Chapter 13

 

Harvey worked at his computer in the office Friday morning, but glanced frequently around at his men. Eddie had chosen to interview Derek Anson in the office and had him seated near his desk. He asked questions and typed Anson’s replies into his computer. Harvey glanced over occasionally as he reviewed the transcripts of interviews with women employed at the police station. Cheryl was making steady progress on the list of current officers and civilian workers.

“Here you go, Captain,” said Jimmy Cook, handing him a stack of file folders. “I printed everything out for you: the lab reports, the ballistics report, and Joey’s autopsy report.”

“Thanks, Jimmy.” Harvey put the folders in his briefcase, intending to take them home with him that night so he could go over them again. He added the second security tape from the camera over the patrol sergeant’s desk and locked the briefcase.

Paula took her telephone receiver from her ear and called, “Captain Larson, if you have a minute, Officer O’Heir would like to see you.”

“Sure, I can see him right now. Will he come up?” Harvey tried to conceal his surprise.

Paula spoke into the phone, then hung up. “He’s on his way.”

Harvey refilled his coffee cup. Paula was watching him with a smile, and he raised the mug in her direction.

“This is great, Paula. Is it hi-test?”

“You really want to know?”

“Well, my heart’s not pounding, so I’m guessing it’s at least half decaf.”

She smiled, and Harvey turned toward the stairway door. A tall, burly patrolman came in and walked directly toward Harvey.

“Aaron. How you doing?” Harvey asked. “Coffee?”

“Sure, thanks.” When O’Heir had his cup of brew, they both sat down.

“Now, what can I do for you?” Harvey asked.

O’Heir glanced around. Eddie was still questioning Anson, and Jimmy was working at his computer. Paula was occupied with paperwork, and Tony Winfield hovered near Eddie’s desk, behind Anson.

“Well, look,” O’Heir said in a low tone, “I heard you’ve been asking a lot of questions about—” He looked around again, then leaned closer. “You know. Sexual harassment.”

Harvey nodded. “You want to go in the interview room?”

O’Heir took a deep breath. “That would be good. I don’t exactly want it broadcast that I came to you.”

“Okay. Come this way.”

Harvey took his mug and led O’Heir to the tiny interview room and closed the door. As O’Heir sat down opposite him at the table, Harvey nodded toward the video camera on the wall. “We’re taping. Is that okay?”

“Uh, sure. I guess. Do I have a choice?”

“Well, if you’re going to give me some information, I assume it’s on the record, or you wouldn’t be here.”

O’Heir nodded. “Okay. Look, this is—I feel kind of strange, you know?”

Harvey nodded.

“Well, this is about something that happened a while back. I’m not sure it has anything to do with anything. I mean, I’m not even sure what you’re looking for, but—well, this has been bothering me for a while, okay?”

“Sure, Aaron. Why don’t you tell me what happened, and if it’s nothing, I’ll tell you, but if it’s something…”

“Right.” O’Heir sipped his coffee, then leaned back in the chair with a sigh, obviously reluctant to begin.

“Are you all right, Aaron?”

“Yeah, yeah. I just—once I open my mouth, I can’t shut it again, you know?”

Again Harvey nodded. This unexpected interview was important—he could feel it.

“Hey, is this decaf?”

Harvey chuckled. “I don’t know, to tell you the truth, but I suspect I’m being weaned.”

O’Heir sobered. “Listen, I want to take the test next time there’s an opening for detective, and I don’t want to mess that up, you know?”

“How could this jeopardize it?”

The patrolman eyed him for perhaps ten seconds, then came to a decision. “Okay, well, here’s the deal. I was on the second shift. It was about a year ago, I guess, maybe more. Chief Leavitt was still here. It was warm. Maybe June of last year. I can look it up if you think it’s significant.”

Harvey nodded. Brad’s shift again. He said nothing, but sat waiting for another piece of the puzzle.

“We brought in this broad—I mean woman. Sorry. Tommy and me brought her in. She was drunk driving on Congress Street, about midnight, and when we stopped her, we found out she was also OAS.”

