but I back off, so as to avoid getting sent to my room for a time-out.
Cummings, coherent enough in his injured state to know that he’ll get no help from me, begins to tell his story. He had received a phone call on his cell phone while driving on Route 3, about fifteen minutes from here. It was the killer, who told him that the next victim was about to be killed in Eastside Park, near the pavilion.
Millen interrupts. “How did he know you’d be out with your cell phone?”
Cummings shrugs. “For all I know, he tried me at home first.”
As the conversation continues, I learn that the police had been tapping all of Cummings’s phones except the cell phone that the killer called on. It was not Cummings’s personal phone; it was one supplied by the paper, which he kept in the car and rarely used. He hadn’t thought to mention it to the police and is baffled as to how the killer could have gotten the number, since he doesn’t even know it himself.
“What did you do next?”
“I rushed here, of course. And I tried to keep him on the phone as long as I could. I thought maybe I could save whoever . . . if he was talking to me . . . well, he couldn’t do anything.” He glances over toward the inside of the pavilion, where Ms. Padilla’s body lay covered. “Finally, we got cut off as I reached here. I tried calling you, but there wasn’t any cell phone reception. So I went in . . . hoping to stop . . .”
My own cell phone goes off, rather untimely considering what my client has just said.
“Hello?”
It’s Laurie, calling from the airport. “Where are you?”
“I’m at Eastside Park . . . there’s been a murder.”
Millen looks over at me, then back to Cummings. “How come his cell phone works here?”
Cummings has a flash of anger at Millen. “I don’t know . . . and I really don’t care.”
“Who was murdered?” Laurie asks.
“Linda Padilla,” I say. “Take a cab home. I’ll call you.”
I hang up, having smoothly accomplished the difficult feat of making my own client look like a liar.
“Good job” is Vince’s sarcastic whisper.
I shrug as Millen questions Cummings in excruciating detail about the phone conversation, seeking to find out every possible nuance, probing for exact words used, tone of voice, et cetera. Finally, Cummings tells Millen that he doesn’t remember much more. He was apparently hit on the side of the head by an unseen assailant. He was knocked out, though he doesn’t know for how long, and when he came to, he called the police, since the cell phone’s reception had somehow been restored.
“Did you see him at all?” Millen asks.
“No.”
“His car?”
“No.”
Cummings seems to wince in pain and touches the bandage on his head.
“Captain,” I say, “he needs to get to a hospital.”
Millen seems about to argue, then changes his mind. “We’ll be in touch tomorrow.”
The paramedics load the reluctant Cummings into the ambulance, which will take him to the hospital for X rays. Once he is gone, Vince and I walk off to talk alone.
“What do you think?” Vince asks.
“How well do you know Cummings?”
“Very well,” says Vince, a little too quickly. “Well enough. Why?”
“He was lying. The cell phone story was bullshit. I walk Tara around here all the time, and I’ve never had a problem with reception. And I heard Laurie clear as a bell.”
“So maybe your—”
“You got one? Call your office.”
Vince takes out his phone and dials his office. After a few moments he cuts off the call; it obviously worked.
“Why would he lie?” Vince asks.
“I don’t know . . . maybe he wants to be a hero and catch the killer himself. But if I knew he was lying, then you can be sure Millen knew it even faster. And with the pressure that’s about to come down, he’s not a guy to jerk around.”
Vince doesn’t say anything for a few moments, worry etched on his face. There’s something going on here, and as the lawyer, it would be nice if I knew what it was.
“Vince, are you telling me everything? Because I feel like there’s a whole bunch of missing pieces here.”
“I’ve told you everything I know. Why wouldn’t I?”
I shrug, since I have no idea, and he continues. “I’ll talk to Daniel in the morning. You wanna go grab a beer at Charlie’s?”
Charlie’s is a combination sports bar/restaurant that is my favorite sports bar/restaurant