Page 39 of Already Lost

“Dope,” Maverford said. There was a rattleas the chain came off the door. “Well, come the hell in, friends!”

He stepped back and walked into theapartment, away from the door, leaving them standing there. He was dancing alittle as he walked, even though there was no music playing. An abrupt shiftfrom suspicion to what looked like euphoria – Laura wasn’t sure, but…

There was a potential that either drugs ormental health issues were at play here, and either way, she didn’t want tospook this suspect.

She gestured to Nate who nodded approval,and they both stepped inside. Nate closed the door behind them as Laura foundher way to an open kitchen – dining – living space, where Maverford had alreadythrown himself casually across a beaten-up old sofa covered with a gianthowling wolf blanket.

The place was a mess. The coffee table waslittered with empty cigarette cartons, empty beer bottles and cans, and otherdetritus. Laura spotted at least a couple of scraps of foil and empty plasticbags amongst them. Those could be clear signs of drug use. They had to becareful here.

The lights were dim, but still – lookingclosely at Maverford, she couldn’t help but think his pupils were unusuallysized.

“How much do you know about Earl Maverfordand his music?” Nate asked. The question was cautious, as if he was trying toget Maverford to say something about the song without being prompted, and Lauradecided to follow his lead.

“I know a lot about him,” he said,pointing to a beaten-up chair with a sunken cushion. “Take a seat, go on, be athome. Ask me anything you want to know. You want a puff?”

He pulled out what looked like a rolledjoint from a pocket and, before either Laura or Nate could react, lit it.

“Is that for medical use?” Nate askeduneasily. Laura echoed the sentiment. They didn’t want to get bogged down in apetty drug charge before they even got anywhere. Then again, if they hadsomething to arrest him over, it would make getting him to the station a loteasier.

And then again, if he was high, theywouldn’t have a great time questioning him – and most lawyers would be able toget his testimony thrown out unless he said something only the killer couldpossibly know.

“What are you, feds or something?”Maverford asked, in a casual tone, like he was making a joke.

Wordlessly, Nate drew his badge out andopened it up, showing him that they were, in fact, feds.

Maverford swore and scrambled to his feet,dropping the joint and stomping on it – though more because he was moving in anagitated manner than out of any concern for burning the place down, Laurathought.

“You can’t do that!” he yelled. “You’vegot to tell me if you’re police or whatever! You’re not allowed to just come inhere and – that’s entrapment – that’s illegal!”

“I didn’t actually say anything or ask youfor the drugs,” Nate pointed out. Laura was beginning to get the impression,too, that it might have been more than just cannabis in the home-rolled joint.“You offered it to us. But I’d like to talk to you about something totallydifferent – about Earl Maverford. I think it’s a good idea if you come to thelocal precinct with us to answer a few questions, and maybe sober up.”

Laura winced internally. She didn’t have afeeling that Mark was going to accept this so easily.

“No way,” he said, quickly stepping backand almost tripping over onto his own sofa. “No way, man. You can’t take me in.I won’t go. I’m not going.”

“Look, right now this is a request,” Natesaid. Laura started to move towards the door, thinking about blocking exits. “Ifyou want, we can make it official and arrest you. Is that what you want?”

“You can’t arrest me!” Maverford shouted.“I haven’t done anything!”

Nate sighed and glanced at Laura. Shenodded.

“Mark Maverford,” he said. “I’m arrestingyou on suspicion of possession of illegal drugs.” He stepped closer towardsMark, taking a pair of handcuffs out and reaching out for the man’s hands, butMark only freaked out even more. He put his hands up in front of himself andlashed out wildly, swiping Nate’s hands away whenever he started to get close.

“Mr. Maverford!” Laura shouted, trying toget him to calm down by listening to her voice. He only flailed harder, and atlast she stepped in beside Nate to try and wrestle the man’s arms down farenough to get the cuffs around both of his wrists at once. The whole time heyelled incoherent complaints into their ears about how they couldn’t arrest himfor entrapment over medicinal drugs, until finally Laura and Nate between themmanaged to get him cuffed and under control.

“Right,” Laura said, blowing a bit of hairout of her face that had fallen out of her ponytail – she had no way to moveit, with both her hands firmly holding Maverford in place in case he tried torun off. “Let’s get him back to the precinct. I think we need to have a seriouschat about what you’ve been doing for the past few days, Mark.”

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

“Great,” Laura sighed, shaking her head.“So, we’re not going to be able to question him yet?”

“I’m afraid not,” the medical officer said,shaking her head. “He’s still got a high enough concentration of drugs in hissystem that anything you would be able to get him to say would be inadmissiblein court, anyway. I would recommend waiting until tomorrow to even begininterviewing him. In the meantime, he should stay under medical supervision incase of any adverse reactions.”

Nate hit his hand against the side of thedesk, and Laura couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment. “Can we not evenask exploratory questions? Come back to him tomorrow with the full formalinterview and go over the same ground?”

She shook her head. “I wouldn’t advise it.There’s room for an attorney to argue that his client had suggestions pushedinto his memory when he was under the influence, leading to a coerced confession.”

Laura sighed. What a nightmare. It wasn’tlike she was in any rush to get home at the moment, but it was just toofrustrating to have to sit around here and wait for the suspect to be ready forthem. They had him. All she wanted to do was get on with the interview, get himto confess, so this whole thing could be put to bed for good.

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