To Love and to Kill by M. William Phelps Page A

They were subtle movements telling Buie that Josh was hiding something.
    The detective asked Josh to pick up where he had left off during an earlier interview. Buie asked Josh to finish what they had been talking about then. And it was clear here with Josh’s response to this question that Buie was definitely playing both sides against each other. A tactic any good cop would use in this same situation. Regarding this common method of law enforcement interviewing, Mike Mongeluzzo, another detective involved in the investigation, would later say, “That’s not an attempt to play one against the other—it’s an attempt to get the truth out of two people that are lying. . . .”
    â€œSomething about ... ,” Josh said to Buie, “she (Emilia) told you I took [Heather] in the trailer and I knocked on her door at four in the morning?”
    â€œFive in the morning,” Buie corrected.
    â€œBut it never happened,” Josh said.
    â€œThat’s not true?” Buie asked, somewhat surprised.
    â€œI never ... no. I’m going to tell you something.... There’s no way I could kill that girl. I love her too damn much.”
    Buie dropped his head. They were going backward.
    After a few additional questions, Buie got back into what he claimed Emilia had told him concerning Josh being responsible for Heather’s disappearance and ultimate demise. They talked about the trailer and Emilia’s mother’s yard—those piles of brush, newly excavated earth, junk lying around the property, debris, wood, tree limbs, sticks and dead trees. The way Buie played it with Josh was that Emilia had sold him out: Emilia had told the MCSO that Josh had killed Heather and her body was buried somewhere on Emilia’s mother’s property. Why was Josh denying this?
    Josh said no way. It didn’t happen like that. He couldn’t have done it.
    â€œSo everything she’s telling me is a lie?” Buie asked, clearly becoming impatient. He was frustrated that either Josh or Emilia—or both—had been giving him the old-fashioned jerk-off.
    â€œIf she’s telling you that I took that girl in that trailer, that’s a lie.”
    â€œWhat about putting her in the hole?” Buie suggested.
    â€œNo!” Josh snapped back.
    â€œWhat about killing her?”
    â€œNo!”
    Buie backed up. He started from the top. “What about knocking on [Emilia’s] window that morning?”
    â€œNo. Listen. I know that family well enough. I can go to the door and knock. . . .”
    â€œSo everything she is telling me is a lie?” Buie asked again.
    â€œYes, sir. I didn’t take that girl to that trailer and put her in a hole.”
    â€œThe only person that has any means to do that is who?” Buie asked.
    â€œHeather is my wife,” Josh said. “I would not kill her.” Josh sold it well. He made it sound as though he cared about Heather.
    Buie talked about how he was just “relaying stuff back and forth.” He explained that Emilia and other witnesses were giving him information he was trying to verify through Josh. A lot of that information, Buie seemed to say without coming out with it entirely, pointed directly back to Josh. The trail led to the husband. The MCSO was following that trail. How was Josh going to respond to all of these fingers pointed at him?
    â€œWhere is [Emilia] now?” Josh asked.
    â€œShe’s still here.”
    â€œYou going to let her go home?”
    â€œShe ain’t going home,” Buie said. That was not necessarily true. Buie implied that Emilia wasn’t going to be allowed to leave any time soon. The truth of the matter was that Emilia had not been placed under arrest. She could get up and leave whenever she wanted.
    Buie then enlightened Josh by stating how the MCSO had caught him in “numerous, numerous lies,” and there was some explaining that had to be done in order for