Blood Defense

THIRTY-FOUR

There was a leaden feeling in my chest as I headed out to the car with Alex. Neither of us spoke. I didn’t want to let my thoughts coalesce. If I did, I’d sink even further.

But I wanted to know what Alex thought. I waited until we got into the car. “Did you believe him?”

He shrugged. “If I didn’t know about the rape charge, I probably would. He really sounds sincere. But now? I don’t know. I’m not sure.”

So even Alex was feeling differently about Dale. I had to find a way to stanch the bleeding or Dale would be DOA by the time we got to trial. I’d gotten onto the 101 Freeway and was heading back to the office when I saw the Warner Bros. water tank towering above the freeway. I remembered we still hadn’t cornered that writer, Geoffrey Brocklin, the guy Chloe had been seeing at some point. I had less hope than ever that he’d do us any good, but I was feeling desperate. He was our last thread to pull with Chloe. And besides, I needed the distraction. I asked Alex if he was up for a fight.

“Hell, yeah. I don’t know if he’s back yet, but it’s worth a try.”

The last time we visited the set, Alex had made a fan of Ramie, the showrunner’s assistant. Now, he called her and found out that Geoff was in the writer’s room. She agreed to get us onto the lot.

When he ended the call, I told him to give Michelle the information we’d gotten from Amaya and let her follow up on Marc Palmer.

“You don’t want me to do that?”

“No. Marc’s a side issue. I need you to move on Dale’s alibi witnesses.”

Alex nodded and pulled out his phone. He looked almost as grim as I felt. As Alex spoke to Michelle, I faced the fact that there were just too many “coincidences” happening around Dale and the women in his life. The truth was, Dale had probably killed them all-Chloe, Paige, and Jenny. And if I could do the math, so could the cops. They were probably already pulling up all the unsolved homicides in every division Dale had worked-which was all over the county. That’s what I would’ve done.

Dale was probably a serial killer. My throat tightened as tears threatened to well up. I forced a deep breath. I couldn’t afford to let this get to me. I was fighting a war on two fronts now that Jenny Knox’s murder was out in the open.

I pulled onto the lot and found a parking space close to the building that housed the writing staff. When Ramie saw us approaching, she smiled and waved. It had nothing to do with me. She was twitterpated with Alex. She walked over to us, then glanced around and whispered to him, “I’ll tell Geoff someone’s waiting for him in the director’s office. You’ll have to take it from there.”

She led us to the office, then went to get Geoffrey Brocklin. I braced myself. Any friend of Chloe’s was bound to be an enemy of ours.

Geoffrey stopped in the doorway and frowned. “Who are you?” His hair was shaggy, his wire-rimmed glasses sat too far down on his nose, and his clothes looked like they’d been slept in.

“I’m Samantha Brinkman and this is my associate, Alex Medrano.” I figured associate sounded better than investigator.

Geoffrey’s eyes widened. “You’re that killer’s lawyer? No fucking way am I talking to you-”

He turned to go. Ordinarily, I would’ve let him. There’s no point in trying to beat down a witness who doesn’t want to talk to you. But I was in an angry mood and more than willing to share it.

“That’s fine. Then here’s how it’s going to go: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, ask yourselves why Geoffrey Brocklin wouldn’t even give us five minutes to tell him why we thought Dale Pearson might not be the killer? Wouldn’t an innocent man, one who has nothing to hide, want to do all he could to make sure the real murderer is brought to justice? Because we all know the police can get it wrong. We’ve all seen the stories about men and women who spent twenty, thirty years in prison for crimes they didn’t commit. But Geoffrey Brocklin didn’t want to hear it. Because Geoffrey Brocklin knew who did it-and he knew it wasn’t Dale Pear-”

“Are you kidding me? No one’s going to buy that!”

I tilted my head. “You sure? You and Chloe were close. Everyone knows it. So when she dumped you for Dale, you got jealous.” I actually had no idea whether that was true. “And you don’t have an alibi for that night.” I was bluffing about that, too. If I was wrong, he’d call security and we’d be bounced out on our asses. At this point, I didn’t care.

Geoffrey set his jaw. “We were never a couple. I was just a friend.”