Harvey mentally totaled up the fines. A minimum of four hundred dollars for the OUI, and another two hundred for operating after suspension of her license.

“And?”

“We had her in holding to see what the bail was gonna be, and Tommy was writing up the report. I ran a check and found out she had a couple of priors, so we booked her. The bail was set at five hundred. When I went down to tell her, she started screaming at me.”

“What about?”

“She was yelling for a lawyer.”

“On the OUI?”

O’Heir put one hand to his forehead. “She claimed she’d been molested in the cell.”

Outrage and adrenaline did to Harvey what the coffee hadn’t. “She was alone in the lockup?”

“Yeah.”

“How long?”

He shrugged. “Maybe an hour.”

“Mandatory checks every fifteen minutes, and constant video surveillance.” Harvey stated it as a matter of fact.

“Yeah, well, I know Tommy went down once, but I was doing the background. Someone else went the next time.”

Harvey sat thinking for a moment. He lifted his coffee cup. “You gonna give me a name?”

O’Heir sighed. “The sergeant did two checks. Visuals, you know? Only … I don’t know, Captain. She insisted he went in the cell.”

“What did you do?”

“I went and asked him. He laughed it off. He said, ‘You believe that? She’s loaded.’ I didn’t know what to think. She called someone to come bail her out—I don’t know who. Some guy. Husband, boyfriend. But anyway, when he got there, the sergeant says to me, ‘Go bring her out.’ When I got her to the desk, he’s telling the guy, two hundred for bail.”

Harvey watched him closely. “Any explanation?”

“I didn’t say nothing ’til they left, but Brad took the two hundred and logged it, everything by the book except he’d got the bail changed. At least, he must have.” O’Heir shook his head.

“She went to court?” Harvey asked.

“Case dismissed.”

“You don’t say. You think Brad managed that somehow?”

The patrolman spread his hands in bewilderment. “How could he? I mean, maybe he could, but I don’t know. It just seemed weird.”

“Did you check the videotape?”

O’Heir lowered his eyes. “I kept thinking about it for about three days. Finally, I went to the detective sergeant and told him I needed the tape from that night on a routine check.”

“So Legere got it for you?”

“Yes, but it seems the tape ran out in the middle of the shift and no one changed it until the third shift came on.”

“How did that happen?”
“I don’t know, Captain. It was hectic that night, and I sure didn’t want to ask Brad.”

Harvey nodded. “Can you pull up the file? I’ll need the name, date, all the particulars.”

“You want me to look into it?”

“No, I’ll do it myself. Thanks, Aaron. This is between you and me.”

O’Heir nodded in relief. “It’s bothered me, but I couldn’t see what I should do about it.”

“Did Tommy comment on it?”

“He thought it was strange, too, but he just kind of took it as a matter of course.”

Harvey walked with him to the stairway. Eddie came to meet him when O’Heir was out the door.

“You get anything out of Anson?” Harvey asked.

Eddie glanced quickly down the room. “He’s in the locker room with Tony. Bathroom break. He’s not happy about me keeping him here so long, but we don’t really have anything. Tony tried to get him to take his jacket off, but he wouldn’t. We’re hoping he’ll comb his hair in the locker room.”

Harvey sighed. “You can’t just confiscate hair if you’re not charging him, Eddie. I tried to get you a warrant, but the judge said we didn’t have probable cause. Let me talk to him.”

“It’s reasonable suspicion,” Eddie said.

“You know that’s not enough.”

Anson came from the locker room, and Tony trailed him, shaking his head dolefully at Eddie as he walked.

Harvey stepped forward. “Mr. Anson, I’m Captain Larson.”

“Are you Deborah’s supervisor?”

“No, but I’m Detective Thibodeau’s supervisor. I’ve applied for a search warrant for your house, sir, but you could save us a lot of time and trouble right here and now.” Harvey didn’t tell him that his request had been denied.

“A search warrant?” Anson’s dismay was almost comical. “I didn’t do anything. Why would you want to search my place?”

