登陆注册
10469700000010

第10章

Monday

Night

Johnnie Cotton was already in Interrogation Room 1 when Keri got to the station. She'd dropped Ray off at his car by Denton Rivers' house and expected him to arrive any second. Hillman wasn't around but Detective Cantwell caught her in the hall outside the room and told her that Hillman had put her back on the case and that she was authorized to question Cotton. He said it flatly, without emotion, but beneath that she could sense the veteran detective's disdain. She chose to ignore it.

While she waited for her partner to arrive, she stared at Johnnie Cotton through the one-way mirror of the interrogation room. Since they'd tried to avoid him back at his place, this was her first real chance to get a look at him.

He didn't look like the stereotype of a pedophile. His eyes didn't constantly water. His chin wasn't especially weak. His shoulders didn't slope. He wasn't particularly pudgy or pale. He was just a regular-looking guy-dark hair, medium build, maybe a little pimply-faced for a thirty-year-old man, maybe a little short. But on the whole, he was mostly unremarkable, which was, of course, far more troubling. It would have been preferable if these types were easily identifiable.

He stood in the corner of the room, his hands cuffed in front of him, with his back pressed against the wall. She suspected that had been his default position in prison just to survive. Pedophiles weren't popular there.

Keri made a snap decision. She wasn't going to wait for Ray. There was something about this guy that made her think he'd just shut down if confronted by her partner's looming presence. She'd use it if necessary, but later. She walked into the room.

Cotton's eyes darted at her when she walked in, then twisted away almost immediately.

"Come over here," Keri said. The man complied. "Now follow me."

She led him outside the interrogation room, into the hallway. Cantwell and Sterling, who had been chatting in the hall, turned to them, stunned.

"Locke, what are you doing?" Sterling demanded.

"We'll be right back."

With that, she led him down the hall and into the women's restroom, as her fellow detectives watched with astonishment.

"Wait here," she told them, then closed the door and focused on Cotton.

"There are no cameras in here. There are no microphones in here." She unbuttoned her blouse, exposing her bra and stomach, and said, "I'm not wearing a wire. Whatever you say, it's just between you and me. Tell me you want a lawyer."

The man looked at her, confused.

"Say it," Keri said. "Say, 'I want a lawyer.'"

He complied.

"I want a lawyer."

"No, you can't have one," Keri said. "Do you see what just happened? If this place was wired, which it isn't, nothing you say could ever be used against you now because I just denied you your constitutional rights. The bottom line is that we're alone. I'm not here to hurt you. I'm not here to trick you. Do you understand?"

The man nodded.

"The only thing I want is Ashley Penn." The man opened his mouth to speak but Keri interrupted him. "No, no, don't say a word yet. Let me just set the groundwork a little more. Earlier this evening, I broke into your house, looking for Ashley. You weren't home. I saw the shoebox in your closet. I saw all the pictures."

A bead of sweat glistened on the man's forehead.

"When you came home, you saw that they'd been disturbed. Am I right?"

He nodded.

"You knew someone had seen them. You took them somewhere and destroyed them before you were arrested. Am I correct?"

"Yes."

"Well, between you and me, that's not going to work. I saw them and I can testify that I saw them. My testimony will be more than enough to revoke your probation. All I have to do is say the word and you're going straight back to prison. Here's the deal. I get Ashley Penn back and you keep your freedom."

The man paced.

Then he said, "Those photographs, I never wanted them. They just show up in the mail."

"Bullshit."

"No, it's the truth. They just show up."

"From who?"

"I don't know," he said. "There's never a return address on the envelope."

"Well, if you don't want them, why didn't you just burn them?"

He shrugged.

"I couldn't."

"Because you like them too much?"

He exhaled.

"I know it's hard to understand," he said. "I think someone's setting me up. They wanted them in my house. They knew I wouldn't be able to just get rid of them. They wanted the police to find them. They want to send me back to jail. And now here it is, actually happening. I should have burned them all the second they showed up."

"You can still get out of this," Keri said. "Where's Ashley Penn?"

"I don't know."

Keri frowned.

"Tell me what you did with her."

"Nothing."

"I don't believe you, Johnnie."

"Honest to God," he said. "According to the news she got taken after school, right? In the middle of the afternoon?"

