CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Ava had been expecting some gawkers when she walked into the precinct with Albert Long in a set of handcuffs, and she wasn’t disappointed. She was taking notice that for Long, every step of this had been one embarrassment after another. He’d not even had the convenience of being placed into a cop’s automobile, but had to endure sitting in the back of the first cab Ava had been able to flag down. And now, being escorted to the interrogation rooms at the precinct, he seemed to redden in the face whenever someone saw him. He walked with his head hung low, doing his best to move so that as few people as possible would see him.
She came to the first interrogation room and escorted him inside. It felt strange to be in this position without Frank by her side, but she also realized it was a prime opportunity to show all of the men in this precinct that she was perfectly capable of handling a case on her own.
When she had him seated, his arms still cuffed behind him, any pretense of anger or outrage slowly faded. Instead, he looked up at her in an almost pleading way. “It’s not too late to say you made a mistake,” he said. “Do it now and I won’t come after your career.”
“Mr. Long, I’m sure this is your first time being in a jam like this, but that’s not exactly how interrogations work.”
“You and I both know that I don’t belong here.”
“But a man like Carter Epps does?”
He said nothing to this. She could see by the expression on his face that he felt as if she was setting a trap for him.
“So tell me how you were so easily confused when having to tell your story just a day after you gave it to the police,” Ava said.
“I told you. I simply got my facts mixed up. It happened very fast and I had, after all, just witnessed a murder. So my mind was a little jumbled.”
“And that includes simply not telling the authorities that you once worked f—”
A knock at the door interrupted her. Before she had a chance to call out for the person on the other side to come in, it opened anyway. Captain Minard stepped in and took a quick look around. His face was like stone, as usual, so Ava couldn’t read his thoughts. He gave Long a quick nod of acknowledgment before he looked directly at Ava.
“Detective Gold, a word, please?”
Without waiting for a response, he stepped back out into the hallway. Ava followed, closing the interrogation room door behind her.
“Explain this,” Minard said right away. He did not look angry, but she could see that he was doing his best to remain calm. In other words, it seemed that he was giving her the benefit of the doubt—something that would have been unheard of several months ago when she started this job. Apparently, she thought, at least the people that matter are evolving.
“The judge hasn’t given me much time,” she explained. “So I thought the best thing to do would be to start at the beginning. And at the beginning, Detective Wimbly and I didn’t ask Albert Long, the witness, enough questions. So I went so speak with him. And within less than a minute or so, it became quite clear that he was lying—either to me or to the original officers that too his statement.”
“How so?”
“Just inaccuracies, sir. That and being intentionally vague about certain details. And the most pressing and important matter is that he just happened to leave out the fact that he had once worked for Monty Lincoln, but he was released with a few other workers not too long ago.”
Minard showed a bit of emotion at this, but it was not the one she was expecting. He looked worried—probably, she thought, because he was starting to understand that they may have to swap out a black man for a white man in a murder case that, just a few minutes ago, had seemed like a sure thing.
“He’s admitted to this?” he finally asked.
“Yes. He claims he was so confused and upset when the police first questioned him that it slipped his mind.”
As Minard considered this, Ava caught motion over his shoulder. At the end of the hallway, Frank was approaching. He was moving quickly, likely having sensed the whispers and unrest in the bullpen. And seeing her chatting with Minard outside of the interrogation rooms was probably causing him to panic, too.
“Captain,” Frank said, “what’s going on?”
Frank kept his eyes on Ava and said, “Let your partner tell you. As far as I’m concerned, Detective Gold, you’re on a dangerous path, but one that you should stay on.” He looked as if he resented saying it the moment the words were out of his mouth but walked away before he could take anything back.
When Minard was out of earshot, Frank said, “I hear someone in the bullpen whispering about how you’ve apparently got Albert Long in there?”
“I do.”
“The witness?”
“Yes, the witness.” She then spent thirty seconds catching him up, telling him everything she’d just shared with Minard. The same expression of worry and concern crossed his face, too, only not quite as strongly as it had with Minard.
“Okay, then,” he said. “Let’s see what else he has to say. This is your show right now, Ava,” he added, gesturing toward the door.
They entered the interrogation room and Long instantly looked a bit more concerned that there was a second detective with her.