Faye Kellerman_Decker & Lazarus 10

by Serpent's Tooth

  “Lieutenant, you’re under oath,” Hayden said. “Did you want to fuck her—”

  “Sergeant Hayden,” Strapp broke in, glanced at Rina. “Show a little courtesy, please.”

  Hayden said, “Did you want to have sex with her, Lieutenant?”

  Rina nodded to her husband, telling him to answer the question.

  Decker said, “Maybe.”

  “Maybe?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “Are you sure you don’t mean yes, Lieutenant?”

  “No, I mean maybe.”

  “You were attracted to her?”

  “Yes—”

  “Extremely attracted?”

  “I wouldn’t say extreme—”

  “You’re telling me—under oath—that no sexual thoughts about Jeanine Garrison entered your mind?”

  “I had some sexual thoughts,” Decker said.

  “Such as?”

  Decker said, “That she was attractive.”

  “I think my mother is attractive.” Hayden laughed mockingly. “Doesn’t mean I have sexual thoughts about her. You wanted her, didn’t you, Lieutenant?”

  “Sergeant…” Nickerson admonished.

  Decker spoke calmly. “I don’t remember my exact thoughts because they came and went very quickly. Then I was all business.”

  Catherine said, “During your interview with her, you never once entertained the thought of getting Jeanine Garrison into bed?”

  “No.”

  “A moment ago, you said maybe,” Hayden corrected.

  Decker said, “I said maybe I had those thoughts when I first met her. During the actual interview, I had no thoughts other than my business.”

  “Amazing you can turn yourself on and off so quickly.” Hayden’s smile was mean. “You must be a man of considerable control.”

  He hadn’t asked a question so Decker said nothing.

  Hayden glanced at Rina, “How old is your wife, Lieutenant?”

  “Thirty-four.”

  “And you’re forty-six?”

  “Yes.”

  Catherine said, “She’s quite a bit younger than you.”

  “Yes.”

  Hayden said, “First wife?”

  “No, she’s—”

  “Second, third, fourth—”

  “Second.”

  “You’re forty-six?” Hayden said.

  “Yes.”

  “Mid-life crisis time, Lieutenant?”

  Decker smiled. “No, I already went through that. Hence the age difference between my wife and me.”

  Again, Rina shot him a “behave yourself” look.

  Hayden gave a sly smile. “You were married when you met your current wife?”

  “Divorced.”

  “What was the reason for the divorce?” Catherine asked.

  “Irreconcilable differences.”

  “Were you having an affair while you were married to your first wife, Lieutenant?” Hayden asked.

  “No.”

  Catherine said, “You’re under oath.”

  “I know that. No, I was not having an affair.”

  “Ever had an extramarital involvement?”

  “No.”

  “Not even a one-nighter during your marriage to your irreconcilably different first wife?”

  “Nothing until we were legally separated.”

  Hayden said, “Was your second wife married when you met her?”

  “Widowed,” Rina spoke up.

  Abruptly, Hayden faced her with stern eyes. “I was asking a question to your husband, ma’am.”

  “My apologies.” Rina’s voice was sincere, her soft eyes upon Hayden. Immediately, he looked away. Her interruption seemed to throw his rhythm off. As he faltered, Catherine picked up the slack.

  “How’s your sex life, Lieutenant?”

  “Fine.”

  “How would you rate it? Excellent, very good, good—”

  “Excellent.”

  “How often do you have sex?”

  “Meaning?”

  “Once a week, twice a week—”

  “Must be more than that if he rates it excellent,” Hayden broke in. “How about it, Lieutenant? How many times a week do you have sex?”

  Decker looked at Rina.

  Hayden said, “Why are you looking at her, Lieutenant? Can’t you answer the question for yourself?”

  “It’s complicated—”

  “It’s a simple question,” Catherine said.

  “With a complicated answer.”

  Rina broke in. “We’re Orthodox Jews.” She paused. “I’m an Orthodox Jew. The religion prohibits sexual encounters during a certain period of every month—during the woman’s menses and for seven days afterward. Then she undergoes ritualistic purification by bathing in prescribed waters. When she is done, she is permitted to resume relations with her husb—”

  “This is for real?” Hayden spoke derisively.

