It’s sloppy but effective. I go with it. “I was here last night. Drinking wine and binge-watching X-Files.”
“So I’ve heard,” he responds, shooting Paige a warning look.
Snyder mutters something. I don’t catch it, but it makes David uncomfortable.
I repeat my earlier question. “What brings you here?”
David pulls out his notepad. It’s cute when he tries to act like a grownup around me. “I’ve got a witness who claims he saw someone last night who fits your description.”
Shit. Stupid dog walker.
“My description? Beautiful, demure young woman with impeccable fashion sense?” I’m trying to keep up the breezy atmosphere. Even as the words escape my mouth, I can hear the desperation. This is not going well.
“Girl with yellow eyes.”
I need to start wearing sunglasses more often. I smile for David. “Can’t be too many of us in LA.”
“No. Not too many.”
“If you want to know if I’m going around setting house fires, the answer is no.”
I know why he’s here. He needs to say it.
“Not just fire. There were five bodies in the house. Fire department thinks it was intentional. That makes it a homicide.”
Paige stiffens behind me. I don’t look, but I hope she doesn’t give anything away with her expression.
“I was here last night,” I repeat, “drinking wine and binge-watching—”
“Jesus Christ,” Snyder says.
My stomach growls loud enough for everyone to hear.
Snyder approaches and hovers over Paige and me. When he finally speaks, it’s to me. “Five bodies! In a house that happened to be a meth lab.” He extends the index finger of the hand holding the Coke right at me. “And a person matching your description leaving the scene.”
David puts his notepad away and takes position behind Snyder. As the senior detective, Snyder has now taken over. David has to defer to the ranking officer.
“Now,” Snyder continues, “if you want to answer our questions honestly and completely, we’re happy to do that here. Keep dicking us around, and we’ll do this at the station—maybe even put you in a lineup and see if someone can ID you at the scene.”
I share a glance with Paige. If they put me in a lineup, this dog lover might have a pretty good chance of IDing me. David might also have evidence I don’t even know about.
Paige repeats herself adamantly. “Like I said, we were here last night. Watching TV.”
David paces behind Snyder, running his fingers through his hair in that way he does when he’s debating.
“Fine,” Snyder mutters. “Why don’t we go to the station? Get your things.”
I pipe up. “Not until I can arrange for my attorney to be present.”
Snyder stops. David finally steps in and whispers into his ear. I can make out, “Can you give us a minute?”
He and Snyder have a silent exchange. The senior detective is clearly not happy about being asked to leave. Finally, he shakes his head and walks away. He slams the door closed behind him and disappears into the hall. David turns back to me and nods toward Paige.
“Okay, Darcy, can we talk privately?”
More than a little worried, I look at Paige.
“Actually,” she says, “I’d prefer to stay.”
David shoots me a look of dismay. “What the hell? I got my guy to leave.”
“Fine,” I relent. “Paige?”
“No.”
“I tried.”
Paige doesn’t budge. We sit there looking at David, challenging his next move. His shoulders sag in defeat. He knows this isn’t a fight he’s going to win.
“Four of these guys we haven’t ID’d, yet,” David says. “We know the place was a meth lab, so they probably weren’t there to spread the good word. We did ID a Russian-mob kid. Sebastian Gallo, street dealer, arrested a handful of times going back to juvie. No one on the force is going to miss them. And no one on the force is going to work overtime to find out who did this one. But the bodies…” He hesitates. “They were in pretty bad condition. Aside from being burnt”—he looks at me—“they were mangled. Someone or something tore them up pretty bad.”
He pauses and watches me. I can see him trying to make sense of what he saw and how I fit in. I can also feel Paige tightening up, putting two and two together about what happened last night.
“I know you were there last night. What the hell happened?” His voice betrays how desperate he is, not because he wants to know why but because he wants to know how.
I finally give him an honest answer. “I don’t know what happened to them.”
David shakes his head. “Fine, but I don’t think they kidnapped Elizabeth Viramontes.”
I have a pretty good poker face, but when David announces Elizabeth’s name, my jaw drops.
“We know you’re working for Carmen. We know you’re looking for her daughter.”
I have to give David credit. He’s been slowly playing me the whole time with a pretty solid hand. With as much as he knows about the Viramontes case, I have no idea how much evidence he has on me regarding the arson.
And murder. Murders. I am so screwed.
“It’s a missing-girl case. That’s all,” I offer.
“This one’s not just a missing-girl case. How much do you know about the woman you work for? Who do you think this Carmen Viramontes is?”
I hesitate. “Widow. Undocumented. Inherited the electronics chain from her husband, which is probably a front for her drug dealing.”
I feel pretty confident at the moment. The fact that I’ve figured out she’s a drug dealer gives me a free prize on my first spin. Spin again to solve the puzzle.
“You think she’s just a drug dealer?” he says incredulously.
Lose a turn.
“Her family runs one of the largest drug cartels in Mexico, the Galeana Cartel. They’re worth nearly a billion dollars. And Carmen? Her husband used to be the chief distributor of cocaine, marijuana, and heroin in LA. And that electronics chain? That was her doing, her invention. They own a factory in Juarez, Mexico, and place the drugs in the electronics boxes they ship here directly. Once they receive the shipments, they remove the drugs
