Lady Jay’s shoulders relaxed slightly as she nodded, “A Diet Coke.”
Day pfftd at her. “Diet-shmiet. What are you a size six?”
“Don’t try to patronize me Detective,” she said around a slight grin.
Syn was flabbergasted that Day actually got a half-smile out of the woman.
“Sergeant Sydney will you be so kind to get Ms. Lindstrom a Coke please?” Day looked down at her with the most charming smile Syn had ever seen. “The sugar will help you. I’m sure you didn’t sleep well last night. I want to get you into the minimum-security wing so you can receive visitors. I’m sure your girls of BTNS would like to see you.”
Lady Jay nodded as Syn was leaving the room. Day continued, “I saw that BTNS stands for Better. Together. Never. Separated.”
“Damn, he’s good,” Syn told God after the door closed tightly behind him. God and Day had an awesome good cop/bad cop routine for interrogations, but when Syn added his straight-up asshole cop to their dance, it was downright entertaining. He had to admit that he’d enjoyed it. Syn told a uniform to get a Diet Coke as he and God watched Day work his magic through the window.
Syn saw Day unplug the camera on the wall. Lady Jay’s eyebrows rose in question. Pulling that plug was just a ploy. The camera in the next room was the one actually recording.
“So we can talk privately,” Day said. “So what does BTNS do?”
“I teach girls that loving each other is better. Never separate from each other. Men easily take advantage of women when they don't stick together to protect each other. Men will tear down a woman’s self-esteem if she doesn’t have another woman there to help lift her up. I teach my girls that they will get the love and care they deserve from a woman, not a man. All of my girls have experienced some form of abuse at the hands of a man.” She glared up at Day. “You act like you might be a nice one. But you’ll have to understand Lieutenant, I still don’t trust you.”
“Ms. Lindstrom talk to me, please. I really want to help you. I don’t want to see you on death row. Why did you kill Jake Statham?”
“You seem to have done your research, Lieutenant. Did you see Jake Starman’s scenes from Illustra? Did that look consensual to you? The way he handled her, slammed her around by her hair. Pounded her until she screamed for him to stop.” She slammed her fist down on the table. “She said stop, and those assholes just kept on recording like it was entertaining!”
Syn hoped Day could keep her talking. He was a profiler. He was great at using people’s passions to get information. He could easily find their vulnerabilities and use them to his advantage. Clearly, Lady Jay’s weakness was her girls. Day had already gotten from her, without her realizing it, that the other assailant was possibly one of the girls Statham performed with at Illustra, one with hair long enough to pull, and one that had used the word ‘stop’ during the scene. Hopefully that part was on film.
“Which girl are you referring to Janet? Starman has over twenty films on Illustra’s site.” Day moved from the edge of the table to sit down. “Another girl was at the crime scene with you. Who was it? Why are you going to take four counts of murder at twenty-five years each on yourself? Give us her name and the supplier of the ecstasy that you used to drug Mr. Statham, Rick Diggler, Lance Towers, and Dick Berry.” Day placed the pictures of the other three victims in front of her. “You won’t see your girls ever again. Who’s going to protect them when you go to prison? You'll give them a chance if you cooperate with us. A deal of ten years sounds a hell of a lot better than life without the possibility of parole.”
“You’re not as slick as you think, Lieutenant. I never said I killed them,” she said softly, her smile almost sinister.
“You killed Statham because he raped one of your BTNS girls and no one did a damn thing, so you took it upon yourself.”
“I never said that!” she yelled, getting even angrier. “You’re trying to force a confession. I want my lawyer right fucking now! Don’t ask me another question!”
Syn knew the interrogation was over and so did Day. He gathered the contents of the file and stood from his seat. He looked at her, shaking his head sadly. “I tried to help you.”
Lady Jay slammed her hands on the table again. “You don’t want to help me! You’re just like all the rest of them. You thought you were so slick slipping in those other three names. Fuck you!”
Day turned, heading for the door.