Electronic Kill Machine

Blueprint for Murder

Lally had sat in the living room and waited for Anthony's interview to conclude before getting his shot at backing his partner up. One little discrepancy, one tiny piece of the story that didn't juxtapose with Ant's and the jig was up: they were heading down to headquarters.

"We left around 3:00 and went to the Emerald Square Mall because Anthony had to fill his cell phone minutes."

Emerald Square Mall

So far, so good.

"I was going to check on a job at Wal-Mart"—didn't they do drug testing there?—"but we left the mall instead."

Anthony hadn't mentioned Wal-Mart.

"We stopped at several dealerships and looked at cars in the Attleboro area. We headed back to Quincy about 9:00 but there was a lot a traffic for some reason."

All easy enough to check out.

"When did you guys return?"

Such an innocent, seemingly easy question to answer—but one, for an investigator, that can truly tell a lot.

"Around 10:30."

"Did you notice anything in the apartment out of the ordinary?"

"No. The kitchen light was on and Marina's bedroom doors were closed."

But it was odd, Lally seemed to say, seeing that Marina generally greets Anthony when he arrives home.

"Did you guys stay home?"

"No. I forgot that I needed cigarettes"—how many times they must have went through this day, over and over, rehearsing and rehearsing—"so we went out to the 7-11 and then to Nick's Sub Shop."