“He helped me so much, at first, just by listening while I groaned about my troubles. I wasn’t looking for someone, you know? But there he was, wagging his tail. Lonely, eager, but most of all, he has his own philosophy of life, and a kind of-wisdom. He has a unique take on the world. He’s for change, the good kind. Believe in people, give them what they need to get along.”
“He was a political activist?”
“His politics weren’t the problem,” she said bluntly. “His breaking a promise to me was the problem.”
Paul nodded.
“Even so, Stef’s not a really bad person. People should know him better before they decide he’s some generic bad guy and put him away for life.”
“What happened to the bar job?”
“He got fired. He wanted to unionize the workers. I supported him in that.”
Yeah, you supported him all right, Paul was thinking. Stefan lived his principles, and you brought home the bacon.
“And I support him now, even though we’re not together anymore.”
“You broke up after his arrest?” he asked, nudging her along.
She nodded.
“Why?”
“I need to trust someone,” she said. “I couldn’t get my heart broken again by a man who wouldn’t be straight with me.”
Flame in her eyes, burning, fearsome. If Paul lied to Nina, would she hold it so ferociously against him? No. They had traveled way beyond hard-and-fast rules. “How long were you together?”
“About two years before he got arrested.”
“While you were together, did you ever fight with him?”
“Oh, all the time.”
“He ever hurt you in any way?” He had checked and found no record of domestic calls, but many women never called.
“What? Are you crazy? Stefan would never-oh, my God. I see what you’re getting at. Did he ever, like, creep up behind me and try to strangle me? No. He never did! He never hit me. He never touched me, except”-she appeared near tears-“tenderly.”
“You have your own business?”
She needed a few seconds to blink and change topics. “No. I work for another woman who gets in all the clients. She contracts to landscape and maintain specific commercial properties. We don’t do houses, only businesses, which keeps her profits higher. Our clients are gas stations, restaurants, that kind of place. The Monterey Bay area’s full of small-business types needing our kind of service,” she said. “Sure wish I owned the company. I’d love to buy her out. Stefan and I could…” She blushed. “I used to think we’d make a really dynamite team.”
“That night that Stefan got caught,” Paul said. “Could you tell me about it one more time?” People’s stories had a way of changing. He wanted Nina to know what Erin would say on the stand. She needed all the help she could get on preparation for this trial, and had gotten precious little. What a ridiculous situation, Nina taking on yet another lost cause, this time with Klaus, who was speeding into senility, from what he had seen lately.
“We ate out at the Captain’s Gig,” she said promptly. “Then we had a few drinks, I think, and just talked. Tequila. It’s the devil for sure. I guess I went to bed early.”
“You didn’t know he went out.”
“No.”
“You had no idea he was digging up a grave that night,” he said.
“No.”
“Did you notice what time he left?”
Erin shifted her legs, which had been crossed, to a more rigid position, parallel and aligned. “I didn’t notice he was gone at first. I didn’t notice until later.”
“Which was when?” Paul asked.
“Maybe midnight. I woke up and he wasn’t there. And then a few hours later he called from the police station. Talk about a wake-up call. That was bad.”
“What do you think of Wanda Wyatt?”
“Stef’s mother?” She picked at some loose threads along the edge of a pillow. “He’s way more like her than his brother.”
A bulb flickered. “But she favors his brother?” Paul said.
“She doesn’t have high hopes for Stefan.”
“Ah.”
“He has potential, but she still sees him as an immature child who never got potty-trained and has accidents to this day. Everything’s a personal affront to Wanda, like Stef’s messing up intentionally to make her feel bad.”
“Messing up, as in lobbing a brick at a police officer?”
She must have heard his disapproval. Her entire body stiffened, preparing for a strong defense. “That cop was beating a friend of his with a stick. It wasn’t like it sounds.”
“Or,” Paul consulted his notes, “getting into a bar fracas and sending another man to the hospital?”
“He was a kid. The other guy picked a fight and he fought back. It wasn’t his fault the guy fell. He hardly touched him.”
Oh, this girl was the perfect mate for many, many guys Paul had personally helped put away over the years, back when he had been on the force. What a cheerleader! But what an adorable cheerleader.
