Page 27 of The Writer

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Log 10/19/2018 06:36 EDT

Transcript: Audio/video recording (interview room 3, Twentieth Precinct)

Present: Detective Declan Shaw

Detective Jarod Cordova

POI Ruben Lucero

[Shaw] How’s the arm, Lucky? Looks like the docs at Memorial patched you up nice. Want me to sign your cast?

[Lucero] Fuck you. You’re going down for attacking me.

[Cordova] You ran, Mr. Lucero. You resisted arrest. You assaulted an officer, you—

[Shaw] You made me jump off a building, you piece of shit.

[Cordova] Why’d you run?

[Lucero] You busted down my door and came in. You’d run too.

[Shaw] We identified ourselves as NYPD and knocked. We didn’t bust in the door until you ran. It’s all on tape, Lucky. Don’t bullshit a bullshitter.

[Cordova] If you’d just talked to us, you’d probably be curled up in your own bed right now having happy dreams instead of sitting here talking to us.

[Lucero] Right. Get me a la—

[Shaw] You a big reader, Lucky?

[Lucero] Huh?

[Shaw] We found a lot of books in your place. Seems you must be a reader.

[Cordova] Budding photographer also.

[Shaw] Yeah, that too. You’ve got quite the eye.

[ Transcriber note: From a file box, Shaw unpacks numerous books and sets them on the table. He then opens the covers. There are pictures—Polaroids—in each. ]

[Shaw] Tell me about these girls.

[Lucero] [ Unintelligible mumble .]

[Shaw] Who are they, Lucky?

[Lucero] Just girls. That’s all.

[Shaw] Just girls. Did you hurt them?

[Lucero] No!

[Cordova] We’ve got CSU going through your apartment right now. Are they going to find traces of these girls? Maybe tied to that bed of yours? Handcuffed?

[Shaw] Did you take them and make them piss and shit like animals in that bucket we found? What’d you do with them after?

[Lucero] No! It’s not like that!

[Shaw] It’s not like that. Sure.

[Lucero] My girlfriend likes to be tied up. That’s all that is.

[Shaw] You expect us to believe you have a girlfriend?

[Lucero] Well, not exactly a girlfriend. She’s a pro. But she lets me tie her up. The bucket’s mine. Plumbing on my toilet busted yesterday, and the super can’t get up until tomorrow, so I’ve been using a bucket.

[Shaw] You know CSU can confirm that, right? Now’s not the time to lie to us. Now is the time to come clean. You tell the truth, and maybe we can help you out.

[Lucero] I ain’t lying!

[Shaw] [ Gestures at photographs .] Where are these girls?

[Lucero] I don’t know. I took pictures of them, sure, but I didn’t touch them. I didn’t even talk to them.

[Cordova] So how’d you get the books?

[Lucero] Sometimes they forget them. In the park.

[Shaw] [ Slams hand on table .] Bullshit!

[Lucero] Okay! Okay! I took the books when they weren’t looking. I’m a groundskeeper, invisible to girls like that. They stop for water, food, get lost in their phones, I snagged a book. I didn’t touch them! Hardly even talked to most of them!

[Shaw] Come on, Lucky. We’re not idiots. You’re on the sex offenders list. You’ve got history.

[ Transcriber note: Cordova produces a file, sets it on the table, opens it. ]

[Cordova] Statutory rape. Ten years ago.

[Lucero] She was my girlfriend. I was nineteen, she was sixteen. Age of consent in New York is seventeen. Her parents didn’t like me, so they pressed charges to keep us apart. That’s all that was.

[Cordova] According to this, it was a repeat offense. Year before that you were charged with the same thing with another girl. That one was only fifteen.

[Lucero] She was my girlfriend too.

[Shaw] Sounds like you’ve got a taste for young girls, Lucky.

[Lucero] It was consensual.

[Shaw] [ Gestures at pictures .] These too? All consensual? What do you do, pay them to go back to your place? Let you take a few pics? Maybe fool around a little bit?

[Lucero] No!

[Shaw] Right. It’s just your girlfriend who likes to get tied up.

[ Transcriber note: Cordova sets a photograph in front of Lucero. ]

[Cordova] Tell us about Maggie Marshall.

[Lucero] Jesus! I didn’t do that!

[Shaw] No? I guess we can all go home, then. [ Slams hand on table .] You lied to me!

