by John J. Lamb
I cleared my throat. “Before I forget, you wouldn’t happen to have a picture of Rhiannon with Kyle, would you?”
“Why?” she asked suspiciously.
“I want to see what she looks like, because I have a feeling I saw her at the teddy bear show yesterday morning.”
“That’s impossible. She’s with Kyle. She has been since this whole rotten thing began on Wednesday.”
“Still, I’d like to look at a photo, if you have one.”
Lauren got up from the rocking chair. “I could look upstairs on the computer. There might be a picture in an e-mail. If I find one, I’ll print it.”
“Thanks. I’d appreciate that.”
Ash waited until she was certain Lauren was upstairs and out of earshot before whispering, “What are you talking about?”
“Right after the Sonoma officers left, I noticed a young, pretty Hispanic woman standing near the city hall. She seemed to be eyeballing Lauren. I didn’t think it was important at the time, so I never said anything.”
“Wow. You just happened to notice a pretty girl,” Ash said teasingly.
“Who was young enough to be my daughter.”
“Some men your age are attracted to that.”
“Some men my age are pigs. What do you make of all this?” I quietly asked.
“It’s hard to tell. It’s possible that Rhiannon began a relationship with Kyle because she recognized that the robot might make him—and her—rich.”
“But, if that’s the case, why was she pounding on his door at the Paladin last night?”
“You think that was her?”
“We have to assume it was. The witness thought the woman was acting like a betrayed wife.”
“But if it was her, it means they’ve broken up.”
“Not necessarily. Remember, my witness was on the lookout for johns. She may not have noticed if Rhiannon came back to the room and finally convinced Kyle to open the door.”
“Which means that Rhiannon could be our killer.” There were footfalls overhead and Ash glanced toward the ceiling. “But if Lauren suspects that, why didn’t she tell us right away? It’s not as if she likes the girl.”
“We don’t know what Kyle’s told her. Besides, she may realize that the story has to be told in a certain way to keep her darling boy out of prison.”
“So what do we do?”
I squeezed her hand. “It’s groundhog time, my love. You’ve been doing great, but now you have to start really digging.”
Fourteen
We heard Lauren start back down the stairs and we stopped talking.
As she resumed her seat in the rocking chair, Lauren said, “Sorry, but I couldn’t find any pictures of her. Kyle e-mailed me one of the two of them, but . . . well, I deleted it.”
“Thanks for looking,” said Ash.
Lauren tapped nervously on the chair’s wooden armrest. “Can I ask you two some questions?”
“Sure.”
“Where is Patrick right now?”
Ash glanced at me and I said, “At the Hall of Justice.”
“Provided this all works out, when can we have him back?”
“Probably never. Patrick was collected as physical evidence in a murder and it’s the law in California that police departments maintain homicide evidence forever.”
Lauren sat forward in the chair. “Forever? That’s insane.”
“It may look that way, but it’s a good rule. It doesn’t happen often, but innocent people have been convicted of murder and other major crimes. We keep all the evidence, so that the defense attorney or even another detective can someday correct a horrible error.”
“It’s not a weapon. We’re talking about a toy.”
“A toy that appears to have been the motive for a brutal murder.”
“But if we promised to bring him back to court . . . ?”
“I’m sorry, but that just isn’t possible. The defense attorney is entitled to the same access to pristine evidence as the prosecution, so the detectives will have to keep Patrick.”
“So, Kyle just loses out on something he spent tens of thousands of dollars on and slaved over for a year?”
“Lauren, I’m not trying to be a smart aleck, but Kyle has much bigger problems right now than losing Patrick.”
Lauren’s head sagged. “I know.”
Pressing the issue with the cool stealth of a boa constrictor, Ash said gently, “And that’s because he was in that motel room last night when the murder happened, wasn’t he?”
There was a long pause before Lauren answered, “He was there . . . with Rhiannon.”
“Did he tell you what happened?”
