Premise of Innocence, page 10
The surfaces were consistent with having been wiped with a cloth and mild cleanser. Remaining latent prints were severely blurred, including those that would be expected on the jewelry box and bureau identified as belonging to the homeowner.
Other areas of the bedroom and bathroom did not show evidence of being wiped. We lifted multiple prints in other areas of the bedroom, bathroom, and potential points of entry. All were consistent with those of the homeowner.
We collected the bed skirt in place on the bed. We did not process the bed skirt based on the lack of latent fingerprints on the other surfaces. By collecting it, we do preserve it for potential further processing.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“You ever read the report on Northcutt being shot, Tanner?”
Bel’s question as Landis drove them back to Maryland, reprieved him from memories.
“At the time. Not since.”
“Schmidt sent us copies about four-thirty this morning.”
“Proving to us he hadn’t fallen asleep?”
“Nothing else to keep him awake. Judging from his hourly reports, backed up by what we’ve gotten from Piscattoway, all was quiet overnight.”
Landis snorted his opinion of what they had gotten and would get from PCPD.
“So, he used his down time to dig up the report on Northcutt being shot. That’s enterprising. We could ask him to look for other reports. Thought the one on Northcutt’s shooting sure wouldn’t keep him awake, from what I remember.”
“Already asked him for what else he could scare up. But maybe they added to the shooting report since you read it. Interesting reading in some ways.”
He cut Belichek a look. A quick one considering traffic on this bridge over the Potomac. They were fortunate they weren’t among the streams trying to get into downtown D.C., except they had to cross those streams to skirt the southern edge of the District then go east to reach Ally’s home. And, despite the traffic engineers’ best efforts, that required fortitude.
“What’s interesting?”
“It’s a little thin. Except the list of officers on the scene.”
“Half the department. And if it hasn’t been fleshed out since I saw it, it was a lot thin for the shooting of a cop.” Though that was interesting in its way. Attacks on law enforcement usually garnered maximum attention and investigative power.
“Guy who wrote it is gone.”
“Retired?”
“Retired a year after the shooting, then died of a heart attack eight months later.”
Not an uncommon story among law enforcement. Often didn’t retire until a major health scare, waiting too late to improve their health enough for a lengthier retirement.
“What else interested you?” Because he knew Bel wasn’t done.
“Suburban street. Weekday morning — when people getting ready to leave for work were likely to be around, yet only one person saw anything.”
“The neighbor woman.”
He’d found an opportunity to talk to the woman himself. She might have thought he was local, though he didn’t say so. She didn’t make any secret of it that she liked Ally, steered clear of Chad, and didn’t like Iris.
“And she didn’t see much.”
Enough to immediately clear Ally of direct involvement. Piscattoway also investigated the possibility of murder for hire, no doubt with one eye on the wife, but that never turned up a hint of anything.
“She got a partial plate,” he said.
“Yeah. Which led to a car burned practically to ash. All silence beyond that. Fortunate for the shooter.”
“You’re thinking someone else did see something? Chose to keep it to him- or herself?”
“Possibility.”
“Another is the shooter knew the neighborhood and knew that particular time was safe because of the vagaries of the schedule there. Although…”
“Yeah. Even someone who knew the neighborhood well, why risk it?”
“Right. Because there were almost sure to be safer opportunities for the ambusher during most of Northcutt’s patrol shifts. Parked somewhere, writing a report. Or going up to a vehicle he’s pulled over, drive alongside and…” He raised one finger. “So, yeah, safer opportunities, but maybe not more certain opportunities. Wouldn’t know where he’d be at any given time on patrol shifts. Shit happens. Can’t be sure where and when. Which might tell something about the shooter.”
“Yup. Chose a time and place because of the certainty of getting a shot at Northcutt, because the shooter didn’t have the free time to stalk Northcutt, waiting for a good opportunity.”
“So that makes it more likely the shooter was gainfully employed at the time. Another explanation could be time pressure. The shooter had to get him dead right then. Couldn’t afford to wait around for the right opportunity, had to make it.”
“Yeah. Court cases?”
“Northcutt wasn’t appearing in any when he was shot. Wasn’t scheduled for any until the next month and none of those were major. Piscattoway PD covered that angle eventually. No parole hearings coming up, either. But there was something… Wasn’t he in on a bust of a high up drug seller? Not right before he was shot.”
“I read that… Hold on.” Belichek scrolled through screens on his device, apparently looking at the report Schmidt had sent. “Got it. Four months before the shooting. Routine traffic stop, backed up by Dewey Selton.”
“One of his cronies. Northcutt made the stop with the guy coming off the Interstate. Speeding.”
“As people do, coming off the Interstate,” Belichek said mildly.
Landis eased his foot off the accelerator. “But not much of a haul. Would have expected a lot more from that guy.”
“Maybe he was too smart to carry more than a few hundred dollars and enough crank for a small party.”
“Look at his sheet. He doesn’t go for small parties. And I don’t recall any signs of major intelligence.”
