Evil Next Door by Amanda Lamb Read Free Book Online Page A

charge of situations in the same way that Morgan did. On the surface they couldn’t have been more different, but at the core, they had more in common than either of them would ever own up to.
    Morgan pulled up to the scene, put on his fedora, got out of the car, and ducked gingerly under the yellow tape. Like someone climbing into a yard expecting to be attacked by a guard dog, Morgan turned quickly in either direction. He spotted with his peripheral vision Perlov advancing on him, ready for a confrontation.
    Chief Perlov told Morgan she needed to show him something in the parking lot in front of Stephanie’s apartment. She brought him to a set of keys, lying on the ground right in the center of the black asphalt parking area just outside the yellow crime scene tape. Perlov pointed to the keys and asked Morgan how he and his team could have missed what could be a crucial piece of evidence.
    “Man, Chief, I was all over this parking lot for thirteen hours, I don’t think those keys were there last night when I left,” Morgan told the chief without hesitation.
    Again, Perlov asserted that Morgan might have missed what could be a critical piece of evidence. In addition, she said, Morgan had been irresponsible to let all of the detectives just go home and take a break in the middle of a high-profile murder investigation. Perlov asked him why he hadn’t had detectives out there in the parking lot searching on their hands and knees all night long. Morgan said Perlov told him she wanted to see the detectives growing beards right in front her eyes as they worked on the case around the clock.
    “I told her that tired detectives make poor decisions, and they miss things,” Morgan said as he recalled trying to keep his growing anger at the chief’s inquisition in check.
    Morgan explained the crime scene had essentially been frozen, and that nothing had been touched during the few hours they were gone. The uniformed officers had guarded the scene since the detectives had left at 4:00 and no one had been permitted to go back inside the yellow tape until Perlov had arrived.
    About that time, a blue and white Raleigh Police Department patrol car pulled up, and a young officer climbed out of the passenger seat. He yelled over to Morgan, who was still deep in conversation with Perlov. He apologized for interrupting, but wondered if they had found a set of car keys because his were missing, and he suspected they had fallen out of his jacket pocket in the parking lot shortly before he got off of his shift at 7:00 A.M.
    “[Chief Perlov] looked at me with another stare of disgust,” Morgan recalled as he smugly reached down, picked up the keys, and tossed them to the grateful young officer.
    The chief then asked Morgan to take her into the apartment. He cautioned Perlov that the crime scene had not been fully processed yet, and she should be careful not to touch anything. Somehow, Morgan knew his stern admonition would likely goad her into touching something, and he was right. The first thing the chief went for, he said, was the base of a cordless phone in the den. The receiver had been found on Stephanie’s bedside table. There was a red light indicating that at least one message had been left on the machine. Perlov wanted to know if the investigators had checked the messages. Morgan told her they had not checked the messages yet because they still needed to dust for fingerprints on the base of the phone before anyone else touched it.
    “Well, the key to this case might be right here on this answering machine,” the chief theorized. Morgan said Perlov then took her hand out of her pocket and started reaching down toward the phone.
    “Chief, that hasn’t been processed yet,” Morgan recalled saying anxiously. She kept reaching. “Chief, please don’t touch that. It hasn’t been processed yet.” The chief moved closer to the phone, as did Morgan, to block her.
    Morgan felt like the chances of fingerprint evidence on the phone