“Actually, all we need is a sample of your hair, sir. It would be so much simpler if you’d just let us take it now.”

“My hair?” He stared at Harvey. “I don’t get it.”

Harvey sighed. “Won’t you sit down over here, sir?”

He led Anson to his desk and indicated the extra chair.

“It’s like this, Mr. Anson. I don’t have to tell you, but you seem like a reasonable man. We’ve found some hairs that might belong to Joey Bolduc’s killer. If, as you say, you never met Detective Bolduc, then we could rule you out pretty quickly by comparing a sample of your hair to the ones found at the scene of the crime. You understand, it would allow us to circumvent the red tape and the trip to Biddeford, and if it checks out okay, you wouldn’t have to put up with having your home searched by officers.”

Anson sat staring at him stolidly. At last he said slowly, “This is unbelievable. I feel like I’m being framed. I didn’t do anything, and now you want to—no. Absolutely not. This is ridiculous. Am I a suspect in this murder? I can’t believe it. I happen to know someone who knew the victim. That’s all. Should I have a lawyer?”

“You’re not under arrest, sir, and at this point we’re not making any charges. But we do have a list of people whose hair we need to compare with that found at City Hall on Labor Day. You’re on the list.”

Anson looked wildly from him to Eddie, who stood nearby, rocking slowly from his heels to his toes and back again.

“Can I see Deborah?” Anson asked.

Harvey considered. “She’s probably out on patrol, but I suppose I could send for her. If you would feel more comfortable …”

“I don’t know what game you guys are playing,” Anson said tightly. “Am I a suspect, or not?”

“Loosely speaking, yes,” Harvey admitted.

Anson sighed, shaking his head. “I don’t believe this. I never saw the guy.”

Harvey looked up at Eddie and nodded to him. Eddie went to his desk and picked up his phone.

“Mr. Anson, would you like a cup of coffee while we wait?”

“Couldn’t I just go wait for her downstairs or something? Do I have to stay here?”

“Well, it would be a good idea for you to stay. Technically, you can leave anytime. But practically, if you decide you want to leave, I might have to change that.”

“Is this legal?”

“Of course.” Harvey thought he was sweating a little.

“Captain?” Tony had come up behind Anson and was holding a sheet of paper out over the man’s head.

Harvey scowled, but reached for it. “Thank you, Winfield.”

“No problem, sir.” Tony stretched, his left hand brushing Anson’s shoulder. “Excuse me, sir. Sorry.”

Harvey pulled the paper in and read the fine print. If recovery is successful, officer will report to lab immediately.

He frowned and looked at Tony, who was still standing just behind Anson’s chair.

“Not proper procedure, Winfield.”

“I was about to go down to the lab, sir.”

“Don’t do that.”

Tony shrugged slightly and went to his desk.

“Officer Higgins will be here in ten minutes,” Eddie reported.

“All right.” Harvey stood up. “Excuse me, Mr. Anson, I need to speak to Detective Thibodeau. Help yourself to a cup of coffee if you want.”

He walked with Eddie to the other side of the room. Tony sat at his desk, clicking on his keyboard.

“I can’t believe this, Eddie. Tony just lifted a hair off his jacket.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes, but we don’t have his consent.”

“You gonna keep trying to get the warrant, even though we’ve got what we need?”

“I think we have to. I wish Pete Bearse was here. Can you take care of this guy? I need to consult a law book or something.”

“Make Tony do it.”

Harvey smiled. “The punishment fits the crime?” He turned, beckoned to Tony, and walked into the interview room. When the young detective had closed the door, Harvey stood looking him in the eye for several seconds.

“What did you do with the hair?”

“In an evidence bag, Captain.”

“Get rid of it.”

Tony gulped. “Yes, sir.”

“First I want you to look up the statutes to make sure.”

“No need, sir. You’re right.”

“You’re positive?”

Tony nodded reluctantly. “Eddie and I thought maybe, if it was on the premises and in plain sight, we could take it. I was really hoping a hair would fall in the sink or something, you know? But I got on the computerized law library just now, and it’s iffy. We either arrest him, or we get a warrant.”