"Yes."

"Well, I was at work," he said. "I work down at Rick's Autos in Cerritos. I was there all day. I didn't leave until after five. You can call Rick and he'll tell you. He warned me that if I missed any more time, he'd fire me."

"You miss a lot of time lately?"

"I'll skip a day here and there. But Rick warned me so I was careful to stay the whole day. Besides, they have security cameras there. You can see me in the lot all day long. I never left, not once, not even for five minutes. I even ate my lunch in the break room. Check it out. Call him, he'll tell you."

Keri felt a growing unease. His alibi was so specific that it would be easy to poke holes in it if it wasn't true, which meant it probably was.

"All day?" Keri asked.

"Yeah. At one point, I got a call around two from some dude wanting make a…purchase-"

"Don't worry, Johnnie, I'm not looking to bust you for dealing. Go on."

"Well, he wanted me to meet him in the Cerritos Mall parking lot. But I didn't know the guy and like I said, Rick-"

"Warned you, I know. So if you were there, then who had your van?"

"No one. It was with me all day."

"Someone had it."

"No, no one," he said. "I had it parked right there on the lot. I was literally walking around it all day long. It was right there."

"We have it on videotape taking Ashley."

"That's impossible. It was with me. Go look at Rick's cameras. You'll see."

Keri took Cotton back to the interrogation room. When she stepped out, Ray was waiting for her.

"I can't leave you alone for a second," he said.

"Follow me," she told him, not feeling playful.

They headed to the garage where Cotton's black van was being processed. Keri typed the plate number into the computer. To her astonishment, it didn't match the van. The plates on Johnnie Cotton's van were registered to a white Camry owned by someone named Barbara Green from Silverlake.

"What the hell's going on?" Ray asked, equally stunned.

"You want my theory?" Keri said.

"Please."

"Whoever took Ashley Penn was trying to frame Johnnie Cotton," she said. "He used a black van for the abduction, same make and model as Cotton's. He stole Cotton's plates so that we'd be able to ID him eventually but covered the front one so it would look like Cotton was being sneaky."

Ray joined in.

"And he replaced Cotton's plates with Barbara Green's so the guy likely wouldn't notice the difference until it was too late."

"Exactly," Keri agreed. "And I'm willing to bet that whoever did all that also sent Cotton those pictures of the little girls. Cotton claimed they just showed up in the mail, no return address. Whoever it was knew the guy wouldn't be able to toss them and that we'd find them when we searched the house, making him look even guiltier."

"So Cotton's not our man," Ray said.

"No. But that's not the worst of it. Whoever our guy is has been planning this for a while. He knew Cotton was Denton Rivers' dealer. He knew he was a pedophile. And he actively tried to undermine Cotton's alibi by trying to get him to meet at the mall."

"So we're right back to square one," Ray said.

Keri shook her head.

"Worse than square one," she said. "We've wasted the one thing Ashley Penn doesn't have: time."

同类推荐
  • A Topps League Story

    A Topps League Story

    It's Chad's first spring as a batboy, and the Pine City Porcupines are hot—until they come up against the league-leading Heron Lake Humdingers. Now Chad's got a whole lineup of problems: his favorite player, shortstop Mike Stammer, thinks he's jinxed; Dylan, the other batboy, doesn't even like baseball; there's a goofy new porcupine mascot on the field; plus, Chad has to fill in as batboy for the Herons. It's a good thing there's something in the cards—his baseball cards, that is—that can help Chad sort it all out.
  • Getting There

    Getting There

    The path to success is rarely easy or direct, and good mentors are hard to find. In Getting There, thirty leaders in diverse fields share their secrets to navigating the rocky road to the top. In an honest, direct, and engaging way, these role models describe the obstacles they faced, the setbacks they endured, and the vital lessons they learned. They dispense not only essential and practical career advice, but also priceless wisdom applicable to life in general. Getting There is for everyone—from students contemplating their futures to the vast majority of us facing challenges or seeking to reach our potential.
  • Let's Get This Party Started

