Saints Of New York (51 page)
Read Saints Of New York Online
Authors: R.J. Ellory
'Nothing.'
'Have
we charged you with anything?'
McKee
glanced at Radick. He turned back to Parrish. 'No.'
'Have
we even implied that we are looking at charging you? Have we suggested you
bring a lawyer? Have we read you your rights? Have we even bothered taking
notes or recording our conversations?'
McKee
took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. 'No, Detective Parrish, you have not.'
'Then
I find it difficult to understand why you are so paranoid.'
'I
am not paranoid.'
Parrish
smiled. 'I think you've been watching too many
Law and Order, Special Victims
episodes
Richard, I really do. These things don't start and finish in an hour. A case
like this - six dead girls over the better part of two years - doesn't tie up
neatly with a bow. First line of questioning in any case like this is
the
family of the victim. In all of these
cases, without exception,
the
immediate
family are divorced, estranged, unreachable, unwilling to speak, and in many
instances they are dead. These girls were all adopted, or on their way to being
adopted. They all had a fresh start waiting for them, and then someone took
that away, you understand?'
'Yes,
I do.'
'So,
as a parent, as a homicide detective, I find myself in a situation where I am
damned if I will let this slide by. I have
six
dead teenagers, and from what I can see
right now it looks like
they
were abducted for the purposes of pornographic exploitation, and when their
purpose was served they were killed. I could be wrong. I could be far wide of
the mark, but I don't think so. I start to ask questions, I start to dig a
little deeper, I find a connection to Family Welfare, to Child Services, to the
CAA. I start to talk to the employees and I find someone who was indirectly
connected to these cases, or had at least some degree of access to their files,
and he has a history of . . . let's just say he has an issue on his record, a
small note that suggests he might have run into some difficulty regarding this
area of predilection. You get me so far?'
'Yes,
I do.'
'So
we go speak to his ex-wife, and she tells us that he had a certain taste for a
certain type of pornographic literature. She says there's still some in the
house. Would we like to take it away? She is concerned that the kids might find
it. We say we'll take it off her hands, and from what we can see there is
nothing overtly illegal about this material, though there are some images that
could be of girls who might have said they were older than they in fact were.
This kind of thing happens, Richard. I'm sorry to say that it's not uncommon.
We are interested, Richard, that's all, and though this could be about as far
from you as you can get, it would still be very remiss of us not to follow it
up with some degree of persistence and tenacity. You see where I'm coming
from?'
McKee
nodded. 'There are other people at Welfare that you are talking to?'
'I
cannot answer that question, Richard.'
'Okay,
so am I the only person you are talking to about this
case?'
'No,
Richard, you are not.'
McKee
looked momentarily relieved. He stepped forward and sat down again. 'So I don't
need a lawyer?'
'Your
decision, Richard, really. I cannot tell you whether you need a lawyer or not.'
'But
you're not planning to charge me with anything, right?'
'No,
unless there's something you feel we should know that we haven't covered?'
'No,
of course not. I haven't done anything that I could be charged for.'
'Well
if that's the case then you're fine, Richard, just fine.'
Parrish
got up. McKee followed suit.
'Thank
you again for your time,' Parrish said.
McKee
tried to smile. 'Not at all. I would say that if you need anything else then
let me know, but I'm hoping that you don't need anything else.'
'So
do I, Richard, so do I.' Parrish shook McKee's hand. 'Detective Radick here
will show you out.'
'You
are walking a very fine line, Frank. You are right on the
I
edge with this guy.' Radick took off his jacket and sat down.
Parrish
smiled sardonically. 'Well, you know what they say?'
'What's
that?'
'If
you're not close to the edge then you're taking up too much room.'
'It's
not a matter for humor, Frank, I'm serious. He shares a few words with the
wrong type of lawyer and we could find ourselves on the end of a harassment suit.
I am also concerned that we might just have caused some more trouble for Carole
Paretski.'
'I
don't think he's stupid enough to say anything to her. He upsets her any
further and she's just going to co-operate with us even more, and I think he
realizes that.'
'Nevertheless—'
'I
know, Jimmy,' Parrish interjected. 'But don't you just love the cat-and-mouse.
He think he's fooled us. He thinks that we're just questioning him in the
general line of the investigation.'
Radick
frowned. 'We are . . . aren't we?'
Parrish
seemed taken aback for a moment. 'You don't have any doubts, do you?'
'Doubts
about what?'
'About
McKee? About McKee being the guy?'
'Christ,
Frank, of course I have doubts.'
'You're
not serious, surely?'