“No. The idiot is head-over-heels in love, so all he’ll say is that a man was killed and that he and Rhiannon are in this situation together.”
“But you’re reading a message between the lines?”
Lauren looked up and her eyes were feverish. “He’s covering for her! Kyle is going to throw his life away and end up in prison for some grasping little whore! It makes me so sick I could vomit!”
Ash nodded empathetically. “I understand you’re upset, but I want to be clear about this. You think Rhiannon killed the man, right?”
“I know she did! My son couldn’t kill anyone!”
Maybe, I thought, but he clearly never had any problems dreaming up buckets of savagery for computer games.
“I want to believe you, but in order to prove that, you need to calm down and tell us the whole story,” said Ash. “You said a few minutes ago that everything began to go sour on Wednesday . . . ?”
Lauren took a deep breath and seemed to recover some of her composure. “That was the day that Kyle met with the vice president of his division. Even though they’d all but laughed him out of the office the first time, he wanted to give Lycaon a final chance at acquiring Patrick, before offering him to the other company.”
“That was very loyal of Kyle.”
“It was loyal . . . and as stupid as trying to hand-feed a Bengal tiger. Once my son finished making his earnest little pitch, the VP told him that Lycaon wasn’t going to pay anything for Patrick. Under the terms of Kyle’s employment, the company already owned the bear.”
“How?”
From outside there came the sounds of a vehicle pulling into the cul-de-sac and then two car doors slamming. We all tensed and the room went silent. No doubt, Lauren was alarmed that the noise might herald the arrival of Bronsey or perhaps the police, while Ash and I were concerned that it was Lizard Eyes and his thugs. Lauren shot a furtive glance out the window and then relaxed, which allowed us to also. Obviously, she recognized the car and its occupants.
Looking back at Ash, Lauren said, “I’m sorry. Where were we?”
“You were going to explain why Lycaon claimed they owned Patrick.”
Lauren leaned over to rest her chin on her hand. “Kyle was told that he’d signed some form when he first started work with them. The fine print apparently said that Lycaon retained all the rights to any freelance projects he might create.”
“Did he?”
“Kyle didn’t remember doing so, but a company like that wouldn’t have any qualms about forging his signature on a document.”
“I suppose not. Still, you said Kyle created Patrick at home. How could they claim ownership?” Ash sounded outraged.
“Big corporations like Lycaon don’t explain things to the peasants. The VP simply told Kyle to go home and bring Patrick back.”
“So, he hadn’t brought Patrick to the presentation?”
“No. Sometimes my son is painfully naïve, but I think in the back of his mind, he thought there was at least a chance that they’d try to steal Patrick.”
“Did the VP at least offer Kyle a bonus?”
Lauren gave a humorless laugh. “He wasn’t offered so much as a dime in compensation. In fact, the VP told Kyle that if he didn’t cooperate, he’d be out of a job, blackballed in the industry, and that Lycaon would still get Patr
ick.”
I found myself muttering, “Which only goes to show that successful psychopaths don’t go to prison. They end up running corporations.”
Lauren nodded in agreement.
Ash said, “So, what did Kyle do?”
“God bless him, he surprised me.” There was approval in her voice. “I thought he was going to collapse like a house of cards, but he decided they weren’t going to push him around anymore.”
I wondered if Kyle’s relationship with Rhiannon might have sparked some of this backbone and newfound self-confidence, but kept quiet.
Lauren continued, “He figured if they could lie, so could he. He told the VP that he’d cooperate. Then he raced home, grabbed Patrick, and started looking for a place to hide.”
“And the first place he came was here, right?” Ash asked.
“Yes, but he didn’t stay for very long. He knew Lycaon would send their security people out looking for him and they’d come here. He wanted to protect me.”
Ash gave her a sympathetic look. I suddenly suspected what was going to happen next and wondered just how my wife was going to debunk Lauren’s iconic view of Kyle without derailing the interview.
“Oh, Lauren, I’m so sorry to be the one to have to tell you this, but Kyle was never interested in protecting you,” Ash said gravely.