    Let's Get This Party Started

    Let's Get This Party Started is a guide to more than 15 parties you can throw for your kids that are inexpensive, wildly inventive, and fun. Each party includes two crafts, one game, and one recipeall of which you can put together with your child. Author Soleil Moon Frye also offers countless tips and ideas that will inspire you. Among the thematic parties featured in the book are the fairy party, the pirate party, the movie-on-the-lawn party, the camp party, the '80s party, the rainbow party, the Halloween party, the luau, and many more, captured in gorgeous and colorful images by Frye's brother, photographer Meeno. Timely and fun, this book is a must-have for parents who love entertaining with their kids. Praise for Let's Get This Party Started: Quality children's party books are high in demand, so this may be a welcome resource for families with young children … Recommended."Library Journal
  • The Last Thing You Said

    The Last Thing You Said

    Last summer, Lucy's and Ben's lives changed in an instant. One moment, they were shyly flirting on a lake raft, finally about to admit their feelings to each other after years of yearning. In the next, Trixie—Lucy's best friend and Ben's sister—was gone, her heart giving out during a routine swim. And just like that, the idyllic world they knew turned upside down, and the would-be couple drifted apart, swallowed up by their grief. Now it's a year later in their small lake town, and as the anniversary of Trixie's death looms, Lucy and Ben's undeniable connection pulls them back together. They can't change what happened the day they lost Trixie, but the summer might finally bring them closer to healing—and to each other.
  • 宿命 (龙人日志系列#11)

    宿命 (龙人日志系列#11)

    在《宿命》中,当十六岁的斯嘉丽·潘恩醒过来并意识到自己正在变成一个龙人时,她努力想弄明白自己正发生着什么。在疏远了自己的父母朋友后,她唯一能转向的人只有塞奇——那个迅速成为了她生命挚爱的神秘男孩。然而,她发现,塞奇的家,已经无处可寻。斯嘉丽,孤零零地在世界上,无处可去,她寻找朋友,并努力与他们和解。一切似乎就要修复了,他们请她和他们一起参加去哈德逊河上一座废弃的小岛上的旅行——但是正当事情恢复的时候,斯嘉丽的真实力量显现了。她的朋友和敌人对于她比以往任何时候都困惑不解了。布雷克,仍然对她有好感,努力想修复关系。他看起来很真诚,而斯嘉丽也糊涂了。她挣扎着想是要和布雷克在一起还是等待塞奇,但塞奇已经无处可寻。当斯嘉丽最终找到了塞奇,他们度过了她生命中最浪漫的时光,同时也因为悲剧而黯然。因为塞奇就要死了,只还剩下几天时间活着了。同时,凯尔,变成了另一个唯一在这世界上的龙人,正在变得嗜血的残暴,寻找着斯嘉丽。凯特琳、迦勒和艾登商量,他们每个人执行不同的任务——迦勒去拦住和杀死凯尔,凯特琳去著名的耶鲁大学图书馆,研究古老的遗物,据说那遗物可以同时治疗和杀死龙人。这是和时间的赛跑,而且也可能太晚了。斯嘉丽正在迅速转变,几乎无法控制自己的改变,而且随着时间每一刻的流逝,塞奇就更接近死亡。随着本书在激动人心和令人震惊的转折中达到高潮,斯嘉丽将要作出一个决定性的选择——一个将永远改变世界的选择。斯嘉丽会为救塞奇的生命而作终极牺牲吗?她会为了爱情不惜冒一切危险吗?
热门推荐
  • 甄正论

    甄正论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 累死你的不是工作是方法

    累死你的不是工作是方法

    工作是生活的一部分,要想在一定时间段内,发挥出工作的最大价值,需要我们要对工作有明确的思路和方法。懂得工作方法的人,做起事情来,就会显得从容、稳重,把工作做得有质有量,深得上司的赏识和同事的赞誉;不懂得工作方法的人,整天忙忙碌碌,非但不能出成绩,反而把自己累得一塌糊涂。效率、质量、态度是对现代职场人的基本要求,本书如何用正确的方法、科学的方法进行工作,从而提升你在职场中的竞争力。
  • 现代人智慧全书:智慧诡辩术

    现代人智慧全书:智慧诡辩术

    诡辩术是智慧的另一个消极变种,是智慧后边拖着的那一条黑影。《智慧诡辩术》介绍244种适合不同对象的超级口才,包括:训练你的诡辩智慧、诡辩术中的幽默等内容。指导您做适者生存、永立人上的强者。
  • 龙凤呈详

