Chapter 16

Charlie took a deep breath and heaved it out of his chest as he stood inside the viewing room next to the interrogation room. This interview had better go right. Mika was interviewing the son of Aiden Moffat, Richard, so it was up to Charlie to interview the first of Philip Blanchard's sons, William.

"Charlie, I'm right here," Sarah's voice came in over the earpiece he was wearing. Honestly, he hadn't bothered to ask how Jesse did it but at the moment, he really didn't care. He wanted Sarah to feel like she was still part of the case and he wanted her insight. She'd really come into her own being out in the field more and he didn't want her to lose that confidence.

"Can you see him?" Charlie wanted to know.

"Jesse had the cameras patched into this tablet. William is bouncing his leg up and down so hard he's going to hurt himself," she noted.

"My thoughts exactly. Let's see if that is nervous energy from never having been in an interrogation room or because he's got something to hide. I added the pitcher of water and cups as an added bonus," Charlie smirked and exited the viewing room, Rex in tow, and entered the interrogation room.

"Looks like he's taken a cup for himself," Sarah said, knowing that they had DNA if he left it behind. Charlie smiled, since he couldn't answer.

"Hi William, I'm Detective Charlie Hudson. This is my partner, Rex. We appreciate you coming down today," the detective said as he took a seat at the interrogation table. Rex lay down on the floor near him.

"I have to admit, I'm a little confused as to why," William admitted.

"Well, it's kind of complicated to explain over the phone. First, were you aware that your Uncle, Aiden Moffat, had passed away about ten days ago?" Charlie asked.

"We didn't really communicate with that side of the family but yes, I was made aware by Richard. He thought we should know," William said.

"Why did he think that? I mean, since you guys weren't too close," the detective wondered.

"Well, Richard didn't know what would or wouldn't be in the will. Technically, as cousins, we could be entitled to something if my Uncle had seen fit. To be honest, I couldn't care less about that. There was a reason my mom and dad kept us away from my Uncle. Figured if my dad didn't want us near his own brother, there had to be a good reason for it. Though I will admit that we took in Richard and his sister, Lynn, when their mom died about fifteen years ago, for a little while," William explained.

"Oh, I see. Well, we have reason to suspect that your father was a good judge of character. I need you to take a look at something for me," Charlie slid the computer aged photo to him and waited to see what his reaction was.

"You have a picture of my Uncle? What for?" William asked, seemingly confused.

"Regrettably, what I just showed you is an age progression photo. We recovered a series of photos at a crime scene recently and had to age the man to see if we could get any hits in the system. The unedited images… well they show him abusing kids some time ago," Charlie explained. A look of disgust crossed William's face.

"It gets worse, we believe that these photos were used to push a man to the point of a nervous breakdown and he shot two police officers and the head of forensics," Charlie continued.

"This is that case from the news," a look of recognition showed on the younger man's face.

"The same. See we're trying to figure out who would be so sick and demented that they would send these photos to a man that close to the psychological edge. Why dredge up these photos of your dead uncle abusing him?" Charlie pressed.

"You think I had something to do with this?" William's eyes grew large.

"Maybe, maybe not. Maybe Richard found them while he and Lynn were cleaning out their father's house?" The detective wondered.

"You think my cousins would do that?" William was playing this well so far.

"Your grandfather was arrested for possession of child pornography. Your uncle would have been charged with his abuse of children. I'm guessing that the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree," Charlie put it to him.

"How? Why?" The younger man wanted to know.

"Does the name Tim Watkins sound familiar?" The detective pushed on.

"No. Who is he?" William asked.

"Well, those photos pushed our shooter over the edge, as I mentioned, and he went over to his therapist's office. The worst part is, Tim probably saw his death coming. Nothing worse than knowing you're about to die and not being able to do anything about it," Charlie remained nonchalant. If the young man in front of him was a part of this mess, he was playing the part excellently, and Charlie wondered if psychopathy ran in the family.

"There's no way," William shook his head.

"You said you didn't know them well. You suggesting that someone broke into your uncle's house, stole photos that no one knew were there, and used them to try and get our shooter to kill his therapist?" Charlie raised an eyebrow.

"I…" William shook his head.

"You…" the detective pushed.

"I have no idea if they would do that. I don't know why they'd do that though either," the younger man heaved a sigh.

"I dumped a lot in your lap today. Why don't you go home and think about it? Maybe something that happened when you were younger will give you some clarity?" Charlie offered. William nodded.

"Can I get a ride home?" He asked. He'd been brought in by some officers.

"Sure, come on," the detective said. Charlie watched as William stood up and headed for the door. Rex made sure to come up behind him, giving him a nudge to leave, without physical doing it. They made it out into the hallway and down to right in front of the unit where Charlie had an officer take the young man home.

"Get that cup Charlie," Sarah said.

"On it," he promised. Quickly, he and Rex ducked back down the hallway and into the interrogation room. He donned gloves and picked up the cup. Carefully, he walked it down to Kelly.

"Got a present for me?" She smirked.

"William Blanchard's DNA," he said.

"Lovely," Kelly quickly took the cup and pulled out some swabs.

"Could the DNA you found on the envelope be a niece or nephew to Captain Blanchard?" Charlie asked.

"Nope. Too closely related to the DNA that Captain Blanchard had on file," she said.

"Then William is either a stone-cold liar or he has no idea that someone asked him to lick an envelope that was meant to trigger a murder," he told her.

"Well, we'll find out soon," Kelly promised.

To Be Continued…