“What are you talking about?” Lauren fixed her with an intense gaze.
“Brad and I were coming into the city this morning to meet our daughter. That’s why we’re all dressed up.” She gestured at our clothing. “But we were so worried about you and your son that we ended up looking for Bronsey.”
“For the police?”
“No, for you. You were one of my main inspirations for becoming a teddy bear artist and I just couldn’t stand the idea of a bad man like Bronsey harassing you.”
Lauren’s eyes softened a little. “Did you find him?”
“Yes, and we talked to him. It turns out he’s as scared as you are.”
“Why?”
“Because he wasn’t working for Lycaon. He’d been hired by another toy company—probably the one that Rhiannon contacted—to buy Patrick from your son.”
“It that’s the case, why was he hounding me to tell him where Kyle was?”
Ash sighed. “That was apparently your son’s idea. Bronsey said that Kyle offered him two thousand dollars to harass you and make it look as if Lycaon was responsible.”
“I don’t believe you. Why would Kyle do that?”
“He thought that if you’d been victimized, it would make Lycaon look bad if it ever came down to a lawsuit over who actually owned Patrick.”
“That’s a lie!” Lauren slapped the chair’s armrest.
“For your sake, I wish you were right. But why would Bronsey make something like that up?”
“That’s obvious. To have an excuse for robbing me.”
“But, that isn’t an excuse. He implicated himself . . . and Kyle.”
“And you’d take the word of that thug over my son’s?”
“Right now we have to, because the police can verify an awful lot of things that Bronsey said. For instance, Bronsey and his partner didn’t break into that room to rob Kyle. Your son knew they were coming. He’d called them. Bronsey went there to buy Patrick and he’d brought a lot of money.”
“This is insane. I think you should—”
“Lauren, Kyle has been feeding you a bunch of big fat lies. And, as a mom, I know how much you don’t want to believe your child could do that to you.” Ash’s voice was stern, yet empathetic. “Now, we’ll leave right now if that’s your decision, but I at least wanted to offer you the opportunity to hear the truth.”
Lauren looked as if she’d just sucked on a lemon, and her knee was jiggling up and down like crazy. At last, she said, “What else did that filth say?”
It took every molecule of self-control I possessed not to raise both my arms and give my wife a series of worshiping bows. Ash had accomplished her mission of moving the interview into the informational Mother Lode and hadn’t had to use fear or intimidation as an impetus. With a start, I realized that I could learn more than a thing or two from her.
Ash said, “Now, I suppose you’re wondering why we believe Bronsey. Brad and I both know that he’s a congenital liar. It would have been easy for him to point the finger at Kyle for the murder, yet he didn’t.”
“This is making no sense.”
“It will. Bronsey told us that he was in the process of testing Patrick when a man with a gun jumped out of the bathroom to rob them. He was wearing a ski mask—”
“That wasn’t a man! It was Rhiannon!” Lauren’s voice was fierce and exultant.
Ash raised a finger to caution her. “We don’t know who it was. Bronsey was pretty certain it was a man wearing a ski mask and a black coat.”
“Take my word for it, the only one it could have been was Rhiannon. God, Kyle is lucky that she didn’t rob him, too.”
“Actually, Bronsey said that Kyle also pulled out a gun.”
“That’s impossible. He doesn’t own a gun.”
Ash glanced at me to respond and I said, “Unfortunately, that isn’t true. The police have proof that Kyle purchased a forty-five semi-automatic pistol about a month and a half ago. That’s a large caliber pistol. Not the kind you use to plunk at tin cans. Guns like that are intended for one purpose only—to kill people.”
Lauren turned to Ash. “Kyle couldn’t shoot anyone!”
Ash nodded. “I hope you’re right. But Kyle did help whoever this person was in the ski mask to rob Bronsey and his partner of four hundred thousand dollars.”
“Four hundred thousand dollars!” Lauren looked wild.
