used to the feel and finding myself more and more comfortable behind the wheel.
The Camry was the first new car I had ever bought. I was still young enough then to look into a low-end BMW, but Megan and I were barely beyond the newlywed phase and talking about starting a family, so I knew the way to impress her most was to demonstrate my sensible maturity with a fine new midsized Toyota sedan.
I don’t know how long I would have held on to the Camry if I hadn’t been forced into the change. Probably until it was too worn down by time and miles to keep going. Maybe it was a good thing I’d been forced to move on. Cradled in the heated, five-way power-adjustable ivory leather embrace of the driver’s seat, I glanced over at Julia as she looked out the window at the moon glinting on the Pacific and was glad for the NHTSA five-star safety rating of the choice I’d made.
CHAPTER TWENTY
HEAD FULL OF DOUBT / ROAD FULL OF PROMISE
“I’m not doing it until Monday,” Patrick said when I asked him about Joe’s interrogation.
While I no longer needed a babysitter, I was still on limited duty due to my concussion. I wouldn’t be back in the case rotation until the doctor cleared me to return to active duty, which I was hoping would be at my next follow-up visit.
“Why did you decide to postpone?” I asked.
“He and Lucinda are meeting with the probate attorney this afternoon. I want him to feel like he got away with it for a few days before we go at him.”
I thought that was a good move. Once Joe had a taste of the relief that would come with the inheritance from his father-in-law, Patrick could use it and the threat of losing it to his advantage. It was a smart move, but there was a risk. “What if he hears about Novak?” I asked.
“I don’t think he will. We’ve got the phone records. There’s only been limited communication between them, and it doesn’t look like Joe’s been talking to anybody else.”
“Not even Goran? They have a history.”
“It’s worth the risk. We’re watching. He’s not going anyplace.”
How would I have handled the interrogation? I thought about it. Patrick’s strategy was good, but I didn’t know if I would have made the same choice. Sure, Joe would be relieved and probably feeling overconfident, but if we brought him in before he knew for sure about getting his hands on Bill’s money, we could work his anxiety. The more I considered, though, the more I leaned in the direction of Patrick’s choice. And besides, it wouldn’t be that detrimental to the case if Joe did find out that Avram was being held. The biggest risk was Joe invoking his right to an attorney before he talked to us. Even if he did that, the case against him was still solid. Patrick had made the right call.
I asked him if he’d found anything else that might connect Avram to the car bomb.
“Not yet,” he said. “But we will. No doubt about it.”
After Patrick left, Lauren and I sat in the squad room. My plan had been to walk her through a few of my open cases, just to give her a stronger sense of the breadth and complexity of the homicide detail’s work. I’d worried a bit about starting at the top of the investigative food chain. Most patrol officers never become detectives, and most detectives never work homicide. But I knew she was hungry for it. Our conversation about the Denkins case, and all the time I’d spent with her, proved to me that she had not only the desire but also the perceptiveness and intelligence required. When I talked to her about it, she had seemed interested and enthusiastic. And besides, most cops never went to law school.
It surprised me, even though it shouldn’t have, how much progress I was making with her going over the cases. I thought I’d be doing little more than explaining things to her, but she fired back a question or two for every explanation I offered her. And they were good questions, smart ones, that even helped me reframe my perceptions and assumptions on a few cases. On one, a domestic murder in which a battered wife had killed her husband, Lauren studied the half dozen family photos we’d included of the couple, then even more images of the victim and the crime scene. “Look at