Page 129 of State of Alert

“Let’s get back to work and close this case. My husband’s going on the road for a few days. There’s sex to be had.”

“For the love of God,” Freddie muttered as he walked away while Gonzo laughed.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Roland Dunning arrived ten minutes before Sam was planning to leave for the day, so she sent a text to Nick to go ahead with dinner and she’d catch up when she got home.

She showed Dunning into the room where Frank Myerson had been pacing.

“Took you long enough,” he said to Dunning.

“I have other clients. I was in court.”

Myerson didn’t care for that response as he took a seat at the table. “Can we get on with it? This is starting to feel a lot like harassment after my wife was murdered.”

Sam started the recording, noting who was in the room before she sat across from the two men. “My captain made an interesting point earlier.”

“Care to share it?” Dunning asked.

“In fact, I do care to share it. He said if, God forbid, his wife had been murdered, he’d be camped out in our lobby, wanting every update he could get and offering to help us in any way he could. Frank, on the other hand, is annoyed by our requests for more information. I find that interesting, don’t you, Mr. Dunning?”

“Are you accusing my client of something, Lieutenant?”

“I’m merely stating that his annoyance with our investigation leads me to wonder if he’s not relieved that his wife is dead.”

Frank’s mouth fell open as his expression registered shock. “You think I’mrelievedthat Elaine wasmurdered? What kind of monster do you think I am? I’ve loved that woman since I was twenty-three years old. She’s been the center of my life for more than twenty years. I amnotrelieved that she is gone.”

“You’re not relieved that the fighting in your house is over, that you and your girls can coexist peacefully now that Elaine is no longer setting the rules for them?”

Frank looked at Dunning, as if he expected his lawyer to do something.

Dunning remained silent.

“I’m not relieved. I’m heartbroken. Is that all you dragged me in here to ask? Because if so, you’ve wasted my time, yours and Mr. Dunning’s.”

“There’s no such thing as wasted time in a homicide investigation, Mr. Myerson. Every detail matters, such as the one in which your daughter Zoe told us she was at Zeke’s house all afternoon, which was confirmed by cell phone data. If we dig deeper, will we find that she and Zeke left their phones behind when they returned to the District to deal with her mother once and for all?”

“Are you going to sit there and let her say these things about my daughter?” Frank asked Dunning.

“Answer the question, Frank. The sooner you tell them what they want to know, the sooner you can get out of here.”

“Zoe did not kill her mother. Any other questions?”

“What about Jada? Was she fed up enough with what was happening in her home to do something drastic, like hire someone to take care of things for her while everyone else was out of the house for the day?”

“No,” he said through gritted teeth. “She didn’t. Are yougoing to tell me that almost two days later, you’re so focused on my children that you haven’t got a single other lead as to who did this to Elaine?”

“Do you know what the major element is in a homicide investigation, Mr. Myerson?”

“No, I don’t, because I’ve never been involved in one before.”

“Motiveis the key to everything. Who would want this person dead? And the only people we can find in your wife’s entire life who wanted her out of the way are your daughters.”

“How can you accusechildrenof such a thing? That would make them psychopaths.” He looked frantically to Dunning, as if hoping he would back him up. “My daughters are difficult at times. Show me a teenage girl who isn’t. But they’re not psychopaths. They’re not murderers.”

“I’d like you to call them and ask them to stop by to talk some more.”

“Why? So you can entrap them into admitting something they didn’t do?”

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