“I’m sorry, Lauren. I know this is hard, but you need to know the entire story. Kyle ordered Bronsey and his partner to throw down their guns and hand over the bag of cash.”
“No.” Lauren pointed accusingly at Ash. “That didn’t happen. It couldn’t have. Or if it did, it was because Rhiannon said she’d shoot Kyle if he didn’t cooperate.”
“I suppose that’s possible. But didn’t Kyle tell you that he and Rhiannon were both implicated?” Ash gently countered.
“Oh, my Lord, what has she gotten him into? How . . . how did the man get shot?”
I nudged Ash’s knee with mine to let her know that I thought it was probably best if I replied to the question. There was no point in muddying the interview by telling Lauren that Bronsey had accidentally shot Uhlander.
I said, “Bronsey’s partner pulled a gun and the person in the ski mask immediately opened fire. Then it turned into a general gun battle. The detectives are still trying to figure out the sequence of events after that.”
“Bronsey ran from the room with Patrick,” said Ash. “He fell and dropped the bear in the motel parking lot. But he didn’t stop to go back for Patrick, because there was still gunfire coming from the room.”
“And it looks as if Kyle and the other suspect were in such a hurry to get out of there before the cops arrived that they didn’t see Patrick on the ground,” I added.
Lauren held up her hand for us to stop. “But you haven’t answered my question. How was the man killed? Was it with this gun my son supposedly has?”
I said, “No. The victim was shot in the back of the head execution-style with a different caliber gun. The detectives think it was the person in the ski mask that did it and I’m inclined to agree.”
“It was Rhiannon. Just like she must’ve been the one who convinced Kyle to pay Bronsey to rob me, the scheming little bitch.”
I shrugged. “Even so, that still doesn’t let Kyle off the hook.”
“Why not?”
“I’ll try to explain. Right now, it looks as if Kyle and someone else—Rhiannon if that will make you happy—engaged in a conspiracy to commit an armed robbery.”
“But Kyle didn’t shoot anybody!”
“It doesn’t make a difference who pulled the trigger. As far as the law is c
oncerned, both people committing the robbery are equally culpable of murder,” I said somberly.
I declined to add that the district attorney could also allege that “special circumstances” existed in such a case, which potentially meant the death penalty. The poor woman had enough on her plate as it was.
There was an element of panic in Lauren’s voice as she said, “But what if Rhiannon forced him to do it?”
“That’s not what he told you, though. Not that I expect you’d testify in court to Kyle saying anything about assuming responsibility for the murder. After all, you are his mother.”
Lauren’s cheeks flushed.
I continued, “Kyle’s problem is that it looks as if he’s on the run with four hundred thousand dollars after committing a murder. He’s the only one who can change that impression.”
“By talking to the police,” said Ash.
“But they’ll arrest him.”
I nodded. “Yeah, they probably will. But at least he can give his version of the shooting first and cut a deal with the prosecutor. And I can assure you that if Rhiannon is taken into custody first, she’s going to dump a world of crap on your son.”
“But—”
“Hang on, because I need to share one of the ugly realities of the criminal justice system: Juries don’t like to convict women of violent felonies. It’s just the way most people are. They’d rather believe that an evil man led the poor woman astray. Guess who the evil man will be this time?”
“So, Kyle should do the smart thing and surrender himself to Inspector Mauel,” Ash quickly added.
“Can you call Kyle?” I asked.
Lauren looked as if she might be ill. “I would, if I thought he’d answer.” She turned to face Ash and I could see the misery and hopelessness in her eyes. “But Kyle told me that he thought Lycaon had figured out the number he was using, so he was getting rid of the phone.”
“So, you don’t know when . . . or if . . . you’re going to hear from him again. I’m so sorry,” said Ash.
I said, “What can you tell us about Rhiannon? Do you know where she lives?”
“Saratoga, I think. Kyle said something about her having a condo there,” said Lauren, naming a city that was about fifty miles south.