Belichek was silent, reading. “Agreed. On the other hand, no violence on his sheet.”
“Street smart enough to have someone else do his dirty work. Could be what happened here, too. The shooting wasn’t right after the stop, like you’d think would happen if he lost it and went after Northcutt. Also wasn’t close enough to a court date that disposing of the arresting officer might occur to him as a way to solve his problem. Not to mention that bust wasn’t that big a deal in his career and he still had a chance to beat it by working through the court system, letting his lawyer try to make it go away.”
“Can’t tell if you’re saying he’s worth a look or not,” Bel complained.
“He is. Eventually.” He cleared his throat. “First question.”
It was their routine, even if this was nothing like routine. For starters, it was a very delayed start to their routine, which usually followed the first glut of information on a case.
But they’d been rather busy yesterday. Hard to tell when one intake of info stopped and the next one started.
He hadn’t realized he’d paused until Bel nudged, “First question is?”
“Not original. But the big one’s got to be are they related — yesterday’s shots and Northcutt dying.”
“Chad’s shooting, too. Even separated by four-plus years.”
“Yeah. Possible. Good. And the break-in. As you said, we’ve asked those already. Still, good questions. You said the big one. What’s your first small question?”
“Smaller, not small. Who was the target at the courthouse?”
“Ally.” Landis drew in oxygen. Exactly as if his own answer knocked the breath out of him.
Bel gave him a look he didn’t like. But his partner didn’t say anything, so pushing him would make it a big deal.
He stayed with the case. “Trouble is, does answering the connection question give us other answers or do we need to first get the answer to yesterday’s shooting to answer the connection question? Or…”
Another time he’d paused that didn’t become apparent to him until Bel nudged. “Or what?”
“Or do we need to get the answers surrounding Chad Northcutt being shot in the head in his driveway to unravel any of the rest?”
“Chicken or egg,” Bel summarized. “Can’t know yet. Just started collecting pebbles. Keep on going and eventually we’ll see the mountain. You don’t start with a vision of the mountain and fit the pebbles in.”
“I know, I know.”
“The pebbles tell you what the mountain’s going to look like as you add them one by one.”
Belichek had pebbles and mountains, he had his own way of thinking of investigations.
Started at the core — the victim — and worked out in circles or layers around them. Though he’d never encountered an investigation where any one layer remained consistent around the core, like rings on a tree. Instead, the layers bulged and flattened, bubbled and went sideways, depending on what there was to find out about their contents and when it was discovered.
“God, you and your damned mountain and double-damned pebbles,” he grumbled.
“Yeah,” Bel said placidly. “But having both the chicken and egg — even not knowing which came first — is better than just having one. Besides, insurance.”
“Right.” If Palery closed them out of the courthouse plaza shooting, they’d keep investigating, approaching it from the other angle.
Neither approach was what you’d call easy, but at least they had two.
“Second question,” Bel said thoughtfully. “Why shoot at Ally Northcutt?”
“Connection to Chad. Whatever he was up to.”
“Not proven he was up to anything. Suspected. Not proven.”
“He was. Besides—”
Even as he wondered if there was a chance Bel would not follow up on that bitten-off word, he knew it was a futile hope.
“Besides,” Bel started, leaving no doubt, “you think there couldn’t be any other reason for somebody to go after Ally. No reason someone could want to shoot her in her own right.”
“It’s logical. She hasn’t been making enemies of criminals like Mags has by prosecuting them. She hasn’t been dealing with the public, asking for money, supporting people who might — or might not — be worthy of support like Jamie. She’s kept to herself. Even when all the media was clamoring for the tragic wife story right after Northcutt was shot, she didn’t do stories, didn’t appear in the media. And you can bet there’ve been requests for anniversary stories.”
“She does keep to herself. When she and Mags and I were checking for things in Jamie’s house, she could pinpoint when she’d last been out with Jamie. Five or six months earlier. Jamie said before that, it was when that aunt of Chad’s came to visit — one of the few people Iris Northcutt considered acceptable to sit beside Chad’s bedside all day — and Ally attended a Sunshine Foundation event.”
Jamie started the Sunshine Foundation to honor their Aunt Vivian Frye.
“Long time between outings,” was all he said.
Bel turned his head and studied him anyway.
He ignored his partner’s attention. That wouldn’t make the attention go away, but it didn’t encourage it, either.
He turned into Ally’s street.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Landis and Bel arrived at Ally’s house just behind two official cars from the Piscattoway County Police Department.
“Sloppy,” Bel grumbled when the uniformed officer waved Landis into the cordoned off space in front of the two Northcutt houses, not appearing to notice they weren’t part of that official motorcade.
As they exited, they recognized the police chief and a deputy chief they’d seen last night getting out of the lead car, which also boasted a driver. Two more men and a woman got out of the second car.
“Division commander, chaplain, and somebody who specializes in liaising with bereaved family,” Tanner speculated.
The group met in the street and looked toward Ally’s house.
Before they could move in that direction, however, Iris Northcutt opened her front door.
She wore unrelieved black, including a skirt to her ankles.
