivious to their amused expressions, or he was one hell of an actor. Either way, his excitement didn't diminish one bit, instead almost appeared to intensify as he reached them.
"I got the DMV to send me over a list of registered blue Pontiac Sunbirds, models from the years of 1993 to 1994 from the last ten years. From that list, I started researching to see which of these cars were still actively on the road."
"Lucas," Vega interjected. "We're detectives too; we know the process of how this works. Can we get to your findings?"
"Well this is where it gets interesting," Lucas explained, his smile growing increasingly larger than a moment before. "One of the names caught my eye. So I did a little digging and you won't believe this." He paused, glancing between the two of them as though he expected them to guess the point he was trying to make.
Angie scrunched her face, glancing at her partner in slight confusion. She threw her hands up. "I give up."
Vega shook his head in understanding and stared at Lucas pointedly. "Alright Lucas, enough with the building of suspense, this isn't the movies. Just tell us what you found," he bickered as he grabbed the sheet of paper from the younger detective's hand. Lucas appeared surprised for a moment, not expecting that. Angie snickered at the antics of her partner and leaned in against his arm, trying to steal a sneak at the paper that he had snatched.
Determined to not allow Vega stealing his paper to deprive him of his thunder, Lucas quickly continued on. "Does the name Marie Manuel ring a bell?"
Angie's head shot up at the mentioning of the name. "That's the lady from the church. Sarah was helping her transfer their files over to a software program. What does she have to do with this?"
By that time, Vega had finished reading over the paper in his hand. He glanced at Angie, passing it over to her. "According to this, Marie drives a 1993 blue Pontiac Sunbird."
"That's not all," Lucas explained. 'It gets even better. I started to do some cross referencing and as it turns out Marie received a speeding ticket in the early morning hours on the same day as our murder. And get this," he added. "It just happened to be a few blocks from our crime scene."
Angie walked over to their evidence board, taping the paper along with their other findings. She grabbed the black dry-board marker and took a step back, glancing at everything. It was all right there in front of her, all the pieces. She just needed to connect it all together. "Okay, so what do we have," she said softly to herself as the wheels began to turn inside her head. "We have our victim Sarah, who works with our suspect Marie at the church." She drew a straight line connecting the two pictures of the women. "This establishes how they knew one another. The speeding ticket proves that Marie was in the general area of our crime scene the night of the murder. And depending on the results of forensics, I think it's safe to assume we have our murder weapon which was found at the church." She placed a circle around the church, tapping the marker against the picture. "Makes for a perfect dumping ground for a murder weapon," she paused, narrowing her eyes in thought. "Hey, Vega, do you recall seeing a blue Pontiac at the church when we were there?"
Vega lifted a hand, scratching along his jawline, his fingers brushing through his beard in thought. He shook his head. "There were barely any cars in the parking lot. In fact, I only recall one and it was white and definitely not a Pontiac."
"So where is her car?" Angie asked. She glanced once more at the evidence board. There was still a piece of the puzzle they were missing. "More importantly," she said. "What's the motive to why Marie would kill Sarah?"
"I know why," Vega suddenly announced. He quickly headed over to the direction of his desk, shifting around a few files until he found what it was that he was looking for. Lifting the record book that they had collected from the church prior, he strolled back over to where Angie and Lucas stood. Flipping through the first several pages, he stopped turning about half-way through and pointed towards some numbers. "This book holds the financial records of the church, money collected from fundraisers, money spent fixing the church up, everything covering their spending. At first everything appeared normal, but then I started to notice slight discrepancies. They started small; a hundred dollars here and there unaccounted for. It's common, so no need for any real alarm, however, the further into the book I went," he flipped through several more pages, pointing out the differences. "As you can see, the church was writing out checks for expenses that shouldn't have cost so much, that didn't match the bills. Like someone was pocketing the extra cash."
"Marie was in charge of the church's finances," Angie piped in. "So if she was embezzling from the church and Sarah discovered this then we found our motive to kill.
"Hate to interrupted," Lucas said, holding up his cellphone. "The forensic results are in on our Wiseman."
