in a thick, oily gray clump. He pulled a T-shirt on over his pale, ample belly.
“Have a seat,” Karen said. “What’s your full name, Davey?”
“David Dwight Pasternak.”
“But you prefer Davey?” she asked.
“It’s not really a matter of prefer,” he said. “Percy started calling me Wavy Davey so that became my name.”
“I’m wondering, David,” Jessie said, hoping to throw him off a bit with the proper name, “were you as happy with Milly’s legal efforts on your behalf as Percy was?’
He shrugged.
“She did the best she could, all things considered,” he answered.
“That doesn’t sound like a full-throated endorsement,” she noted.
“I mean, what do you want from me? I spent fourteen months behind bars. I didn’t get any private cell either. It was rough. That wasn’t her fault but I’m not going to pretend I was psyched to be there.”
“Well, David,” Karen said, following up on Jessie’s tack. “You were convicted of false imprisonment.”
“Actually I confessed, on her advice.”
“You’re saying she coerced you into a confession,” Karen pressed.
Davey looked at the both of them. The look of resignation that had been plastered on his face until now had been replaced with something closer to resentment.
“Listen,” he seethed. “I’ll deny this on the record, and none of it matters now because of double jeopardy, but I think we all know the truth. I never did anything to that girl. I took the fall for Percy. He was super high that night and he…couldn’t perform with her, if you get my meaning. He was paranoid that she was going to spill that on social so he took her phone and locked her in the hotel bathroom. When his head finally cleared, he called me and I helped clean up the mess. I just didn’t know the mess it would cause me, even after I got out of prison.”
“What mess?” Jessie asked.
“It screwed me up pretty bad,” he said, no longer making eye contact. “While I was in there, I was constantly worried about getting attacked or worse. I still have nightmares about the bars slamming shut at night. I was never a big drinker before. But since I got out, I’ve been doing whatever I can to numb myself. It hasn’t been great.”
Jessie felt some sympathy for him, but not enough not to do her job.
“So David,” she said, “Milly pressured you into doing time for Percy, you’re drinking heavily, and you end up at the same party as her. Did you run into her at all?”
“I don’t know,” he said.
“You don’t know?”
He lowered his head, not answering. For a moment, Jessie thought he was clamming up. But when he lifted his head again, she saw that his eyes were wet. When he spoke, his voice sounded pinched with emotion, as if he was trying not to break down.
“I’d like to think I would never hurt Milly, or anyone. I’ve never gotten in any legal trouble before that hotel thing. But I don’t remember much about that night. I got piss drunk. I passed out at some point. When I woke up, I was lying by the gate to one of the petting zoo stalls. I was freezing and had ant bites all over me, which makes me think that’s where I was all night. Someone had to wake me up so I didn’t miss the limo the guys were taking back here.”
“So you don’t have any alibi at all?” Karen asked.
“Maybe you could check my phone?” he suggested. “Can’t you use it to track where I was?”
Jessie and Karen exchanged exasperated looks.
“I wish,” Jessie said. “Stay here for a minute, Davey.”
She and Karen went to the far corner of the room where he couldn’t hear them.
“I don’t see how we don’t bring him in,” Karen began. “He’s got motive and no alibi. He’s not even sure he’s innocent.”
Jessie couldn’t disagree on the merits. But that didn’t stop her from making the case against it.
“If we arrest him, it’s going to get out,” she said. “Blabber will scream that the killer has been caught. And that will make it doubly hard to get that search warrant stay lifted. Otis will argue that we have no reason to go back to his place if we have a suspect in custody.”
“Jessie,” Karen implored. “We can’t not arrest a suspect because it might hurt our chances of arresting a less credible suspect.”
“I don’t think Otis is a less credible suspect. I think he’s just better at putting barriers in our way. Now, if you think that pathetic