Harvey nodded. “I’ve tried to get a warrant. You know that. Unless we come up with something concrete, the judge won’t give it to us.”

“Even though he refused to cooperate?” Tony asked.

Harvey sighed. “I can try, but my expectations are low.”

Eddie and Anson were again seated at Eddie’s station, and Harvey went to his computer to draft another warrant application.

“So, you were upset with Detective Bolduc, even though you’d never seen him,” Eddie said.

“Maybe a little.”

“Jealous?”

Anson hesitated. “Are you married, Detective?”

“Not yet.” Eddie was terse, and Harvey smiled wryly as he brought the form he needed up on the screen.

“You gotta understand,” Anson pleaded. “I still admire Deborah. I know we broke up, but I was … missing her. I hoped we might get back together at some point.”

Eddie was quiet, and Harvey thought, Oh, yes, he certainly does understand your plight, buddy.

“Would I be telling you this if I killed the guy?” Anson asked in exasperation.

The stairway door opened, and Deborah Higgins strode into the office, her eyes fastening immediately on Anson.

“Derek, what are you doing here?”

“Just chatting with the detectives for the last hour,” Anson said sheepishly.

Deborah looked quickly at Eddie, then swung around and threw a glance toward Harvey. “I don’t understand.”

“The captain has applied for a warrant, and Mr. Anson wanted to talk to you while we wait.” Eddie stood up. “If you’d like some privacy, you can use our interview room. I can kill the video camera in there.”

“Maybe we should go somewhere else,” Anson suggested.

“No tape?” Deborah asked.

“Right.” Eddie’s face was open, and Deborah nodded slowly.

“Come on, Derek, tell me what this is about.” She and Anson went into the interview room, and Eddie followed, returning a moment later with a tape cassette in his hand. Tony sat at his desk, watching.

“Which way is it going to blow?” Harvey asked.

“Dunno. It’s her call, I’d say.”

Tony got up, and he and Eddie came to Harvey’s area. “Think she’ll be cooperative or belligerent?” Tony asked.

“We’ll see.” Harvey sat gazing at the warrant application. “Eddie, you know the judge isn’t going to give us a warrant.”

“You’re probably right.” Eddie held out the videotape. “This is the footage of your last interview, I take it.”

His session with Aaron O’Heir. “Thanks. I want you to screen that when you have a chance. It may have a bearing on the other case.”

“Okay.”

Harvey leaned back in his chair. “So, Winfield, I need a legal ace in this office. I’m thinking you’re it.”

“What, you sending me to law school?” Tony came closer, his blue eyes sparkling.

“No, that’s not in the budget. But if I have a legal question and no time to research it, I’ll ask you, and you’ll do the grunt work for me.”

Tony shrugged. “That’s cool.”

“Just make sure you never give me a wrong answer,” Harvey said sternly. He glanced toward Eddie. “And no more of these Laurel and Hardy shenanigans from you two. Picking hairs off a witness while I’m questioning him.”

“Sorry, Harv,” Eddie said. “I wasn’t sure. . .”

“Next time, get Wonder Boy, here, to check first.”

The door to the interview room opened, and Deborah, trim and businesslike in her uniform, came out and approached Harvey’s desk.

“Captain, Derek will give you the hair sample.”

Harvey jumped up. “Really? That’s great, Deborah. You understand, it will help us rule him out if he’s innocent.”

She nodded. “That’s what I told him. I mean, he could fight this on principle, get a lawyer and all that. Some people would make you do it the hard way. But I can’t see bucking this investigation. We all want it over as soon as possible. Even Derek.” She smiled tremulously. “He’s ready.”

Harvey reached out to touch her shoulder, but drew his hand back, mindful of the harassment investigation. “Thank you, Deborah. If he wants, he can stay here while Winfield runs it down to the lab.”

“You’ll do it that fast?”

Harvey smiled. “This is a pretty simple test. Match or no match. If I throw my weight around, we ought to be able to have the result in minutes.”

