I've Got My Eyes on You(24)

“What about Crowley’s friends who gave him an alibi?”

“It looks like he asked them to lie for him, and they did. I’m going to contact the three of them and have them come down here to give a formal statement. After I read them the riot act about what could happen when you lie to an investigator, I’m sure their memories will improve.”

“We’ve confirmed the golf club was the murder weapon,” Schulman said. “Any progress on identifying the fingerprints on it?”

“Yes, but that’s going to be a problem,” Mike told him.

“Why?”

Mike picked up a report on his desk and flipped the page. “According to the lab, there are five separate, identifiable prints on the putter. All of these are on the steel shaft. The numerous prints on the rubber grip are so smudged that they’re unusable.”

“Anything on the putter head?”

“No.”

“So where does that leave us?”

“Alan Crowley’s thumbprint is on the putter. The victim’s parents, the Dowlings, gave us their prints. Each has one fingerprint on the putter. That leaves two we still have to match.”

“Where do we go from there?”

“That is the problem. In my interviews of the party guests, a number of them who spent time outside in the backyard either admitted to using the practice green or gave me the names of boys who were taking turns putting.”

“So we have a lot of kids who actually handled the murder weapon?”

“Correct. Of the eight males who I can identify as having handled the putter, not a single one has a criminal record.”

“And therefore we don’t have their prints on file?”

“Even though most of the students who were at the party consented to be interviewed, I’m pretty sure we’ll get a lot of resistance if we ask them to give fingerprints.”

Artie nodded. “We can’t ask a judge to compel them to give us their prints because they aren’t suspects.”

“That’s right.”

“Have you been able to pin down the time of death?” Artie asked.

“The medical examiner’s report didn’t give us much help there. The pool water was eighty-five degrees. In water that warm, body tissue degrades quickly. The latest we know she was alive was eleven-ten P.M. on Saturday, when she sent her last text. The family found her in the water at eleven-fifteen A.M. on Sunday. So the maximum amount of time she was in the water is about twelve hours.”

“So she could have been killed at four in the morning?”

“Yes, but that’s highly unlikely. Alan Crowley in his statement said she was going to clean up outside and then go to bed. Her text to him says the same thing. I was at the property. In another ten minutes she could have finished cleaning the backyard.”

“So there’s no evidence to suggest that she might have gone to bed and then Crowley forced her to come back outside?”

“No, there isn’t. But there is evidence that she never went to bed that night. We checked her room. Her bed was made.”

“That doesn’t tell us much. For all we know, she went to sleep on the couch.”

“Agreed. But the autopsy showed that at the time of her death she still had her contact lenses in.”

“People forget to take them out, particularly if they’ve been drinking.”

“I spoke to the victim’s sister. According to her, Kerry never would have forgotten. One time she left them in overnight and got a serious eye infection. She was religious about taking them out before going to sleep.”

“So what time do you think the murder took place?”

“Between eleven-ten, when she sent her last text, and about ten minutes later, when she would have finished cleaning the backyard.”

“Precisely the time Crowley came back to the house.”

“Artie, I believe that subject to interviewing Crowley’s friends who were at Nellie’s and confirming that they lied, we have more than enough to arrest Alan Crowley. He was at the party. He was jealous. He sent angry text messages to her. Phone records show that he went back to the home to see her after the party and lied about it. He asked his friends to lie. His fingerprints are on the murder weapon. He denied having touched it the night of the party.”

“Where are we on this Good Samaritan flat tire changer?”

“Kerry’s friend said Kerry told her that after she picked up the beer, he was aggressive and tried to kiss her. But a couple of her friends say she was a flirt. Maybe she was exaggerating. She was a very pretty young woman. As of today, we’ve made almost no progress in trying to find him.”

“I wish we could have nailed that down, but everything really seems to point to Crowley.”

“And we can’t talk to Crowley any further because Lester Parker won’t allow us.”

“All right. Get back to me after you question his three friends. How soon can you talk to them?”

Wilson checked his whiteboard. “One of them is taking a term off. Two of them are in college locally and have agreed to come back. They’re coming in to talk to me this afternoon.”





31




Bobby, Stan and Rich each received the phone call they dreaded. Detective Mike Wilson told them that the information they had given when they first spoke to him was very important to the investigation. He wanted them to come down to Hackensack and give formal statements. All three had agreed to go to the Prosecutor’s Office together at 4:30 that afternoon.