"I don't know. I don't know."
"How about some pictures?" Liz pulled some out of her satchel.
"There's the lieutenant's blood in the stairwell. Oh, here, here's her clothes that accidentally tore off her body. How about the laundry bag he pulled over her head? Here's a good one, of her blood on the cuffs he snapped on her. That's some accident."
"Oh God." The tissue shield went up again. "Oh God."
"What kind of person does this, Annie? Maybe the kind of person who's thinking about doing it to you, or doing worse. Because you're the one who can tie him to it."
"I didn't know. I didn't know." Annie sobbed, yanked more tissues from the box. "I didn't do anything wrong. He just needed a few minutes to talk to her, to show he wasn't going to be intimidated. That's all. I only called his number, let the phone ring twice. That was the signal. It's all I did. I didn't know."
"But you know now. You're going to have to get dressed and come with me."
"Are you arresting me? Oh God, am I under arrest?"
"Not yet. If you get dressed and come in now, give a true statement tell the truth, Annie-I'll talk to the DA for you. He lied to you. I believe you when you said he lied."
"So do I." Phoebe kept her fury banked and spoke soothingly. "I believe you, Annie."
"I'm so sorry, Lieutenant. I'm really sorry."
"Yes, I'm sure you are."
Liz looked over at Phoebe. "I'll drop you back home and take it from here."
Chapter 10
"I want to be there. I need to be there."
Dave leaned back in his desk chair, continued to scan Phoebe's face. "First, it's not my call. Second, this is Liz Alberta's case. You're the victim. If you have trouble remembering that, I can have a mirror brought in."
She knew how she looked. A couple of days meant some of the bruising was turning from black to sickly yellow and storm-cloud purple. Her jaw and eye were angry watercolors. Still, the worst of it was decently hidden under her clothes.
"The victim needs it. I need to sit in that room, look Arnold Meeks in the eye so he knows I'm not afraid of him."
"Aren't you?"
"Enough that I need to show him, and myself, that I'm not going to be. You and I know how the pathology works. How it is for someone who's held against their will, threatened or injured in a situation beyond their control."
"This isn't identifying an attacker in a lineup, Phoebe. Or facing the attacker in court."
"It's just more proactive. My mother faced Reuben in court. She got up on the stand to testify while he was only feet away from her, and I know that was nearly as terrifying for her as being trapped in that house with him all those hours. But she did it, and still she's trapped." All the affection and understanding he felt was there to read on his face. "You're not your mother."
"No, b u't…" Phoebe fisted a hand on her heart. "I feel her fear, and I don't want it living inside me. How can I do what I need to do if it finds a place to live in me? So this victim needs it."
"Observation," he began, though they both knew he was losing ground.
"Isn't enough." She shook her head. "Face-to-face, and this time I know he won't be controlling the situation. The cop wants to be in that room with him because I may be able to help Liz get a confession out of him. I was there. Victim, witness, police officer. Makes me a triple threat."
"And still doesn't make it my call. It's up to Detective Alberta, her captain and the DA. The DA," Dave continued before she could speak, "who fishes with Arnie's daddy."
"Whoever he fishes with, Parnell's always struck me as solid. Do you really think he'll ease off an investigation of an attack on a police officer because he's buddied up with the father of a suspect?"
"It's a lot of who-you-know in Savannah, Phoebe, just like anywhere else. But I'll agree, Parnell's solid. Meeks is bringing his delegate and a lawyer in with him. Annie Utz is lawyered, too."
"All the more reason for me to give Liz-Detective Alberta-some backup-someone well invested who doesn't give a damn who Arnie's daddy drowns worms with. And I'll tell you something else. Having two women question him, put pressure on him?"
She wandered the office as she spoke now, because she could feel it, she could see it. She could all but taste it. "Oh, Arnie's not going to like that one little bit. He'll make a mistake. He'll end up leading with his ego, especially if I'm in there. Not your call, Captain, but you could make one. You could reach out to Detective Alberta's captain or her lieutenant, ask that I get a seat."
"I'll make a call, but I'm not making any promises."
"Any worthwhile negotiator's careful with his promises." She touched a hand to his shoulder. "The call's enough. Thank you."
"If you buy a ticket into the interrogation, have to deal with him that way, I might not have done you any favor. How's your family handling this?"
"It shook them up. My mother… you know how it is."
"I do. Would me coming by help things or add to them?"
"Mama always feels better after a visit from you. We all do. Why don't you come to Sunday dinner?"
He kicked back in his chair. "Would that mean sugar-glazed ham?"
"It could be arranged. Thanks for this."
"Phoebe…" Straightening again, he cleared his throat. "I want to say I regret there's been any speculation or gossip inside the department regarding an inappropriate relationship between us."
"Such as me giving you bj's in your office."
"Oh, Jesus." The tips of his ears went pink, as she knew they did when he was mortally embarrassed. "I'm old enough to be your father."
"First, you'd have been a very precocious fifteen to have pulled that one off. Second, since when does age factor into inappropriate sexual behavior? Neither of us is responsible for the speculation of small, ugly minds."
He picked up a ballpoint pen, clicked it a few times. "I opened you up for this when I asked you to take the desk in this department."
"You gave me an opportunity-which I grabbed-to do the work I'm good at. Am I qualified for the desk?"
"You know you are."
"There you are, then."
"Meeks, junior and/or senior, may push this into IAB."
"And we can both stand up to that, should that happen. Don't worry about me in this."
But he did. Even as he lifted the phone to put in the call she'd asked for, he worried.
Phoebe had a moment alone in Observation, studying Arnie Meeks through the two-way mirror. He looked careless, she decided. Carelessly confident. A kind of screw-you posture of a man who believes whatever he's done isn't going to stick to him.
He'd know he was being watched, or could be watched at any time. He didn't give a damn, Phoebe concluded.
And when she imagined his hands on her, his fingers inside her, her stomach rolled.
She gave too much of a damn.
"Lieutenant." Liz stepped in with a tall, reed-thin brunette. "ADA Monica Witt, Lieutenant Phoebe MacNamara."
"Lieutenant." Monica shook hands with Phoebe. "How are you feeling?"
"Better, thanks. I take it you'll be prosecuting the case."
"If you can make one. We have Annie Utz's statement, and her phone, which shows an outgoing call at nine fifty-eight. We can't tie that to Arnold Meeks. The number called was to a toss-away phone, untraceable. We don't have any physical evidence linking Meeks to the attack."
"You have motive. You have opportunity, and a pattern of insubordinate and threatening behavior."
"My boss wants more than that to charge a police officer with assault and battery, with sexual assault on a fellow officer. Get me more, and I'll charge him."