THE BODY

The Fishing Trip

Sunday could not go by fast enough. I had a million different thoughts about the case that day. Mostly though I thought about what would happen on Monday at 3 pm. I was going to be sitting across Jo Ana's parents at that moment in time. Would I find their daughter by then? I wasn't sure. I had already made up my mind that I was going to make an arrest by then whether or not I found her. Sometimes all that is needed is the shock of an arrest to bring out a confession. To make things real. Without the confession or a body , conviction would be very difficult, if not impossible.

Regardless of any of that, something else bothered me. On Monday at 3 pm I was going to change the world that Mr. and Mrs. Contreras lived in. I was going to destroy them. And if nothing happened according to my plan I was going to do that without any real physical evidence whatsoever.  I was going to tell them that their son-in-law, their surviving daughter's husband, killed their other daughter.

Up to that point in my career that is one story I hadn't told yet. And I thought I had told them all. It seems sometimes that the life of an investigator, if he hangs around long enough, is just that, - waiting for that next story he hasn't told. I realize now what a fucked up job that is.

Danny text me to let me know the polygraph guy was set up for tomorrow. That was the 5th text that day from him. The other 4 text from him were just different versions of "Dude, you're so fucked!" and "Dude, you're so fired!". I called Jose and told him I needed him tomorrow instead of Tuesday. He did not even question it. That was a good sign.

I slept 2 hours and made it in to work at 7 a.m. I thought I was going to be the first person in but Danny was already in his office.

"Hey Dan what's up?"

"Seriously, I wouldn't miss this for the world."

"Jerk, you could help you know. Instead of waiting around for me to fall on my face."

"You don't need help. You need an accomplice. No thanks. Plus, I already set up everything in the conference room for you again."

"Okay great. Let's get some coffee before we start."

We walked to the employee snack room and drank coffee for a bit and watched the rest of the detectives stumble in to work. I realize that if this had been a regular case most of those guys would be forming a line asking how the case was going and if they could help. Everyone wants to work a murder case.  But the fact is that no one believes we are working a murder case except for Danny and me. This was so different from any other case I had worked.

We filled our coffee cups and went back to the conference room. Danny had already cleaned up and put our entire file back up on the board. He had already uploaded and printed up the remaining pictures CSI had taken at the house.  The room even smelled cleaner than it did on Saturday.

"Hey Dan, you're gonna make somebody a fine wife someday."

"Ha ha. You're funny. So what's the plan?"

"Simple. Guy takes polygraph. Guy fails polygraph. Guy cries. We sing Kumbaya together. Guy confesses. Guy takes me to the body. We sing Kumbaya again. Guy gets arrested. I get some sleep."

"Yeah, great plan. You're a genius. Except for one thing. Anyone of those could simply not happen. What if he passes the polygraph?"

"He won't."

"What if he does?"

"He won't."

"But if he does?"

"Look, I don't care. I don't care if he passes the damn polygraph. I don't care if he comes in with an attorney. I don't care if has video of himself  dancing in the Bahamas at the time Jo Ana disappeared!  He killed her. I know it and he knows it. And for that matter you know it too so shut the hell up and help me figure out where he hid the body!"