“Thanks. I’d like to stay with him, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure. Do you want me to call downstairs?”

“If you wouldn’t mind.”

Harvey thought she choked a little, and he wondered if she was still afraid of Brad.

“Deborah, did anyone say anything to you when I had you called in to the station?”

“When I came in, the sergeant was watching me,” she faltered. “He called me over, and I went to his desk. He said, ‘You watch yourself, girlie. There’s a hundred women would love to have your job.’ I—I felt like he was—”

“What?”

“Angry.”

Harvey nodded. “Well, I’m going to ask Detective Thibodeau to take the hair sample right now. You can be present, and Winfield will take it to the lab. I need to step out for about five minutes, then I’ll be back. Relax, Officer.” He smiled, and she nodded.

Eddie took tweezers and an evidence bag from his desk drawer, and they went into the interview room. Harvey called the lab and made it clear that he needed a quick job on the hair analysis.

“Winfield,” he called.

Tony looked toward him, and Harvey beckoned.

“Captain?”

“Lose that other sample.”

Tony nodded, wide-eyed.

Harvey hit the stairway and bounded down the two flights, punching in the security codes in record time. In the duty area, he approached Brad’s desk, his eyes on the camera overhead. Brad Lyons was in conversation with one of his patrolmen.

“Okay, put that in the evidence locker.” He swung toward Harvey and frowned. “Help you, Captain?”

“How come your camera’s not running?”

Brad looked over his shoulder at the video camera. “What do you know? I didn’t notice. Maybe it’s broken. Better ask them in the com room.”

“When did it stop?”

“You got me.” Brad smiled at him.

“If you turned it off when Deborah Higgins came in, I’ll know it.”

“A little snappish, aren’t you, Harvey? Isn’t the wife taking care of you?”

Harvey glared at him. “Brad, there’s no camera running. I’ll say this once. Don’t you ever say anything about Jennifer again.”

Brad grinned. “What’s the matter, Harv? You’re not disappointed in her, are you? I always thought she was hot. She seemed to like me, but I kept away from her out of deference to you.”

“Shut up, Brad.”

“Or what?” Lyons reached up and toggled a switch. “The switch is on. There must be trouble in the com room.” He spread his hands in innocence. “If you ever wanted to hit me, now’s your chance.”

Suddenly the red light appeared on the camera.

“Oops, there she goes,” Brad grinned. “So, what were you saying, Captain?”

Harvey stood for a moment, fuming silently, then turned away and went quickly to the com room.

“I need the tape from the security camera over the patrol sergeant’s desk. This shift, the one that’s running now.”

The technician, Richard, went to get it, and Harvey stood drumming his fingers impatiently on the edge of the console.

“Here you go,” Richard said a moment later. “That camera was down for a while, though.”

Harvey nodded. “But it’s up again now.”

“That’s right.”

“How long was it down?”

“Twenty minutes or so, I guess. I just found out when I came back from my break.”

“What was wrong?”

“I don’t know, sir. I noticed it was off a couple minutes ago. The switch was flipped, and I turned it back on.”

“So someone had turned it off?”

“Well … I guess so. It was probably accidental.”

“No doubt. Do you guys have a tape going in here? One that would show me who’s been in here in the last half hour?”

“Well, uh, sure.” Richard eyed him curiously.

 

*****

Tony met him halfway up the stairway.

“Captain, the lab report is negative.”

“The hairs don’t match?”

“Right. The hairs on the dummy don’t belong to Derek Anson.”

“Have you told him yet?”

“Yes. He and Deborah just left. I hope that’s okay.”

“Yeah, sure. I was gone longer than I expected. But now I need you and Eddie in the break room.”

“What is it, Harv?” Eddie asked, following him and Tony into the break room, where the unit had a television set and video player they used to view evidence tapes.

Harvey rewound the videotape from Brad’s desk.

“Skullduggery at the P.D. Take a look at this. At 3:07 Brad takes your call to bring in Deborah Higgins.” He stopped the tape and let it play forward. Brad, his back to the camera, answered his phone.

