I UNLOCKED THE gun safe in my closet while Leah was in the shower and grabbed a Mossberg tactical shotgun, a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, and a Glock 9mm pistol and three boxes of ammo. I hustled downstairs and put them into the trunk of my car alongside the Ruger .357 snub-nose I always had with me. If Mike Richert was right and two people killed Colleen, two cops, I had to be ready to go to war.
I would have been ready with just my bare hands but given the choice, I wouldn’t be outgunned.
I packed a suitcase with a week’s worth of clothes then showered after Leah left the bathroom, walking silently past me.
The silence continued for the first two hours of our drive north.
“Why just the one night?” Leah finally spoke after we got onto the 405.
“Why just one night what?”
“With Krista. You said it was a one-night stand.”
I would have preferred another two hours of silence.
“I don’t see the point in talking about something that happened so long ago.”
“You talked about it less than three hours ago.” Leah’s eyes drilled into the side of my face. “Humor me.”
“I think we both realized it was a mistake.”
I did the moment I got out of Krista’s bed and saw myself in her mirror. Someone I didn’t recognize. A man who cheats on his wife with another man’s wife. Another cop’s wife. But beyond all that, I knew I’d lost the best person I’d ever known. Not just by my actions that night, but over months of taking Colleen for granted, for showing her my worst self instead of working to be a better person. I wanted her back. I wanted to be the man she fell in love with. The man that took the best of me to become. I wanted to give her the life she deserved. I vowed to myself right then to make it up to her. Even if I had to quit being a cop.
An empty oath to myself. The next time I saw Colleen she was on a coroner’s table.
“When did it happen? The one night?”
“What difference does that make?”
“Because I remember how happy you and Colleen were when I first met you at one of Krista’s barbecues. That would have been quite an acting job if you just screwed the host of the party. I want to know what kind of man I’m dealing with.”
What kind of man.
“It doesn’t make any difference when it was. I cheated on my wife. I cheated with the wife of another cop. That’s who you’re dealing with.”
“So, it was when you were seemingly so in love with your wife. Good to know.”
I didn’t see the need to defend the indefensible. Argue over gradations of immorality. The mask was off. Leah saw me for who I really was. At least who I was back then. Maybe I was still the same man. Maybe I wouldn’t know until I was tested in the same way again.
That was the end of conversation for the remainder of the drive. I called Grimes when we were thirty minutes outside of Santa Barbara to set up a time to meet the next day to tell him what I’d learned from Mike Richert. Ideally it would be best for Leah to be with us in case I left something out. I doubted she’d be up for that now. I put the call on speaker.
“When can you meet tomorrow to discuss what we learned today?” I asked.
“Where are you now?”
“A half hour from Leah’s house. Dropping her off then heading back to the Best Western.”
“I’m downtown. I can meet you at Miss Landingham’s in a half hour.”
Not ideal. I’m sure Leah wanted to get rid of me as soon as possible tonight, but it would be best to talk to Grimes when our conversation with Richert was still relatively fresh in our minds. I muted the phone and looked at Leah.
“You want me to schedule something with him tomorrow?”
“No. Let’s talk to him tonight.” No anger in her voice. A relief. Her desire to find the truth about her sister’s death trumped all else.
I unmuted the phone. “We’ll see you in thirty.”
We beat Grimes to Leah’s and silently trudged inside her home. Not a word as we waited for him. Mercifully, the doorbell rang a couple minutes after we arrived. Leah went to the door and let Grimes in. He walked into the living room and spotted me at the dinner table. I wanted the formality of sitting at a table. Grimes and I needed to have a hard conversation.
“Cahill.”
“Have a seat.” I pulled out the chair at the head of the table.
“Can I get you gentlemen anything to drink?” Leah hovered, nervous. She felt the inborn tension between Grimes and me.
“No thank you,” Grimes said and sat down.
“No thanks.”
Leah sat down opposite Grimes.
“What did you learn from the letter writer?” he asked.
“His name is Mike Richert, and he thinks he witnessed Colleen’s body being dumped on East Beach fourteen years ago.”
“What?” Grimes shifted forward in his chair, bumping the table.
I told him everything that Richert told us. Leah filled minute details I missed or thought inconsequential. She didn’t miss anything. And she hid her contempt for me brilliantly. Grimes’ expression grew darker and darker with each new piece of information.
“And no one from SBPD called him back for five years until Krista did two weeks ago?” The creases between his eyebrows dug deeper.
“Yep. That’s what he said.”
Leah nodded to confirm my statement.
“Jesus.” Grimes ran a hand over his face. “What the hell is going on over at East Figueroa?”
“Five years ago, the case would have been inactive for a while, right?” I asked.
“The brass stuck it in the freezer after Byers and I worked it for three years. Said we couldn’t afford the manpower anymore. The only murder case I didn’t solve in fifteen years as a homicide detective. I continued to work it every free minute I had for the next two years until I retired.”
“And then you investigated it for John Kerrigan when you became a PI.”
