One Dog Too Many (A Mae December Mystery) (19 page)

An hour later Wayne called from his car to let Ben know that James Connolly had been Mirandized and was exercising his right to remain silent.

“Has he lawyered up yet?”

“Of course he has. You know we aren’t getting anything out of him until his attorney shows up.”

“You’re right. Attorneys are the worst people to question. Find an empty cell for him until then and get here as soon as you can. I’m going to talk to Terry and Silas. I’d like you to be with me for James Connolly’s interrogation.”

“Things are starting to shake loose, aren’t they?”

“It’s about time.” Ben walked out of his office and up to Dory’s desk to ask her a question. At that moment, Terry and Silas walked in with Deputy Fuller.

“Should we tell the Rent-a-Cop he can stop following us now?” asked Terry.

Ben had had more than enough of his attitude. “That’s a Rose County deputy fulfilling his assigned duty. Don’t push me.” He turned to Dory. “Miss Dory, would you please show Mr. Mead into the conference room? Lerner, come with me.”

He led Terry Lerner to a small separate interview room and ushered him inside.
He decided to let him sweat it out alone for a while.

“Wait here. I’ll be back to talk with you shortly.”

Silas Mead was sitting in the conference room. He was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed. When Ben entered the room, he shut the door with a bang and Silas leaned forward with a start.

“Mr. Mead, I’m trying to figure something out. Can you tell me, prior to Ruby’s death, what Henriette’s plan was for who would inherit her estate?”

“My grandmother
promised, since Ruby got our parents’ property, that I would inherit hers. I think Gram wanted to make it up to me for my dad cutting me off.”

“Interesting.
So you didn’t need to kill Ruby to get your family estate. Although Ruby’s pregnancy would have allowed her to cut you out.”

“She was pregnant?” Silas’ voice shook at the revelation. “Oh, God no.”

Silas’ eyes were moist and then, as if he’d held it all back for a long time, he started to cry. His harsh sobs filled the room. Ben sat there patiently, waiting him out. When the outburst was over and Silas was quiet, Ben handed him a box of tissues.

“Why is the information about her pregnancy this devastating for you?” Ben’s voice was full of con
cern.

Silas’ eyes filled once more. “I’m already dealing with the fact that my sister was murdered. To find out I could have had a niece or nephew
, a member of the Mead family who’ll never be born, is terrible. My whole family is gone.”

Ben remembered Silas at the funeral, his moving tribute to Ruby and his
palpable suffering.

“Please wait here.” Ben rose and left the room.

T
he solution to Ruby’s murder was coming closer. Ben could feel it.

“Is Wayne back with James Connolly yet?” he asked Dory.

Dory shook her head. “No. He’s in the interview room with the sassy one.”

Ben walked back to the interview room and knocked. Wayne opened the door.

“Where’s Deputy Fuller?” Ben kept his voice low so Terry couldn’t overhear.

“He’s waiting over at the jail. As soon as Mr. Connolly’s attorney shows up, he’s to call me.”

“Mind if I join you?”

“Come on in.”

Ben entered the room and sat down. “Terry, I have a few questions for you. My guess is that you thought you were protecting Silas’ inheritance.”

He shrank away and narrowed his eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“When you killed Ruby. You must have found out she was pregnant and planning to disinherit Silas, so you killed her. The irony is that if you hadn’t threatened Mae and hidden the murder weapon, the shovel, at her house, we might not have figured this out.”

His eyes opened wide. “Ruby was pregnant? I didn’t know that. I didn’t hide anything at the December house and I did not kill Silas’ bitch of a sister. Why was there a murder weapon? Everyone knows she was strangled.”

“That may have been the rumor you heard, but there was a murder weapon. Miss December found it in her barn after you trespassed there.”

“Then I’d think you’d be questioning her, not me. I’m calling my attorney. I’m done talking without one.” Terry clenched his fists on the table.

“Read him his rights, Detective Nichols. Then he can call his attorney, and we’ll find a cell for him.”

Terry Lerner’s voice got squeaky. “Sheriff, I swear I didn’t leave a thing at Miss December’s house except the note and ribbons. I’ll take a lie detector test if you want.”

“Excuse us for a moment, Mr. Lerner,” Wayne said. “I need to speak with the sheriff.”

They walked out into the hall. Wayne waved Ben into his office and closed the door behind them.

“No offense, Boss. I’m partly to blame since I told you to rattle him, but it crashed and burned.”

