Temptations - The Complete Series

by Annie Jocoby

  It wasn’t like Slade to be so questioning of his actions. Usually, he just plowed right through problems like they weren’t even there. He was human, though, and, as such, he questioned whether he did the right thing. It was impossible to know, though, if he had done the right thing in this case. It was impossible to know because the alternative wasn’t clear. Maybe Margot could have gotten away with it, on a self-defense claim, but maybe not. She probably wasn’t able to afford a lawyer back then, and Slade wasn’t able to help her get a good lawyer, because he was still in school and his adoptive parents didn’t approve of him seeing Margot. Now, Margot definitely had the money for a decent attorney, because Slade had more money than Croesus.

  “Well, Slade, there’s not a lot of room for regret here. We just have to hope for the best. Hope that the police decide not to charge her, and, if she is charged, hope that we can get her off with a self-defense claim. There’s not much else that we can do.”

  He nodded his head. “You’re the drunk one, yet you’re making more sense right now than I am.” He looked at me with admiration in his beautiful green eyes. “Come on, let’s go to my house. Your dogs are waiting for you there. My mom is there, too, of course, but I’m in the process of buying her a home around here.”

  I smiled. “What are you going to do with all these San Diego homes once you go back to LA?”

  He shrugged. “Sell them. That’s not a huge deal, is it?”

  “No.” I should have said that it was a huge deal for 99.9999% of the population, and only the truly wealthy could just buy and sell San Diego homes as if they were used books. “I guess it’s not a huge deal to you.”

  At that, he gave me his hand. “Come, let’s get you into my car and get you to my home. I’ll call the firm tomorrow and tell them that you can’t come in. Something tells me that the firm won’t object to that, because, after all, I’m literally going to own that firm by the end of the week.”

  “Okay. But I don’t want preferential treatment. That’s the last thing I need – everybody going around and undermining me because I’m fucking the boss. I’ve always managed to get everywhere I need to be just by my ingenuity and brains. I’m not about to let nepotism sink me now.”

  “Deal. Now come, beautiful Serena. Let’s get to my house and I’ll tuck you into bed with your two girls. Hopefully you won’t feel like crap tomorrow, but, from the looks of things, I hate to say it but…you’re going to feel like shit. It’s just inevitable, unfortunately. I should really develop a drug that cures hangovers. I could make a mint on that, don’t you think?”

  “Oh, god yes. A true hangover cure would be something that everyone would want.”

  I finished the rest of the water and took the soda and bitters.

  Slade took my hand as we went to his car and then we headed to his place.

  I had to think that this was the best thing right at that moment. Eventually, I would have to return back to my own home, and I was going to have to face Derek every single day at work, but, just for now, I felt safe and secure. I was going home with Slade.

  Chapter 7

  When we got to Slade’s house, the first thing that he noticed was that Margot wasn’t there. We had some take-out food that we had picked up at a local Vietnamese restaurant. Pho was one of Margot’s favorite dishes. Slade went to her room, and she wasn’t there. Then he looked all around the house and the backyard, and she wasn’t there, either.

  “What’s going on?” I asked him. I was anxious to start eating, because I knew that if I ate, my hangover in the morning would be alleviated greatly.

  Slade’s face was pale. “I need to make a phone call,” he said. “If mom isn’t here, there’s a reason. She doesn’t have a car.”

  I drew a breath. That didn’t sound good at all. “Okay.”

  Slade went into the next room, and he was in there for awhile. When he came back out, he looked slightly better than he did before he went in. “Well, it’s bad, but it isn’t as bad as it could be.”

  I nodded. I knew what he was thinking – the worst-case scenario was that Charlotte decided to nab Margot. That wasn’t on Slade’s radar, I knew, but it didn’t mean that it wouldn’t happen. Another thing was that, somehow, someway, Margot ended up in the hospital. She was sick, even if she wasn’t dying, as she had previously believed.

  Those scenarios were unlikely, though. The most likely scenario was that Margot was taken into custody, and that was what I thought had happened.

  Slade confirmed this for me. “Mom is up in LA, answering questions. At least, she’s en route there.” He sat down on the couch and put his head in his hands. “I was hoping that perhaps they wouldn’t find the evidence to charge her. They still might not, but it doesn’t look good.”

  “Is she in custody or is she a person of interest and is going up there voluntarily?” That was important, as I needed to be there with her if she was in custody. Slade and I had already explained to her that she needed to not answer any questions at all unless I was there as her attorney. If she went voluntarily and was not being detained, then she wouldn’t have her Miranda rights read to her, and they really wouldn’t attach. That’s only if she was free to leave on her own volition.

  “She’s in custody, according to the station manager there in LA. Even if she weren’t, we need to be there. I mean, you need to be there.” He put his arm around me. “You’re sober enough to do this, aren’t you?”

  “Yes. I mean, I will be if I can eat this food.”

  “Eat it in the car.”