  “Yes, sir, this is for real,” Rina answered without malice. “If you’d like, I will bring you some beautifully written books explaining the sanctity of this ritual more clearly than I have done.”

  Hayden averted his eyes, quieted his voice. “Thank you, but that won’t be necessary.”

  Rina let his admission hang in the air. Then she said, “Generally, it works out to two weeks of abstinence followed by two weeks of sexual activity. In our specific case, it’s a little shorter—more like twelve days off and eighteen days on—”

  “Why’s that?” Catherine asked.

  “You get some kind of special dispensation?” Hayden butted in.

  “In a manner of speaking—”

  “What was the reason?” Hayden grew a sneer. “He couldn’t wait?”

  Nickerson said, “Sergeant Hayden—”

  “She brought it all up!” Hayden defended himself.

  “Medical factors,” Rina answered. “Anyway, there was a reason I bothered to tell you all this. It explains why my husband couldn’t answer your simple question about a weekly sexual allotment.”

  Her eyes lowered, then rose to meet Hayden’s head-on.

  “A point of information. During the times of activity, all forms of play between husband and wife are permitted.” She gave him a serene smile.

  A blush coursed through Hayden’s cheeks. Again, he looked away. Son of a bitch, Decker thought. Rina’s modest dress notwithstanding, the jerk had the hots for her.

  And why not?

  Decker regarded his wife, studied her sculpted face, her open eyes shining like jewels, her red, moist lips. The band of gold fabric arcing across the top of her head, her hair tucked into a net, giving it the appearance of a Cleopatra cut. Just like the alluring Egyptian queen, Rina exuded confidence.

  Hayden tried to regain his aggressive stance, stuttered out, “So you consider yourself a religious woman, then?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you follow this…” He waved his hand in the air. “This…”

  “Religious ritual?” Rina tried.

  Nickerson broke in. “Sergeant Hayden, no charges have been brought against Mrs. Decker—”

  Hayden said, “She’s claiming religion to be an integral part of her husband’s sex life.”

  “And…” Nickerson asked.

  Hayden hesitated, eyes darting from Rina to Decker. Catherine glared at her partner, said, “Lieutenant, during the period when charges were brought against you by Jeanine Garrison…were you abstaining from sex with your wife?”

  They say timing is everything. Decker smiled to himself. “No. We were involved during that period.”

  “So you were having sex with your wife?” Hayden said.

  “Yes.” Decker refrained from adding, “You wanna hear details, guy?”

  “When was the last time you had sex?”

  “Last night.”

  “With your wife?”

  Strapp interrupted this time. “Sergeant Hayden, was that really necessary?”

  “We have serious charges brought
against your lieutenant,” Hayden countered. “We’ll do what’s necessary—”

  “That’s what you think,” Decker said.

  Hayden zeroed in on Decker. “What did you say?”

  Decker shrugged. “That’s exactly what I was doing, Sergeant. Running an investigation. What started as a mass murder began to look like murder for hire. And no simple hit at that. Thirteen people dead, thirty-two wounded, many more traumatized for life. I’d say the stakes were pretty high.”

  Catherine said, “High stakes or not, no one in this department has a right to harass anyone else.”

  “I agree, Officer Bell. I assure you no one was harassed, sexually or otherwise. Jeanine Garrison is making noise because she’s got something to hide.”

  Hayden said, “And you have proof of these allegations, Lieutenant?”

  Rina asked, “Forgive a layman’s ignorance, but why would Lieutenant Decker be investigating if he had proof? I thought that was the purpose of an investigation. To gather evidence.”

  Catherine said, “We’ve run far afield.”

  “No, we haven’t” Strapp said. “As a matter of fact, Mrs. Decker is right smack in the center of the damn ballpark. We’re trying to run an investigation and Jeanine Garrison’s ludicrous charges are slowing everything down—”

  Hayden said, “It’s for us to determine whether or not the charges are ludicrous.”