Ben nodded. He felt his face warming. Damn it, Wayne
was right. He got nothing out of Terry with his accusations.

“Plus, you told him about the shovel and that information wasn’t known outside of our department before this. But we did learn something. The murder weapon information was a total shock to Mr. Lerner. He isn’t our killer. I think someone else took the shovel over to Mae’s house.”

“Yeah, I think so, too,” Ben tried to hide his chagrin. “We can let him go, but let’s warn him that we may run a polygraph on him later. Both of us know it won’t be allowed as evidence in a trial, but he might not. I’m going to dismiss Silas also; he completely checked out. Bring James Connolly back here when his attorney shows up, will you?”

After dismissing David Allison, Silas and Terry, Ben paced around Dory’s work area. She sighed, got up from her desk and gave him an oversized cookie from the stash she kept in her desk drawer.

“Sheriff, you aren’t going to get anywhere with that slick lawyer and his attorney unless you’re real, real calm.”

“Good advice. Thanks.” Ben took the cookie back to his office. It was the first food he’d had in hours. He ate the whole thing in two bites and put his head down on his desk.

A sudden knock on the door startled him
awake.

“They’re ready for you now in the conference room, Sheriff,” Dory said.

“I’ll be right there.” He went to the sink in the small restroom adjoining his office and splashed his face with cool water. “It’s game-time. Tighten up your jock strap. Let’s go,” he said to his reflection.

When the sheriff walked into the conference room, Wayne Nichols introduced him to Ms. Emerson, James Connolly’s attorney. The sheriff and his detective sat on one side of the large wooden table. Mr. Connolly and his young, leggy attorney sat facing them. Her jacket exposed a discreet amount of cleavage. Ben smiled at her and was rewarded with a scornful smirk. Dory came in with a fresh pot of decaf coffee, cups, sugar, and cream. She turned on the audiotape equipment and left the room.

At first no one spoke.

Detective Nichols cleared his throat. He looked directly at the built in microphone saying, “Wayne Nichols and Ben Bradley interviewing James Connolly represented by his attorney, Counselor Emerson. Mr. Connolly, as you know, you’re suspected of murdering Ruby Mead-Allison on the night of March fifteenth. You were read your rights and you have counsel present—Ms. Paula Emerson. As you’re aware, Tennessee is a
capital punishment state and in this case, we’re prepared to go for the death penalty. We’re on the record and I ask you to re-state your movements on the evening of March fifteenth.”

James Connolly spoke in a loud and somewhat pompous voice. “I came home from the office on March fifteenth around five thirty p.m. Laura and I got ready to join our friends the Mitchells for an evening out. Laura drove over and
picked up the babysitter—her name is Nora Takichi—and we left for dinner around six fifteen. We dined at Solo Mio and then went to the symphony. The performance started at eight and there was an intermission at nine. The performance resumed at nine fifteen, and we left the Schermerhorn Symphony Hall at ten thirty. We stopped for drinks afterward and got home by midnight.”

“Go on.”

“When we got home, we talked with Nora about our daughter, Marie. She’s only three and has been having nightmares. As usual, Marie had tried to talk Nora into letting her stay up later than her bedtime, but Nora put her in our bed and she was sound asleep when we got home. Laura took the babysitter home. I went into the guest room to sleep.”

“I thought
you drove the babysitter home.”

“No, Detective, Laura thought I’d had too much to drink. She took Nora home.”

“Which car did she drive?”

“I assume she drove her Mercedes. She doesn’t like to drive my truck.”

Wayne stood up and walked around the table until he was right behind Connolly. Then he leaned forward, close to Connolly’s ear and almost whispered, “I think what happened was, after your wife got back from taking the babysitter home, you went to Ruby Mead-Allison’s house, called her out to the back step and killed her.” He shot a covert glance at Ben. “Or, you were the one who took Nora home and you killed Ruby after you dropped her off.”

“No, I didn’t
.” James’ eyes narrowed. “Laura is adamant that I don’t take babysitters home when I’ve been drinking. I’m a lawyer, I know the law. I’d been drinking that night. Laura doesn’t drink. She can’t because of her meds, so she’s always the designated driver. I didn’t kill Ruby. I would never do something like that!”

“What was to prevent you from taking the other car and going to Ruby’s once Laura left?”

“Leaving my three-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son alone in the house? Jesus, I’m in family law. Leave my kids alone in a house after midnight? I’d lose my license. No way.”

