“So you got called to the scene not knowing.”
“It was just another call, Lieutenant.”
“When Monte told you he murdered Des and Doreen, did he say where it happened?”
“I didn’t ask. Next morning, I take a call and it’s them. You can imagine. I nearly fainted.”
“When I met you, you seemed to be holding it together pretty well, Lara.”
“It took every ounce of energy to not start screaming, Lieutenant. The moment I was out of there I just fell apart.”
“Too scared to tell me what you knew.”
“I’m sorry, it’s obvious I should have, I was so freaked out, and then, later, when I thought about it, I figured I’d get in trouble for not coming forward right away, I was… I felt totally stuck.”
“I can understand that.”
“It’s obstruction, isn’t it?”
“Frankly, it could be, Lara. Whether or not John Nguyen-he’s the deputy D.A. in charge-decides to pursue that is up to him. If you continue to help, I have no trouble talking to John on your behalf.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
“Sure… coincidences-yeah, I’ve seen that in my own life. What some folks might call fate, karma, or just plain luck. What do psychologists call it, Dr. Delaware?”
“Yet another mystery of life.”
“Heh heh-okay, let’s move on. You show up at the scene, find out who the vics are, try to maintain.”
“My insides were churning.”
“Freaky coincidence… there is one sticking point. You made a special effort to take that call. We found out because we weren’t thinking in terms of coincidence and wondered how you came to work a scene with vics you knew. So we checked the work schedules here at the crypt. Confirmed it with Dave McClellan. You asked to switch with another C.I., Dan Paillard. Dan verifies it.”
Silence.
“Lara?”
“I know what it looks like but that had nothing to do with what happened. Absolutely nothing, I was eager for more experience. This is an intense place, being new, I felt I needed to catch up.”
“You traded with Dan but never collected on your half of the bargain.”
“What do you mean?”
“You never asked him to cover for you in return.”
“Guess I didn’t… I forgot he owed me anything, like I told you, Lieutenant, I’ve got memory issues.”
“I guess that could also explain forgetting you traded with Dan in the first place.”
“Sometimes I forget where I put my shoes.”
“That I can tell you, Lara. They were right where you said, near the box of guns.”
“I… I was speaking rhetorically. But… sure.”
“So you traded with Dan to get experience.”
“Exactly.”
“Okay… looks like you’ve explained away each of the question marks I had when I came in. The problem is, each one makes sense but when you put them all together, John Nguyen doesn’t like what he sees. I know because he told me. John’s basically a good guy, but he’s also a highly suspicious guy. I had a case I didn’t want to file because I felt the evidence didn’t justify it but John bulldozed ahead anyway. And got a conviction. He’s aggressive, smart, and really good at convincing juries.”
Silence.
“Lara?”
“So what do we do, Lieutenant?”
“What we do is maybe you can explain something away as more than coincidence or memory lapse. Anything that breaks up this… big database of coincidence.”
“I already admitted I knew Carlo back in high school. I just didn’t know you meant Knew with a capital K.”
“Understood. But I can tell you for a fact that John is not going to buy the part about switching with Dan Paillard as self-education. He’s convinced you were part of the murder and were aiming to control the situation. That means premeditation and that’s like a big martini for a guy like John.”
“But-”
“Hear me out, Lara-you okay? Here’s another tissue. It’s important that you see it from a prosecutor’s perspective: What you’re asking John to believe is that you had no idea what Monte was up to when he left the house, that he came home and told you he’d murdered someone, that you stashed the murder weapon for him and didn’t report anything because you were scared. John’s seen plenty of women in domestic situations, that much he can probably buy. But then you want him to believe that you just happened to work the scene for self-education. John is not going to accept that. And, to be honest, in my opinion neither is a jury. They watch too much TV, want everything to make sense by the third commercial. Combine that with your prints on the murder weapon and you can-”
“I did have an idea.”
“About what?”
“About the call. I guess you’d call it a premonition. But I didn’t know for sure. I wasn’t even certain he’d actually killed them, he’s been talking about it for so long I kind of brushed the whole issue off. Then, when I got to the crypt and a Westside call came in, I got a really sick feeling and asked to trade with Dan.”
“Because…”
“Just what you said, I was feeling out of control, just wanted to get a handle on it. I guess part of me was hoping it wouldn’t turn out to be them. That Monte really had lied and the nightmare would end. I’d decided to leave him, anyway.”
“So you intentionally traded to work the scene.”
“I know it was wrong-not saying anything to you. If they want to charge me with obstruction, I can’t stop them. But given what Monte’s done compared with what I’ve done, I don’t think there’s any question who you’ll want to believe.”
“We sure do, Lara.”
“Pardon?”
“Want to believe you.” He opened the case; closed it. “Um, I just glanced at my notes and there’s another problem, let’s resolve that, too. I’m talking the date.”
“Of what?”
“When you asked Dan to trade. It wasn’t the morning of the murder, it was the day before. So if you traded specifically to get control… you can see what I’m getting at.”
“Who told you that date?”
“Dan did.”
“Then he’d have to be wrong.”
“Normally I’d say that’s possible, no one’s memory is perfect, especially for small stuff like that. But Dan changed the log right after, dated, signed his name to the change. He may be wrong but to John Nguyen-and a jury-that’s evidence.”
Silence.
“Lara?”
“I don’t know what to say, Lieutenant.”
“Let’s put it aside for the moment, maybe you’ll figure out a solution-”
“Wow. My brain feels kind of scrambled. The psychologist who tested me said it happens under stress. I’m sure you’ve seen that, Dr. Delaware?”
“Of course.”
“What are you scrambled about, Lara?”
“The sequence. The reason I traded Dan-the first reason, wanting more experience-was the right one.”
“Not the part about psychological control?”
“That’s also true but it came later-an afterthought, you know? When the call came in, I couldn’t be sure it was going to be them but I was scared. Because they lived on the Westside-both of them, in Santa Monica -”
“Des on California. Where did Doreen live? We still haven’t found out.”
“Somewhere on the Westside, she never said. So it made sense the Westside was where they’d-where Monte would do it.”
“Close to home.”
“Don’t geographical profilers say that? Crimes occur in comfort zones?”
“That refers to the killer’s comfort zone.”
“Monte lives on the Westside, too, it made total sense. I just had to see for myself. So there’s really no contradiction. I wanted more experience plus I wanted psychological control.”
“Did you learn anything at the scene to help you up your control level?”
“I learned Monte was even worse than I imagined. He claimed he was just getting even, but then I saw that she’d been strangled, up close and personal. Saw that semen stain and knew he’d done something twisted.”
“You suspected the stain was Monte’s.”
“Des uses condoms and that kind of thing fits Monte-dominant, cruel. That’s why I pointed it out to you, Lieutenant. I was too scared to come out and tell you but I hoped you’d follow the trail.”