The Case of the Lecherous Linebacker: Episode 6
Thomas is a last name. Landry gets Ian Thomas's information from the principal and goes to interview the kid at home. He's a minor, and a parent has to be present during the interview, and Mom tells son not to say anything. She's not protecting Coach Taylor, Landry doesn't think, but her son, who's obviously involved in something. Landry calls it a loss and heads back to the office.
Detective Wells is waiting for him the conference room. They exchange notes. She tells him that Dr. Taylor lawyered up the second she set foot on the Antioch campus. "But I did get this," she says, holding up a crinkled piece of paper. "I pulled it from her trash can when she wasn't looking. We can run handwriting analysis on it and compare it to the suicide note."
Landry reaches into the pocket of his rain coat and pulls out a similarly crinkled paper, covered with notes and play diagrams.
"Great minds think alike," she says.
"And apparently, so do we."
Detective Wells doesn't laugh.
There's some question as to whether or not this sort of garbage rummaging will hold up in court. Some courts have ruled you need a warrant, and others let it slide, but Landry is not too concerned in this case, since he only means to clear the Taylors. Besides, they can probably get a warrant for handwriting samples later and re-run the test if they need it.
"Did you get the warrant for Dr. Taylor's gun?" he asks his new partner.
"Should be here in an hour," she answers, "and we can serve it together."
After they've sent the handwriting down to the lab, and the squints are hard at work comparing all the samples, including Martin Haverty's, and the search warrant arrives, Detective Clarke and Detective Wells show up at the Taylors' front door.
The house is at the top of a steep hill in the city of Seattle, in an area with a suburban feel. Dr. Taylor answers the door. She's wearing reading glasses, and her hair is not the color Landry remembered it being, but she still looks surprisingly beautiful for a woman twice his age. "Hello, Landry," she says. "I've been expecting you. Do you have a warrant?"
He hands her the warrant, and she reads it over. Coach Taylor is now standing right behind her, his arms crossed over his chest, palms flat on his shoulders.
"Don't suppose you'll let me talk to Gracie?" Landry asks. She's only seventeen, still a minor, so he can't do it without a parent present.
"No," Coach Taylor answers. "Not without both of us and the family lawyer there, and he's going to advise her to say nothing."
"You have a family lawyer? Like, on staff? "
"Between the coaching politics and the academic politics," Dr. Taylor says, "we've had our share of liability and contract concerns over the years. So, yes, we finally have a family lawyer. We should have had one years ago. This search warrant is only for the gun. I'll get it for you. Don't go rummaging around."
Detective Wells steps in and shuts the door behind herself. "Just show me where it is," she says. She isn't dressed like a street walker this afternoon. Landry's partner is actually wearing a pants suit, of all things. "I don't want you touching it."
Dr. Taylor leads them to the living room. The place is nice. Much nicer than the house they had in Dillon or even Philadelphia. Landry saw pictures of that one, back when he was still friends with Matt and Julie. Dr. Taylor points to her purse, which is on the end table. "It's in there," she says. "I didn't shoot anyone with it, so go ahead and clear me."
Detective Wells snaps on her gloves, takes out the gun, and puts it in an evidence bag.
When they're leaving, Dr. Taylor says, "You know, Landry, Julie tried to call you a couple years back, but your number was out of order, and she couldn't find a new one for you."
"Really?" he says with some surprise. He'd given up, after those first two years. "And did she have Matt's blessing to call?"
Dr. Taylor takes off her glasses and hangs them on the neckline of her blouse. "They had a hard time getting past it, Landry. It was her third miscarriage. And she was six months pregnant. It's a baby by then, Landry. It was hard on her and Matt. Really hard. They felt like it was their last chance, and maybe it was."
"And Matt blamed me, because I was at the wheel, because if I had hadn't been driving so fast - "
"- It wasn't your fault. You couldn't have foreseen that deer jumping out of nowhere. It was an accident. Matt knows that. But we all have our own way of grieving. You should call him. When this is…" She waves at the bagged gun. "All past us. As I hope it will be. Very soon."
