I'll Walk Alone - Mary Higgins Clark [95]
And somehow they would get to the truth. The same vigilance with which they were hounding Zan would be turned from her in other directions.
He was sorry. He was truly sorry, but Matthew could not be found in that closet. He had to be gone when the real estate agent arrived on Sunday afternoon.
I never intended to kill him, he thought regretfully. I never thought that it would have to end like this. He shrugged. And now it was time to go to church.
“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned,” he thought grimly.
63
This time, Zan did not respond to the media when she and Charley Shore arrived at the Central Park Precinct. Instead, ducking her head, she ran from the car to the front door with Charley’s arm under her elbow. They were escorted to the now familiar interrogation room, where Detectives Billy Collins and Jennifer Dean were waiting for them.
Without greeting her, Collins said, “I hope you didn’t forget to bring your passport, Ms. Moreland.”
Charley Shore answered for her. “We have the passport.”
“Good, because the judge will want it,” Billy said. “Ms. Moreland, why didn’t you share with us that you were planning to fly to Buenos Aires next Wednesday?”
“Because I wasn’t,” Zan said calmly. “And before you ask, neither did I clean out my bank account. I’m sure you’ve checked that by now.”
“What you are saying is that the same imposter who stole your child also bought you a one-way ticket to Argentina and helped herself to your bank account?”
“That is exactly what I am saying,” Zan said. “And in case you don’t know it yet, that same person ordered clothes at the stores where I have an account, and also ordered all the supplies I would have needed for the interior design job I bid on.”
The frown on Charley Shore’s face reminded her that he had told her to answer questions, but not to volunteer any information. She turned to him. “Charley, I know what you’re thinking, but I don’t have anything to hide. Maybe if these detectives look into all those activities, they’ll discover that even just one of them couldn’t have been done by me. And maybe then it is possible they will look at each other and one of them will say, ‘Well, maybe she was telling the truth.’ “
Zan looked back at the detectives. “Clap if you believe in miracles,” she said. “I am here to be arrested. Can we possibly begin the process?”
They stood up. “We do that downtown at the courthouse,” Billy Collins told her. “We’ll drive you there.”
It doesn’t take long to be an accused felon, she thought an hour later, after the arrest warrant was issued, a number was assigned to it, and she had been fingerprinted and had her mug shot taken.
From there she was taken into a courtroom to stand in front of a stern-faced judge. “Ms. Moreland, you are being charged here with kidnapping, obstruction of justice, and interference with parental custody,” he told her. “If you can make bail, you cannot leave the country without the permission of the court. Do you have your passport with you?”
“Yes, Your Honor,” Charley Shore answered for her.
“Surrender it to the court clerk. Bail is set at two hundred fifty thousand dollars.” The judge stood up and walked out of the courtroom.
Zan turned to Charley, panic-stricken. “Charley, I can’t raise that much money. You know I can’t.”
“Alvirah and I spoke about this possibility. She’s putting up the deed to her apartment for security with a bondsman and will lend you the bondsman’s fee. As soon as I call Willy, he’ll be on his way here with it. When the bail is straightened out, you’ll be free to go.”
“Free to go,” Zan whispered, looking down at the black smudges she had not been able to scrub from her fingers, “free to go.”
“This way, ma’am.” A court officer took her arm.
“Zan, you have to wait in a holding cell until Willy puts up the bail. As soon as I talk to him, I’ll come back and wait with you,” Charley told her.