    龙凤呈详

    天界史书记载,天帝爱女涂凤因误坠诛仙台,香消玉殒。天帝、天后哀痛万分,过继鸟族中的尾鸢稚女为干女儿,以寄哀思,赐名尾鳯。“那个人是谁?”涂凤看着满身鲜血,执着长剑,屹立于弱水河畔挺拔俊朗的少年,心动的问道。“公主,那应该是刚刚征战归来的战神龙戮。”她身旁的侍女小声说道。“你说,我们俩在一起的话,算不算是龙凤呈祥啊。”涂凤说完不待身旁人反应过来,便去了龙戮的面前。“你挡住我的路了。”龙戮才从战场上下来,整个人还透着血腥的杀伐之气。“哦”涂凤应了一声,但并没有要让开的意思。看着龙戮那双充血的星眸,涂凤拔下了自身的凤翎羽,插到了龙戮的发间道“记住了,我是涂凤,你未来的妻”
  • 快穿:boss要上位

    快穿:boss要上位

    系统:我们的口号是:上位!!!我们的目标是:集分上位!!!我们的希望是:装逼集分上位!!!季欢墨:呵,说的好听,怎么不自己去啊!#女主性格多变,系统性格多变##一个戏精女主上位过程中不小心上了男主##一个尽会出馊主意的系统#【ps:请不要被女主迷惑,我们是一本正经的快(装)穿(逼)文】
  • 精灵战歌

    精灵战歌

    青云天绕春风寒,蓝云雨滴水漫漫。不知此时何事错。天已旦,望空山,森林迷糊水雾漫。小时不知大时愁,不时不知愁何有。春时无悲也无伤。《精灵战歌》是作者(陈重之)继《木塔传奇》和《漫长之旅》的作品。讲述了大雨哗啦哗啦地落下,化出一层薄薄的雨雾。这是伸手不见五指的夜晚,然而加肯村的烈酒客栈,却是灯火通明、一派狂欢的气氛。
  • 暖爱之影后萌妻

    暖爱之影后萌妻

    十年后再相遇,竟然是在替姐还债的包房。她呆萌可爱,性格纯粹,对他情窦初开,他冷酷腹黑,风流倜傥,视女人为无物却对她感兴趣……为救父她入了娱乐圈;为得到她他花了大价钱。传闻中的封二少从此在风流场所销声匿迹;一夜成名的呆萌小天后身后却多了个小跟班!
  • 小火狐江秋

    小火狐江秋

    它是穿梭于草原中的一团火焰,它是草狐家族的弃儿,它是在歧视、孤独、饥饿和危险中长大的勇士。众叛亲离,它仍然坚强勇敢;家人有难,它却挺身而出……它的故事,就像它那一身绚丽的被毛般耀眼夺目。
  • 锦绣田园

    锦绣田园

    她是即将毕业的高材生,以为自己即将迎来人生巅峰——赚大钱,迎娶高富帅……可谁知,一睁眼,穿越到鸟不拉屎的鬼地方……没钱?没饭?极品亲戚?好吧,重点是没男人!成吧,成吧,她都认了……出神入化的医术在手,她不屑表示以上都不是事儿!就在她即将就要实现人生理想的时候……喂喂,你是谁?某人:你夫君
  • 古墓大冒险(科学大探险)

    古墓大冒险(科学大探险)

    乐乐淘是一个爱冒险的小男孩,他与好朋友小猴一起在一片阴森恐怖的大森林里,开始了新的冒险之旅。森林中是否有女鬼,又是否真的有一座古墓?他们决定去一探究竟。故事中,乐乐淘随身携带的背包可以从中取出任何想要的东西,解决在旅途中遇到的问题;而飞毯的神奇之处在于它可以根据需要变化,可以变成雪橇、潜艇、轮船等等。在刘书畅编写的《古墓大冒险》这个故事中,所有的动物都是拟人化的,它们像人类一样生动、可爱。《古墓大冒险》这本书通过乐乐淘、小猴冒险途中的所见所闻,为我们介绍了悬棺,金刚墙,古墓迷影、奇异壁画……