She looked a little stricken. I also noticed that she was holding her nametag so I couldn’t see it. And she’d started to glance around as if looking for an escape. Evidently she still thought she could vanish into the crowd. Time to enlighten her.
“Imagine the headlines,” I said. “‘Local Woman Denies Affair with TV Star. Loudoun County Police continue to investigate allegations that Ms. Amy Goldman of Fribble Lane, Alexandria, is actually the mystery woman named as Walker Morris’s alibi in the—’”
“How do you know—” she began, and then her hands flew over her mouth.
“It was easy,” I said. “And if you think it’s easy for me, imagine what a snap it would be for the police.”
I’d produced a change in attitude, but frozen panic wasn’t necessarily an improvement over her previous stubbornness.
“Go and talk to the police,” I said, as gently as I could. “Tell them why you were afraid to talk. They’ll understand, and they’ll try to protect your secret.”
She nodded. She didn’t look happy, but she looked resigned.
“You want me to go with you and make sure they understand how important it is to keep this quiet?”
She nodded with greater enthusiasm. I moved Spike back away from the door, and she followed me meekly through the opening.
I led her up to the rooms where the police were still encamped, intending to turn her over to the kindly sergeant. I wasn’t sure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that Detective Foley and his partner were there, too.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Foley said, when I’d explained, as briefly as possible, why we were there. Amy seemed to have lost her voice from fright and was losing the battle not to cry.
I followed Foley out into the hall while his partner and the sergeant fetched tissues and a Diet Pepsi for Amy.
“Thank you,” Foley said. “I think. You’re sure all you did was talk her into coming here?”
“I didn’t talk her into lying, if that’s what you mean,” I said. “I have no idea if she’s telling the truth—that’s your problem.”
“You think we’re doing a bad job on this investigation?” Foley asked. “You think we need your help?”
“I have no idea—” I began.
“We may not be the NYPD, but we’re not some hick outfit,” he said. “If we don’t have something in-house, we can call on the state or the FBI. Every forensic and investigative tool available to modern American law enforcement is at our disposal. We have a dozen trained professional police officers working full time on this case. You people come out here from Hollyweird with your—”
“Foley, I only brought you a witness,” I said. “I happened to overhear her arguing with Walker, and I convinced her to come forward and tell the truth. If I hear anything else you can use, I’ll come and tell you that, too. And for your information, I don’t live in Hollywood. I came up for the weekend from Caerphilly, which in case you’ve never heard of it, makes Loudoun County look like Metropolis.”
“Just don’t bring me any more damned parrot surveillance tapes,” Foley said, as he turned on his heel and strode back into the room.
Nice to know I hadn’t single-handedly provoked his ire, I thought, as I headed for the stairs. More of a family project.
But something Foley had said stuck in my mind.
Chapter 36
“Every forensic and investigative tool available to modern American law enforcement,” I muttered.
“What’s that?”
I looked up to see that Michael had emerged from the police suite.
“Damn, what did the police want with you again?” I asked, feeling a sudden flutter of anxiety.
“Questions about Walker,” Michael said. “I gather I have you to thank for the decorative damsel whose arrival made them lose interest in me?”
“Yeah, Walker found his alibi, and I convinced her to talk to the police.”
“Thank God,” Michael said. “Of course, this means they’ll go looking for another prime suspect.”
“And looking in the wrong place, not to mention the wrong decade,” I said.
“Wrong decade?”
“Okay, this is going to sound crazy, but here goes,” I said. “Foley said something about them using every forensic and investigative tool available to modern American law enforcement. And yes, law enforcement has come a long way in the past thirty years. But even back in 1972, they didn’t do too shabby a job on forensics, right?”
“At least in the big cities, where they had money to get the right equipment,” Michael said, nodding.