The challenging look that was never completely absent from Hardwick’s eyes sharpened. “You don’t like him because you think he’s accepting shaky evidence against his own son as gospel? Or is it the other way around—you’re seeing the evidence as shaky because you don’t like him?”
“I don’t think I’m being delusional. It’s a simple fact that all the so-called evidence is portable. None of it was found on the interior doors, walls, windows, or any other structural parts of those premises. Doesn’t that strike you as peculiar?”
“Peculiar shit happens all the time. The world is a factory for peculiar shit.”
“One more point. Torres just told me that Turlock has a deal with the rental agent that would have given him easy access to the locations where the so-called evidence was found.”
“Wait a minute. If you’re suggesting that Turlock planted that evidence, you’re really suggesting it was Beckert, since the Turd does nothing without a nod from God.”
“The toilet-handle switch indicates that somebody planted it with the intention of incriminating Cory Payne. There’s no other reasonable interpretation of that. All I’m saying about Turlock and Beckert is that their involvement is possible.”
Hardwick made his acid-reflux face. “I’ll admit Beckert is a prick. But to frame his own son for murder? What kind of person does that?”
Gurney shrugged. “A blindly ambitious psychopath?”
“But why? Even psychopaths need motives. It makes no fucking sense. And it’s a hell of a shakier premise than Cory being the shooter. Take that weird flush-handle thing out of the equation, and your whole ‘framing’ theory collapses. Couldn’t you be mistaken about the significance of those tool scratches?”
“It’s too big a coincidence for both those handles to have been removed and replaced—with one of them providing a key fingerprint in a murder investigation.”
Hardwick shook his head. “Look at it from the motive angle. Look at what we know about Cory Payne. Radical, unstable, full of rage. Hates his father, hates cops. Has a long history of public rants against law enforcement. One of his favorite lines is the BDA motto: ‘The problem isn’t cop killers, it’s killer cops.’ I was listening to one of his speeches on YouTube. He was talking about the moral duty of the oppressed to take an eye for an eye—which is essentially invoking the Bible to advocate the murder of police officers. And that business about his girlfriend being raped by a couple of COs—can’t you see that festering in his mind? Shit, Gurney, he sounds to me like a prime suspect for exactly what he’s being accused of.”
“There’s just one problem with it. He might have all the motivation in the world, but he’s not an idiot. He wouldn’t leave brass casings with his prints on them at the shooting sites. He wouldn’t leave a Band-Aid floating in the toilet with his DNA on it. He wouldn’t drive an easily traceable car with visible plates past a series of traffic cameras and park it next to each shooting location, unless he were doing it for some other reason. It’s not like he wanted to be caught or to claim responsibility for the shootings—he’s adamantly denying any involvement. And there’s the problem of victim selection. Why would he pick the two cops in the department who were the least like the cops he supposedly hates? Logically and emotionally, none of it makes sense.”
Hardwick turned up his palms in exasperation. “You think Beckert framing his own son makes logical and emotional sense? Why the hell would he do that? And by the way, do what, exactly? I mean, are you suggesting Beckert framed his own son for two murders someone else committed? Or are you saying that Beckert also arranged the murders of two of his own cops? Plus the BDA murders? You seriously believe all that?”
“What I believe is that the people he’s blaming for it had nothing to do with it.”
“The Gorts? Why not?”
“The Gorts are violent, uneducated, redneck racists—men whose approach to life involves skulls, crossbows, pit bulls, and chopping up dead bears for dog food.”
“So what?”
“The playground murders were carefully planned and executed. They required knowledge of the victims’ movements, a flawless double kidnapping, and the sophisticated administration of propofol. And Thrasher told me the tox screens on the victims included not only propofol but alcohol and benzodiazepines. That suggests a scenario that began with a friendly meeting over a few drinks—something I can’t imagine occurring between the BDA leaders and the Gorts.”
“What about the evidence they keep talking about on TV—the rope they found in the Gorts’ compound, and the computer drive with the KRS website elements on it?”
“Both could have been as easily planted as the items they’re trying to hang Cory with.”
“Christ, if we had to exclude every piece of evidence that could have been planted, no one would ever be convicted of anything!”
Gurney said nothing.
Hardwick stared at him. “This fixation you have on Beckert—what’s that really based on, besides his crazy son blaming him for everything?”
“Just a feeling at this point. Which is why I want to find out everything I can about the man’s history. A few minutes ago you alluded to Turlock’s juvie legal problem when he was in school with Beckert. Were you able to find out anything more about that?”
Hardwick paused. When he finally spoke, his tone had become less argumentative. “Maybe something, maybe nothing. I called the Bayard-Whitson Academy and got the headmaster’s assistant. I told her I was interested in speaking with any staff members who’d been at the school thirty years ago. She wanted to know why. I said that one of their eminent graduates, Dell Beckert, who was a student at that time, could be the next New York State attorney general—and that I was writing an article about him for a journalism course I was taking, and I’d love to be able to include the perspective of any of his teachers who might be willing to share an anecdote or two.”
“She bought this?”
“She did. In fact, after a little more back-and-forth, she told me that she had been there herself, as assistant to the previous headmaster, when Beckert was a student.”
“She say anything about him?”
“Yep. Cold, calculating, clever, ambitious. Was awarded ‘Top Cadet’ distinction in every one of his four years there.”
“He must have made a big impression on her for it to last thirty years.”
“Judd Turlock apparently made a bigger one. When I mentioned his name, there was total silence. I thought the call was cut off. She finally said she had no desire to talk about Turlock, because in all her time at Bayard he was the only student who’d made her feel uneasy. I asked if she knew of any trouble he’d gotten into, and there was another dead silence. Then she told me to hang on a minute. When she came back to the phone she gave me an address in Pennsylvania. She said it belonged to a detective by the name of Merle Tabor. Said if anyone could tell me anything about the incident involving Turlock, it would be Merle.”
“The incident? She didn’t say anything specific about that?”