“People don’t understand him. You don’t, and you’re supposedly on his side. Let me tell you, Stef’s generous, sweet, a real pushover. He does his mother’s chores, which his brother would never do. He helped our neighbors, buying them groceries, taking them out to run errands, fixing their cars.”
“He’s been in jail twice before.”
“Yeah, yeah. Repeat offender. That’s what my folks call him. Every bad thing he ever did, he got caught and punished for. But he would never kill someone, for God’s sake. I just wish-my family is old-fashioned. The truth is, I care about what they think. It’s a mess. I couldn’t stay with him unless they approved. Obviously, they don’t. So who knows what will happen?” She set her cup on the table and ran a finger around its edge. “We need you people to get him out of that place. How can they just lock him up and take away his future? I want him out.”
Paul thought about how young they were, and how very long even a few months apart must feel. How long had he hung on to Nina? For years. And he was not getting any younger. Distracted by her hunky young jailbird beau, Erin didn’t even bother to flirt with Paul. To her, he must seem out of the running.
“We want him out, too, Erin. We’ll do what we can.”
She leaned back in the scruffy chair, smoothing impossibly wrinkled jeans. “I had things all planned out for us,” she said. “I was going to get him to propose to me, then drag him to meet my family and show them how cool he is, really. Then we would have a wedding on the beach at Carmel River, with-oh, flags, a pretty dress. Everyone high! And now when those thoughts come into my head, I just put them aside. Either that, or I have to cry. But whatever happens with Stef and me, he’s innocent. He shouldn’t be in jail.”
“He’s facing a third strike,” Paul reminded her, afraid to enable such powerful faith. How hard she would fall, if Stefan Wyatt turned out dirty.
As they usually did.
“I wanted to talk to you about that. What if I told you-he stayed home that night, and never went to the cemetery at all?”
“I wouldn’t believe you. You’ve been deposed. You’ve made statements to the police.”
“What if I could prove it?”
“How?”
“I don’t know. A video with a date on it?” She leaned toward him.
So, she was willing to lie. Love conquers all, including distinctions between good and bad. He guessed he knew that better than anyone. “Did he ever speak directly with Alex Zhukovsky in your presence?”
“Would it help if he did?”
“You want to help him, tell me the truth.”
“Then no.”
“You don’t know anything about someone hiring him to go to the cemetery?”
“I want to help him,” she said urgently.
“Erin, what really happened?”
Tears filled her eyes. “I don’t know why he went there that night. Damn it! I knew there was something up when he poured his drink in the plant, but he was being so nice. I just thought he wanted to stay sober for…” She paused and blushed. “You’re a good listener.”
“Do you know his brother, Gabe?”
“I’ve met him a few times. He didn’t exactly hang with us.”
“How close are he and Stefan?”
“Stef loves and admires Gabe. He’s done plenty for him, starting when they were little kids and Gabe was sick. Stef took care of him then, even though Stef was the younger brother. That’s hard on a family. Maybe it’s why Wanda favors Gabe, because he was weaker physically when they were growing up.”
“What was wrong with him?”
“A blood disease. Stefan donated blood or something, and Gabe was cured.”
Blood? Paul’s ears pricked up, but then he remembered an earlier case: a blood transfusion doesn’t change someone’s DNA. Rats. “What does Gabe think of Stefan?”
“Gabe thinks he’s guilty,” she said flatly. “He says the blood evidence can’t lie. Have you met him?”
“He was away most of last week and we haven’t had a chance to hook up. I understand he works for an agency, Classic Collections?”
“When I first heard the name, I thought, wow, fashion. Maybe he can get me clothes cheap.” Her mouth hinted at dimples. “But no, Gabe’s your man when it comes to collecting on a bad debt. He’s their top agent.”
“How does he get along there?”
“He hates his boss. He feels underrespected, underpromoted, underpaid. Wanda hasn’t been a good influence, always building him up, praising him for a C on his report card, you know? I think she feels guilty she was a widow, that she couldn’t give him a father. Isn’t that stupid, as if she could have kept her husband alive when his time came? Have you met Wanda yet?”
“Yes, we’ve met, briefly.” He couldn’t think of a case he had worked on with less lead time and more frustrating, abortive encounters. “I’m seeing her again this afternoon. Any chance Gabe had something to do with putting Stef up to this graveyard job?”
She stared at him. “Why would he?”
“Did Gabe know Christina Zhukovsky?”