In contrast, her voice was loud and commanding. “This way, Chief.”
The man paused, turning his head toward her.
She stepped back, still holding the door open.
He glanced over his shoulder toward Ally’s door, which remained closed. Then he turned and headed toward Iris, with the others falling in line behind him.
Without discussion, Landis and Bel wasted no time going up the walk and knocking on Ally’s door. Schmidt let them in.
“Ally needs to get across the street,” Bel said to Jamie, who’d come around the corner from the kitchen.
“Iris shanghaied the brass when they were on the way here,” Landis added.
Maggie came out of the kitchen, one hand clasped around Ally’s wrist, drawing her along. “Of course, she did. C’mon, Ally.”
“It doesn’t matter. Really.” She resisted enough to stop Maggie’s progress.
Dana put an arm around Ally’s shoulders. “You have been so strong for so long, Ally. You need to be stronger a little longer. To do what’s expected of you a little longer. This will be over eventually. Truly. Just keep moving ahead.”
The look between the two women held.
Air streamed out between Ally’s barely parted lips. “You’re right.” She used her other hand to remove Maggie’s unresisting hold on her.
Maggie fell in line behind her, then Jamie, though Jamie turned back and asked “Mom?”
“I’ll stay here. Those cleanup people Maggie called should be here soon.” Maggie must have called one of the firms that specialized in crime scene cleanup. Ally’s house might be a mess from the investigation by civilian standards, but it would be a walk in the park by crime scene standards. “I’ll get them started. You girls are who she needs.”
Bel went out right behind Jamie, one hand lightly touching her back.
Before Landis could follow, Dana Chancellor said, “Detective Landis — Tanner.”
He turned, surprised at her using his first name.
“Ma’am?”
“This young man, Officer Schmidt, needs to get some rest. We’ve told him to sleep now that we’re all awake and there’s little cause to think there will be any danger, but he’s refused. Will you please order him to at least take a nap?”
Schmidt flushed.
Landis sucked in his teeth to keep from laughing at the guy’s reaction to Dana Chancellor treating him like a kindergartner at Rest Time.
The guy did look tired. But they’d all worked longer stretches than this. A lot. Still, the trick was to rest when you could and they didn’t need Schmidt on guard right this second.
“Anything to report? Beyond what you already sent.”
“No, sir. Just… the absence of something, I guess. The Piscattoway crime scene techs reported no sign of disturbance in the yard. Before Mr. Carson retired last night, he and I raked the lawn for a width of three feet from the back of the house, starting at the southwestern corner and ended with the gate in the fence at the northwestern corner of the drive.” His gaze shifted fractionally toward Dana. “There was no sign of disturbance in the dew this morning.”
“Your idea or his?”
“His.” No hesitation. Score one for honesty.
“Good job. Go take a nap, Schmidt. But—”
“There’s a sofa in the basement,” Dana inserted.
“—on the sofa in the basement,” Landis dutifully added. “But before you do, lock up the house. And nobody leaves or comes in until we come back. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
Dana nodded, but it had less the feeling of acquiescing to his order than benign approval that he’d followed hers.
Landis left and heard the front door lock after him.
Across the street, he caught up before Rachel closed that door behind the newly arrived contingent.
From the doorway, the kitchen opened to the right. A short hallway straight ahead led to the living room.
“Please, please, come sit here, Mrs. Northcutt,” the chief said from where he occupied the edge of a sofa upholstered in fabric with improbably large and black flowers of some kind interspersed with deepest green stems and leaves. All the other Piscattoway department representatives stood, crowding the room. “Er, uh, Mrs. Chad Northcutt.”
“Please, call me, Ally.” She offered her hand and he took it.
But when he started to draw her down to sit beside him, she stepped back closer to Jamie and Maggie, who’d accompanied her in her advance into the living room, and lightly clasped her hands in front of her. “Thank you, I’ll stand.”
Iris sat in a chair in the same deepest green, which resembled the big chair in her son’s living room. Her position put her against the backdrop of a wall covered from floor to ceiling and side to side in photos, plaques, and mementoes of the Northcutt family’s police service.
“I was just telling Chad’s mother, that the department will do everything it can to make this period less difficult for all of you. Though we can’t take away the pain and the loss, we can share in it with you at a fine young man and excellent police officer being taken from us so senselessly.”
Landis could swear the man had said the same words in a news clip after Chad was shot. Might as well recycle them.
Ally lowered her head in dignified thanks.
“And these officers—” He indicated the others. “—will all help in any way they can to lighten the burden of planning the funeral, as well as other practical matters. Of course, under your guidance.”
“The funeral is what matters now,” Iris said. “A proper farewell for a Northcutt.”
Landis looked at her positioning against that remarkable wall more closely. One area was not covered as thickly. It was the area directly behind her chair. It had the effect of making her, sitting in her chair, appear to be the largest piece — perhaps the most important? — in the collage.
The chief heaved himself to his feet and gestured to one of the other men. “Certainly, certainly. And our experienced officers will help you with that every step of the way.”
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