  “Hook me up to a polygraph,” Decker said. “Ask me the same questions. Draw your conclusions. You call the shots.”

  Hayden and Catherine exchanged glances.

  Decker said, “Is there a formal one eight one complaint being pressed?”

  Hayden said, “Yes.”

  Decker closed his eyes and opened them. “Then I can only help myself by taking a polygraph. How about this? If I pass, department rules it as an Unfounded. If I don’t pass, I’ll go along with the departmental ruling of a Sustained.”

  Catherine finally took a seat at the table. “We can’t base our ruling on a polygraph. But you can take one.”

  “Set it up.”

  She pulled out a notebook from her jacket, flipped through some pages. “Possibly we can hook you up with a polygraph in two weeks.”

  “Why so long?” Strapp said.

  “The examiner I use is on vacation.”

  “So get another examiner,” Decker said.

  “I like this one.”

  Strapp said, “My man has to cool his heels for a couple of weeks because your examiner is basking in the sun?”

  “If he’s innocent, it’ll keep,” Hayden said.

  Decker said, “I can wait. Can I get back to work now?”

  Catherine glanced at her partner. Hayden nodded, turned off the video camera, and removed the cassette. “I’ll call you with the details.”

  Decker smiled. “I’ll be waiting.”

  Strapp got up. “I want a copy of the cassette.”

  “Certainly,” Catherine said. “Despite what you’ve been led to think, IAD is very up-front.”

  “A bastion of honesty,” Strapp said. “Two weeks. You go longer than that, I make noise.”

  Hayden nodded deferentially. Even though he wasn’t under Strapp’s jurisdiction, the captain’s rank still demanded respect. As soon as they were out the door, Strapp shoved it closed. “Bastards!” He turned to Nickerson. “What do you think?”

  Nickerson yawned. “They’re lightweights. All sound and fury signifying nothing. Brilliant stroke to bring the wife in. Kept it civil.” He turned to Rina, smiled. “You were very good.”

  “Thank you.” Rina paused. “Good at what?”

  Nickerson laughed. “The way you explained your religious beliefs about sex. Open. Unembarrassed. Straight out. Even…” He smiled. “Excuse me, Lieutenant, for my candor, but your wife is very…appealing. At least Hayden thought so. See him blush?”

  “Blush?” Rina asked.

  “You’d better believe it,” Decker said. “Frankly put, he had the hots for you.”

  “He did not!”

  Nickerson said, “It was the sex talk combined with the dowdy dress. The quiet ones. Gets ’em every time. Good move, Mrs. Decker.”

  Rina said, “I always dress like this, Mr. Nickerson.”

  Nickerson stuttered, “Well, yes, of course…”

  “Not always this somber,” Decker remarked. “But she does always dress modestly. Can I have a few moments with my wife in private?”

  Nickerson stood up. “I suppose you deserve that.” He saluted. “We’ll be in touch.”

  After the defense rep left, Strapp laid a strong hand on Decker’s shoulder. “Despite what they say, the polygraph means a lot to IAD. You beat that, we’ll be fine.”

  “Thanks for your support, sir.”

  “Can’t let the bastards get in our way.”

  Decker nodded.

  Strapp looked at Rina. “Mrs. Decker.”

  “Captain.”

  Strapp went out of the room, closed the door. Immediately, Decker let out a gust of air, slid back in his seat.

  “Are you okay?” Rina asked.

  “Fine, fine.” He pulled her onto his lap. “You were wonderful. People say they love one another. But you did more than words could ever convey. You came through for me. I’ll never forget this, Rina. Never.”

  “It wasn’t hard.” Rina grew misty. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.” Decker grew tense. “Bastard! Probing like he did.” He imitated Hayden. “What was the reason? He couldn’t wait?”

  Rina smiled. “For a moment, I considered telling him about my hysterectomy—”

  “Don’t you dare! None of the bastard’s business!”

  She shrugged. “I didn’t because I thought it would work against you. Make me look…less desirable—”

  “That would be impossible!” Decker said.