  At that, we got into his car, putting Bella and Gigi in their carrier, and headed to LA. I dug into my food, which was in a little Chinese takeout box, using my chopsticks that were provided by the restaurant. “I’m sorry to be eating while you’re driving,” I said. “You must be starved.”

  He shook his head. “I’ll grab a bite while you’re in the custody room with my mom. That’s not important right now. What’s important is that we get up there soon. Now, tell me about the Miranda warning thing. Are you saying that if mom isn’t in custody, but she is free to leave, that she doesn’t have a right to an attorney?”

  “That’s right, but anything she says in that situation would still be used against her in a court of law. But the police have to make it clear that she’s not being charged, she’s only being questioned as a person of interest, and that she is free to leave at any time. So, just because she’s in custody doesn’t mean that she’s actually in custody sometimes. If that makes any sense at all.”

  “Of course it does. I suppose that’s what happens when the media talks about a person of interest in a crime. They’re only calling a person a ‘person of interest’ because they want to be able to talk to that person without a lawyer being present. That’s pretty underhanded, though, if you ask me. If you’re being questioned, you should have a right to have counsel present, period.”

  “I agree there completely, but it’s one way of getting around the Miranda warnings. I mean, that happened to you when you were taken into custody, right? They told you that you were only being questioned and you were free to leave at any time?”

  “Yeah, but I’m much more savvy than my mother is. I understand how important it is to have counsel with me when I’m being interrogated. Of course, at that time, I didn’t quite understand all that was happening with Charlotte and Malcolm and all of that. It all came much later.”

  “Well at that time, when you were first being questioned, you didn’t have the right to ask for your attorney.”

  “I didn’t dream that I would need one at that time. How wrong I was. I couldn’t imagine that anybody would have ever thought that I was actually guilty of killing Sam. Of course, once I found out what the true story was – that Charlotte was framing me for rejecting her, and that I couldn’t do a thing about it unless I wanted to throw my mom under the bus – I knew that it never mattered anyhow whether I had a lawyer or not.”

  We drove up the coast while I ate my Pho with a pair of c
hopsticks. It was delicious and vegan-friendly. It was just vegetable broth, noodles and lots of Asian veggies, but it was really making me feel better. More coherent. That was important, too, because I couldn’t properly represent Margot unless I had my faculties about me.

  Slade was quiet for about an hour, and I wondered what was on his mind. I put my hand on his hand, and he smiled. “You know, Serena, I don’t think that I ever properly thanked you for saving my hide. I’m sort of glad that you forced my hand on this, because it wasn’t as bad as I imagined it would be.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Well, I imagined that if something happened and I didn’t take the fall for Jordan’s murder, then you would be dead and my mother would be in prison. Turns out that Charlotte was willing to deal after all, which kind of surprised me. I guess it’s important to her that she achieve her Hollywood dream, and that’s even more important to her than sticking it to me.”

  “But she did stick it to you if your mother is in custody for Hugh’s murder.”

  “Yeah, but it could have been much, much worse. If she wasn’t willing to deal at all, you would be dead right now. I have to keep reminding myself that. My mother is important, don’t get me wrong, but you’re the most important person in my life right now.”

  That felt warm to me, him saying that. Even if I had my doubts that we had a future together, it felt right that he was in love with me right at that moment. “I don’t understand, though. Every time I ask you about what your long-term plans are, you change the subject.”

  He sighed. “I know. But I really need to get through this next part of my life before I can make any plans. I hope that you understand that. I know that’s not what you wanted to hear, but…”

  “Okay.” It wasn’t okay at all, but I knew where he was coming from.

  We got to the station, and I was feeling much more sober and on my feet. Slade was waiting for me in the SUV, and I saw him get the two dogs out so he could walk them.

  I was ready to tackle whatever the police were going to throw at me and at Margot. I introduced myself to the dispatcher, explained who I was, and she nodded and led me back to the interrogation room.

  As I went back there, I looked back at Slade. His hands were shoved in his pockets and his eyes were downcast. I wanted to reassure him that I got this. I was going to make sure that this first interrogation went well, so that Margot didn’t say anything that would come back to haunt her later. As I caught his eye, I knew that he had complete confidence in me. He nodded to me and I nodded back and went in.

  Margot was sitting across from a very intimidating police-man. They were just sitting there, not saying a word, and, when Margot saw me, she got up and gave me a long spontaneous hug. “Thank goodness you’re here,” she said in a low voice. “I wanted to call Slade and tell him what was happening, but they didn’t let me. They just came to the house and…” At that, she started to cry.

  “Can you give us a minute?” I asked the cop.

  “Just,” he said. “I’ll be back in one minute.”

  I sat down across from the crying Margot. “Okay, I’m here. You didn’t say anything to that cop, did you?”

  “No. I told him that I had the right to an attorney, just like you and Slade told me to say. The cop told me that I didn’t have that right, because I wasn’t being charged with anything. They only want to question me, he said, and he told me that I was free to leave at any time.”

