Kinney paused. “That’s you, correct? Adam’s girl?”
Olivia didn’t answer.
“What do you think of that?” Kinney said.
“What do I think of what?”
“This witness saying that Roby was going to meet Adam’s girl.”
“What do I think, I think it’s ridiculous.”
“He’s lying?”
“Obviously.”
“Okay,” Kinney said. “The thing is, Olivia, why would he do that? This other guy doesn’t know you at all.”
“Don’t ask me, ask him.”
“Well, we did ask,” Kinney said. “And that’s what he said. I can’t come up with a reason for him to lie, unless you did know him or Roby, and maybe something happened between you guys. But you’re telling me you never met either of them.”
She was shaking her head. “It’s just stupid.”
“What is?”
She didn’t answer.
Kinney said, “The witness said Roby told him you guys were going to have a threesome.”
“Excuse me?”
“You, Roby, and Adam. Is that true?”
“I don’t even know what to say. That’s... It’s disgusting.”
Kinney let the silence stretch.
He said, “Did you ever get a chance to read the coroner’s report, Olivia?”
No response. Kinney repeated the question.
She shook her head.
“If you read it,” Kinney said, “you’d see that Adam’s cause of death is undetermined. What that means, undetermined, from a legal point of view, is it could still go either way. The case stays open, and we continue to gather evidence. If someone harmed Adam, we want to prevent them from harming someone else. If it was an accident, we want to understand how it occurred, for the sake of the people that loved him. I include you in that. I can imagine it’s frustrating, not having the whole story.”
No response.
“I’m not looking to get anyone in trouble. I get that it’s easy to misinterpret things. The whole thing is scary, I get that. What I will say is that I’ve been doing this for twenty-two years. I’ve seen all kinds of situations arise. And without exception, everybody feels better once they get it off their chest. You’re walking around, every second of the day, with this burden. And it just eats you alive.”
A beat.
“I don’t know what you want me to say,” Olivia said.
“I’m asking you to be honest with me.”
“I am.”
“Olivia.”
“I am.”
“You’ve never met Roby?”
“No.”
“Why’s he saying he’s met you, then?”
“I don’t know.”
“He passed a polygraph,” Kinney said.
“Good for him.”
“What I’m having trouble with is, what’s his motive to lie to us? He’s never met you, you’re saying you never even heard of him. So why’s he bringing you into it?”
“I don’t. Know.”
Kinney reopened the folder, removing a small sheaf of papers bound with an alligator clip. He unclipped the pages and began laying them out.
CaliRoyal247’s WildBullPen profile — the photo gallery, Adam’s body, hers; their direct messages with Dameinator.
“CaliRoyal247,” Kinney said. “That’s you and Adam, correct?”
“No.”
He tilted his head. “It isn’t?”
“No.”
“That’s not you in the pictures?”
“No.”
In the squad room, Alan Mendes was laughing. “The balls.”
Kinney said, “The guy is Adam, though. That’s his tattoo. Correct?”
Olivia said nothing.
“Who is it with him, if it’s not you?” Kinney said.
She shook her head.
“This woman has a tattoo on her back. Do you have a tattoo like that?”
She stared at him. “Are you asking to see my body?”
“No, Olivia, I’m not.”
“ ’Cause that’s harassment.”
Tiffany Reuss muttered, “Bitch.”
“I’m not asking for that, but we can have a female officer verify,” Kinney said. “But look, let’s just try to do this the easy way, okay? Help me make sense of this, because I can’t figure it out. I’m seeing Adam in these pictures. I’m seeing someone with him who looks an awful lot like you, even without her whole face. I’m seeing messages between these accounts, asking Roby to meet in Oakland on that particular night. I’m hearing Roby say he was there, and he met you, and I’m hearing a witness who corroborates that. I have the name of the bar where he and Adam met up. I have a map proving Adam went into the water ten minutes away from that bar. So all that — that’s on one side. On the other side, I got you, telling me I’m wrong, you don’t know this guy, you’ve never met him, never seen him, never communicated with him, that’s not you in the pictures. I can’t make that fit together, Olivia. I’m trying, but I can’t. So I need you to help me out here.”
Silence.
“Tell you what,” Kinney said. “I have something else I want you to see. Gimme a sec, I gotta go grab it.”
She ignored him.
He went out, leaving papers fanned across on the table.
Moments later he entered the squad room. “What’s she doing?”
“Nothing,” Winterholz said.
I thought: Not yet. Don’t rush it.
Kinney sat with us.
For five solid minutes Olivia remained motionless.
She got up and walked toward the door as if to leave.
The squad room took a collective breath.
Olivia put her ear to the door.
Returned to her chair, began moving pages around like puzzle pieces.
Sat back and crossed her arms.
Kinney said, “Round two. Can I get a hand?”
Bruce Lloyd helped him wheel out a TV on a stand.
On the monitor, the door swung wide and Kinney backed in, looking like a health ed teacher come to screen a video about STDs.
The door shut.
Kinney connected a laptop and cued up the interview with Dame Roby. He reached to shut off the light but reconsidered, hitting Play and scooting his chair to the corner, putting Olivia one-on-one with Roby as he told his story.
For the next hour she hardly moved.
The tape ended.
Kinney said, “Olivia?”
“It’s not true,” she said.
“What part?”
“All of it.”
“Nothing he’s saying is true.”
“Yes. I mean — no. It’s not.”
“It’s pretty specific, Olivia. All those details. Where do you think he’s getting them from?”
She shook her head.
Kinney dragged his chair to the table. “Do you know the boat he’s talking about?”
“I don’t know anyone who has a boat.”
“Did Adam?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you acquainted with Shelby Fuller the Fourth? He’s a lawyer. He works for Adam’s parents.”
A beat. Olivia nodded.
“Okay, great. You do know him. Were you aware he owns a boat?”
She shook her head.
“Big honking yacht. He has it docked in Emeryville, at a club. Sort of like a country club. It’s right by that mark on the map. So that caught our attention.”
“You should be talking to him, not me,” she said.
We’d tried. Fuller still wouldn’t answer.
“We spoke to the club people,” Kinney said. “Turns out they issued Adam a key fob for the service gate, all the way back in 2023. They were also able to look up when the fob was used. There’s an entry at around midnight, a little after, on June 21 last year, the night Roby said he got with you and Adam.”
Olivia frowned. Corrected. Tightened her arms across her torso.