“Higgins? Now? She’s on patrol. It can’t wait? Okay, Detective. Whatever you say.”

A patrolman brought a report for Brad’s signature, then the sergeant stepped away from his desk and out of camera range. Harvey held his wrist up, timing the sergeant’s absence. Two minutes. Two and a half. The imprint on the tape read 15:12. Suddenly the tape went fuzzy for a few seconds, then began running again. The imprint read 15:44, and Harvey was facing the camera, in front of Brad’s desk. Brad turned and looked up at it, too.

“Oops, there she goes. What were you saying, Captain?”

Harvey stopped the tape. “The camera was shut off for thirty-two minutes, which, by the way, means old Richard in Com is taking a pretty long break there.” He ejected the tape and inserted another in the video player. “Now. This is from the com room. Watch closely.” He rewound until the imprint read 15:07, and they watched silently as the dispatchers and technicians worked. Four dispatchers sat at their consoles, wearing headphones. At the perimeter of the camera’s view, two technicians were working.

“There goes Richard for his break,” Harvey said, as the technician left his desk and exited the room. “Now, just be patient for a couple more minutes.”

A secretary came in and left some papers on the edge of Charlie Doran’s desk. Charlie barely looked up. He and the other dispatchers were constantly speaking into their headsets, monitoring calls.

“There!”

“There he is,” Eddie agreed. The back of Brad Lyons’s head, with his close-cropped blond hair, was unmistakable. He went to Richard’s desk at the extreme edge of the picture and seemed to stand motionless for half a minute, facing the console and security monitors. His left arm and about half his body were visible.
“I give up,” Eddie said. “What’s he doing?”

“Nothing yet,” Harvey replied. “He’s figuring out which switch to play with. Doesn’t want to ask anyone.” The imprint time changed to 15:12. “Any second now.” Sure enough, Brad leaned forward, with his upper body out of the picture, then straightened and walked quickly out of the room.

“Nobody even noticed,” Tony marveled.

“Why should they?” Harvey asked. “But if he’d switched it off out front, it would have been on his own camera’s tape.”

“He thought you wouldn’t get this one?” Eddie asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe he figured he’d be out of range over there.”

“What if Richard had been there?” Tony asked.

“I’d bet he’d still do it. He’d hope he could do it right under his nose without Richard noticing. He could distract him or something. If he did notice, Brad could brush it off. ‘Oops, sorry about that. Clumsy of me.’ ”

Tony swore. “We gotta get him, Captain.”

“Does the governor swear, Winfield?”

“Actually, yes.”

“On the job?”

Tony ducked his head. “Sorry, sir.”

Harvey frowned at him. “You’re trying to shed the adolescent image, right?”

“Yes, sir. I’ll work on it.”

“What next?” Eddie asked.

“I’m taking this to Mike. When Cheryl comes in—oh, I guess she’s already in. It’s almost five.”

“You want me to send Nate and Jimmy home?”

“Yeah. If the chief hasn’t left, I’ll see if he and Cheryl are up for a private premiere. Eddie, you take a look at the O’Heir interview.”

“Sir?”

“What is it, Winfield?”

“Is it all right if I watch?”

“Don’t you have a date or something? It’s Friday night.”

Tony grinned. “Not until later, sir.”

Harvey shook his head. “You know about the harassment investigation.”

“I’d be pretty stupid if I didn’t, sir.”

“Well, this person doesn’t want a lot of people seeing the tape if it’s not necessary, but I think it’s time we brought you and the other boys in on this case. It certainly overlaps the Bolduc case, and—”

“And you’re thinking it’s one case?” Tony asked.

Harvey set his lips in a grim line. “Not a word outside this office. But I think the chief should see these tapes before I let you guys in on the rest of it. Go home, Winfield. I’ll see you Monday, ready for some hard work.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and hit Mike’s number.

“Don’t forget to call Jennifer,” Eddie whispered. He went to his desk for the O’Heir tape.