'Of
course I'm serious. We don't have anything on this guy. I've been there for
every interview, Frank, and I don't see anything but some poor schmuck who's
wife dumped him because he had a thing for cheerleaders—'
'You
missed the signs, Jimmy, you missed the signs.'
'Signs?
What signs?'
'It's
fine. Don't worry about it. You couldn't see his face while we were talking.'
'I
heard what he had to say though, Frank. So what are you talking about - signs?'
'His
eyes, his hands, the way he reacted when I backed off. You see how relieved he
was?'
'Jesus,
Frank, I think I'd be relieved if all of a sudden I got the idea that the guy
that was harassing me about being a multiple murderer told me that he wasn't
really that serious about it.'
Parrish
was shaking his head before Radick had finished speaking. 'No, Jimmy, those
were the signs. These guys don't think the way we think. They just don't. It's
good that they don't otherwise we'd all be doing that shit. It's like I said
before, they're arrogant. They pretend they're not, but they're arrogant. They
have whatever they're into, the girls, the snuff movies, the torture sex,
all
that, but there's an element of it that
tells them they have
to
challenge
the police. They have to prove to themselves and
the
rest of the world that they're smarter
than everyone. They don
't
want
to get caught. Of course not. But you know something? There's a tiny little bit
of them that does want to get caught. Why? Because they want the recognition.
They want the world
to
know
what they did, how long they got away with it for . . .'
'Hang
on a minute there, Frank. As far as I can see we are
not
any closer to nailing McKee for anything
than we were a
week
ago.
So he's a loser. So he likes to read stroke mags. So
fucking
what? You know how many people read that
shit? That
isn't
against
the law. Like it or not, that's the truth. There's no
way we
can prove that any of the girls in those
mags were underage
when
the
pictures were taken, and compared to some of the stuff
I've
been looking at in Archives it's pretty
mild. Even if we did
prove it
we
wouldn't have a case against McKee, it would be a case
against
the publishers. Second thing is this
movie. So there was an
ad for
the
movie in one of the magazines. We have a picture of
Jennifer
doing things that no seventeen-year-old
should be doing
against
her
will, but we have no proof that she did it against her will.
Hell
Frank, we don't know anything about the
circumstances of
their
disappearances
or their murders. We just know they went missing, and then they were dead.
Jennifer could have done
those
pictures
weeks before she went missing, months
even, and she
could
have done it willingly. We don't know. That's the thing here. We have no
proof.'
Parrish
was smiling, almost to himself. 'Which is where the intuitive certainty comes
in, Jimmy. There's a line they cross, and once they cross that line you know
you're into something—'
'What
the fuck are you talking about, Frank? Lines? Intuition? Jesus, man, listen to
yourself. We do not have a case against Richard McKee. He has not been charged
because we have nothing to charge him with. He has not been advised to get a
lawyer because he doesn't need to get a lawyer. If I didn't know you I'd think
you were harboring some irrational obsession about this guy. Fact of the matter
is that I do know you, and I still think it's an irrational obsession. Leave
the guy alone. You heard what he said. Next time we ask him down here for
questioning he's gonna bring a lawyer—'
'I'm not going
to bring him down here for more questions.'
'Thank fuck for
that.'
'I don't need
to. I've got all the information on him I need.'
'What?'
'He's
the guy, Jimmy. I mean it. You can hear me out on this or you can call me
crazy.
He is the guy.
It's more obvious to me now than ever. In fact, the more you talk to me about
leaving him alone the more I understand how fucking clever he's been.'
'Aah
for Christ's sake, Frank, will you just drop it? What are you going to do?
Apply for an arrest that will get turned down? Try and get a search warrant for
his house?'
'No,
Jimmy, I'm just going to wait for him to make his next move, and we'll be
ready.'
'You're
serious aren't you? You really believe that Richard McKee has abducted and
killed six teenage girls in the last two years.'
'I
do, Jimmy, I do. And I think that very soon he's going to go after number
seven.'
'Why,
Frank? Why in God's name would he do that if he thinks we're onto him?'
'Because
we've got him excited, Jimmy. We've got him all excited again. He's got to
prove to himself that he can outwit us, and like I said before, the more we
talk to him about it the more turned on he gets. He's gonna go for another one.
I know it. He's gonna do it, and it'll be soon.'
'Jesus.
If this is what it's going to be like then I don't know that I can go on
working with you, Frank. Seriously, this is getting to be too much.'
'Not
yet, Jimmy, not yet. Don't bail out on me yet, okay? A little while longer. A
few days, a week maybe. Hang in there with me on this one. If I'm wrong then
I'll quit, like I said. If I'm right then I'll quit anyway, but you'll get a
blue ribbon for your first case in Homicide and Valderas will love you.'