…..
The detectives were able to convince Marie to come to the precinct under the pretext of answering a few more questions. Angie and Vega now stood on the opposite side of the interrogation room, watching her through the glass. She nervously tapped her fingers across the table, occasionally lifting a hand to bite on her nails as she continued to glance in the direction of the door anxiously.
"What do you think," Angie asked Vega.
He squinted his eyes. "She certainly seems nervous enough." He turned gaining her full attention. "Are you ready to get this show on the road, partner," Vega asked, wiggling his brows suggestively at her.
She rolled her eyes as she reached up grabbing hold of him on the shoulders and led him out the door.
As they entered the small room, Marie watched nervously as they took a seat across from her. When it came to questioning, Angie and Vega were in their element, able to feed off each other effortlessly. It was one of the many reasons why their partnership worked so well.
"Thanks for coming in," Angie began. "This shouldn't take too long; we just have a few questions."
"Not sure how I can help," Marie commented, sitting back in her chair. She squared her shoulders and gripped the edge of the table tightly. Her body posture suggesting that she was becoming defensive. "I mean," she continued. "I told you everything I knew at the church."
"How did you get to work that day?" Vega asked.
"What," Marie questioned, clearly confused by the question.
"The day we went there, we noticed only one car in the parking lot. We checked it out and it belonged to Peggy White. So how did you get to work?" Vega once again attempted the question.
"I don't see what this has to do with anything, but I rode my bike. On warmer days I like to take my bike."
"You ride your bike in the middle of winter?" Angie asked. "So it wouldn't have had anything to do with the fact that you own a blue Pontiac Sunbird?" To prove her point, Angie pushed over a picture of the car. "We know you're the registered owner of it."
Marie stared for a moment at the picture then pushed it back in the direction of Angie. "So what? I didn't realize there was a law against driving Pontiacs."
"No, no law against driving them," Vega explained, tapping his pen on the table. "However, we know you were driving this car the morning that Sarah was killed. In fact, you got pulled over for speeding just a few blocks from where she lived."
"You guys should be putting your resources to finding Sarah's killer instead of harassing me," Marie snapped defensively. "I let my boyfriend drive my car that morning."
"Actually, that's a lie," Angie cut her off. "See, we talked to the officer who gave you that ticket and he described you to us perfectly. Why don't you start by telling us the truth?"
"How about we begin with the church's financial records? Vega suggested. "We know you've been stealing money from the church. Sarah found out, didn't she? What happened? She threatened to reveal everything?"
"You don't know what you're talking about!" She shouted at the detectives, clearly distraught over their accusations.
"Then why don't you tell us," Vega proposed.
"Not without my lawyer present," she argued.
"That's fine," Angie agreed. "Marie Manuel, you're under arrest for the murder of Sarah Walker." She lifted her hand, indicating that the waiting officers could enter the room now.
Marie stood quickly from her chair as they officers began to handcuff her. "You have no evidence."
"We found the Wiseman you used to murder Sarah with. We have your fingerprints and blood splatter that matches the crime scene. In our world, that's what we call admissible evidence and it will hold up in court," Angie replied.
"I didn't mean to kill her," Marie said softly, causing everyone to go still. "She told me she would give me a week to confess to the church what I had been doing. Who did she think she was? She just started working there, and just like that was going to ruin my life. I tried to reason with her. She just didn't want to hear it. I saw the Wiseman and I just…snapped. I didn't want to hurt her, honestly."
"A woman lost her life. She was a mother and a good person. If you had just came clean, you could have made some arrangement with the church to pay them back. I'm sure they would have been more than understanding of your situation, but instead Sarah was killed and now your life is over." Vega conveyed.
Angie and Vega watched as Marie was led away quietly, both feeling exhausted from the case. Angie sighed, collecting the files from the table. "Sometimes, catching the bad guy doesn't feel as good as you thought it would be," Angie whispered softly.
"No, no sometimes it doesn't," Vega agreed. "All part of the job, partner." He scooped his arm under her own and bumped her on the shoulder. "You did good."