A Criminal's Mind

Devier

We continue talking to Devier, but before long we take a break, as soon as Ford and I step out of the room and the door closes Ford smiles over to me, "I think it's working."

"You do?" I chuckle softly.

"Yeah, I do. He's got you too busy flirting with him to really be looking into anything. And then he thinks I'm drowning in the paperwork so there's no way I could find anything useful."

"I guess so," I shake my head, "I have done that much flirting since I was 16. We'd better 'get our coffee' and get back in there."

"You're right," Ford nods. The two of us get our coffee and one cup for Devier, before heading back into the room.

"Thank you," Devier nods as I hand him the cup, "listen, I got to mosey out of here soon, so if we could..."

"Of course, of course," Ford nods, "let's get down to business."

I nod and sit across from Devier, "you're really important to us, Gene. You were on Lisa's street the week before she disappeared."

"You had a bird's-eye view of the entire place."

"Yeah," Devier nods, "but I mean, I didn't see nothing. You know, I was focused on them trees. You got to be. Especially when you're working the saw."

"Understood but..."

I take a deep breath and shake my head, "we're kind of grasping at straw here and you're the closest thing we have to an eyewitness."

"Well," Devier shrugs, "I took your polygraph. I'm an open book."

"Thank you. So... you must have seen Lisa coming and going that week."

"Not really. Maybe once or twice."

"Well..." Ford looks back to the flag girl uniform we have in the room, "if she wore that outfit, couldn't have missed her."

"Yeah. oh yeah," Devier nods, "I guess I saw her in that a couple of times."

"Feathered hat, silver baton?" I shrug.

"Uh... yeah."

"What time did you catch the school bus in the morning?"

"Well, let's see, I'd get there about 7, she'd come out maybe half hour later."

"And what time did the bus drop her back off?"

"Oh, I couldn't say. Maybe 3:30, 4."

"Ever see her talk to anyone when she got off the bus?"

"No, ma'am."

"Anyone on her street who looked like he didn't really belong there?"

"Not that I can recall, but, I mean... I wasn't even working the week that she disappeared."

"Right," Ford nods before looking down at the tape recorder, "oh, hold on, it almost ended." Ford pops out the tape and gestures back to Lisa's uniform, "that's what she had on her that day." He puts the tape back into the player, "heartbreaking."

I nod, "by all accounts, she was a sweet kid."

"Yeah," Devier nods, "she seemed real friendly."

"You noticed that?"

"You know, just saw her playing in the yard with her dog, you know. I mean, I guess you could say she was..."

"Precocious?"

"Right."

"Did you ever talk to her?" Ford tilts his head a bit, looking up from the file he had been 'going over.'