He nods. She goes into her purse and pulls out two business cards. Julie's and Matt's. She hands them to Landry. "Call them."
Now Coach Taylor is behind Dr. Taylor, his hand on her shoulder. "Go lie down, babe," he says. "I'll take care of dinner. You need to rest."
Being a murder suspect can be draining, Landry supposes. When they're in the car, Landry says, "She used to be strawberry blonde. Now she's a brunette. I wonder why."
"Maybe Coach Taylor likes brunettes," Detective Wells replies. "Maybe they're mixing it up. I mean, that's what I do. I make my husband shave and grow a beard every two years. It's like getting to have sex with two different men. Which is as close as I'll ever come."
Was that why Coach Taylor had a beard now? "Wait. You're married?"
"Sure."
"Since when?" Landry asks, glancing at her. She's only been a detective for a few weeks, and he didn't know her before, but he just assumed she wasn't married. She's never mentioned husband, and she doesn't have a wedding ring.
"Since I got married ten years ago."
"Ten years? But you don't have a wedding ring. And ten years ago you would have been like 16."
"I'm 35. And I don't wear a wedding ring because it makes it harder to get the information I need from my male interviewees. That's also why I dress the way I do, sometimes, when we're in the field. You'd be amazed what they tell me. But I thought the pants suit would be more appropriate for Dr. Taylor, since you'd already interviewed her husband. Not that I got anything out of her."
"I had no idea. I just assumed you were - "
" - Unprofessional?"
He smiles. That's kind of clever of her, actually. Clever and naughty. "I still don't see why she'd dye her hair a different color."
"I don't think she dyed it. I think it's a wig."
"A wig? Why would she wear a wig?" Landry pounds the steering wheel. "POT!"
"What?"
"The Washington state legislature made marijuana illegal again two years ago. They instituted legal penalties even for mere possession."
"Yeah? So? Sometimes the puritans win in the legislature. What's that got to do with anything?"
"Coach Taylor was buying pot from Ian Thomas. For his wife. For the nausea. She must have cancer. I bet she's getting chemo. That's why she's losing her hair and has to wear the wig. That's why O'Connor thought she shouldn't work, because she's sick, but she needs to work, because she's…she's wonder woman."
"What are you talking about? Wonder woman?"
"And it makes her feel better. To keep working. Poor woman." He shakes his head. He wonders how Julie took it, when they told her. Or Matt, for that matter, who must love Julie's mom like his own mother by now.
"Well, it would certainly explain your conversation with Coach O'Connor. He and Martin Haverty walked in on Coach Taylor buying pot from Ian Thomas, and Haverty threatened to tell if Coach Taylor cut him from the team."
Landry nods. "We still don't know what Jess Meriwether was being blackmailed for. And who else he might have been trying to blackmail."
"Does Jess Meriwether have any elderly relatives?"
"She has a Dad. I don't even know if he's still alive."
"Well, you oughtta check. Maybe he has cancer too, or some other disease that might benefit from a little toke," Detective Wells says. "Maybe Haverty saw her buying pot first, then tried to blackmail her by threatening to tell Coach Taylor. Except Coach Taylor already knew, because he was using the same supplier. Maybe Jess told him about Ian Thomas's business to begin with."
"Makes perfect sense," Landry says. "And they wouldn't want to tell me, because it's illegal. Not that a homicide detective would bother with that, but…" He nods. "Now we've just got to run the ballistics, prove this wasn't the gun that killed Haverty, and find out who did."
Detective Wells takes off her sunglasses and looks directly at him. "Look, I realize you know these people from some alternate universe you used to live in, but don't rule any of them out just yet. They all have motive. And then there's the gun."
"The ballistics won't match," Landry says confidently. "There's no way."