“She is,” Miranda agreed. “There’s just…”
“What?”
“No twitching. No thrumming fingers or jumpy gaze.”
“You mean she didn’t act guilty? That means squat, Rader. You know that.”
“Yeah, I know. But I bought her story. Either way, we probably have enough to subpoena phone and Internet search records.”
“Do it.”
“We’ve got another good lead,” Jake offered. “Jessie Lund, Stark’s former graduate assistant. She up and quit a month ago. Dropped out of school, the whole bit. Supposedly a family emergency.”
Miranda took over. “Her fellow assistant didn’t buy it. Said Lund had a major crush on Richard Stark and figured Stark had rebuffed her advances. We’re still trying to locate her.”
“She hasn’t been seen in a couple days. We even travelled to Jefferson Parish to her parents. They said they haven’t heard from her.”
“You believe that?” Cadwell asked.
Jake shook his head. Miranda seconded it. “They were too calm. Your daughter’s unaccounted for and you’re not worried? No way. Otherwise, we’ve got one glowing testimonial after another. The man all but walked on water.”
The crime scene filled her head. The rage of it. Someone had felt differently. Someone had hated Richard Stark—even if only for those minutes with the knife.
“‘Beloved’ was his father’s description,” Jake said. “And that pretty much played out.”
Chief Cadwell settled his gaze on her. “How did that interview go?”
“With President and Mrs. Stark?” He nodded and she went on. “As well as could be expected.”
“Meaning?”
Something in his tone sounded off. She frowned slightly. “They’d both suffered a major loss and weren’t particularly … receptive to our questions. In fact, Ian Stark was particularly accusatory toward me.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
For a moment she was shocked silent. “Excuse me?”
“Why would he act accusingly toward you?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
He looked at Jake. “You read it the same way?”
Jake hesitated a moment before answering. “Pretty much,” he answered cautiously. “He was a bit hostile toward us … but, as Miranda said, they’d both suffered a shocking loss. Every person reacts differently to grief.”
The chief shifted his attention back to her. She suddenly had the sense that something was wrong. That he was looking at her in a way that was different from the way he usually did.
“What’s going on, Chief?” she asked.
“Ian, President Stark, he said you were impertinent toward him.”
“What!” The word exploded out of her. “Me? I was impertinent?”
“Yes.”
“That’s not true. I know how to handle myself and I was completely professional.” She looked at Jake. “Wasn’t I?”
“Absolutely,” Jake replied.
“Have you ever met President Stark before?”
“No, never.”
“What about his son, Richard?”
“You mean the victim? No, I told you that before.”
“President Stark wondered if you had.”
She glanced at Jake. He had a look on his face she couldn’t interpret. She turned back to her superior officer. “Why?”
“Because, in his opinion, you acted like you had an ax to grind with him. Or Richard.”
“Are you calling me a liar?” She hated that she sounded as hurt as she felt, but she couldn’t quite wrap her mind around what was happening here. This was Buddy, mentor and friend, asking her.
“I’m just following up on a complaint.”
“Maybe the problem was that I didn’t kiss his ass.”
“That’s enough, Miranda.”
“No, maybe it’s not. I wonder if you’re the one who’s—”
“So, you never met Richard Stark?”
“For the third time, no. Never.”
“What did you know about him?”
“Before the murder?” She thought a moment, then shook her head. “I didn’t know he existed. I knew the Starks had a son, I guess … but that’s it. Chief, Buddy, I treated Ian Stark the same as I would anyone in that position. Did I get a little frustrated? Yeah, I suppose. I tried not to let that show, but maybe it slipped through. If so, I apologize. But you weren’t there. Frankly, he acted like a dick.”
“Jake,” Chief Cadwell turned his way, “you second Miranda’s version of events?”
“Wait a minute,” she said. “My version of events? This is feeling, and sounding, a lot like an interrogation. What the hell’s going on?”
“Your fingerprints were found at the scene.”
That stopped her cold. She knew she must look shocked, because she was. Completely. “That’s not possible.”
“They were.” He opened a folder, extracted a piece of paper, and slid it across the desk. It was a printout of the computer match.
She studied it a moment, then looked back up at Buddy. “This makes no sense at all. I had scene gloves on and there’s no other way my prints could have been at the scene.”
Buddy nodded. “You had them on when I was there earlier.”
“Of course I did.” She was obsessed with following orders, procedure, protocol. That’s who she was, the kind of cop she’d made herself.
This was wrong. Impossible. She didn’t know Stark, had never met him.
Yet, they had found her prints at the scene. And the news clipping about her.
Someone was setting her up. What other explanation could there be?
“Miranda?”
She refocused on Buddy.
“So, how’d your prints end up at Stark’s place?”
She blinked, opened her mouth to tell him she had no clue—and lied instead. “I took my gloves off. To call Jake. My phone’s touch screen doesn’t respond when I’ve got them on.”
The ease with which the lie spilled off her tongue shocked her. Years ago, lying had been a way of life. To her parents, her teachers, the law. Whatever she needed to say to save her own skin or get what she wanted.
But she wasn’t that person anymore. Her hands in her lap began to shake and she curled them into fists. She’d left that girl behind.
Apparently not, Randi. Looks like you’re the same, no-good, lyin’ trailer trash you were back then.
Buddy didn’t believe her. She saw it in his eyes as he gazed at her. It wasn’t too late. She could still retract. Tell she was mistaken. Tell him— “That’s right, Chief,” Jake said. “They were still off when I got there.”
Chief Cadwell shifted his gaze to Jake. “You’re just remembering that now, Billings?”
Jake didn’t react to the sarcasm. “Worst scene I ever worked. Having to remind Miranda to put her gloves on isn’t what stands out.”
Miranda looked at him, torn between gratitude and dismay. He’d stuck up for her, literally put his own career on the line for her. No one had ever done that for her, not even her family. They’d been more the every-man-for-himself kind of folks. But with dismay because now he was in it with her. She went down, he went done. She couldn’t even recant without implicating her partner.
A couple seconds ticked past. They seemed like hours. It felt as if both men were staring, waiting. Her heartbeat boomed in her head and sweat pooled under her arms.
“Yeah, that’s right.” She sounded easy, like a carefree teen. “That’s the way it went down, Chief.”