Free Mind Switch by Lorne L. Bentley Page B

into his office. Fred said, “I am going to personally interview Mrs. Slivers to see if she can shed some light on the case. Jim, you and Paul check into the backgrounds of all those that were in the bank at the time of the shooting to see if there was any link between the victims and Slivers. I fully understand that this might be a wild goose hunt; but if the shootings in the bank were not random, then perhaps we can unearth the real reason behind them.”
    He put Jim in charge of this segment of the investigation, a decision that obviously did not sit well with Paul. Fred realized that nothing Fred did would satisfy Paul, so the hell with him.

 
    Chapter 18
     
    When Paul and Jim left his office, Fred called Mrs. Slivers, identified himself, and asked to see her. She was less than enthusiastic but reluctantly agreed to meet him at her house in a half hour.
    Fred had learned from experience that he had to structure interrogation techniques on a selective situation basis depending on the personalities he was confronting. When dealing with the accused, the key was to let them believe he had more evidence then he really had. This frequently resulted in the inadvertent release of details of the crime or, if he was lucky, a confession. When more than one individual was involved in a crime, his preferred method was to play one against another. Rarely did loyalty come to the forefront in such cases. And once one party started talking, it was relatively easy to accomplish the same with the other.  
    The most difficult aspect of any investigation was that which he was about to do. He had to get information out of the loved one of a spouse accused of murder. His approach was to appear sympathetic while at the same time obtaining as much incriminating evidence as possible. Not only was the task difficult, it went against his very principles. He very much wanted to give this task to Jim who had the finesse to succeed in these delicate situations. But he hadn’t delegated the assignment for two reasons. First, he needed Jim to help keep tight reins on Paul. Secondly, it would not be fair to give this objectionable task to Jim. After all, Fred realized, he was now making the big bucks and had to deal with the assortment of responsibilities that came with it.
    The Slivers’ home was in the remote eastern boundary of Sarasota County. The development’s gated homes were significantly larger and more expensive than those in most areas of Sarasota. Fred surmised that one had to have a fairly high annual income to purchase and maintain a house of this size. Paul wondered if Slivers’ position as the head of an insurance agency would provide him an adequate income. Jim had conducted a thorough financial paper trail and concluded that Slivers was well off. Fred needed to verify that for himself. On the other hand, even if there was a money problem, it didn’t seem to have any link to the murders.
    Fred knew the area well, although he had never actually been in the development. The development’s swampy land had been elevated through the use of thousands of tons of fill dirt. Arcadia, the closest eastern small town of any magnitude, was over 40 miles away with no lifeline gas stations or restaurants in between. At night the small two lane road was often occupied by alligators seeking new breeding grounds as dominant males would drive out smaller ones from their watery domiciles. But within the tranquil urban setting of the area in which the Slivers lived, many of its residents lived out their peaceful lives without ever seeing the predatory creatures of the night that lurk and kill just a few miles beyond their backyards.
    Fred jumped into his bright red Miata, and went east on Fruitville Road, out to the development in which Slivers lived, a trip which took about twenty-five minutes. It would have taken only about fifteen during the summer, when the snowbirds were not populating the county. A local radio disk jockey joked every winter