Frank Zafiro - The Bastard Mummy

Elias nodded in agreement. “The only trouble is, more than one of them is lying.”

“Who do you figure?”

Elias held up a finger. “Moore, for sure. He said he went straight home, but his wife puts him there at 0200. That’s a straight-up lie.”

“All right. Who else?”

Finger raised a second finger. “The janitor is hiding something. Did you see how he got nervous when we closed the door?”

“Could just be a reaction to the closed space.”

“No way, Finchie. The guy did time. He might not like it, but he’d be comfortable in a broom closet. No, he’s nervous because he’s hiding something.”

Finch shrugged. “Okay, maybe. How about the professor?”

Elias frowned. “Well, she was sorta over the top about being helpful….”

“Maybe she wanted to clear her name.”

“Maybe. Or maybe she’s not as smart as we thought. Maybe she’s just as arrogant as we think and believes we won’t figure it out.”

Finch considered. “I don’t think so.”

“She stands to gain if Leavitt gets canned.”

“True. But I don’t think she’s the one. At least she’s got an alibi.”

“You crossing her off the list?”

“In pencil, yeah.”

Elias shrugged. “She’s the number five horse, anyway. What about Leavitt?”

“You tell me.”

“I think he’s still a possible, though I don’t see what he’d gain from it. But his alibi isn’t backed up by anyone, so I guess he’s the number four horse for me.”

“Behind Eric, the security guard?”

“You bet! The kid says he fell asleep, but what if he just let the tapes run and rewind on purpose?”

Finch cocked an eyebrow. “If he did, then he knows who the thief is.”

“Or he is the thief,” Elias said.

“We’ll start with him, then.”

“P-p-prison?” Eric stammered. “But I only fell asleep!”

Elias shook his head, his eyes cold. Watching on, Finch felt a brief welling of sympathy for the college student, but he brushed it aside.

“You fell asleep ”-Elias made air quotes with his fingers-“at a very convenient time. While you were sleeping ”-more air quotes-“the mummy was snatched. And just as conveniently, the tape ran and re-ran, erasing the best evidence of the crime.”

Tears welled up in Eric’s eyes. “I screwed up. I know it. But-”

“You didn’t screw up, Eric,” Elias said. “You committed first degree theft by accomplice. That is a class-A felony. You can get up to twenty-five years for that crime, did you know that?”

“Twenty-fi…?” Eric’s mouth fell open. The tears brimmed over his eyelids and streamed down his cheeks.

“What are you now, twenty? So if you did the maximum, you’d be forty-five when you get released.” Elias shrugged. “I suppose you could go back to college. Lots of people do it these days. What do they call it? Oh, yeah.” He held up the air quotes again. “A non-traditional student.”

Eric’s shook his head rapidly from side to side. His mouth moved but no sound came out. Finch felt another stab of pity.

Elias leaned forward and patted Eric comfortingly on the shoulder. “We don’t think you planned this, Eric. We figure you were just brought aboard by someone else. That makes you less of a bad guy here. And if you come forward now and cooperate, we can testify to the judge that you were helpful. That could make a big difference in your case.”

Eric let out a hitching sob and hung his head. Finch handed him a box of tissues while Elias patted him on the shoulder. The security guard wept in deep, uncontrolled sobs. “Oh, I screwed up so b-b-bad,” he cried. “And then I l-l-lied to you.”

Elias shot Finch a quick glance over the top of Eric’s head. He winked.

“Tell me the truth, Eric. What did you lie about before?”

Eric sniffled and wiped his nose. He struggled to regain his composure, looking Elias directly in the eye. “Can they send me to jail for lying?”

Elias nodded. “Especially if you let the lie stand.”

Eric shook his head. “No, I’ll tell the truth now. I never should’ve tried to lie about it to begin with.”

Elias patted his shoulder again. “Good, Eric. Good. Now, what do you want to tell me?”

Eric took a deep wavering breath. “I…I…” He let out the breath in a whoosh and shook his head apologetically, his face red.

“It’s all right,” Elias said. “Take your time.”

“I…well, um…that wasn’t the only time I fell asleep at work.” He swallowed. “In fact, uh, I pretty much slept most of the night. Every night.”

Elias let out a barely discernible sigh. His eyes flicked to Finch. Finch winked. Elias clenched and unclenched his jaw.

“What else, Eric?”

Eric’s brow furrowed. “What else what?”

“What else do you need to tell me?”

He gave Elias a confused look. “That’s all. Look, I know I’m going to get fired and everything, but it’s the truth.” He glanced to Finch and back to Elias. “Am I going to jail?”

“What if the thief knew Eric was sleeping the night away most nights?” Elias asked Finch in the hallway. “He could even have made a trial run or two to make sure.”

“That’s pretty risky. If the kid wakes up within two hours of the theft and changes the tape, the guy is nailed.”

“Maybe he had a contingency for that.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know exactly. Steal the tape or something.”

Finch clicked his tongue, nodding. “Okay, so are we agreed the kid wasn’t in on it?”

“Ninety-nine percent, yeah.”

“And the professor?”

“Last horse still in the race.”

“Agreed. So that leaves Leavitt, Moore, and the janitor.”

“Let’s hit Moore first. He’s the one with the bad alibi.”

Moore sat on the bench in the empty waiting area, hunched over and kneading his hands. “Why couldn’t we do this in my office?” he asked.

Because we don’t want you getting comfortable, Finch thought.

“Police reasons,” Elias said.

Moore scrunched his brow. “I never heard of any kind of reason not to interview someone in their office.”

“Well,” Elias said briskly, standing over him, “you’re not the police, are you?”

Moore’s features darkened. He glared at Elias but said nothing.

Finch sat next to Moore on the bench. “What are we going to find when we pull your application file, Tony?”

Moore swiveled his gaze to Finch. “Huh?”

“You applied to River City PD,” Finch said evenly. “You were turned down. What are we going to find when we have Records pull your application and we review your background? Or when we read the oral board interview results?”

Moore shrugged. “Pull it and see.”

“Why don’t you just tell us?”

He smiled sourly. “I’m not the police.”

Finch ignored his tone. “No, but you are the head of security here. That’s a position of trust.”

“So?”

“So, trust requires honesty. And you haven’t been honest with us. So we’re trying to figure out if that was part of the reason you didn’t get hired by the police.”

He shook his head. “I’ve been honest with you. I want to find the mummy. I’ll probably lose my job over this.”

“Maybe you should,” Elias observed coldly.

Moore eyes snapped to Elias. “What’s your problem, man?”

“I don’t like liars.”

“Well, I didn’t-”

“We talked to your wife, Tony,” Finch interjected. “She told us when you got home.”

“I got home at midnight,” Moore insisted.

Finch shook his head. “No. You woke up Angela when you got home at two. ”

Both detectives watched Moore as his face changed from anger to denial to realization. “Two?” he finally rasped.