Don't Say a Word (4 page)
Despite being a veteran homicide detective, Julia was somewhat shocked that such a mutilation murder could happen in an exclusive and gated area of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and involve such a well-known and distinguished citizen. Julia stared at the small amount of blood pooling in the left tray of the scales under the piece of Lockhart’s tongue. She stooped down and examined it, then looked at the coins stacked neatly in the right-hand tray. “That’s a bunch of dimes. A tongue balancing out with money.”
“Yeah.”
“He’s sending us a specific message here. We figure out what it is, we can get him.”
Will gave her an appraising look. She held his stare. He said, “The perp had this all planned out, all right. Down to every gory detail.”
“And he had plenty of time to play around with the vic.” Julia shook off her aversion to the horrific cruelty of the murder and tried to assess the scene without any emotion. It wasn’t exactly easy, not in a case like this one, but she had trained herself to do it. She turned and faced Will again.
“He wrote
ONE
on the floor in blood. I think that means he’s just getting started.”
ONE
on the floor in blood. I think that means he’s just getting started.”
“That’s exactly what he means.”
“Who found the body?”
“Lockhart’s housemaid. Name’s Maria Bota. She called nine-one-one, completely hysterical. Said she found him when he didn’t come inside for breakfast. She noticed some drops of blood and followed the trail from the swimming pool to where the body was suspended on the back gallery. The CPD officer first on the scene says the maid lives out back in a converted carriage house. He took her out there to calm her down and told her to sit tight until somebody came out and interviewed her.”
“Anybody else at home when the murder occurred?”
Will shook his head. “Not unless they took off. We can’t do much out here until the medical examiner shows up and releases the body. How about we go find out exactly what that maid knows?”
“Let’s do it.”
Will walked alongside Julia Cass, already fairly certain that she knew precisely what she was doing, would do it well, and by the book. He was curious to see how it would be working with her. She was thirty-four, if he remembered right from J.D.’s account, and young, beautiful—hell, she looked more like a model or an actress than a cop. He just hoped she was as good as her first impression made her out to be. He had a gut feeling that this was going to be a bad one. He was going to need all the input he could get. From Julia Cass and everybody else involved in the investigation.
“Have you handled many homicide cases?” Will asked Julia.
“I worked homicide in Nashville for ten years. I’ve seen a lot of terrible things.”
“This terrible?”
“No. Not a severed tongue. That tells me this guy is sick, seriously disturbed, or somebody with a tongue fetish.”
“Probably all three.” Will hesitated. “I’ve had some training in profiling at Quantico. Serial killers, mainly.”
“If you’re thinking this is the work of a serial, I agree. I hope we’re both wrong.”
“It could be simply a grudge thing. Lockhart was a judge. Judges tend to irritate people.”
“From what I’ve heard, the victim hasn’t always played by the rules.”
“Yeah? Who told you that?”
“Chief Mullins. And J.D., too. I remember him being ticked off by a case he was involved in. Said the judge was entirely pro-defense and didn’t make any bones about it. Pretty much ignored the facts and let the guy go.”
“We’ll have to check out his cases. See if we can find any threats against him. Hopefully the maid will be able to tell us if he’s gotten any intimidating calls or disturbances here at the house. Maids usually know everything going on in a household.”
“You that familiar with maids?”
“No, but I know people who are, and treat them like members of the family. She’ll know a lot about this family; trust me on that.”
Walking along the curving flagstone path, they turned around when they heard the TBI forensic technicians out of Knoxville round the far end of the gallery. There were three men and two women, all dressed in white jumpsuits. Will knew most of them by name and waved them toward the porch where the body was, but he kept walking, wanting to interview the maid sooner rather than later. The CPD officers indicated that she had been hysterical from the moment they arrived on the scene, and they hadn’t been able to get much out of her. From his experience, that was probably for the better. He and Julia were experienced interrogators. And this would give Will an opportunity to check out Julia’s skills right off the bat. He hoped for the best, but he was still in charge. Julia was used to being lead investigator herself, but she was backing off and letting him give the orders, at least so far. He appreciated that.
The maid’s quarters were located at the far end of the swimming pool enclosure. It looked very nice, like a small English cottage with fragrant yellow roses growing up a trellis beside the front door. Everything was neat and clean, the walk swept, and lots of pots of purple and white petunias. One large Boston fern hung on a lantern hook beside the front door. The door stood wide, and Will could see through the screen that the maid was sitting in a blue recliner in the living room. She was clutching a little boy who appeared to be around three or four years old. The woman looked as though she’d never let go of the child again.
“Hello,” Julia said to her through the screen door. “May we come in, Ms. Bota?”
The maid didn’t say anything but she nodded. Julia opened the screen door and went inside. Will followed. If Julia wanted to take the lead in questioning, that was fine by him. If he had to jump in, he would. It would give him time to watch Maria Bota’s body language and see if she was telling the truth.
“She looks scared, Brannock, real shaky,” Julia said, lowering her voice. “How about letting me talk to her, woman to woman?”
Will nodded, and they both approached the frightened mother and child.
“You are Ms. Bota, right?” Julia asked the girl. Her voice was calm and soothing. “My name is Julia Cass. I’m a detective with the Chattanooga Police Department. This is my colleague, Special Agent Will Brannock with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. We’re here to find out who killed your employer. We’re going to need to talk to you about what you saw.”
Maria Bota was an attractive girl. Will estimated her age to be about nineteen or twenty, twenty-one tops. She had very black eyes, now red and puffy and swollen with tears. Her hair was even darker, tied back in a long, straight ponytail. She looked terrified. He waited while Julia knelt in front of the trembling young woman.
