“Mr. Long, you remember my partner, Detective Frank Wimbly. Would you like to try telling him your story? Do you think you could get it exactly right if you were given another chance to get your facts in order?”
“I don’t appreciate this,” Long said. “You’re intentionally trying to get me to misspeak.”
“Perhaps. But if you were telling the truth, then what’s the worry?”
Frank stepped closer to the table, setting his hands on the edge and leaning forward. “Look, Mr. Long. Here’s the thing…if you intentionally lied about what you saw, that’s bad. And yeah, it’ll take us some digging for sure, but we’ll find out about it sooner or later. And that’s called interfering with a case. But if you come clean right now and can actually help us solve this case, you’re not going to really see much punishment. Hardly any, really.”
This alarmed Ava at first, because it sounded as if he was just assuming that Long wasn’t their killer. And quite frankly, it was a suspicion that was growing dimmer and dimmer for Ava too. But in laying these terms out, it offered Long a way out, but it also provided him with an ample field of traps he could potentially fall into. Plus, if he decided to keep up his lies, he’d only be digging his hole deeper. In other words, there was no true scenario in which Long would come out rosy. On the other hand, anything he chose to say would benefit them greatly.
“You mean it?” Long asked. He sounded like a groveling child at this point, like he was really hoping his parents would just overlook the bit of trouble he’d caused.
“Yes. This arrest will, of course, go on your record. But things like this pass for well-to-do men,” Frank said. “I’ve seen it over and over. But you’ve got to help us. Tell us what happened as simply as you can.”
“Okay,” he said, and Ava was shocked by just how easily he was able to switch gears now that a man had given him such assurances. “I was taking a shortcut. And it didn’t even go by the Candle’s Wick. But I knew where it was because there have been rumors that a few businessmen had been looking at properties in Harlem. And that club came up a few times, so I was just curious as to why. Walking over there only added a minute to my walk, so I figured I’d go by to see what all the fuss was about. And when I went that way—that is, when I was coming up on the building—I heard some commotion coming from behind the place. And one of the voices sounded very familiar. You know…sometimes you hear a voice and don’t quite know who it belongs to? So I got curious and walked to the back. I came to that alley and saw that black man crouched over a white man. I took a few steps forward to see if I could help but then I saw it was Monty and I froze.”
“So…you saw Carter Epps crouched over Monty Lincoln,” Ava said.
“Yes.”
“But you didn’t see him actually attacking?”
Long shook his head. “No.”
“So why lie about it?” Frank asked. “And why leave out the fact that you knew Monty Lincoln?”
“I don’t even know…not really. I’m not proud of it, but I’ve held a grudge ever since he fired me. I damn near lost everything, and then this stock market nonsense happened and I just started to really loathe him. I saw that colored fella crouching over him and I saw an opportunity. I wasn’t even sure what that opportunity was right away, but I did when the police got there. I thought if I could identify what happened and make sure someone was arrested for the murder, I’d be in good graces with Monty’s partners—that they’d accept me back if I went looking for a job when this financial mess clears up.”
Based on what Ava knew about the behaviors of wealthy men when their streams of revenue were threatened, she didn’t doubt this story at all. Still, some if it didn’t quite add up.
“So you just happened to come across a dead Monty Lincoln in a part of town you aren’t all that familiar with?”
“Yes,” Long said.
“Because to someone who doesn’t know the ins and outs of the story, it sounds a bit like you were following him. And the fact that you’ve just admitted that you held a grudge against him doesn’t help, either.”
“Look, that’s the God’s honest truth,” Long said. “I swear it.”
Because it was such a huge revelation buried in a stack of other lies, Ava repeated the most important aspect, just to confirm it. “So you never actually saw Crater Epps attack Monty Lincoln.”
“No. No, I didn’t.”
Ava nodded and walked back outside. She was furious and relieved all at once, which made her feel slightly overwhelmed. She leaned against the wall, thinking about what this might all mean. A few moments later, Frank also stepped out of the room.
“Your instincts never fail to impress me,” he said. “I won’t lie to you…if I’d been with you when you arrested him, I would have tried to talk you out of it.”
“Because you thought it didn’t fit, or because you were afraid of how it would look back here at the station?”
He frowned but managed to look her in the eyes when he answered: “A bit of both.”
“I know some still see me as a rookie, but this admission is enough to free Carter, right?”
“In most cases, probably so. He’ll have to sign something and it’ll be sent to the judge but—”
“But there’s a black man already in custody and it might not matter.”
Frank could only nod. “But it never hurts to try. And in the meantime, the murderer is still out there. And I’d like to find him with you if we can.”
“I’d like that, too. But I do want to stay here until Long signs his admission. I want to make sure all the right steps are taken.”
“That means sitting and waiting a bit,” Frank said. “And if things don’t go the right away, that’s wasting time the judge gave you.”
“Then let’s get started right now.” Without any room for further discussion, Ava turned away from Frank and headed for Minard’s office.