“Yes, I-”
“And his door was open?”
“Yes-”
“So you could see in?”
“Yes. Well, no-”
“Which is it?”
“It was only open a couple of inches, so no, I couldn’t really see in. I explained that to Richardson, and-”
“Could you please stop referring to Agent Richardson’s report?”
“No, I don’t think I can.” My heart was pounding and the muscles in the back of my neck had tightened. “I’m getting tired of saying the same thing over and ov-”
“I explained that.” Collins nodded at the camera. “I don’t know why you’re making this so difficult.” Her icy tone matched her frozen mask. “It really doesn’t look good.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I could feel things unhinging, as if screws were being loosened to allow easy entry to my brain and psyche.
“So you went in.”
“What?”
“To the apartment. You went in.”
“Yes. You know that. I knocked, but he didn’t answer. I waited a minute and knocked again. I could hear the television and I could see the kind of bluish light that comes off a TV screen. It was reflecting into the hallway. You know how that is.”
“No. Tell me.”
“I just did.”
“All you told me was that the door was ajar and you went in. You didn’t explain why you went in.”
“Well, I…” Why had I gone in? “I had a feeling-”
“A feeling?” Collins’s mask was cracked by a raised eyebrow.
“Like I said, the door was partially open. I knocked and-”
“Went in. Yes, you already said that.” Collins scratched her head with the back of her pencil. “You mean to tell me the man’s door was unlocked and open in a basement apartment in a fairly crappy neighborhood in New York City? I don’t mean to insult your neighborhood, Rodriguez, but come on.”
“Hey, I know it’s not Park Avenue. But what’s your point?”
“My point is, it’s weird. The door just being open like that, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Yeah, I fucking would agree. It was unlocked because it had obviously been left open by the perp, the unsub, by whoever killed Cordero.” I could feel my pressure rising, blood pulsing in my ears.
“And how do you know that?”
“I don’t know it for a fact, but like you, I was there when Crime Scene said the lock had been popped, and since I didn’t do it, I’m presuming it was done by whoever killed Cordero, right?”
“If you say so.”
“I don’t say so. Crime Scene said so.”
“Fine,” she said.
“What are you suggesting? That I…killed Cordero?” My palms were sweating. I had that feeling you get when a store security guard is watching you: that you’re guilty though you haven’t done anything.
“I’m not suggesting-”
“I’ve had enough. I’m leaving.” I stood up.
“Sit down,” said Collins. She glanced first at the mirror, then at the video camera, and I remembered people were watching me, that I was being filmed acting guilty when I had nothing to be guilty about.
“Just take it easy, Rodriguez; relax.”
I took a deep breath, but I did not relax.
“Just a few more questions. Nothing to get so upset about.” She offered up a clipped fake smile, and I sat down.
“Let’s get back to what you did when you came in and saw Cordero on the floor.”
“Like I said, I called 911.”
“Right away?”
“No. Not immediately. I was frozen for a minute, stunned, I guess. Then I noticed the drawing beside the body and it hit me that it wasn’t just some ordinary break-in.”
“So you waited to make the call?”
“I didn’t think about it right away, no. And…I wanted to see the drawing.”
“So you went over to look at it.”
“Yes.”
“Which is why the soles of your shoes had Cordero’s blood on them and why you tracked your footprints across the room.”
It sounded awful when she said it. “I didn’t realize what I was doing at the time or I never would have done it.” Jesus, what the hell had I been thinking? I knew all about contaminating a crime scene. “I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“But you were thinking straight enough to go over and see the drawing.”
“I’ve been working this case-” My annoyance ratcheted up a notch toward anger. “So, yeah, I wanted to see if it was like the others.”
“And then?” I could see she was assessing me, head tilted back, eyes narrowed.
“I looked at the drawing and made the call.”
“Could you look at the camera and repeat that? And say who you called?”
“Who the hell do you think I called, my broker?”
“There’s no need for sarcasm. This is simply procedure.”
“Really? Because it doesn’t seem like it.” I blew a breath out of the corner of my mouth. “Look, I’m tired. I’ve been up all night and-”
“I know that,” she said. “But you’re the one who found the body.”
Homicide 101: He who finds the body is always the first suspect.
“Wait. I found the body, so you think I killed him? Give me a fucking break. I’ve been working the case, you know that. You can’t possibly think I had anything to do with the guy being killed.”
Collins just sat there.
“Look, I found the guy, yeah, and was stupid enough to track his blood across the floor on my shoes, really stupid, but like I said, I wasn’t thinking. But I didn’t do anything to Cordero.”
“Okay,” said Collins.
“Okay what?”
“Okay, you weren’t thinking.”
“And I didn’t kill him either.”
“Okay,” she said again, in the same noncommittal tone.
Did she believe me? I searched her face for evidence, but she’d frozen her features.
I was beginning to feel like a character in a Kafka story. “I had nothing to do with Cordero getting killed. You know that, right?”
She didn’t say anything, not even okay, and then I saw it, the tic of suspicion, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly.
“How many times do I have to say it? I’ve been working this case. That’s why I wanted-needed-to see the drawing!” I could hear the shrillness in my voice. I wanted to stay calm, but couldn’t.
“I heard you.”
I didn’t want to utter the classic line, but had to. “Should I be calling a lawyer?”
“If you want to call a lawyer, fine, but I’m just asking questions for the record-and the camera.” She sat back and laced her fingers together. “You’re an awfully paranoid guy, Rodriguez.”
Was I? God knows I’d walked around feeling guilty for twenty years. Maybe it was finally starting to show. I kept telling myself to relax, but my mind was spinning. Should I call a lawyer, or would that confirm I had something to hide? I could call Julio. He was a real estate lawyer, but he’d know a good criminal lawyer. A criminal lawyer. Did I actually need one? Was this really happening?
Collins unlaced her fingers and sat forward. “It’s just a few more questions. After that, you can go home.” Her voice was calm. She sounded perfectly reasonable. But I knew what I’d seen in her face. Words lie. Faces do not.
But I nodded, hoping she was telling the truth. Maybe I was being paranoid. I was so tired I couldn’t reason it out.
“So why do you think Cordero turned the heat off?”
“I don’t know. I suppose because the owners tell him to save on heat when he can.”
“And he’s done this before?”
“Yes. You should be asking the building owners why Cordero turned the heat off, not me.”
“We will,” she said. “Okay, just a few more things. We’ve got to make sure we don’t miss anything. You don’t want to go through this again, do you?”