There is no way that this one is ‘by the book,’ Lewis thought to himself as he watched Yann and Jonah tag-team Sarah in the interview room. Sergeant Noble had pulled up a pair of chairs so they could sit and watch. Lewis was taking notes while Noble seemed to be working on a different case entirely. The suspect looked both exhausted and terrified while Yann and Jonah seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves as they played at an elaborate game of cat-dog-and-mouse with her. Earlier, Sam and David had been in there doing nothing more than arguing over divergent lifestyle choices with Sam taking on the role of the up-and-coming artiste and David adopting the pose of the everyman clubber. Sergeant Noble had been in and out several times, each time simply asking a few routine questions and then asking if Ms. Mason wanted anything to eat or drink or required use of the facilities or any other creature comforts. Lewis half-expected the man to adopt a faux-British accent and drape a long white linen cloth over his arm to complete the charade. So far, the questioning had gone on for nearly four hours and all they had to show for it was a suspect who looked to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
“What is the point of this, if I may ask?” Lewis whispered.
“It wears down even the most stubborn and intractable of suspects in a very short amount of time,” Noble replied. “It keeps them off-base, forces them to keep their guard up constantly. She was already nearly broken just by being caught. With this technique, when you and I go in there in about,” the sergeant checked his watch, “a half hour from now, she’ll be ready to answer our questions without giving us the normal run around. Her personal defenses will be lowered and her mental energy will be so depleted that she’ll really have no choice. This is almost as effective as using sodium pentothal or hypnosis only without all of the problems that come with them. And, it’s not torture,” he added with a wry grin. “Well, Al argues that it is but our lieutenant has a very low tolerance for people.”
“Why are you using this particular tactic?”
“Because we have a very limited time window to find the killer. Sarah Mason might be the killer or she might just be the killer’s weapon. We need her to talk and we need her to talk soon.”
“I see. And you really believe all that rot about depleting mental energy?” Lewis winced when Noble grimaced and glared at him. “It just doesn’t sound terribly scientific and you seem like a man of science, sir.”
“I am a man of science. This is a fact. When people are subjected to mental, emotional, and psychological stress — in this case, an interview conducted by police which they cannot leave and where they know that they are a person of interest if not a suspect — they do become exhausted. As they become exhausted, they are less able to think quickly, to maintain elaborate deceptions or lies. She’s at that point now. By the time we go on there, she’ll just want to get some rest. She’ll be ready to tell us anything and since Yann and Jonah are not letting her answer any worthwhile questions, she’ll be eager to answer ours. She may try to lie a few times but between her fatigue and the fact that we’ve had more than enough time to establish a good baseline on her for honesty and dishonesty, we’ll be on her like a pair of bloodhounds.”
“How did you manage to develop this particular methodology?”
Jim gave a wry half-grin. “Al and I came up with it after we were in a car accident. I noticed how testy Al became after being interviewed by multiple doctors and nurses back-to-back. Later, after we’d recovered, we decided to test our theories and they led to us developing this particular methodology. It’s proved to be very effective.”
“I suppose it has. I will have to wait and see just how effective it is myself.”
“Very empirical of you. Ah, looks like we’re up a bit ahead of schedule,” Jim replied when Yann came over and gave a coded tap on the window. “Let’s go.”
Sarah Mason managed to combine discomfort and relief into the same expression when Sergeants Harding and Noble walked into the small interview room and sat down across the table from her. Each man had a bottle of water and their notepads along with several file folders — some of which actually had to do with the case. While they had watched the others, the two of them had formulated their strategy. Jim sat quietly, scribbling in his notepad. He seemed completely disinterested in the proceedings. Lewis was impressed at how the sergeant managed to project an air of ice cold detachment and professional disinterest while at the same time managing to seem somewhat curious. It was something he was uncertain he would have been able to do himself. Shrugging it off, Lewis focused on his own role in this particular farce. For him, it would be easy. He was just going to ask the routine questions, growing slightly testy if Ms. Mason attempted any evasions or lied.
“I understand that you have not volunteered any information that would help us with the investigation into Amanda Patterson’s death. That is correct, is it not?” Lewis asked.
“You people haven’t asked me anything at all regarding that!” the young woman protested angrily. “I’ve been sitting in here for hours talking to your officers about everything and nothing. The first two just wanted to talk about music and clubs and the other two each had wilder and wilder ideas about what I had done and why. No one wanted to listen to me!”
“I’m prepared to listen to you,” Lewis said calmly. “However, I am rather busy so I would appreciate it if you did not waste my time.”
“Waste your time?” she scoffed.
“Why were you having dinner with Ms. Patterson?”
“Amanda was going into business with my salon’s owner. She wanted to meet with me one-on-one to ensure that I would stay on since I was the stylist with the largest clientele at the establishment.”
“Why did you kill her?”
“I didn’t know the plants were lethal,” the young woman sighed. “I knew they were poisonous but I was told that they would just make her sick to her stomach. Give her a bad case of diarrhea or make her throw up — not kill her!”
“Who gave them to you?”
“My boss. She’s also my girlfriend. She’s gone now, though. She left town. All of her things were gone when I got back from Amanda’s.” Tears started trickling down Sarah’s cheeks. “God, I’ve been so terrified since that happened. I didn’t know what to do! I called Trisha when Amanda stopped breathing and she said to make it look like she’d killed herself so I did. She said she must have mixed up the plants and that she was so sorry and that we would turn ourselves in together and she’d explain everything and about how it was just supposed to be a prank. But, by the time I got back to our apartment, she was gone! I thought maybe she freaked out and went to a friend’s house or something so I went out looking for her. I didn’t find her even when I went to work the next day. No one has seen her and our bank account has been drained of all but a few hundred dollars.”
“Why would your boss want to kill Ms. Patterson and frame you for the murder?”
“I don’t know! She has no reason to want Amanda dead and every reason not to. Amanda was the one who was putting the money up for expanding our business. I’m the one who has the largest client base. If Trisha loses both of us, she loses everything.”
“Do you honestly expect us to believe this load of crap?” Jim said flatly. He pulled out one of his folders and opened it to remove a single printed page — Ms. Mason’s bank account statements. “Your accounts are fine. Trisha Wilder doesn’t have access to them and never has. You have over $7,000 in your accounts and you carry no debt. Amanda Patterson and Trisha Wilder never signed any kind of partnership agreements and Ms. Wilder was spotted at a club with her boyfriend this morning. Now, do you want to tell us the truth or do you want us to arrest you here and now?”
“I say we just arrest her and let the courts sort it out. We know she killed Amanda. We can place her at the scene, we know she had the means. Sure, we’re unclear on the motive but that’s for the DA to worry about,” Lewis shrugged. “If she wants to pass up the only chance to cut herself any kind of slack, that’s fine with me. We do have other cases with more cooperative witnesses, after all.”
“That’s true,” Jim nodded. “Well, we’ll be seeing you later, Ms. Mason. I’ll send Yann in here to take you down to booking and have you processed. You’ll be arraigned tomorrow. Unless, that is, you have something for us now?” The young woman stared at them, stupefied. Jim stood up. Lewis followed his lead.
“Wait, wait,” she sighed. “Fine. I’ll tell you the truth. I killed Amanda.”
“We already knew that,” Lewis muttered. “Why did you kill her?”
“Because she was trying to steal my girlfriend from me. Dawn Hanson.” The two men shared a glance and then returned to their seats and took notes as Sarah Mason continued to talk, her story growing more and more interesting.