Evidence (44 page)

“Done
what?”

“Taken care of Des and Doreen—his words. ‘I took care
of them.’ I was too terrified to talk about it.”

“You
must’ve wondered why he’d do something like that.”

“Of
course.”

“Did
you come up with any theories?”

“There
are no logical theories, Lieutenant. Nothing justifies murder.”

“Well,
that’s true… what I’m getting at is, did you think about that old grudge? Lynx
hairs? Could revenge have been Monte’s motive?”

“Doesn’t
that seem out of proportion?”

“Like
you said, murder always is. But did it occur to you?”

“Not
really.”

“Not
really … Okay, so we’re making good progress here, painting a picture. So to
speak… there is a small problem, though, Lara. Nothing serious but you deserve
to know.”

“Know
what?”

“We’ve
got Monte in custody and he tells a different story.”

“What
does he claim?”

“That
you planned the whole thing. That it was your grudge—Doreen and Des ratting you
out on the lynx hairs and screwing up your medical career. That Doreen and Des
split after they sold you out but you put it together because they were the
only ones other than you and Monte who knew.”

“No,
no way, it’s Monte’s grudge. I’d already changed my mind about medicine.”

“I’m
just passing along what Monte’s saying, so you can give me something to work
with… for example, he claims it wasn’t some chance meeting that got you
together with Des and Doreen. They tracked
you
down, learned you were in
L.A. from someone in Seattle, couldn’t find you under your own name but figured
out you might be using your mom’s maiden name ’cause you’d done that before.
You do have a Facebook page and Monte doesn’t.”

“I
don’t know how they did it but it was Monte they contacted.”

“That
Sunday in Venice.”

“Yes.”

“But maybe it wasn’t an accidental thing—Monte running
into them.”

“Guess
not.”

“Well,
at least that matches with Monte’s story. Except he’s claiming you were there,
arranged for him to meet up with them. Because you had experience with
explosives as much as he did—all of you did—and Des and Doreen were trying to
get hold of some help on a job.”

“I
don’t know anything about any of that.”

“Monte
also says the deal was for the four of you to split a hundred thousand.”

“No
way.”

“You
know about the fifty thousand Desi got paid. The half he was supposed to share
but didn’t.”

“No,
I don’t.”

“But
you can figure out what I’m talking about.”

“Some
kind of payoff?”

“For
expertise and equipment—vegan Jell-O, for example.” Silence.

“You
do know what that is?”

“I’ve
heard of it. A long time ago.”

“Never
used it.”

“No
way!”

“Makes
sense, why would you … I just need to sort out Monte’s story from yours, he’s
the one with the violent streak, he’d obviously say anything to save his own
skin.”

“The
guns are his, I’ve never owned a gun.”

“I’m
sure that’s true—”

“I
can’t stand firearms. That’s why I’m C.I.’ing, not working in the ballistics
lab.”

“Makes
sense… let me check something … okay, here it is. Speaking of ballistics,
here’s a report. We found Monte’s box exactly where you said it was, so I know
you’ve been truthful about that and I appreciate it. Unlike Monte, who’s
spinning a yarn about having no clue. Like we’re not going to find it.”

“He can be that way.”

“What
way?”

“Mindless.
Denying.”

“I’ll
bet … anyway, we found the box and recovered the .22 that was used to shoot Des
Backer. Unfortunately it’s your fingerprints that are on it, not Monte’s.”

Silence.

“Lara?”

“That
makes absolutely no sense.”

“That’s
what I told the lab, so they ran the prints again—yours are on file because
when you got the job they printed you and we obtained Monte’s when we arrested
him. His are all
over
the box. And some of the other guns. But not that
one.”

“Oh,
wow—I just figured it out. After Monte came back he gave me the gun to put away.
I didn’t want to be an accessory, even after the fact, but you don’t defy him.
He’d just murdered two people, for God’s sake.”

“So
you stashed the gun.”

“Right
back in the box. I’m sure you found it on top.”

“That’s
exactly where we found it.”

“I
wanted it to be obvious. So if someone ever searched, they’d see it.”

“You
figured we’d search.”

“I
was hoping. Unfortunately, I wasn’t thinking straight, didn’t glove up. Not
that I could’ve gotten away with it, Monte was right there.”

“Monte
stood there and ordered you to stash the gun.”

“He
could’ve done it himself but he was into domination.”

“Ordering
you around.”

“Constantly.”

“Must’ve
been hard, Lara.”

“It
was soul-eroding.”

“Same
for carrying around the knowledge of what Monte did and not being able to tell
anyone.”

“Everything
I’ve done since the night he told me has been a form of self-defense,
Lieutenant. When I met you, at the scene, I thought you
might
be someone who could help me but … taking that step … I should’ve done it
sooner, I’m sorry. Thank God I finally did.”

“Let’s
talk about that first time, Lara. How’d you come to work the Borodi scene?”

“I
was up next. I’ve never been a big believer in coincidences but I’m starting to
change my mind because lately my life’s full of them.”

“Like
meeting up with Monte at the campsite.”

“Exactly.
Like Monte bringing Des and Doreen into our lives. He must’ve been plotting
revenge for years.”

“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—”