“For two years. Even he gave up hope after a while.”
“What are the chances of you getting a look at Colleen’s murder book?” I asked.
“I already have it at home. I made a copy before I retired and took it with me.”
“I mean the version since Krista started working a week before she died.”
“Zero.”
“Even if you don’t go through proper channels?”
“There are only proper channels. This is a murder case. Nobody’s going to show me anything. Especially with the queen of transparency ruling from on high that MIU can’t share anything with me.”
“Does that include your talk with Detective Mitchell at Paddy’s Pub last night?”
“I never said I was going to talk to Mitchell.” Grimes stepping behind the thin blue line, leaving me on the other side.
“Whoever you talked to or didn’t talk to, Colleen’s murder is the key to Krista’s death.”
“You don’t know that, Cahill. All we know is that someone saw a couple guys possibly carrying something on East Beach one night fourteen years ago. I agree that someone should have followed up with Mr. Richert after he called, but this doesn’t prove anything. You can’t jump to conclusions on a homicide.”
I swallowed what my reflexes wanted me to say. That he and SBPD had jumped to the conclusion that I was Colleen’s murderer and focused only on me. But I needed Grimes on my side. Or as close as I could get him to it. Besides, my own stupid actions or inactions had helped keep the department’s focus on me.
“Let’s look at the facts, Grimes. Mike Richert is sure of the date because he kept track of all the sailing jobs he took. He saw two men, one a cop, dump something on the beach where Colleen was found the night she died. Plus, someone stole Colleen’s cold case file from Krista’s office. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb in believing that whoever killed Colleen killed Krista after she started investigating Colleen’s death. Who would have access to the file on Colleen? A cop.”
“Oh, you’re way out there on a limb. All of this is sheer speculation, Cahill. We don’t even know if there were any files there to be stolen. And we don’t know if one of the men this Richert fellow thinks he saw on the morning your wife was murdered was a cop or just someone in dark clothes. This is all supposition fueled by some need to get even with SBPD for arresting you and keeping you as a person of interest. This isn’t about you, Cahill. You don’t get to come up here and get Miss Landingham caught up in your grand conspiracies.”
“I’m a big girl, Jim. Rick’s not getting me caught up in anything.”
“Somebody at SBPD killed my wife and fourteen years later he killed Krista.” I snapped the words off. “You were on the right trail looking for a cop, Grimes. Just the wrong one.”
The last sentence was a mistake. I regretted it the moment I said it.
Grimes cop-eyed me then looked at Leah. I wished he would have just continued to mean-mug me. “Did Rick tell you about his alibi on the night of his wife’s murder?”
Grimes got up from the table and left the house without another word.
“What did he mean by that?” Leah looked concerned and tired. I’d let Grimes get under my skin and had to one-up him, forgetting that Santa Barbara wasn’t about me. It was about Colleen, Krista, and Krista’s sister.
“I don’t know,” I lied. Easily. Too easily. “He hated me before he thought I was a murderer and he still hates me even though he knows I’m not.”
“What was your alibi, Rick?”
I could lie to her about something Grimes said and other things, but not about the alibi the night Colleen was murdered. That would cheapen Colleen’s life. A throwaway lie thought up on the spot. Her memory deserved better.
I didn’t say anything.
“Oh my God.” Leah stood up and paced behind the table. “You were with Krista the night Colleen was murdered. Weren’t you?”
I stayed silent.
“That’s why Krista was so certain you couldn’t have killed your wife. Not because she knew you were incapable of it, but because she was with you when it happened. She was your alibi. And that’s why she felt guilty.”
Silent.
“Why didn’t you tell the police where you were? They never would have arrested you. Krista would have vouched for you. Were you trying to save her marriage?”
“I was protecting my reputation. I didn’t want other cops to know that I broke the code and betrayed them. Or have Colleen’s family and my own know that I cheated on her the night she was murdered.”
“You were willing to go to prison for the rest of your life to protect your reputation?”
“I would have told the truth if the DA had decided to go to trial.”
“Why didn’t Krista go to Grimes on her own?”
“I talked her out of it. More for her marriage to the job than to Weaver. She’d be a pariah at SBPD just like I would have been if I told Grimes.”
“Instead, 48 Hours did a show on Colleen’s death and half the country thought you killed your wife. Some probably still do. Was all of that worth it just to hide the fact that you slept with another cop’s wife?”
“That’s the rub, isn’t it?”
“I’m glad you see the humor in it.”
My life was nothing but laughs.
“I’ll update you via email if I learn anything new. Otherwise, I’ll leave the week’s report to Grimes. Goodnight, Leah.” I walked into the foyer and opened the door.
“Do you think Tom knew about you two?” Leah walked over to me. “Krista’s marriage got even worse around the time Colleen died.”
“Not unless Krista told him. Neither of us told anyone. You were not only her sister but her best friend. She would have told you if she told anyone. No way Tom could have known. He was out of town that night working a case.”
“No he wasn’t.”