“I think it was just the fact that they were both there,” she noted quietly, “to make it look like it wasn’t just his wife.”
“Do you really think he’s the killer?”
“Well, I think he has things he needs to answer for,” she stated. “Does that make him the killer? I don’t know. I know that, at the moment, he’s looking like the best lead I’ve got.” Staring into the air for a moment, she shook her head, looking glum. “Honestly,” she added, looking up at Rodney, “Agnew’s the only lead I’ve got.”
Two hours later she got a call from the front desk, saying that Agnew had arrived for his interview. She let Rodney know, so he could watch from the observation room, if he chose to. Thenshe got up and headed into interview room B. As she walked in, she found that Agnew had arrived with his lawyer. She smiled at Agnew, and he just looked at her nervously.
The lawyer frowned and asked, “What is this all about?”
“I just need him to answer a few questions,” she replied easily.
“You were at the hospital, so surely you could have asked your questions there.”
“And I did,” she noted, as she sat down. “Yet I’d like to get an interview on the record,” she stated, then started the recorder, identifying the occupants of the room, including herself, handling the interview. She looked over at Agnew. “Now can you tell me again how you injured your tendon?”
He looked at her in complete surprise. “What the devil does that have to do with anything?”
The lawyer immediately said, “You’re just fishing.”
“I asked a simple question,” she stated firmly, “and I’d like an answer.”
Agnew raised both hands. “Fine.” And he went through the process of what had happened.
She nodded. “How did the accident happen?”
“We were running,” he repeated. “I tripped and fell.”
She looked at him steadily. “Well, I have somebody else who says it didn’t happen quite that way.”
He shook his head. “I don’t care what anybody else says. That’s what happened.” Then he stopped for a moment, before asking, “What else could have happened anyway?”
“According to the person who saw it happen, your wife tripped you.”
Agnew stared at Kate for a long moment, and the color rapidly faded from his face. “Who told you that?”
She stared at him steadily. “Do you want to confirm or deny that, please?”
He shook his head. “It’s news to me.”
She looked at him in surprise. “Are you saying that you didn’t know your wife intentionally tripped you?”
He shook his head slowly, and she saw the reality of it setting in. He looked at his lawyer, back at her again, and added, “No, but that’s something the goddamn bitch would do.”
Immediately the lawyer tried to shush him up.
Kate leaned forward and asked, “Why is that, Agnew?”
“Because she could never lose. It didn’t matter what it was, but she could never lose. She had to always win, no matter what, even if it meant cheating.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “That appears to have been a problem in your relationship.”
“Well, it wasn’t after that, was it?” he asked, with an ugly snort. He sat back, then scrubbed his face. “Jesus, please tell me that’s not true.”
“Are you really unaware of what actually happened?” He nodded slowly, and unfortunately she had to believe him. She looked at him and asked, “You really thought you tripped on a branch or something?”
He nodded. “Yes, of course I did. I’m not the kind of person who would look at my wife and blame her for it. Not to mention the fact that I had to get packed out of there on a stretcher.”
“And yet I presume you would have forgiven her if she had accidentally tripped you. If it would have been done in play or on the spur of the moment.”