“We’ll talk in an interview room,” Carolyn told him. “I don’t think you’d even want the janitors to eavesdrop on this conversation.”
“Wow,” he exclaimed, “you certainly know how to get a guy’s attention.”
On the right side of the floor was a row of rooms. Probation officers used them to interview defendants and victims, dictate reports to the word-processing pool, or as a place to retreat when the noise level inside the unit became too distracting.
They entered the room nearest Greenly’s office. Carolyn closed the door behind her. Greenly took a seat at a small table. She remained standing.
“What’s going on?” Greenly asked, rubbing his chin.
“Were you having an affair with Veronica?”
“No,” he said. “Why would you think such a thing? Tessa and I have a great marriage. You even came to our wedding. Besides, Veronica is…was…well, she was older. I don’t want to say anything out of line here, but she was also a little whacko. Did she tell you something was going on between us? She must have been infatuated with me. Now that I think about it, she did act odd when I was around.”
In most instances, Carolyn would soften her subjects with small talk, waiting for them to relax before she began interrogating them. Today, she didn’t have the energy. “Don’t lie to me, Stuart,” she said. “We know you were sleeping with her. Would you rather be questioned by the police, or do you want to tell me the truth?”
He stood and shoved his chair back to the table. “I don’t have to put up with this kind of crap,” he shouted. “You’re out of your mind if you think I had anything to do with Veronica’s death. Why would I want to have sex with a fat cow like her? Tessa was on the cover of dozens of magazines. Even if she wasn’t gorgeous, I love her and have no reason to cheat on her.”
Except that you’re a man, Carolyn thought, remembering what Brad had told her. “Someone saw you, Stuart. They saw you having sex with Veronica in the backseat of her Ford Explorer. It was the day the power went off in the building.”
“Who saw me? Whoever it was, they were mistaken. The day of the storm, I went home to check on Tessa. We live close and she’s terrified of lightning. If you don’t believe me, you can ask her.” He stared Carolyn straight in the eye without blinking. “Can I get back to work now? I’d like to get out of this hellhole before midnight. Preston assigned me ten new cases today. Four of them were Veronica’s. The filing deadline is the end of next week, and as far as I can tell, she hasn’t even looked at them.” He paused and then continued ranting, “I told Preston I’d work around the clock to get them done. I go out of my way to be helpful and this is the way I get treated. I don’t need this lousy job. If you want, I’ll turn in my resignation right now.”
“No, please,” Carolyn said, backtracking. “I apologize. I shouldn’t have come down so hard on you. If you were involved with Veronica, I was hoping you could shed some light into what was going on with her. You said she was whacko. What are you referring to?”
“I’m not sure,” he said, relaxing. “She seemed out of it recently. She asked me questions about things she should have known. Shit, Veronica was my training officer. I never thought she would be asking me how to compute a sentence. Then one day last week, I was leaving to interview a guy at the jail, and Veronica told me to forget it, that I could make up his statement and no one would know the difference. At first, I thought she was joking, but then I realized she was serious.”
God, Carolyn thought, it was worse than she thought. “Thanks, Stuart,” she said, stepping aside so he could leave. “Do me a favor. If you think of anyone who might have been involved with her, please let me know.”
“No problem,” he said. “I shouldn’t have called her a fat cow. I was annoyed, okay? I don’t like to be accused of something I didn’t do. The truth is, I liked Veronica. She was a nice person. Do the police have any leads as to who killed her?”
“A few,” she said. “I’ll keep you posted.”
Once Greenly left, Carolyn closed the door and sat down at the table, staring at the white-painted wall in front of her. Veronica’s mental state must have been steadily deteriorating. Carolyn had been so caught up in her new position and her upcoming wedding, she’d failed to see that her friend was in trouble.
Veronica’s image materialized again, standing on her front porch with her most prized possession, the beautiful doll her grandmother had given her. She remembered the fresh scent of her shampoo, her toothy grin, the blue shorts outfit she’d been wearing. It was strange, she thought. It wasn’t Veronica as an adult who was haunting her. It was the child. Maybe there was some meaning there, hidden deep in her subconscious. That day so long ago, she had touched something forbidden. Whenever she and Veronica had a fight, they’d both cry and make their parents miserable until they made up. Even as a child, Veronica had been a better person. She was always the first one to say she was sorry.
Carolyn returned to her office and called Marcus, telling him she wouldn’t be home in time for dinner. He told her not to worry about it, as Rebecca had ordered in a pizza, and he was trying to catch up with some work from the office. “I love you,” she told him, experiencing a rush of emotion.
“Not as much as I love you,” Marcus said. “Do whatever you have to do, honey. I gave it some thought today. You’re right about postponing the wedding. I had my secretary start calling people.”
“What about our honeymoon? You said we were going to lose money if we canceled it. Brad told me they can’t get by without me because of what happened to Veronica. He even took it to Cameron Wheeler, the head of the agency. Wheeler wants me to work on the task force investigating Veronica’s death.”
“I bought trip insurance,” Marcus said. “I was just trying to make certain you wanted to call off the wedding. After a tragedy like this, I didn’t think you should make any rash decisions. Everything will be fine. Remember to eat, and I’m not talking about candy bars. I know you’re a chocolate junkie.”
“You’re beginning to sound like my mother,” Carolyn joked. He’d already figured out most of her idiosyncrasies. When they went out to dinner, and someone mentioned having a dessert, she would push her food around on the plate until the waiter took it away, saving her appetite. “I’m a hopeless case. Mother gave up on me years ago.”
“I don’t give up,” Marcus said. “You might as well get used to it.”
When Carolyn hung up, she felt an infusion of energy and strength. Simply hearing his voice helped chase away the demons. She placed her computer notebook and a stack of case files inside her briefcase, locked up the office, and headed to her car in the parking lot.
As the chilly night air engulfed her, her thoughts returned to Veronica. She and Drew had been high school sweethearts. Like all couples, they’d had their share of problems over the years, but there was never any doubt that they loved each other. And even if Jude was difficult, Stacy, Peter, and Michael loved and depended on their mother. How could a person kill herself when she was surrounded by love? Mental illness maybe, but Veronica hadn’t been that far gone. She might have been overwhelmed enough to take shortcuts in her work, yet there was no indication that she’d been paranoid or delusional.
Carolyn experienced an eerie sensation. She stared up at the windows of the jail. Ever since they’d built the complex, she’d hated it. Housing inmates in such close proximity to the people who prosecuted and punished them was a recipe for disaster. She saw the outline of the prisoners’ bodies. Depending on where she parked, they could make out what kind of car she was driving, and during the day, even read the license plate.
Because she’d returned from the PD when the courts were in session, the only available parking spot was in a back corner of the lot, next