“We just want to ask you a few questions. Please understand, there’s nothing for you to be afraid of. We’re only here to help you. Okay?”
Maria nodded but held herself as stiff as a board. The child had his head on her shoulder, but he peeked out at Julia from under his cupped hand.
“What a beautiful little boy,” Julia said in that same low, comforting voice. “What’s his name?”
Maria’s shoulders relaxed a little bit and she spoke in heavily accented English. “Julio. He’s three.”
Julia smiled at him, lightly touching his back with her fingers. “
Hola
, Julio. My name’s Julia.”
Hola
, Julio. My name’s Julia.”
“
Hola
,” he mumbled into his mama’s shoulder.
Hola
,” he mumbled into his mama’s shoulder.
“May we sit down, Ms. Bota?”
Maria Bota nodded. Will sat down in an old, light green velour Queen Anne chair, and Julia took a place on a white slipcovered couch near the woman and child.
Will said, “I know this has been a hard time for you, Ms. Bota. Thank you for talking with us.”
The maid nodded again. Julia looked at Will, waiting for his lead. He gave it, nodding for her to take over.
“The officer outside told us that you found Judge Lockhart’s body. Is that right?”
Maria began to shake, enough for them to notice and for the baby to raise his head and look at his mama’s face. He puckered up. Julia laid her palm over the distraught woman’s hand. “It’s okay. But we really need for you to tell us what you saw this morning. It’s very important that you tell us everything.”
Maria looked down and hugged her child closer. “I fix his breakfast, like I do every day. He leave his order on the kitchen counter for me every night. He get up real early. Five o’clock, sometimes even before sun come up. He take swim, then he dress and go to work.”
“Was he up early this morning? Did you see him?”
Will watched Julia, garnering more respect for her ability. She was leaning forward, interested and calm, but completely nonthreatening. She was asking the right questions. Maria was responding to her. Julia Cass was going to turn out to be a big help to him.
“Yes, ma’am. I think so. I hear his voice before I got out of bed.”
Will said, “Could you tell where it was coming from?”
“I think from the pool. My bedroom window was open.” She stopped, looking down at her feet.
“Was something wrong, Maria?” Julia asked her. “Did you hear something out of the ordinary?”
There was something wrong, and both he and Julia could sense it. What? What wouldn’t the girl tell them?
Maria kept shaking her head. “No no. He always swim, very early, sometime still in dark. I did not think he was going to be . . . going to be . . .”
When Maria looked up, her dark eyes wide and horrified, Will knew she was probably remembering the way the mutilated corpse looked hanging by the neck, pale and bloody.
“It’s okay. Are you sure it was his voice, not somebody else’s?”
“I think so, but I was sleepy. I fall back to sleep for a little.”
“What time did you get up?”
“I set alarm for five.”
“Okay.”
Will took over for Julia. “Can you tell us exactly what happened after you got up? Just take it slow and try to remember everything you can.”
Maria looked at Julia for reassurance. Julia nodded and smiled encouragingly.
“I got up and took shower. I let Julio sleep till I go to big house.”
“Does the judge allow your son to stay with you when you work?”
“Yes. The judge very good to Julio. His wife, she not like me much.”
Will glanced at Julia. They hadn’t heard about the wife yet. “Mrs. Lockhart was here last night?”
“No, sir. She in New Orleans to visit her
madre
. She go there many times.”
madre
. She go there many times.”
Will didn’t know if the wife had been notified yet. He doubted it, but she would have to be, and then checked out. The family always came first on the list of suspects. Especially the spouse. Clear them, and then start in on other family and friends. He already had agents canvassing the neighborhood.
“So after you and Julio got up, did you see the judge then?”
Maria answered Julia’s question. “No, I take Julio to the big house and make breakfast. Lucien like coffee strong and eggs in special way. How do you say, Benedict?”
“Eggs Benedict,” Will said, but the fact that she called the judge by his first name didn’t escape his notice. That indicated their relationship could be more personal than just maid and employer. When he looked at Julia, their eyes met. She had noted it, too.
“Please, go on.”
“We set table and I clean up kitchen while we wait for him to come down.”
“And did he?”
“No.” Maria’s voice dropped to a whisper. “That when I went to see if he was all right. He always on time for breakfast. When he not in house, I walk out by pool.” She swallowed hard, looked down, and twisted her fingers together. “That when”—her voice got lower—“I saw the blood.”
“And you followed it?”
“Yes, sir.” Her gaze met Will’s, and he could see the anguish in her eyes. “I have never see nothing so awful.” She began to cry, and Will could see that her tears were real.
Julia patted her back and murmured a few reassuring words, but she gazed at Will. There had to be more that the maid could give them. She was asking his permission to continue. He gave it.
“Maria, please,” Julia said softly. “You’ve got to understand how important it is for you to tell us everything. Any little thing that seemed out of place to you, anything he said or did, you have to remember and tell us. We want to get whoever did this. We need your help.”
The maid wiped at her tears and let the squirming toddler get down off her lap. Julio immediately went to Will and stood at his knee, looking up at him with big dark eyes. Will smiled at him, but the boy just stared at him with that clear, unblinking innocence. He was a cute kid, and Will hoped to God he hadn’t witnessed the murder scene. He refocused his attention on Maria when she began to speak. Again, her words were breathless, barely discernible.
“There was woman here last night.”
Both Will and Julia perked up at that. Okay, now they were getting somewhere.
“What woman would that be?” Julia asked.
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