The Replacement Child - By Christine Barber Page 0,86
five minutes. It was well after ten P.M. I saw their name on the caller ID and didn’t answer. I decided if they wanted to talk to me, they could do it during business hours.”
Gil called Pollack at the state police to tell him about the article and what Mrs. Sanchez had said.
“Yeah. I got a thousand messages from the Capital Tribune last night,” Pollack said. “I had already given them their daily briefing so I didn’t call them back. I figured they were just being pushy. I guess you can tell I’ve only been the PIO for a few months. I’m not too bright sometimes. At least that’s what my boss told me when he called me an hour ago, yelling.”
“I’m going to head over to Mrs. Baca’s to see if she knew what Melissa was going to say to the advisory committee.”
“Actually, you better come over here. I’m not really sure what this means, but Officer Manny Cordova turned himself in to us a few minutes ago.”
Gil watched Manny Cordova through the two-way mirror in the interrogation room. Cordova sat alone, drinking a Coke and reading an old People magazine.
“What did he say when he showed up here?” Gil asked Pollack.
“Nothing really. He said his lawyer told him to turn himself in but not to say anything. The lawyer is on his way here, but got stuck in some snowstorm in Farmington.”
“How long will it take him to get here?”
“Well, it’s a four-hour drive normally. In a snowstorm, I’d say closer to five or six. I think the weirdest thing is that it’s gonna snow. I thought the forecast was clear.”
Pollack went on about the weather but Gil had stopped listening. He wondered if Manny was the police officer Melissa had been planning to lodge a complaint against.
“Actually, I’m glad you’re here,” Gil heard Pollack say. “Someone has to call your boss and tell him that one of his officers turned himself in to us. And don’t ask me how, but the press already knows.
“Oh, and something else. The sheriff’s office called and said they might have an investigation connected to ours, but they don’t seem to think there’s much to it. You know that old lady who died out in the county? A Mrs. Burke? They’re seeing if there was some association to Melissa Baca. We haven’t combined the cases yet. For now, they keep their dead body, we keep ours, until we can prove the two are connected.”
Pollack gave Gil the details of the case, calling Lucy “some newspaper editor” and calling Mrs. Burke “some tipster.” Gil smiled. Lucy had finally managed to get someone to listen.
Pollack started snapping his fingers and said, “And just so you know, we checked some more on Ron Baca’s alibi. It seems a next-door neighbor was outside working on his car most of the night. The neighbor saw Ron Baca go into his mom’s house around eight P.M. and leave after eleven P.M. The neighbor says he was outside all night and would have seen Ron Baca if he had left the house at all. I guess the guy was trying to change the oil, which is a five-minute job, so he must suck at it.”
So Mrs. Baca had told the truth when she said that Ron had been fixing the washing machine. But that still didn’t explain why Ron hadn’t told anyone that Melissa had shown him the photos of Sandra Paine. Ron was not a sloppy police officer. Maybe Melissa’s death had made him forget about it? But Gil doubted it. Maybe Melissa had asked Ron not to mention it? Maybe.
Gil called Chief Kline, who didn’t say much about Manny Cordova. Kline was just about to hang up when Gil said, “Sir, I really feel that it’s time for me to stop being a part of this investigation. Manny Cordova is a fellow officer. This is strictly state police territory. I believe it’s a conflict of interest for me to continue to be involved.”
Kline didn’t answer, but asked to speak to Pollack. Gil handed the lieutenant the phone. The two men talked for a few minutes. Pollack said, “I’ll tell him,” and hung up.
He started jingling the change in his pocket as he turned to Gil. “Sorry, buddy, you’re in for the long haul.”
Pollack’s phone rang. Gil went over to survey the snack machine. The Doritos might start to look good after a few hours of waiting for Manny’s lawyer to show up.