I’m so sorry, Olivia. That sounds so frightening.
Yeah, it was. And I mean, I’m not trying to make this about me. But it’s not like it’s always been easy, okay? I’ve had things happen in my life... Do you understand what I’m saying?
I think I do. Did you report it?
Report what? Nobody’s going to believe me. He’s just gonna say I asked him to.
I didn’t feel compelled to inform the room that while the first two recordings had been made with Olivia’s full knowledge and consent, the third was iwweegal. I’d lopped off the opening minute — her asking me to stop the recorder — and edited out the line when she reconfirmed that it wasn’t running.
I can try giving you a name. Maybe it’ll jog your memory.
I doubt it. But: yeah, go ahead.
Damian Roby.
No idea who that is.
What if I show you his picture?
Why? I never met any of them.
Besides Fuller.
Well, yeah, besides him.
Just take a peek.
...Sorry.
Pettit was smiling and shaking his head.
I let the file play to the end. The audio cut off. For a moment nobody spoke.
“It’s wild, how she’s hinting at it,” Mendes said.
“She wants to tell a story,” Regina said. “She can’t help herself.”
“Arrogant,” Pettit said.
“To the bone.”
“So we leverage that,” Kinney said.
“It’s also important to understand what led up to that moment,” I said. “Regina was trying to schedule with her.”
“She kept ducking me,” Regina said.
“She reached out to me directly,” I said. “She offered to talk, but only to me. She feels more in control when it’s a man sitting across from her.”
At four thirty, we broke for the day.
“Great work, everybody,” Winterholz said. “Thanks again. See you next week.”
Regina and I rode down in the elevator.
“I saw you talking to Reuss,” I said.
“She looked upset. I asked if she was okay.”
“What’d she say?”
“She’s worked her fair share of sex crimes. It pisses her off when women make things up.”
I nodded.
“I get where she’s coming from,” Regina said, “what that does to actual victims. Thing is, I was there, with Olivia. I was sitting three feet away. And, just to be crystal-fucking-clear: In no way am I making excuses for her.”
“But?”
“I don’t think she was lying.”
I glanced at her. “All the garbage we’ve heard come out of her mouth, that’s the moment you think she picked to tell the truth?”
“First time for everything.”
Chapter 35
“Nice to see you again, Olivia.”
A new interview room, borrowed from San Jose PD. Gary Kinney sat across from Olivia Parisi. A string-tie folder lay on the table between them, next to a form with checkboxes. Her posture was nonchalant. Her hair was up. She was dressed unobtrusively in mom jeans and a Gap big logo hoodie, legs crossed, fingers curled around a Dixie cup.
Kinney had offered her a Coke.
She’d asked for a LaCroix.
He’d brought cooler water.
Down the hall, in the investigations bureau squad room, the rest of us crowded around the monitor. The audience had grown to include Tessa Maben, deputy district attorney for Alameda County; San Jose detective Bruce Lloyd, a tubby guy with hair plugs, the initial investigator back when Adam was a missing person and not yet a body; and a gaggle of SJPD cops who’d gathered to watch.
Must See TV.
Onscreen, Kinney said, “How are you?”
“Fine, thanks,” Olivia said. “You?”
“Good. Appreciate you asking. Work’s going okay?”
“It’s fine.”
“Emotionally? How you holding up?”
“So-so.”
He gave a kindly smile. “Well, thanks for coming in. You prolly remember from last time, I gotta read this to you. It’s a formality, but they make me do it.”
She nodded. Kinney mirandized her, gave her the form to check off and sign.
In the squad room, Tessa Maben relaxed visibly.
“Thanks,” Kinney said. “I know it’s been a while since we talked, but first off, I was wondering if anything had come up for you. Details you remembered, maybe.”
“I can’t think of anything.”
“If at any point you do,” he said, untying the folder, “feel free to speak up.”
He produced a map of the Emeryville shoreline. Bair Island had been cropped out.
“We’ve been working with this ocean scientist. Super-smart guy. He’s an expert in how the tides work. What he did is, he put the final location of Adam’s body into a computer program, and it shows us where he drowned.”
Kinney flipped the page to face her. “This red area, here, is where it happened. So now we know that, for a fact.”
Olivia said, “Can I — do you mind?”
“Please,” Kinney said, relinquishing the map to her.
She studied it. “Where is this?”
“Emeryville. The marina,” he said. “Does that mean anything to you?”
“Not really.”
“Any idea what Adam might’ve been doing there?”
She shook her head.
“What about you?” Kinney asked.
She looked up. “Me?”
“Have you ever been there?”
“No,” she said. “I don’t even know where it is.”
She slid the page back. “Sorry.”
“No worries. I just wanted to check with you.”
“Do you know what happened to him?”
“We’re in the process of determining that.” Kinney reopened the folder. “Are you acquainted with an individual named Damian Roby? This is him.”
Olivia didn’t ask to see the photo or reach for it. “I don’t know who that is.”
“You’ve never met him.”
“No. Who is he?”
“We believe Adam was with him on the night he went missing.”
“Wow. Really?”
Kinney nodded.
“Did he hurt Adam?” she asked.
“That’s what we’re working through.”
“Is he a drug dealer?”
“Is there a reason you’d think that?”
“You told me Adam went to buy drugs. That’s what you said.”
“Yeah,” Kinney said, “so, again, I’m asking if there’s anything you think we should know. It’s an opportunity for you to share what’s on your mind.”
“...okay.”
“You don’t recognize Roby, though.”
“I said I didn’t.”
“Are you sure? You want to take a closer look?”
“Yes, I’m sure. I’ve never met him in my life.”
“Okay.”
“How would I know him?”
“Well, I don’t know,” Kinney said. “He says he’s met you.”
“Uhhh.” She laughed. “Okaaay.”
“Is that true?”
“No.”
Kinney nodded.
She said, “What did he say?”
“He met you and Adam in a bar in downtown Oakland last summer, the night Adam went missing. Do you remember that?”
“I can’t remember something that didn’t happen.”
“So why do you think Roby would say it?”
“I have no idea. Obviously he’s getting mixed up.”
“I guess my question is, you’ve never met him, where’s he getting you and Adam from?”
“I don’t know. But he’s wrong.”
“We also spoke with a witness, a friend of Roby’s, who ran into him and Adam on the street. The friend asked Roby what he was up to, and Roby said he was going to meet up with Adam’s girl.”