"It's what I would have done for anyone in her position. She couldn't spend the night at home, so she stayed upstairs and I slept on the couch. There was nothing improper about it."
"Bullshit."
"There's nothing about our relationship that would hinder me from doing my job the way it should be done."
"You've already screwed up your job, you asshole."
"Since when is Abby a real suspect?" Justin asked. "What is it you think you know?"
"I don't think I know anything. While you were out screwin' around and pretending to be a cop, my men solved the whole goddamn thing already! And guess what, cowboy? You were played for a sucker. Big-time. At least you better hope that's all we find out was going."
"What are you talking about?"
The Long Island district attorney turned to the uniformed cop who, up until this moment, hadn't uttered a word or changed his expression. "This is Captain William Holden of the Riverhead PD. Captain Holden. If you don't mind…"
The captain turned to Justin. "We've ascertained that Mrs. Harmon was having an affair…" He didn't let a smirk cross his face, but the sense of satisfaction was unmistakable when he continued, "… another affair with a man named David Kelley. I believe you know him."
Justin's face was blank for a moment. Then he said, "Dave Kelley? The contractor?"
Holden said, "That's right. He operates here in East End."
Justin nodded. "I know who he is."
"You've never met?" This was Silverbush jumping back into the conversation. His tone made it clear that he felt he knew about every moment that Justin had ever been in Dave Kelley's presence.
"We've met."
"You spent time with Abigail Harmon and Kelley together. At Sylvester's Restaurant."
Justin started to shake his head. Then he remembered. Maybe a month ago, he and Abby had had lunch at Sylvester's, a kind of general store that served good sandwiches. They'd sat at the small counter and, while they were eating, Kelley had come in. He saw Abby, sauntered over, and said hello. Justin picked up a strange vibe. He'd met Kelley before, seen him around town, nodded to him at Duffy's, but didn't really know him. Abby had said that Kelley was a contractor, was doing some work on her house. Justin remembered now because she'd said "my house," not "our house." He always noticed when she went out of her way to avoid any mention of her husband. Kelley had looked on edge when he'd come over, seemed uncomfortable in his presence. At the time Justin wasn't sure why. Now he was.
"Yeah. I was with Abigail having lunch and Kelley came over and sat with us for a few minutes."
"A few minutes? That's all."
"That's all."
"What'd you talk about?" This was Silverbush again, not Holden.
"Nothing very interesting. Something about the work he was doing for the Harmons."
"Anything about the security system?"
"What?"
"It's more interesting than you think. Or at least than you're pretending to think. That's one of the things Kelley was doing, overseeing the security system that was being installed in the Harmon house."
"That didn't come up."
"Did Mrs. Harmon ever talk to you about it separately?" This was Holden. His tone was less hostile than the district attorney's. In fact, it showed no emotion whatsoever. Justin decided that Holden could go one of two ways: Either he was probably a very good cop, capable of digging up the truth, or he could be in Silverbush's pocket, in which case he was a very good cop capable of doing a lot of damage.
"No. Never."
Silverbush sneered. "So, you being a supercop and all, she never even asked your advice about it?"
"No."
"Hard to believe."
"I can't help that. It's true."
"When you were with Kelley," the Mid-Island police captain said, his tone still calm and smooth, "having lunch-"
"We weren't having lunch together. He sat down for two minutes, that's all."
"Uh-huh. In those two minutes, did you talk about Evan Harmon?"
"No."
"Never came up?"
"No."
"It never came up, let's say, how to set up various ways to establish alibis for all three of you while Harmon was being murdered?"
"Are you out of your fucking mind?"
"No," Larry Silverbush said, jumping forward to stick his finger in Justin's chest, "he's not out of his fucking mind. And you want to know why?"
"Okay. Why?"
"Because you know those burns that were all over Evan Harmon's body? Well, they came from a stun gun. And when we searched David Kelley's house, you want to know what we found?"
"Can I take a wild guess?"
"You got it, cowboy. A stun gun."
"How'd you know to search Kelley's house?" Justin wanted to know. "How'd you know about his relationship with Abby?"
That threw Silverbush for a moment. His eyes shifted from side to side, and he wasn't sure exactly how to respond. Holden saved him the trouble, stepping in, quietly saying, "We had a tip."
"From who?"
"Doesn't matter who it was from. We're not ready to reveal that. It proved accurate. Kelley even used the stun gun in front of both Evan and Abigail Harmon. There's a witness. The son of a bitch liked to use it on animals. I guess your part-time girlfriend figured out if it worked on them, it'd work like a fucking charm on her husband."
Justin started to say something, realized he didn't have all that much to say at this point. He decided he was better off being quiet and listening.
"You want to know what else is gonna prove accurate?" Silverbush asked. And without waiting for Justin to answer, he said, "Kelley's fingerprints all over the crime scene. And phone logs that show Kelley talking to your girlfriend the morning of the murder. And another witness who heard Kelley say that that same girlfriend of yours had talked to him repeatedly about killing her husband."
"And what has Kelley said about all this?"
"So far nothing. But we're confident he'll roll. And when he does, he'll give us the lovely Mrs. Harmon as the one who planned the whole thing."
"You thinking of giving him a deal?"
Holden spoke up now. "We're thinking of doing whatever it takes to put two murderers in prison. Maybe three."
"Three?"
Silverbush's eyes flashed angrily. "That's right. 'Cause you want to know what else we're thinking, cowboy? We're thinkin' she couldn't have gone through with this unless you were involved. We think you helped her plan it."
"Do you have even the remotest shred of evidence to back that up?"
"Not yet. But we will."
"Where's Abby now?" Justin wanted to know.
"Over at your police station. Behind bars, waiting for her lawyer."
"And where's Kelley?"
"Mid-Island," Holden said. "In one of our jail cells."
"You have anything else to say to me before I go talk to Abby?"
"Yeah," Holden said. "If you have a weapon, surrender it now."
Justin looked at the police captain curiously, but Silverbush was the one who answered the silent question.
"You're suspended from your job as of this moment."
"You're making a mistake. You don't even know what I learned-"
"I'm not interested. We'll need your firearm."
"I'm not carrying one," Justin said.
"What the hell kind of cop are you?"
"In my experience, especially in a town like this, carrying a gun doesn't solve too many problems, it just causes them."
"Well, you do have a gun, don't you?"
Justin's eyes didn't waver as he took Silverbush's sneer head-on. "Yes, I have one."
"Where is it?"
"In my office. In the desk. Upper right-hand drawer. It's locked, but Officer Haversham'll have a key."
"I'll take your badge, as well," Silverbush said. "Or you keep that under lock and key, too?"
Justin looked at Leona Krill, said, "Leona? You have anything to say? I work for you."
She sighed. "I don't have much of a choice here, Jay. DA Silverbush is in charge of this investigation."
Justin didn't look over at the district attorney, just said to Leona, "I'm telling you he doesn't know what he's doing."