DiGrazia had moved over to the closet. Off and on Shannon would hear the fat man grunt as he pulled boxes out and searched through them. Shannon wondered about who left the articles for DiGrazia. It was a good question. Someone in the area knew about him and that someone wanted to make sure DiGrazia knew about him, also. A thought struck him. Maybe Elaine had checked up on him and knew all about him before the other night. Maybe she had gotten the articles and left them for DiGrazia. But why? Did she believe he was capable of killing those women? As he tried to sort it out in his mind, DiGrazia interrupted him.
“Okay, Bill,” he said, “I’m done in here. Would you help me flip over your mattress?”
Shannon stared blankly up at him.
“I’d like to look under your mattress,” DiGrazia repeated.
Shannon got off the bed and helped DiGrazia flip the mattress over. There was nothing under it.
“I’m going to search the rest of the apartment,” DiGrazia said. He turned towards the door and stopped to wipe some sweat from his forehead. “I’ll make something up for Susie,” he grunted as he left the room.
Shannon sat back down on the bed. Elaine had seemed genuinely surprised the other night when he had told her what really happened with Herbert Winters. Or did she? He tried to re-create their conversation in his mind. He tried to picture the way she looked at him when he told her about Winters. Because if she had left those articles for DiGrazia, if she really thought he might’ve murdered those women…
DiGrazia was standing in the doorway. Shannon almost didn’t recognize him the way his partner was looking at him. “I’d like to show you something,” DiGrazia said.
“What?”
“Come on. It will take a minute.”
Shannon followed DiGrazia out of the room. “What did you tell Susie?”
“Nothing.” His voice was cold and brutal, barely above a whisper. “She was already gone.”
In the living room, the sofa had been pushed away from the wall and a wooden panel that provided access to the bathroom’s shutoff valves had been removed. DiGrazia got on his knees and shined a flashlight into the opening. He waved for Shannon to take a look.
“You see that?” he asked.
Pushed under some pipes was a plastic bag that Winters had left behind when he had visited the apartment. DiGrazia reached in and pulled it out. Inside were twenty-year-old newspaper articles.
DiGrazia, stone-faced, studied Shannon. “It would be a good idea if we went down to the station,” he said. “Do you want to try to call Susie first?”
Shannon declined without giving the matter any thought.
Chapter 25
When they arrived at the station Shannon was shuffled into an interrogation room. A half hour later he was joined by DiGrazia, Agent Swallow, and a third man he didn’t recognize. The third man wore a cheap suit and had a badly pockmarked complexion. His skin reminded Shannon of chipped glass.
Swallow took over the interrogation while DiGrazia and the other man watched. The questioning focused on Shannon’s movements the previous night. There was nothing about his mother’s murder or the newspaper articles or any of the other women’s murders. Instead, Swallow kept going over a timetable of Shannon’s movements, from when he was with Elaine to when he later arrived home to his wife. At first, it surprised Shannon. After a while he caught on.
“Tell me about who you found last night,” Shannon said.
DiGrazia and the guy with the cheap suit kept their poker faces intact. Swallow’s color dropped a shade.
“Why don’t you tell us about her?” Swallow said after a long ten-count.
Shannon shook his head. “I don’t know anything about it. It just became obvious that’s what this is about. What did you find?”
“You want to make a guess?”
“Another woman forced to swallow a knife?”
Swallow flashed a look at cheap suit. He, in turn, stared straight ahead at Shannon, his eyes glazing over.
“Very funny,” Swallow said.
“I don’t think she would’ve been able to swallow much of anything,” DiGrazia added.
“It would be tough,” cheap suit said vacantly.
“Especially with her tongue ripped out of her mouth,” Swallow noted. He opened a briefcase and took some photos from it that he dropped in front of Shannon. They were crime scene photos of what had probably been a young woman, although it was tough to tell through all the gore. As hardened as Shannon had become to this type of stuff, the pictures turned his stomach. He looked each one over before handing them back to Swallow.
“You think I could’ve done this?” he asked.
Swallow showed a smug I-got-you-by-the-balls smile. “Now why would I think that?”
“Fuck you.” Shannon felt a hotness burn his neck. “I didn’t black out yesterday and I didn’t commit any of these murders.” He turned towards cheap suit and demanded to know who the hell he was.
The man’s mouth tightened a bit. “Detective Ed Foley,” he said. “I’m working this murder out of the East Boston precinct. Did you know this girl?”
“No, I never saw her before.”
“You sure?” Swallow asked. “Take a closer look.”
Agent Swallow handed him back one of the photos. Shannon forced himself to take a long, hard look at it before shaking his head and telling him he didn’t know her.
Agent Swallow frowned. “Even if she were my own daughter, I don’t think I’d recognize her from this. I mean, Jesus, look at it. It looks like her head’s been pushed through a lawn mower. Maybe you know her, though. Ed, what’s her name?”
The East Boston detective curled his lips before announcing that the woman’s name was Liza Keenan.
Shannon had tried to brace himself. He knew it was coming, so he had tried to brace himself. He could feel a vein start to pulse along his temple. He shook his head slowly. “Never heard of her,” he said. From the corner of his eye he could sense DiGrazia’s face darkening.
Agent Swallow looked almost amused. “You want to think about it a little harder? Maybe you ran into her one night?”
“I’m getting sick of this,” Shannon said. “What do you think you got?”
“Absolutely nothing.” Swallow’s smile had crept back in place. “I’m just hoping you can help us better understand whether your blackouts or your mother’s murder have anything to do with this mess. You want to guess what killed her?”
There was some noise from out in the hallway and then someone pounding on the door. Agent Swallow turned towards the commotion, a look of annoyance rubbing out his smugness. A key turned in the lock and a red-faced man of about forty bulled his way in.
“I’d like to know what the hell’s going on!” he demanded, his voice blasting out like a bullhorn.
“I’d like to know the same thing,” Agent Swallow shot back. Thin veins started to push out of his forehead. “You better have a good reason for being here.”
“I’ve got a hell of a good reason,” the red-faced man stated angrily. “It’s called the Constitution. Let me introduce myself. Russ Korkin, Mr. Shannon’s attorney. Maybe you can explain to me why you’re questioning him without me present?”
“He’s helping us with an investigation-”
Korkin snorted loudly. “Yes, of course,” he said. “Are you charging my client?”
Swallow opened and then closed his mouth. “I haven’t decided. I was hoping he could help us clear up a few issues-”
“He’s not going to help you do anything. My client is through talking. Again, are you charging him or is he free to leave?”
Agent Swallow stared at Shannon before looking back at the red-faced attorney. “I haven’t decided yet,” he said as if he were spitting out phlegm.
“While you try to make up your mind, why don’t you and these other two gentlemen get out,” Korkin said, pointing a thumb at DiGrazia and the East Boston detective. “I’d like to talk to my client alone.”