Yes. Like they say, I’d rather be lucky than good. “What did she tell you about Dale?”

“Just that he was a pain in the ass. She kind of liked the idea of dating a cop; it was a change of pace for her. But she said he gave her a lot of shit.”

“About what?”

A defiant look crossed his face. “I don’t know. She didn’t really say.”

“Bullshit. It was about using. She was back on the needle.”

Geoffrey stared at me for a long moment, then slowly nodded. “I was actually on his side about that.” He looked out the window, his expression bleak. “I couldn’t believe it when I found out. She went through hell to get clean and put her life back together. Watching her slide back down, inch by inch… it killed me.”

“You tried to get her to stop?”

He sighed. “It was maddening. She’d promise, I’d believe her. And then I’d catch her on the nod.” Geoffrey shook his head. “The day she died, I heard she’d had to leave the set. I found her in her trailer. Getting sick.” He looked at me. “I knew that meant she’d just shot up. But this time she didn’t try to deny it. She said she knew she was out of control.” He swallowed hard. “She asked me for help. She’d never done that before.”

“Then her source had to be on the lot.” She wouldn’t have waited to shoot up in her trailer if she’d scored before she got to work.

Geoffrey’s eyes moved from me to Alex, then back again. “I’m pretty sure I know who it is. But if I tell you, you’ll have to cover me.”

Studio lots were little Peyton Places, and Geoffrey didn’t want to get branded as a snitch. “If we can’t find anything to link him up to Chloe’s murder, this goes nowhere.”

Geoffrey looked behind him, then spoke in a low voice. “It’s not a ‘him,’ it’s a ‘her.’ Jaylene Thomas. She’s a PA-uh, production assistant.”

Low on the totem pole, it was a job that involved running around the lot all day. A great gig for a dealer. We got a description: five foot six, medium build, short black hair, and a nose ring. “Do you know whether Chloe saw her after you two talked in her trailer?”

“No, but she could have. Chloe was scheduled to do the last shot of the day, so she was here pretty late.”

Geoffrey told us we could probably find Jaylene somewhere between Building 26 and the trailers. I thanked him. He gave me a curt nod and headed back to the writers’ room. We went out to see if we could head Jaylene off at the pass.

“You crossing him off the list?” Alex asked.

“For now. He doesn’t feel right to me. You?”

“Agreed. I think he probably did want to be more than a friend, but I don’t buy him as a killer. You really think a five-foot-six girl could’ve killed two women?” Alex asked.

“I can’t afford to be picky-or sexist-right now. I need suspects.”

But as it turned out, Jaylene was a better prospect than I’d anticipated. We found her coming out of Building 26 with a cigarette behind her ear and a lighter in her hand. Perfect.

I stepped up to her, just out of swinging range. “Jaylene?”

She turned and peered at me. “Angus is up now; I’m on break.” She pulled out the cigarette and lit it.

“I’m not on the show. I just wanted to talk to you for a minute. We’re looking into Chloe’s death and-”

Jaylene blew out a stream of smoke. “You a cop?”

“No. I’m Samantha Brinkman-”

Jaylene stared for a moment, then moved closer and poked a finger at my chest. “You’re that fucker’s lawyer, aren’t you? Well, you can go screw yourself.”

I pushed her hand away. “Yeah, ’cause you were such a good friend to her.”

Jaylene dropped her cigarette and came at me, her right fist cocked. Alex jumped between us and pushed her back, saving me from a trip to the hospital. He held on to her, his back to me.

Safe now, with Alex holding her in check, I got in her face. “You’re the one who was ruining her life, selling her that-”

“You’re full of crap!” Jaylene spit her words at me over Alex’s shoulder. “She was about to have a nervous breakdown, but no one cared. They just wanted to use her. I was the only one who gave a shit about her. I don’t care what anyone says. She couldn’t have made it through one fucking day without me!”

She threw Alex’s arm off her shoulder and stomped away. I watched her go.

“I get the feeling Chloe was more than just a customer to our buddy Jaylene,” Alex said.

I nodded. “Let’s find out if Jaylene has an alibi.”

“I’m on it.”