123. Interview with James Bennett: Part 4

5 July 2011

– My opinion on the case never changed, even after I saw everything unfold in the weeks before, during, and after the trial.

– It’s becauseof how everything unfolded actually, why my mind just wouldn’t let it go.

– Bishop was flaky, the whole time. He lied about not being the one to set fire to that place, and he lied about not knowing the bodies were there, about not knowing where his accomplice went too.

– He knew. He knew all of it. I couldn’t prove it, but I knew it.

– I was pissed when the verdict came back and all they got him on was the arson count. They’d bought into Silverstein’s bullshit, hook, line, sinker. I mean, some officers’d say it wasn’t a total loss, still a conviction. Especially as far as I was concerned since I wasn’t even on the damn case anymore. Was barely even back to being an officer, on probation and mandatory AA at that point.

– Case wasn’t closed to me though. More like an open book turned over on its pages so that nobody can see the words.

– I always had this biting feeling in my stomach when I saw Bishop, at the precinct, in the courtroom. Something was wrong with him. Even if he didn’t do what I think he did—which he did—something was still very wrong with him.

– You could feel it just by looking at him, just staring at his face you could see it in the way his eyes were always shifting around and his lip twitched all the time and he just sort of watched everybody without saying anything, like one of those guys in World Poker Tournaments, right before they drop a straight flush on your ass.

– Like a wolf. Yeah, a fucking wolf.

– I’ll never believe that Bishop had nothing to do with those bodies. Those investigators for the prosecution, they did a shit job on his case. If I’d been allowed to stick with it, Bishop’d still be locked up. Or executed, first degree charges.

– Because [Detective Bennett pauses, then looks around and sighs.] Fuck it. Chief can’t do anything about it anymore anyways, was so long ago.

– Few days before the trial’s about to start, I did a little extra investigating.

– For my own peace of mind. Nothing that would ever hold up since I wasn’t on the case, and I probably would’ve been fired back then if the chief found out about any of it, considering the terms of my probation and that fucking restraining order and—whatever. I’d never work another precinct again if they found out, but it wasn’t anything too serious so I figured I could get away with it.

– I just took a peek in Bishop’s apartment, trying to find anything I could before somebody came and cleaned the place out. It had always irked me that I never got a chance to search Bishop’s place myself, so I decided to just take the liberty.

– It was my case. Mine. Bastard Silverstein took it from me. I just wanted to see what I could have done, just to know.

– There was an eviction notice on Bishop’s door when I got there. Thirty days, everything was getting trashed. Notice had been up there for three weeks already. Police tape’s gone and everything so I head down to the front desk, flash my badge and get a key. Tell them it’s some last minute investigative stuff.

– When I got in, I admit, I took out some frustration. Ruffled up some drawers, threw a few clothes around, ripped a poster off the wall. It felt good. Cathartic. When I was done, I looked through some boxes I found in the back of Bishop’s closet and there’s this picture of him and this girl, hugging and smiling. Cute girl, his age, dark-hair. Italian looking. Picture’s dated about six months before the day I arrested him.

– Bishop and this girl, their picture looked like the ones they stick in frames when you just buy them, to show you how nice the frame could look. So, I searched some more, trying to find the origin of this mystery girl.

– They already checked Bishop’s lease, wasn’t anybody on it but him. Doesn’t mean nobody else was staying there regularly though, but he said there wasn’t and nobody came forward during the investigation to say anything otherwise.

– Nobody seemed to know anything about this Bishop kid, actually. Like he was a ghost recently appeared or something. Had a job but he’d been fired from that, and when detectives spoke to his old boss, all he told them was Bishop kept to himself.

– Anyways, I went in the bathroom and there’s nothing but an old toothbrush and a couple of cologne bottles and some shaving cream. But under the cabinet, way in the back behind the shampoo and body wash bottles and the toilet paper and stuff, there’s a box of Maxi pads. You get me?

– So now we got him all chummy with a girl in a picture and we got period pads in his bathroom. Something ain’t right. So I kept looking, finding nothing, finding nothing, and when I’m finally thinking it’s a dead end, I spot it.

– In the living room, next to the couch, a basket filled with magazines. Men’s Health, Maxim, a couple issues of Time. And hidden in the middle of the stack, two issues of Cosmo. Subscription issues, address label and everything.

– Now, you tell me, why’s Bishop got a subscription to Cosmo?

– Because he doesn’t. Address is for his apartment, but the name on it says Louise Morezo.

– Yeah, I know, that’s what I said. I keep that name in my head, Louise Morezo. Get back to the precinct and it’s the only thing I’m thinking about. Louise Morezo. Louise. Morezo.

– Doesn’t sound familiar, but I figure if there’s anywhere I should look first, its records. I get nothing. Girl had one speeding ticket back in like 2006. Otherwise, clean. Check all the criminal databases, ‘cause I’m thinking this whole time that maybe I’ve got his accomplice, you get me?

– Like I said, didn’t matter at this point, but I’d already got myself started. Didn’t find anything though. So I’m sitting at my desk and it’s just nagging me. Won’t leave my mind. Louise Morezo. Could still be the accomplice, just doesn’t have a record, which is completely likely since Bishop didn’t have a record before this either.

– But then I get to thinking, on a whim, what if Morezo wasn’t in on it all? I think about how they’d said one of those bodies they took from the house Bishop burned down was a female. What if Morezo wasn’t an accomplice, but a victim?

– So I check missing person’s, and I’m excited because I’m almost sure I’m going to find her. Something like that, chief’ll overlook me going to Bishop’s apartment if I find something that big. But the search comes back negative. Nobody’s reported her.

– Still wasn’t convinced, but nothing I could do about it. I tried too. Went so far as to look if she had a Facebook page. Turned out she did, at one point. Deactivated it three days before Bishop set that fire though. Convenient, huh?

– All I needed really. Like I said, as far as I was concerned, I was off the case. I wanted to go to the Chief bad, tell him what I’d found, bypass the fake justice that was being served and give a little more support to the charges this prick had on him. And I was even more pissed because it had taken me all of two hours to figure this shit out, but the D.A. had no clue.

– I knew it wouldn’t matter if I did tell the Chief, though. And I wasn’t about to risk my job and the little credibility I still had just so I could point my finger in someone’s face and possibly say I told you so. [Detective Bennett cringes] God, you don’t know how bad I wanted to, though.

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