private stash.
He pulled out his chair and said, “I know this is stressful, Nancy, and you’ve been very helpful. You’re our last hope to find Carly’s killer.”
She shook her head, out of desperation or regret, I couldn’t know. But the video camera was still rolling; the witness was still in her seat. And I still had questions.
CHAPTER 49
Conklin was right: Nancy Koebel was our best hope.
She’d seen Carly alive and then dead. And before Carly’s death Koebel had seen men coming and going from the victim’s motel room. One of those men might have been Carly’s killer. But might have was miles away from proof.
I didn’t want to admit it, but Nancy Koebel was believable and not panning out at all. But as my mother used to say, pressure makes diamonds. If I had to lean on Koebel, I would do it, because I wasn’t ready to give up on this witness.
I said to Koebel, “Nancy. Look at this picture once more.”
“Okay,” she said, resigned.
She blew on the tea, and I pulled up the best of the pictures the ATM had shot from across the street of the rear of the Big Four the night Carly Myers was killed.
“Here are some additional shots of him from a slightly different angle. Do you recognize him now?”
She took the phone out of my hand and really gave the images a good look.
She squinted, then said, “You know … let me see the other shot again.”
I complied.
Koebel took my phone and squinted at it.
“That could be Denny. I can’t swear on a Bible, but that might be Denny.”
Jake Tuohy had said Carly’s pimp was named Danny or Denny.
“You saw him a number of times,” I pressed.
“The time I remember, Carly checked in. He waited in the front parking lot near the office. They walked around back together.”
I said, “Go on,” and Koebel added a new layer to the story she’d been telling us all morning.
She said, “Carly waved and shouted out, ‘Bye, Denny,’ and he watched her while she went up to the second floor.”
Koebel clamped her mouth shut and closed her eyes.
She was probably thinking about the last time she’d been in room 212, a life-altering experience. And from the way Koebel was gripping the edge of the table, I thought she was ready to bolt.
If she did, we couldn’t stop her.
Conklin saw it, too. Fear of something. Maybe fear of us. She was in the USA with an expired visa.
Conklin said, “You’re not going to be asked to testify. We are trying to find this woman’s killer because two other women are still missing. You’re helping us, Nancy, and we’re very grateful to you for coming in.”
She nodded and said, “I need to get home.”
I wasn’t done, so I pressed on.
“Nancy, we’re not there yet. We have a hypnotist on call. Dr. Friedlander can come in and put you into a hypnotic state. You’ll be able to visualize the moment you saw this man and freeze the picture. Get a good look at him through the lens of your own memory.”
“How long will that take?”
“Do you want to call your uncle and tell him that you’re helping the police find a killer and you have to stay here until you give them a clue?”
She looked genuinely distressed.
“I have to go. I don’t want to be hypnotized.”
“Then answer my questions, Nancy. Truthfully. Do you think that Denny was Carly’s client or a friend? Or do you think she worked for him?”
“Oh, my God. Now that you mention it, another time I think I saw her give him—or someone like him—a wad of money.”
It was another might have statement, but it felt like I’d finally gotten somewhere. And I thought of the woman who worked at the laundromat across from the Big Four. Edna Gutierrez. She’d told Jacobi that she’d seen a man drop Carly off in front of the motel in what she thought was a black or blue SUV.
I asked Koebel, “What kind of car did Denny drive?”
“I didn’t notice a car. Look. I need to get back to my flat and pack my two sets of clothes and my toothbrush. My uncle is coming to get me in a couple of hours, and we’re driving to Toronto.”
Conklin looked at me as if to ask, Anything else?
I sighed.
I asked Nancy for her phone number and thanked her again for helping out the SFPD. I left her in the box with Richie, putting a statement together, and headed back to the bullpen