Wayne caught Ben’s eye, wanting him to step in. The sheriff took a deep breath. He’d screwed up badly with Terry Lerner. That had turned out not to matter, but
it was best not to take any chances this time.

“We have evidence to support our contention that you killed Ruby, and since Tennessee is a double murder state, we plan to charge you with double murder.”

“What are you talking about?” James Connolly glared at him.

“Just a moment, Sheriff, I’d like a word with James.” Paula Emerson and her client went to a corner of the room and
conferred quietly. Wayne Nichols shut off the recorder and turned the machine on again when they returned to their seats.

“Sheriff, I’d like you to clarify how you plan to charge my client with double murder
,” Paula Emerson said.

“Ruby was pregnant with Mr. Connolly’s child. In killing her, he killed both of them.”

At this, the last of the color drained from James Connolly’s face and he looked helplessly at his attorney.

“The two of you may wish to consider the seriousness of this matter. Excuse us for a minute.”

Wayne and Ben walked out of the room and to the water cooler for drinks. For a minute or two, neither of them spoke.

Finally Wayne said,
“Since we seem to be getting two different stories about who took the babysitter home, I’ll check with Mrs. Takichi about which of the Connollys brought her daughter home the night of the fifteenth. We should have done this before. I’ll go call her now.”

He was back in a few minutes with the information that Mrs. Takichi was almost certain Laura Connolly had brought her daughter home the night of Ruby’s death.
Although she said she couldn’t swear to it.

“If Laura Connolly took the babysitter home, her husband may be off the hook. Damn it! I need to check with the M.E. again to
get his estimate of Ruby’s exact time of death. Possibly, there was time after Laura Connolly got back for James to have left and killed Ruby. We need to get Laura in here, too.”

“Why would Mrs. Connolly say that her husband had taken the babysitter home? What
was the point? Do you think she was trying to lead us away from her? Or that they were in on the crime together? Maybe you should call the D.A.’s office and see if they want to indict them as co-conspirators.”

“We don’t have enough yet to involve the D.A. Since Mrs. Takichi wasn’t ready to swear that Laura Connolly brought her daughter home, we need to ask Nora. Damn it, we should have double-checked this earlier.”

Wayne nodded and put his cell to his ear. “Hello, Mrs. Takichi, this is Detective Nichols again. I’m sorry to bother you. Is Nora home? Could I have your permission to ask her who brought her home that night?”

There was a pause. “Nora, who drove you home when you sat for the Connolly’s on March fifteenth?” He looked at Ben and nodded. “She did. Okay, do you remember what car she drove? The pickup? What time did she drop you off? Twelve thirty? Thanks.”

After Detective Nichols hung up the phone, Ben said, “Laura drove her home, I take it. We have to get her in here ASAP. We could keep James here until then without charging him. I want to ask him if he knows what time his wife got back that night.”

After a pause, Wayne nodded.
“The key to figuring this out is knowing the latest possible time of death. I am going to ask Doc again about the time. I’ll text you as soon as I know, okay?”

“Go,” said the sheriff. “I’ll talk to the suspect and his good-looking attorney.” Ben went back into the room where he met with a hostile stare from James Connolly and an inquiring look from Ms. Emerson.

“What is my client’s status right now?” she asked.

“I have a few more questions for him.” Ben took the chair opposite James. “Do you know what time your wife got back from taking the babysitter home that night?”

Connolly gave him a disdainful glance. “Yes, it just so happens I do. I was in the guest bedroom asleep. I woke up when I heard the water running in the shower. The head of that bed shares a wall with our master bath. I went downstairs to get a drink. The clock on the stove read one-oh-five. Laura didn’t leave until twelve fifteen and it’s a good twenty minutes over there and then twenty back. She must have driven like a bat out of hell.”

Ben’s
cellphone vibrated in his pocket and he took it out. The text from Wayne read, “Doc says 12:30 earliest—1:30 latest. He consulted with an entomologist. Insect evidence on Ruby’s body is irrefutable.”

Ben thought for a minute. Then he turned back to James. “I’m going to release you for now, Mr. Connolly, with our apologies. Your story checks out.”

Paula Emerson raised her eyebrows and turned to look at her client. He shook his head and exhaled sharply, puffing out his cheeks.

“You damned well better apologize. C’mon, Paula, let’s go. We’ve wasted enough time here.” He surged to his feet and stalked out with his attorney close behind.

“Tell your client he has to stay in town.”