  “Bastard.” I hated that cops played that game. Pretend that the person really wasn’t in custody, so they could get incriminating statements to nail them. “What did you say when the cop told you that?”

  “I told him that I wanted my attorney anyhow, and that I wasn’t going to say one word until you got here. Of course, the cop didn’t actually let me call you. If Slade didn’t call, I probably would be sitting here for days, silent as a church mouse, because I wasn’t going to give them anything that they can use to hang me later.”

  “Good thinking. You’re doing good.” I held her while she cried some more. “You’re going to be fine. I promise you. You’re in good hands.” I realized that I was saying the word “good” over and over, but that was the one word that came into my head. It was a generic word, too generic to really be reassuring, but I hoped that Margot was reassured anyhow.

  The cop came back in one minute, just like he said he would. “Okay, you must be Serena Roberts. Margot here said that she wasn’t going to say a word until you arrived. Now you’re here, so let’s get to work. I don’t have all night for this.”

  “Of course, sir, you must be very busy,” I said to him. I shot Margot a look because her facial expression told me that she wanted to kill this cop. Not that I blamed her. It was a dirty trick to tell her that she wasn’t in custody simply because he wanted to make sure she didn’t have her counsel there right away. It was a dirty trick in my opinion, but, unfortunately, was something that happened too often.

  “I am very busy. So, let’s get this show on the road. Margot, as I told you when I came to your son’s house to pick you up, this department received an anonymous tip that you were responsible for the death of Hugh Robbins. After our department received this tip, we were able to obtain a search warrant of your former apartment in the Watts District of Los Angeles. This was the apartment that this tip indicated the homicide occurred. We were able to find blood splatters in this apartment which were picked up with our infrared devices. The tip plus the blood splatters in your former apartment have given this department probable cause to detain you for questioning.”

  “Officer O’Malley,” I said, reading his name-tag, “It sounds to me like you were always planning to charge Ms. Facinelli. You just used the term ‘probable cause.’”

  “Yeah, what of it?”

  “You told Ms. Facinelli that she was simply being brought in for questioning, not that she was being forcibly detained. You skirted the requirement that she be read her Miranda Rights, so I suggest that you do so right now.”

  He gave me a dirty look and shook his head. “Okay. Ms. Facinelli, you are under arrest for the homicide of Hugh Robbins. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be held against you. You have a right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand these rights?”

  “Yes,” Margot said, looking at me with wide eyes. I patted her hand, and saw that she had tears in her eyes. “I understand your honor.”

  The cop snorted. “I thank you for calling me your honor, but I’m not that. I’m just a detective who needs to hear, from your own mouth, what happened with Hugh Robbins.”

  She took a deep breath and proceeded to tell Office O’Malley what happened. He wrote down everything she said. I let her speak, because I wanted to the details of what happened to get out into the open. She just needed to get it out there, and I would deal with it from that point on.

  After she told the officer everything about Hugh - about how they went out, they came back to her home, she didn’t ask him to come up, yet he ended up in her apartment anyhow – the officer asked her some questions.

  “Okay, so, you shot this Hugh Robbins because you felt threatened by him. Is that correct?”

  She looked over at me, and I nodded at her. “Yes. I felt very threatened. He wasn’t supposed to be in my apartment at all.” She started to tell him why she felt so threatened, but I put my hand on her hand, which was my way of telling her she was saying too much. She immediately clammed up when I did that.

  The officer leaned back in his chair. “Help me understand. Why didn’t you just confront him and ask him to leave?”

  She shook her head. “I panicked. That’s all that I can say.”

  He sighed. “You’re not giving me much to go on here. Listen, Ms. Facinelli, you seem like a kind person. You don’t seem much like a killer to me. There must be some reason why you would shoot first and ask questions later. Literally.”

  She looked ov
er at me, and Officer O’Malley did the same. I just shook my head.

  She started to grab her crucifix again, and clutched it tightly while she stared at the floor. “There is,” she said softly. “But I apparently am not allowed to say anything right now about it.”

  I felt terrible when she said that. She evidently wanted to get it all off her chest, but I thought that it would be strategically better if she didn’t right away. I didn’t necessarily want the prosecutor to know what angle we were going for until I got my ducks in a row on this case. I wanted there to be some kind of element of surprise, some way of throwing the prosecutors off their game. That was the only way that I envisioned winning this case.

  Officer O’Malley just stared at me for a second. “Okay then, I guess this question and answer session has ended.”

  “What happens next?”

  “I give this file to the prosecutor’s office, and they’ll decide whether to file charges against you. Your attorney can explain the rest.”

  At that, Margot and I left Officer O’Malley’s office. Slade was waiting for us outside his car, and we got in. “You wanted to know what happens next,” I told Margot. “Assuming the prosecutor’s office wants to go ahead and charge you, which seems more than likely, given your confession, then you will have to appear before a judge. He’ll read you your charges and set a bond for you. Slade will pay that, whatever it is, so you shouldn’t spend too much time in jail.”