Shoot / Don't Shoot

silent for some time after that. “How could that be?” Joanna asked finally. “Jorge Grijalva’s still being held in the county jail, isn’t he?”

Carol nodded. “Actually, it could mean any number of things. One of which is that Jorge had an accomplice. The most obvious possibility, however, is that we’ve arrested the wrong man.”

“But what about all the trace evidence?” Joanna asked. “Where did that come from?”

Detective Strong shrugged. “Either the evidence is real or it isn’t. Either we found it there because Serena was in the truck at some time or else the evidence is phony, and it was planted there to mislead us, to frame Jorge Grijalva—an innocent man—for the murder of his wife.”

“Planted,” Joanna echoed. “Who would plant evidence? How would they know how to go about it?”

“A trained police officer would know,” Carol Strong answered. “Here’s the recipe. You stir in some planted evidence, add in a plausible suspect, and sprinkle it liberally with public-dictated urgency for closing cases in a hurry.” She shrugged. “Add to that an ex-husband who’s willing to cop a plea, and there you go.”

“Jorge is willing to plead because he doesn’t want go to court,” Joanna said quietly.

“If he didn’t kill her, why would he do that?” Carol returned.

“Because he was afraid the prosecution would bring up Serena’s whoring around. He wanted to protect his kids from hearing about it.”

Carol shook her head. “The defense would have brought that up, not the prosecution. It’s a hell of a lot harder to convict someone of killing a known prostitute to than it is to convict them of killing a nun.”

There was a momentary lull in the conversation. “If, as you say, the evidence was planted by a cop, do you have any idea what cop?” Joanna asked. “One of yours?”

“Tell me what you know about Dave Thompson?” Carol said.

“From the APOA?” Joanna winced, aware her question made her sound like some kind of dunce.

Carol nodded. “One and the same.”

Joanna thought for a moment before answering. “He was a cop somewhere around Phoenix.... “

“Chandler,” Carol supplied.

“I heard a rumor that he got into some kind of hot water. That the Chandler city fathers dumped him by putting him on permanent loan to the APOA.”

“That’s pretty much right. I talked to the new chief in Chandler just this morning, right before you showed up on campus. The case against Thompson was a domestic. Never came to trial because Thompson’s ex refused to testify. She simply took the kids and left town. This was back in the good old days when there was still a certain tolerance for cops who beat up their wives, but there was enough of a stink that they had to get rid of him.”

“You’re saying Dave Thompson did this?”

“Did you ever hear of Tommy Tompkins?” Carol Strong asked.

Joanna nodded her head impatiently. Talking to Carol Strong was like being led through a maze of