“Well, if she wanted to get in Pete’s face,” Miano said, “she couldn’t have done better than choosing a homeless con. A younger homeless con. So much for the perfect Black Hall life.”
“Only on the outside,” he said.
“You know, if it turns out Jed’s the father, it would make a hell of a motive for Pete,” Miano said. “Jealousy over Jed and wanting to be rid of Beth so he could be with Nicola. Plus, the baby. Whose was it? I know, I know. The damn paternity test.”
“Right,” Reid said, feeling his chest constrict.
Pete and his lawyer had arrived. Mac Green had a full head of white hair, and he wore a perfectly tailored gray pinstripe suit. He had represented several of Reid’s suspects over the years, and Reid had a grudging respect for him. He did a good job for his clients without resorting to dirty tricks that Reid considered the stock-in-trade of many defense attorneys.
Pete sauntered over to Reid and Miano. Like his lawyer, he was dressed in a suit instead of his usual beach boy garb.
“Looking sharp, Pete,” Reid said. “You look as if you’re dressed for court.”
“I want you to know how seriously I am taking this.”
“This?” Reid asked. “The polygraph?”
“The fact my wife was murdered and you’re wasting time harassing me instead of doing a real investigation.”
“Harassing you? Correct us if we’re wrong,” Miano said, “but aren’t you the one who pushed for this?”
“Pete, we’re ready,” Green called sharply, and Reid could see the lawyer wasn’t happy with his client baiting the police.
“What a cocky son of a bitch,” Miano said when Pete and Green stepped away. “What makes him so confident?”
Reid didn’t reply. He felt nervous. She was right. Pete held himself with total assurance and an air of martyrdom, as if a great injustice was being done. Reid was looking forward to the results wiping that look off Pete’s face, but something told him not to be too sure just yet.
An hour later, when it was all over, his misapprehension was confirmed. Pete passed. The examiner had paid extra attention to his answers to questions about Jed, Nicola, and Beth’s last day. He told Reid and Miano there was no ambiguity: the machine had picked up no lies or signs of deception.
“Well then,” Green said as he and Pete walked toward Reid and Miano. “I hope this means you’ll be moving on.”
“Not quite yet,” Reid said. “We have a few more questions.”
“I think Pete has been helpful enough for today,” Green said.
“Yeah, it’s true,” Reid said. He smiled at Pete. “Beautiful day out there. Going to go sailing?”
“No, I have other things to do,” Pete said, sounding haughty.
“Ever do any night sailing?” Reid asked. “Get away from land, look up at that canopy of stars in the sky?”
“Where’s this going, Detective Reid?” Green asked.
“Just thinking of how nice it can be to get away from it all,” Reid said. “I’d sure like to.”
“As it happens, I do enjoy sailing at night,” Pete said. “Ocean races especially—Newport to Bermuda. Out there in the Gulf Stream, bioluminescence flashing against the hull. Do you know what bioluminescence is?”
“Sea creatures that glow in the dark?” Miano asked.
“That’s right. Very good,” Pete said.
“Gee, thanks,” Miano said. She glanced at Reid. “I got it right!”
“One up on me,” Reid said. He saw Pete grin.
“Let’s go, Pete,” Green said.
“Did you ever do, that thing—I forget what it’s called?” Reid asked, tapping his forehead as if he was trying to come up with the word. “You know, when you point that instrument at the sky to figure out where you are?”
“Celestial navigation,” Pete said. “And that instrument is a sextant. Yes, I’ve done it. It’s very mathematical. Really just angles. If you can do geometry, you can steer by the stars.”
“Steer by the stars,” Reid said. “I like that. Really nice way to describe it. Easier than celestial navigation! Well, enjoy the rest of your day, gentlemen.”
Green shook hands with both detectives. Pete stood back, then turned to go.
“Hey, Pete,” Reid said. “I almost forgot. I met your friend Martin.”
“Who?” Pete asked.
“Martin Harris. You know, the astronomy expert.”
“I have absolutely no idea who you’re talking about,” Pete said. He and Mac Green left the building. Reid wiped the gee-whiz expression off his face and narrowed his eyes as Pete walked away.
“That was genius,” Miano said. “That bit about sailing at night. Steer by the stars.” She punched Reid’s upper arm. “Too bad he didn’t admit to knowing Harris. Think he was telling the truth about that?”
“Hard to say.”
“Then again, he just beat the lie detector,” Miano said.
“It didn’t show deception, that’s for sure,” Reid said.
“Come on—like any good narcissist, he doesn’t register emotion the way normal people do. Cool as a cucumber.”
“He never got riled,” Reid said.
“Let’s get a warrant for his computer, look for articles on how to outsmart the machine. He probably researched it!”
Reid stood still, thinking. He pictured Pete sitting across from the examiner, strapped to the machine. Pete had stared straight ahead, no change of affect no matter what he was asked. He’d barely blinked.
“We still have time of death going for us,” Miano said. “Other than body temp, everything points to Beth having died the morning Pete left. Thank God for stomach contents.”
“You’re right,” Reid said. The autopsy had shown that Beth’s last meal had been eggs, melon, and blueberries—exactly what Pete had said they had had for breakfast before Ackerley picked him up.
“Those polygraph questions,” Miano said, giving an exaggerated shiver.
“What about them?”
“The way he recounted their last minutes together. That he hugged and kissed her, that he told her he loved her, and then left.”
“Shit,” Reid said, suddenly getting it. “That’s exactly what he did do.”
“But if she was already dead . . .”
“Jennifer, I think you’re right. He did research the polygraph.”
“Okay . . .”
“But before he killed her, not afterward. It’s why he’s been insisting on taking the test!” Reid said, excitement building. “Because he knew that if he actually hugged and kissed her dead body, told her he loved her after he’d smashed her head in and strangled her, the machine wouldn’t detect a lie when he told the story.”
“Because he’d be telling the truth,” Miano said. “But when he was directly asked if he killed Beth . . .”
“His research would have taught him how to control his breathing. He might not have been able to keep it up through the whole slate of questions, but for one, he nailed it.”
Reid’s heart was pumping with elation at the breakthrough.