  “Besides, then I’d have to explain why I got a period at all. And how a period is defined by Jewish law. In reality, I didn’t think the sergeant was up to grasping the intricacies of remnant endometrial tissue sloughing from a subcervical hysterectomy. Hayden is just not very clever.”

  “He’s an idiot!” Decker pulled her close, kissed the nape of her neck. “Know how I feel right now? Like the luckiest man alive. To be honest, it was harder than I thought it would be. I actually told a little fib.”

  Rina dried her eyes, turned around to face him. “What kind of fib?”

  He pulled her back into his arms. Kissed her neck again.

  “Hmmm, you smell nice.”

  “What was the fib, Peter?”

  “The complaint against me while I was on the Gainesville force. It was justified.” He kissed her again. “Hayden had my psyche nailed, darlin’. I was caught up in the whole antiwar thing. But from the unpopular side. I had just come back from Nam. Confused, scared, full of self-doubt…but mostly angry. I had an ugly temper, Rina.”

  “You?”

  “You don’t become this controlled a person unless there’s something to control. Most of the time, I could hold it in check. Then…I don’t know. There was this typical college demonstration. Nothing unusual. Just wimpy, little know-nothing jerks spouting off…”

  He looked away.

  “Something snapped. I lost it. I took the loudest, most obnoxious one and dragged the kid, stomach down, over a hundred feet of rocky, newly laid asphalt—”

  “My God!”

  “By the time I was done, the kid’s stomach looked like raw meat—”

  Rina shook him off. “That’s terrible.”

  “Yeah, it was bad. It’s hard to understand unless you’ve been there.”

  Head pounding, Rina took in a deep breath, let it out slowly. Obviously that had been a long time ago. Right now, Peter didn’t need a morality lesson. “I suppose you’re right.”

  Again, Decker kissed her neck, which he noticed had visibly tensed. “I acted out of anger and that was wrong. But honestly…the release of such raw…fury…it felt good.”
/>   Again, Rina broke away, stared at her husband.

  He met her gaze, thought for a moment. “Don’t worry. It’ll never happen again.”

  “Why are you telling me this?”

  “I trust you to know the truth.”

  Rina tried to relax but failed. “As long as it’s true confessions, how’d you get him to drop the charges against you?”

  “It was a her,” Decker said. “I did a big no-no. After the complaint was filed, unknown to my superior, I contacted her. Went to her dorm. I remember putting on a T-shirt and jeans…sandals. Tried to look as uncoplike as I could. I apologized profusely. Just about went down on my knees. Offered to make amends any way she saw fit. Laid on the charm and hoped for the best. Much to my astonishment, the next day she dropped the complaint.”

  “And?”

  “And the rest, as they say, is history.”

  Rina stared at him, openmouthed. “Jan?”

  Decker laughed. “The one and only complaint against me that she’s ever really dropped.”

  23

  Tricky business, talking to teens. Authority figures left them frosty and distrustful. The “cool” grown-up approach was also out. They were suspicious of anyone who tried too hard.

  How to manipulate them?

  Webster figured he’d play into their overinflated sense of importance. Their opinions about Harlan Manz really mattered to the police.

  He parked the unmarked about a block down, hit Westbridge Prep just as the four-thirty dismissal bell rang out. The campus sat on acres of lawn, a Federalist-style complex, complete with bell tower. Behind the main four-storied structure were wings and extensions. The buildings were herringboned in brick, unsuitable in L.A. earthquake country. No matter. To parents, New England architecture connoted New England universities. The physical image fueled the Harvard dream.

  For the role, Webster had donned a black silk jacket, black T-shirt, and jeans. Professional but not off-putting. The school gates had opened, and adolescents swarmed out. Noise. Lots of it. Males letting off steam, shouting and cursing and posturing bravado. Estrogen-ladened girls, flailing their hands with exaggerated movement, while rattling off Valleyspeak between nervous giggles. The parking lots roared volleys of cars: four-wheelers and Jeeps as well as sports car convertibles—Mustangs, Camaros, Thunderbirds, as well as older Jags, BMWs, a Mercedes, and a Porsche Carrera. The driver of the Porsche was pitted with acne. Who knew? Maybe the wheels helped him get laid.