The Death and Life of Gabriel Phillips Read Online Free PDF Page B

considered evidence in this case. I’m sorry I blew up at you. That was very unprofessional of me. It’s been a long night.” Andy paused for a moment and said, “I thought a lot of that little guy.”
    “Thank you,” John replied. With that, the conversation ended until they arrived at the sheriff’s office.
    Andy pulled his Trask patrol car around to the side entrance of the sheriff’s department building and led John inside. Deputy Michael Duncan, a department detective, was waiting for them near the entrance, along with a younger man Andy had never met. “Hey, Andy, I’ve been waiting for you,” he said. “Tough night. Sorry.” He then turned to John and said, “Mr. Phillips, I need you to go with Donny Phelps here. He’s one of our techs. He just needs to take a few pictures and get a few samples from you. Nothing to worry about, just standard shhh . . . er . . . stuff in an investigation like this.”
    “But one of the officers on the scene already took several pictures of me, at least of my hands,” John replied.
    “I realize that, sir, and I know this must be very difficult for you, but if you would just bear with me a little while longer, we can have this wrapped up in a short time. Now if you would just go with Donny.”
    John turned to Andy and said, “So what am I, Officer, a suspect or some kind of witness?” Andy knew John had been right about one thing that night. He didn’t have much of a poker face. My old man started having doubts about the kid’s father from the word “go.” Before anyone could answer John’s question, Donny Phelps put his hand on John’s shoulder, reassured him, and led him down a long hall to a room on the left.
    As soon as John and the tech were out of earshot, Duncan said to Andy, “Man, I thought you’d never get here. The mother showed up over an hour ago, and, my God, you will not believe what she had to say. I’ve got her in an interrogation room, kept her around so you could hear this for yourself.”
    Andy groaned. “I don’t think I can do that, at least not in an official capacity,” he said.
    “What the hell are you talking about?” Duncan asked.
    “I’ve got a—how do I put this delicately—a bit of a personal connection to the case. Loraine and I have been seeing each other for a while.”
    “Holy crap. Is she the nymphomaniac you’ve been nailing? Lucky stiff—”
    “Hey, Mike,” Andy cut him off, “show a little restraint. She just lost her son.”
    “Settle down, cowboy. I wouldn’t say this in front of her. You know me better than that. I’m a pro. But I still think you need to talk to her. First words out of her mouth when she walked in here are ‘I can’t believe that bastard actually did it. I can’t believe he really killed my little boy.’ ”
    “She what?” Andy asked.
    “Yeah, said she wasn’t surprised. Said that’s why she didn’t want to let the boy go over to the guy’s apartment, but her lawyer wouldn’t listen to her. And did you know her ex has a record?” A little smile broke out on Duncan’s face as he said this.
    “No. Wow. That surprises me. On the way over, he offered to pray for me.”
    Duncan laughed. “Well, from what the mother told me, the guy better start praying overtime. He did time for assault. Mother said he beat up a guy in a bar not long after the kid was born. She claims this whole God and Jesus act was something he cooked up in the pen to help make parole. Like I said, Andy, you gotta talk to the woman yourself.”
    “Yeah, okay,” Andy said. He wanted nothing more than for that night to end, but it wouldn’t, not for a few more days. “Which room is she in?” he asked.
    Duncan pointed down the right-hand hallway. “Room two.”
    Andy let out a long sigh, hesitated, then started walking slowly down the hall toward interrogation room two. It was, he later said, the longest walk he ever made. I guess that only fits, since it was part of the longest night of his life. He