of Liz’s phones. Nancy was certain she’d heard a man’s voice. Had Liz enlisted a guy to help with the hoax? Maybe. Or she might have used one of the popular voice changer apps. Nancy had probably spoken to Liz Golyar, herself, as the killer used an app to deepen her voice.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
GARRET SLOAN DIDN’T LIKE missing work. He was still being paid, but he was restless and had too many empty hours to ponder the mess Liz had dragged him into. He wished he didn’t have to think about her, but it wasn’t easy to put her out of his mind when his privacy had just been turned inside out by investigators searching his home. They were courteous and seemed embarrassed for him as they rummaged through his things. Even so, it was a violation of his personal space, and he realized if he’d never met Liz, he wouldn’t be in such an awkward spot.
As painful and humiliating as the experience was, Garret would do it all over again because of the role he played in trapping a killer. Of all the men in Council Bluffs who Liz could have chosen to use and abuse, she’d picked one of the few guys whose computer system was tied to law enforcement’s. Garret’s Virtual Private Network (VPN) connected him to Pott County’s computer system. In normal circumstances, “IP addresses change, and providers don’t keep records forever,” Deputy Kava explains. “We had a long-term record, thanks to Garret’s log-ins.”
Liz had used Garret’s Internet and WIFI when she lived with him, allowing Kava to track her activity and tie it to the impersonations of Cari and Amy. While Kava believes Liz would have been convicted even if she hadn’t used Garret’s Internet, the evidence was much stronger with proof that the activity was connected to her residence.
Garret’s relationship with Liz had been a disaster, but he has the satisfaction of knowing that the proverbial joke is on her. She’d found one of the nicest guys she could have ever hoped to meet, taken advantage of his kindness, turned his basement into a garbage dump, burglarized his home, lied to him, and cheated on him. She never contributed a dime toward the utility bills. And using Garret’s Internet service had cost her nothing—nothing except her freedom!
The Internet service she’d enjoyed under Garret’s roof would soon help to snare her in her own snarled web of deceit.
* * *
Detective Dave Schneider was eager to talk to Liz Golyar. Interrogation was his favorite part of the job, probably because of his talent for coaxing confessions from reluctant subjects. Liz was still at work, halfway through her shift, unaware investigators had pawed through her possessions and unearthed her secrets.
Liz was arrested at work—not for murder, but for a traffic citation she’d neglected to pay. It was only a misdemeanor but an arrestable offense if a cop wanted to be hard-nosed about it. She was escorted to a small room at the Omaha Police Department where she met Detective Schneider for the first time. Her hair was twisted up into a bun, and she wore neon pink pants and a patterned smock over a long-sleeved dark shirt. She sat in a chair facing Schneider, her pose defensive, arms folded over her middle and legs tightly crossed.
Liz had believed she was in control in her recent meetings with police. But now she’d been placed under arrest and brought, against her will, to an interrogation room, and she wasn’t pleased. Schneider Mirandized her, and she agreed to chat with him, probably assuming she could talk her way out of whatever trouble she faced. Schneider spoke to her in his usual calm manner, explaining he wanted to talk about a missing person. Did she know who he meant?
“Uh, Cari?” Liz’s voice was strained. “I’m not sure of her last name.”
“Farver. Does that sound familiar?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. Did you know her at all?”
“I ran into her for like two seconds at Dave’s apartment. She was coming out. I was going in. I don’t know exact dates. It was right around the time when they first started seeing each other.”
“And Dave is?”
Liz explained he was her “boyfriend at the time,” and when Schneider asked if he’d cheated on her with Cari, she said, “Well, I don’t know what the whole situation was. I just know that that night when I was trying to get my keys from him, he was with her. So, she left so that I could go in and get my stuff.