“Not likely,” the captain replied. “See, it’s not so bad being on this side of the monitor sometimes.”
“Billy, I know you’ve been read your rights, but I’m going to read them to you again.” I listened to Adrian read them off to Billy and then sat a little closer when Billy waved off his rights to an attorney. “You’re being arrested for the stalking and harassment of Joshua James Roman, breaking and entering at the residence located at two twenty-five Elm Street.” Adrian took a pause and looked down at his notes. “You’re also being arrested for tampering with evidence and impeding an investigation. The DEA will be here later this afternoon to formerly charge you with possession of drugs with intent to distribute, and suspicion of drug trafficking. Are you sure you don’t want a lawyer present?”
“Holy fuck!” I said in disbelief. I looked over at the captain.
“That’s fucking bullshit,” Billy roared. He tried to pull free from his bonds, but he didn’t get very far. His hand and ankle cuffs were connected to a chain that was anchored in concrete. “What drugs?”
“The huge stash of drugs we found with your personal belongings in the house on Elm Street,” Officer Wen said. “Forget about the drugs for now because the DEA will be asking about them. We want to question you about your harassment of Josh Roman and find out what you know about Nate Turner’s death.”
“What?” Billy honestly sounded shocked.
“We’re not playing around here, Billy.” Okay, Adrian was playing bad cop too. “You were the person who discovered Nate’s disabled car along the side of the highway. We just want to make sure you weren’t the one who put a bullet in his head.”
“I didn’t kill anyone,” Billy said with his hands up, it seemed as if all the fight had drained from him.
“So we’re not going to find the gun that killed Nate Turner in your truck, home, or storage unit?” Wen asked.
“No,” Billy said.
“Do you admit to stalking and harassing Josh Roman?” Wen asked.
“I do, but not for the reasonshethinks,” Billy said defensively. “I only did it to cast doubt about Detective Wyatt’s character once I learned about his history with the dead guy. I hate that dickhead.” The feeling was mutual.
There was no way that Billy would admit to being obsessed with Josh, but I knew differently. I might’ve bought the smoke and mirrors thing if he hadn’t taken up residence in the empty house across from Josh so he could watch us having sex. I saw the possessive gleam in his eye the time I found him standing in Josh’s kitchenette. I suspected the investigators knew the truth but chose not to call him on it. He’d be more likely to cooperate because of that decision.
“So, for my benefit, I want to recap what you’ve said to us this morning and you tell me if I misunderstood you,” Adrian said. “The Feds will be here soon so I want to wrap up things on my end before they take you away.”
“They weren’t my drugs,” Billy said defensively. The panic he must’ve felt was making his voice rise in pitch. “I know fucking well this is some kind of conspiracy. There’s no fucking way I tested positive for drugs on myrandomdrug test and I never had any drugs in my possession while I was at the house on Elm Street. Those drugs were planted thereafterI was arrested. Someone is making me the fall guy for their drug business.” He might’ve been more convincing had his body not betrayed the obvious signs of withdrawal.
“You’ll need to tell that to the Feds,” Wen told Billy.
“Billy, I need you to focus on what I’m asking,” Adrian told him. “Did you begin harassing and stalking Josh Roman to put attention on Detective Wyatt’s connection to Nate Turner, and did you make it look like it was the same person who stalked, and later killed, Nate Turner?”
“Yes.”
“Those are all the questions we have for you at this time,” Detective Wen said. He motioned for the guards to come get him and take him back to his holding cell.
“What’s with situation with the DEA?” I asked the captain when the interview was over.
“The drugs found on Elm Street and the ones found in the school were packaged in the exact same way. I am positive once the Feds run tests that they’ll confirm they’re from the same batch,” Captain Reardon said.
“Do you think it’s at all possible that Billy and Nate were trafficking the drugs together and it had something to do with Nate’s death? Is Billy Nate’s killer?”
“The only thing we can do is talk to the CPD and find out what they know, if anything, about drugs being trafficked through Nate’s club. If the guy was into prostitution to make extra cash, then I don’t think drug running is too farfetched. The two often go hand in hand. The more we know about Nate the more it will help us find his killer,” Captain Reardon replied.
“I realize that Nate’s club was on the river, which would be appealing for trafficking, but there’s something this county has that makes it even more enticing,” I said. “Think about how many major interstates and highways run near here. I need to dig deeper into Billy’s past to know what he’s been up to before he returned to Blissville.”
“You can’t be involved in that investigation,” the captain reminded me. “I’ve already talked to the sheriff and we’re going to pool resources and form a task force between us and CPD to solve Nate’s homicide. There’s nothing that truly ties Nate to the drugs. We’re going to go with the assumption that the two incidents are separate. So, you’re going to lead our task force unless we do find a connection to Sampson. I’m going to let the DEA handle the investigation regarding the drugs found in Billy’s possession and the school locker. They have resources that we don’t have. Billy can scream that they aren’t his drugs all he wants, but all the DEA is going to see his connection to a woman who has access to the school.”
“Yes, sir.” Captain Reardon rose to his feet, but before he could leave I asked, “Can I ask you something, sir?”
“Yes, Gabe.”
“For my own sanity and assurance, can I see the evidence that was collected from Bianca’s home on Elm Street?”
The captain thought about it for a minute and then nodded. “You can see pictures of the evidence,” he amended.
It twisted my guts to see how obsessed Billy really was with Josh. There were two dozen photos taken of him, but luckily none of them were the two of us having sex. It was doubtful Billy wanted a photographic reminder of just how far Josh had moved on. In the solo pictures of Josh, he could convince himself that he was just waiting for them to resume whatever fucked-up relationship they’d had in the past. It was also pretty obvious to the cops who did the search that Billy’s claim about just using the situation to his advantage was a lie because mixed with the photos of Josh on the bare mattress was an open bottle of lubricant.
