Page 98 of Solid as Steele
“I have to follow procedure. Don’t want Tovar’s attorney to find a loophole that calls the results into question. Same goes with fingerprints. Have to respect his privacy.”
“Not that he deserves privacy, but I get it.” Owen shoved his hands into his pockets. “Then can we at least give Tovar a cup of water that I can get DNA and prints from?”
“ThatI can do. Hang tight, and I’ll get the water.” Wheeler strode down the hallway.
Owen glanced through the interview room window. Tovar sat at a small table, his back to Owen. A woman with short curly red hair and wearing a crumpled gray suit sat next to him. His attorney. Court-appointed, according to Wheeler’s earlier phone call.
Footsteps took Owen’s attention to the sheriff coming back balancing four plastic glasses of water. “Didn’t want to single him out and make him think we were up to something with the water. Hopefully he’s thirsty and will drink it.”
Owen held the door for the sheriff. He stepped in and placed the water on the table. Owen entered but waited for the door to close with a definitive click before sitting on a metal chair next to the sheriff and across from Tovar.
Tovar fired off a combative stare. The woman looked bored. Not a good look for an attorney representing a man faced with a high number of serious counts against him.
“I’m Olive Pritchard,” she said in a monotone. “Court-appointed attorney.”
Tovar leaned back in his chair. “Don’t think you’re gonna get much out of me even with this chick here representing me. So far, I’m not impressed with her skills.”
Pritchard looked like she wanted to say something back to him, but compressed her lips.
Wheeler reached out to punch the record button for the audio and video recording. He listed the names of the people in the room and looked at Owen to start.
Owen shifted on the cool metal chair and took a long drink of his water and hoped it would cause Tovar to subconsciously do the same thing. “Let’s start with you telling us why there was a woman shackled in your dining room.”
Tovar looked at his fingernails as if bored. “Don’t know. Got home from my trip, and there she was at my table.”
“Come on, Tovar,” Owen said. “You expect us to believe that?”
He smirked.
“Tell us about the women in the cellar,” Wheeler said.
“Like I told you at my place. Don’t know nothing about them. Check my security video feed. You won’t see me bringing any woman onto my property.”
“But we will see you driving your truck and trailer through the gate,” Owen said. “The trailer we’ve had towed to your place from the foundry and confirmed the false walls inside. Top forensics experts will be going over it and will undoubtedly produce evidence of the women having been in the truck.”
Tovar’s face held zero emotion. He took a long drink of the water. “Like I said. I didn’t do it. Had to be someone else.”
Owen worked hard not to show his excitement over the possibility of a DNA sample on the glass. “Then why do all of the women identify you as their jailer?”
Tovar shrugged, his expression disinterested.
He was a cold and calculating man, but then he would have to be to deal with Mexican drug cartels and to treat human beings the way he’d treated those women.
“You know.” Tovar suddenly shot forward. “Now that I think about it, I have a friend who looks a lot like me. He’s used my truck before too. Maybe he brought the women and planned to move them before I got back from my recent haul to LA, but I got back early.”
Owen had to grip his knees to keep from calling out the lie. “Then tell me who this friend is.”
“Guy’s name is Ned Leach. We go way back. He has a key to my gate.”
“Then he’ll be on the video feed arriving with the women.”
“Should be, but maybe he went to the back and took my fence apart like you did.” He ended with a snide smile.
Owen clamped harder on his knees to keep from punching the guy. Tovar had an answer for everything so far, but Owen wouldn’t let it go. “Tell me about the night you hassled Cassie Collins.”
“You still going on about that chick you showed me the picture of? I told you. I don’t know her.”
“If she was in your truck that night,” Owen said, not giving up, “our forensic team will find evidence of that.”