[Lucero] What? No. I didn’t—

[Shaw] On the roof, after you resisted arrest, after you assaulted a law enforcement officer, you told me exactly how she cuts through the park every day. You told me where she starts, where she goes out. You told me you never talked to her.

[Lucero] I didn’t—

[ Transcriber note: Shaw takes out his phone and plays a video for Lucero. ]

[Shaw] That’s you talking to her, dipshit.

[Lucero] [ Appears confused .] That was like a week ago. I remember now. She asked me where the nearest bathroom was and I told her. That’s all that was.

[Cordova] If that’s all that was, why did you follow her?

[ Silence for twenty-eight seconds .]

[Shaw] We have video of you following her, Lucky.

[Lucero] [ Voice barely audible .] I was worried about her.

[Shaw] Worried? Why?

[Lucero] I saw this man watching her. He came in behind her from Fifth and followed her through the park.

[Shaw] Oh, and you were just keeping her safe? Is that it? Making sure some other sexual predator didn’t pounce on your girl?

[Cordova] There’s nobody else following her on video. Only you.

[Lucero] I ain’t lying.

[ Transcriber note: Shaw places more photographs on the table. ]

[Shaw] This is Maggie dead, Lucky. Here’s another picture. And another. We found her right where you left her, up behind Blockhouse. See the bruising around her neck? That’s a handprint. Your handprint. You squeezed so hard, the ME had no trouble pulling exact measurements. He created a mold of her killer’s hand, his full grip. What are we going to find when we compare that mold to your hand?

[Cordova] You a smoker, Lucky?

[ Transcriber note: Cordova places a photograph on the table. ]

[Cordova] That’s the butt of a Marlboro Red found right next to her body. Coincidently, we found half a pack of Marlboro Reds in your apartment. We’ll have DNA back in a few days. What are we going to turn up there?

[Shaw] And if that weren’t enough, you forgot your damn watch.

[ Transcriber note: Shaw sets another photograph on the table .]

[Shaw] Left it in the mud around a bunch of size-eleven shoe prints I’m pretty sure we’ll match to you too. The watch has your damn name on it, Lucky. Half the people we showed it to on staff at the park said it was yours. They’ve all seen you wear it. You’re making our job so easy on this one, I should give you an honorary detective’s badge. Why’d you kill her in the park? We didn’t find any of these others in the park. Did Maggie try to get away? Tell us what happened, you tell us now, and we’ll put in a good word with the ADA. You make me do this the hard way, and I’ll crucify you.

[ Transcriber note: Cordova shows him two more photographs .]

[Cordova] That’s a knee print next to her body. This is a picture of a pair of your jeans found on the floor in your apartment. See the mud on the knees? CSU tells me preliminary tests match it to our crime scene.

[ Silence for forty-two seconds .]

[Shaw] You know what? I’m done. Cordova, drop this fucker in gen-pop for the weekend. Soon as they figure out he’s a child diddler, he’s a dead man. Let’s save the taxpayers some money.

[Lucero] [ Barely audible .] Wait…

[Shaw] Wait? Wait why? You got something to say?

[Lucero] I found her. After.

[Shaw] Bullshit.

[Lucero] I went to clean up some branches around Blockhouse. If I picked up mud, that’s how. The band on my watch is busted. It falls off all the time. And yeah, I smoke Marlboro Reds. So does half the city. You found one of my old butts on the ground where I work? Big fucking deal. I smoke a pack a day. Wouldn’t have to look too hard to find more. I went up to Blockhouse to clean up from the storm and found her there. I didn’t touch her. I swear.

[Cordova] If you found her like that, why didn’t you tell anyone?

[Lucero] [ Gestures at everything on the table .] Why the hell do you think?

[Shaw] [ Picks up one of the books and slams it down on the table .] You stalked that poor girl, and when the timing was right, you tried to snatch her.

[Lucero] No.

[Shaw] You chased her through the woods. We have your tracks and hers.

[Lucero] No!

[Shaw] You knocked her out and carried her to Blockhouse for some privacy, and you destroyed that poor girl. You made her final moments on this planet the most terrifying she’d probably ever experienced.

[Lucero] No!

[Shaw] Then you took her life. Ended her like she was just some thing you had to discard. You left her out there to rot and couldn’t help going back to take another look at her a few days after. Probably got your rocks off again, you sick piece of shit.

[Lucero] I’m telling you, this was someone else!

[Shaw] Bullshit.

[ End of recording .]

/MG/GTS