Lloyd suggested that he was prepared to give Dave exactly what he’d correctly divined the squad was after.
“I’ll put it to you this way,” he said. “He [Mileski] was in the mall. Okay? And I’ll leave it at that.”
“Okay, that’s fair enough. That’s what I need to know.”
“I’ll put it to you that way. In all honestly, I’ll put it to you this way. He was in the mall. I was not with him.”
Most people caught in a lie are ashamed, but not Lloyd. He was utterly unfazed. Most people made excuses. Lloyd, apart from his repeated plea of faulty memory, did not seem to feel any were necessary. He just slid into a completely different story, and then pretended—and sometimes insisted—that it was what he had said all along. It was just another item on a growing list of his peculiarities. Dave didn’t call him on it. He just wanted Lloyd to keep talking.
Dave presented the old arrest photo, the one showing the mustache Lloyd claimed he hadn’t grown until decades later. “Oh, so I am starting to get a mustache!” he said. “But I shaved it off.” Again, his previous false statement, about which he had made a show of certainty, was ignored. He stared at the photo. “Wow, that’s me!”
After five hours they took another break. Dave conferred with the others. This was tricky. If Lloyd were just a witness, someone who had seen Mileski leave the mall with the girls, then his statement would be invaluable, and he would need no immunity. The fact that he was insisting on immunity as the price for going ahead deepened their suspicions about him. If they offered him immunity now, it would prevent them from using anything he said against him—and they had no one else! They wanted his statement badly, but the price was too high—precisely because he was asking for it. When Dave came back he told Lloyd that he and his colleagues might be willing to give him blanket immunity in return for useful information, but first they would need permission from the Lyon family.
“It’s not a done deal yet,” the detective said. “It’s gonna be a hard selling point.”
“Yeah, because they want to charge me.”
“Well, no.”
“Let’s be honest.”
“No, they [his colleagues] don’t want to charge you. What they’re afraid of is, once they give you that letter they can’t take it away.”
Lloyd nodded.
“The state’s attorney is not saying that you’re involved in it right now,” Dave said, and then explained Pete’s reluctance to make the promise. What if further investigation revealed that Lloyd was responsible? The prosecutor would have tied his own hands. He would have been duped. “So it’s a hard selling point,” Dave said.
“I’m not involved in it,” said Lloyd, “and I stop talking as of now. You can send me on back to the corrections department. I was sitting here willing to talk freely, but I’m not involved with it. I never hurt nobody and don’t even want it thought of that I hurt somebody. That’s what I’m worried about.”
Dave scrambled. He was so close to getting the ID of Mileski that they had come for.
“That’s why we’re trying to solve it,” he said. “I went to him [Pete] and I said, ‘Let’s stop here, let’s do the paperwork to make him feel covered, because we’re not going to ever find him being in any way involved with it.’ You see what I’m saying? It’s a win-win for both of us. A win-win for you. A win-win for the whole damn thing. So let’s make this happen. Let’s make this work for everybody. I don’t think you’re involved.”
“You got me scared now.”
“No, no. I didn’t mean to do that. Maybe I explained it wrong. I didn’t mean it to come across that way. I was trying to say this is a good thing. We have to be able to protect you and us. That way we can sit down and we can put our feet up. I can get you a goddamn steak. We can talk about whatever the hell it is you have, and you’re protected, I’m protected. We’re at that point where I gotta respect you and what you have. You see what I’m saying? And I understand if I was in your situation, I’d do the same damn thing.”
“Yeah, because I’ve been screwed over so many times, man.”
“I hear you, I understand that.”
“And I told you, I don’t trust a lot of people.”
“Right, and why would you?”
There ensued another long break. Despite his threat to demand a return to Smyrna, Lloyd stayed in his chair, waiting patiently for Dave to work out an agreement. The detective returned with a sheet of paper, a revision. Lloyd scanned it and pointed to a paragraph that allowed for the possibility that he had been involved in the crime.
“Why would they put that in there if I had no involvement?” he asked. He refused to sign it.
“I didn’t kill anybody. I didn’t rape anybody. I didn’t do nothin’ to those girls. I mean, I really don’t have much to tell.”
For another hour, Dave was in and out of the room trying out different wording on him. He kept insisting that he was working on Lloyd’s behalf, trying to persuade a skeptical prosecutor that Lloyd was just a witness. Finally, he delivered a new document. It set forth six enumerated points: (1) Lloyd had agreed to talk to them about the Lyon case. (2) He had stated he was not involved. (3) “The immunity offered you is conditioned on your being truthful, candid, and complete.” (4) His statements would not be used against him “in any criminal proceeding.” (5) “This agreement does not grant you immunity for any crimes you may have committed against Sheila and Kate Lyon.” (6) No other promises or conditions had been set. There were some obvious contradictions here. The subject of their conversation would be a crime. The offer of immunity implied that Lloyd was somehow directly involved; that was the only reason to offer it. The document then went on to say that if he admitted that involvement, the agreement was void. The document effectively canceled itself out. Pete was trying to give Lloyd reassurance enough to keep him talking without giving him what he wanted.
Lloyd saw right through it. He heaved a heavy sigh.
“No, it’s a good one,” said Dave. “It’s basically saying you’re a witness. And I think everybody’s on the same page. We truly believe you were a witness to this, and anything that you tell us about this, you’re covered. Because you’re gonna tell us from a witness side, you see what I’m saying? And when we talk about it, I’m gonna make sure you tell us from a witness side instead of saying, ‘Hey I did this; hey, I did that.’ You didn’t do that. And I’ll remind you that you’re a witness in this case.”
“I still ain’t signing it because that’s in there,” said Lloyd, pointing to the fifth point. “You can come back and get me for murder or rape? Isn’t that still the same one?”
Dave examined the paragraph and said, no, the paper promised “not to use your statement” in the event he was ever charged. “What he’s saying is, this covers you,” said Dave. In the adjoining room, Pete was aghast. The agreement was designed to do the exact opposite. Dave was offering a far broader guarantee, and it mattered. What he told Lloyd in the room was as important as what was on the page. For his part, the detective knew he was pushing the limits, but he was ready to believe Lloyd was directly involved, so the guarantees mattered less than being able to get confirmation of Mileski’s role. He wanted Lloyd to feel safe enough to take that step.