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.“This is an informal interview,” J.D.said.“Nothing more.”“Nevertheless, my client prefers to have legal representation,” the lawyer, who had introduced himself as Edward Gates, informed J.D.“Do you wear glasses, Mr.Arden?”“No.”“Contacts?”“No?”“Do you own a pair of glasses?”“Sunglasses.”“Prescription?”“No.”“Do you own a car, Mr.Arden?” J.D.asked.“No.I have a motorcycle.”“Have you ever been back to the farm where Regina Bennett kept you after she kidnapped you?”Jeremy shifted uncomfortably in his seat.“No.Why would I want to go back there?”J.D.let his gaze drift casually over Jeremy, from his blond hair to his faded jeans and worn corduroy jacket to his scuffed leather boots.“Why did you visit Regina Bennett in Moccasin Bend several times shortly before her death?”Jeremy’s facial muscles tensed.He turned, leaned over, and whispered something to his lawyer.They talked quietly for a couple of minutes.J.D.looked at Jeremy’s small, slender hands and his thin fingers.A couple of his nails were chipped, one broken into the quick, and there was what looked like grease under one thumbnail.J.D.’s guess was this guy had never had a professional manicure in his life.“I wanted to see her, talk to her, to come face-to-face with the woman who had kidnapped me.I guess you could call it an unhealthy fascination,” Jeremy said.“Every time I went to see her, she called me Cody.She was nuts and I knew that, but…I kept remembering things.Like her singing to me.And her rocking me.”“Just how much do you remember?”“Not a lot.And to be honest, I’m not sure if any of the memories are real.”“Are we about through here, Special Agent Cass?” Edward Gates asked.“Just a few more questions.” He focused on Arden.“Did you know any of the Rocking Chair Killer’s victims?”“What?” Arden’s face paled.“Did you, for instance, know Whitney Poole?”Arden swallowed hard, then conversed with his lawyer again before answering.“I saw her a few times when I ate at the café where she worked.”“Did you ever talk to her? Flirt with her?”“Yeah, a couple of times, but I didn’t kidnap her and I didn’t kill her.I liked her.I’d been trying to work up the courage to ask her out when she disappeared.”“So, it’s just a fluke, just a weird coincidence that you were interested in dating one of the Rocking Chair Killer’s victims.You, Jeremy Arden, the one and only Baby Blue toddler who was rescued.”Arden became visibly upset.Sweat dotted his upper lip and his breathing quickened as he stood quickly and wrung his hands together.Arden’s lawyer intervened, calmed him down, and from then until the end of the interview consulted on every answer Arden gave.J.D.continued the questioning, keeping his voice even and his attitude friendly.Jeremy was highly agitated and a few times he got rattled again and looked like a scared rabbit caught in a hunter’s snare.“If I were to ask you where you were and what you were doing on the nights when our three victims were killed and each one’s body staged in a rocking chair with a toddler’s skeleton in her arms, could you tell me? Would you have an alibi for all three nights?”“I don’t know.Probably not.I live alone.I don’t have any friends.And no girlfriend.”After a half-hour interview, J.D.opened the office door, thanked Jeremy Arden for his cooperation, and walked him outside where Hart Roberts was waiting.Roberts was alone except for Tam Lovelady and his lawyer.Roberts and Arden glanced at each other, nodded, and then Arden left with his lawyer.“I’m ready for you now, Mr.Roberts.”“I’d like to speak to you first,” Tam said.“All right.” J.D.glanced from Hart Roberts to his lawyer, a fortysomething brunette who looked vaguely familiar.“Why don’t you two wait in my office.”“I hope you don’t intend to keep us waiting much longer, Special Agent Cass,” the lady lawyer said.And then J.D.remembered where he’d met her and who she was.“This shouldn’t take long, should it, Officer Lovelady?”“A few minutes,” Tam replied.J.D.smiled at the lawyer he had met briefly a couple of months ago when Holly had dragged him off to some social function she simply couldn’t miss.Kim Miner was a friend of Holly’s, actually more than a friend.Holly considered the woman her mentor and had patterned herself after the lawyer known in legal circles as the Barracuda Bitch.The lady didn’t work cheap, which immediately made J.D.wonder who was paying her bill.“If y’all will go on in, I’ll be with you shortly.” J.D.kept his fake smile in place and as soon as Roberts and his lawyer entered his office, J.D.turned to Tam.“Did Garth leave?”“Wayne took him outside to try to cool him off,” Tam said.“Keeping Hart waiting while you interviewed Jeremy Arden gave Garth plenty of time to work up a head of steam.I’m just glad Wayne was here.”“And just why is Wayne Sherrod here?” J.D.asked.“As a matter of fact, why are you and Garth here?”“Garth is Hart’s uncle.He’s here for moral support, as is Wayne.”“And you?”“I’m a friend of the family.”“So, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?” J.D.asked.“I know you’ve done your homework, that you’ve learned a great deal about Hart, about his problems with the law, with drugs and alcohol and that he’s had emotional issues since he was a kid.” Tam paused, reached out, grasped J.D.’s arm, and said, “Hart Roberts is not your killer.”“I’m not accusing him of anything.You know what this is.Just an informal interview.”“If you push him too hard, he—he could break.Emotionally.” She squeezed J.D.’s arm.“I’m asking you to be careful when you question him.Please.”J.D.realized that Tam Lovelady cared about Hart Roberts, cared a hell of a lot.Maybe even loved him.More than as a friend’s brother?Tam removed her hand from J.D.’s arm.“Okay.Don’t worry.I’ll take it easy,” J.D.said, then turned around, went into his office, and closed the door.For the next twenty-five minutes, he went over most of the same questions with Hart Roberts that he’d asked Jeremy Arden.Roberts said he did own a car, but not an older-model Lincoln.J.D.knew the car he mentioned—an eight-year-old Toyota—was actually registered to his uncle.More questioning revealed that Roberts didn’t wear glasses or contacts, but like Arden did own nonprescription sunglasses.He had eaten at Callie’s Café several times but couldn’t remember ever seeing Whitney Poole, and he said he’d never met either of the other victims.“Did you ever have any type of contact with Regina Bennett?” J.D.had asked.“God, no!”“You never visited her at Moccasin Bend or—”“Hell, no.” Roberts had laughed then, laughed too hard and too long [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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