The Book of Cold Cases(78)

BLACK: No, she did not.

MANKOWSKI: Did she struggle or act hysterical?

BLACK: No.

MANKOWSKI: Did she ask what this was about, what was going on?

     BLACK: I think it was pretty clear what was going on. The police were asking to speak with her.

MANKOWSKI: Please answer the question. Did Beth Greer ask what was going on?

BLACK: No, she did not ask us that.

MANKOWSKI: Did she request a lawyer?

BLACK: In that first interview, no, she did not.

MANKOWSKI: Did Beth Greer comply and answer your questions in that first interview?

BLACK: Yes, for the first part.

MANKOWSKI: And what happened after the first part?

BLACK: It’s in the recording and the transcript. She got up and left.

MANKOWSKI: Did Beth Greer seem like she was taking this seriously?

BLACK: I have no idea if she was taking it seriously. I assume she was.

RANSOM WELLS: Objection, Your Honor.

JUDGE HEIDNIK: Sustained. The jury is asked to disregard that question and answer.

MANKOWSKI: I’ll ask one more factual question. Did Beth Greer use angry profanity in that first interview?

BLACK: It was a stressful situation.

MANKOWSKI: Please answer the question.

BLACK: I don’t—

RANSOM WELLS: Objection, Your Honor.

JUDGE HEIDNIK: This is factual, so I’ll allow it.

MANKOWSKI: Please answer the question, Detective. We can all hear the recording and read the transcript, but I’d like your answer. Did Beth Greer use profanity when you interviewed her?

BLACK: Yes, she did.

     MANKOWSKI: Can you please read this line from the interview transcript? Right there.

BLACK: Here?

MANKOWSKI: Yes, you can see it clearly. This line here.

BLACK: “It wasn’t me, you idiot. I wasn’t in that fucking car.”





CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT


February 1978





BETH


Beth sat in the courtroom for the whole thing, watching. By then, she was so numb that it didn’t seem real. This was happening to someone else, on TV or in the movies. Ransom brought her clothes—blouses, skirts hemmed below the knee, pumps—and Beth wore them. She tied her hair at the back of her neck and wore makeup, but not too much.

Her job was to sit in silence and not speak. Ransom didn’t put her on the stand. No offense, he’d said, but that would be the height of idiocy. So no goddamned way are you getting up there. Ransom rarely swore.

There was a motion from the press to have the trial televised. Ransom fought it and won. Beth was relieved, though not because she wanted privacy or had any fear of a media circus. Nothing could be said about her that was worse than what had been said already. No, what she was afraid of was Lily watching the entire thing on TV. She’d absorb every word, every gesture, just like everyone else would. She would relish the chaos she’d caused. She’d make fun of Beth’s outfits, laugh in front of the TV. Beth didn’t want Lily to know exactly how confused everyone was, how incredibly wrong they had it. She didn’t want to give Lily the satisfaction.

She didn’t want Lily to see the testimony about the dangerous, psychotic woman who had done this, and possibly get angry.

And she didn’t want Lily to see Detective Black.

He looked as handsome as ever on the stand, wearing a dark blue suit and a wide blue tie. He’d had a haircut, and she missed the slightly too-long look he usually had. With his hair cut short, he looked more like a cop, though there were faint lines around the edges of his eyes and he looked painfully uncomfortable. He kept his gaze trained on the prosecutor, Charles Mankowski, and never looked at her, but she could feel his awareness of her all the same.

Halfway through his testimony, Ransom shifted in his seat and wrote something on his notepad, angling it so she could see. Hostile, the note said. Black was supposed to be a witness for the prosecution, but he was deflecting Mankowski, not following the script. Beth had listened to enough of Ransom’s wisdom by now to know that this was a problem for Mankowski, to have one of his own witnesses disagreeing with him. Sure enough, the next thing Ransom wrote was: This is good.

Beth raised her gaze back to the witness stand again. Black was answering about whether she had taken it seriously when she was questioned, and Ransom stood to object. The judge answered, and for a second Black turned her way and their eyes met. He looked and sounded cool when he answered questions, but in that brief look Beth could see that he was miserable and torn. I have to say all of this, that look told her. I can’t say anything else, because you didn’t give me anything. He knew she hadn’t murdered anyone. He knew that whoever had shot those men in the face was still out there, maybe about to shoot someone else. But he had no proof, no evidence, no trail to follow, and it was killing him.

Mankowski went back to murdering Beth’s character, asking whether she’d used profanity. It was so stupid she would have laughed if her life weren’t on the line. Black answered, though he didn’t want to. It’s okay, she telegraphed to him, even though he wasn’t looking at her. I’m not mad. She realized for the first time, watching him, that she was looking at probably the only good person she’d ever met in her life. A person who got up every morning actually wanting to right wrongs, a person who wasn’t out to serve himself or get rich or check out with alcohol and drugs when things got too hard. Someone who was going to marry a kindergarten teacher and have nice kids and actually be a good father. The only person in her life who hadn’t lied when he’d told her he was trying to help her. He really had tried.