Transcript of conversation between Veena Lion and Detective Michael Bernstein, captured using an ambient recording app on her phone
VEENA LION: Detective Bernstein! You got a minute?
MICHAEL BERNSTEIN: Not really, Veena.
LION: Fine. You don’t want to talk to me, I’ll find people who will.
BERNSTEIN: Hey! Wait up and listen to me for a sec. You’re gonna want to stay away from this one. I’m not saying that as a threat. I’m saying it as your friend. Just be patient. You and the DA are going to get the outcome you want.
LION: All I want is the truth, Bernstein.
BERNSTEIN: Oh, you’ll get the whole story. Don’t worry.
LION: I’m not so sure. Are you going to tell your superior officers about the connection between this murder and the Archie Hughes murder?
BERNSTEIN: Who said this was a murder? And what does one have to do with the other?
LION: Thought as much. See you soon, Detective.
BERNSTEIN: What do you mean, soon?
Transcript of interview with James Papaleo, doorman at the Villas at Elfreth’s Alley, conducted by Veena Lion and Janie Hall
VEENA LION: Excuse me, are you the employee who found the body?
JAMES PAPALEO: God, I wish I hadn’t. You have no idea. There are some things you can never erase from your brain.
JANIE HALL: I’m so sorry, Mr. Papaleo. I know how hard this is. But we’re just trying to figure out what happened here.
PAPALEO: Like I told the other cops, I just heard it. I didn’t know what I was hearing, but it sounded like a ton of produce fell off the back of a truck, you know? A loud, wet…cracking sound.
LION: Did you know Roz Cline pretty well?
PAPALEO: Yeah, I did. Everybody did. She was the life of this place. Really nice girl, very popular. I don’t understand this, I really don’t.
HALL: When you say popular, what do you mean exactly? Did she entertain a lot of friends?
PAPALEO: Nah, not a lot. She wasn’t a partyer like that. Really classy lady, real discreet. And the people she—what did you say, entertained? Well, they were classy people too.
LION: People like Archie Hughes?
PAPALEO: No offense, Detectives, but I think I should be discreet too. I mean, Archie obviously had nothing to do with what happened to poor Roz here.
LION: But Archie did visit often, right? Never mind, you don’t have to answer that. I have all the sign-in logs from the management company.
PAPALEO: Don’t know what good that’ll do you.
HALL: What do you mean?
PAPALEO: People like Archie Hughes pay a visit, their names don’t go into the sign-in logs. Too many crazy Eagles fans out there. Somebody sees his name on the log one day, and before you know it, you’ve got a crowd camped outside. The poor guy didn’t want to be bothered.
LION: Or caught.
PAPALEO: What was that?
LION: Never mind. I’m guessing their friend Maya Rain wouldn’t be on the visitor logs either.
PAPALEO: I don’t know any Maya Rain. Who’s that?
HALL: What about Roz’s other friend…ah, sorry, I’m blanking here. What’s her name…(Snaps fingers) Super-pretty, in her twenties…
PAPALEO: You probably mean Vanessa. Yeah, she and Roz were really close. Really sweet ladies…oh no. You’re asking because you have to break the bad news to Vanessa, right?
LION: I have a feeling she already knows.