The Wife Who Knew Too Much(73)

“Okay, why is that? Are you saying Derek—no, wait a minute, I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. Let me just assure you that if you have a specific security concern, we have the resources to protect you, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Now. Ms. Cohen has asked me to give an overview of the evidence against you to help you decide whether to proceed with your cooperation. That isn’t something I would normally do. But I’m willing to do it in this case, for a couple of reasons. One, this is blowing up in the press even as we speak.”

“You know that’s all orchestrated by Kara Baxter, right?”

“Who?”

“Kara Baxter. She says she’s Nina Levitt’s sister. We don’t even know if that’s true, but she’s after the money. She sued Connor for the estate, and the only way she can win is by proving he killed Nina. She got the tabloids to say he did by granting exclusive interviews. Now that they printed it, you guys are falling in line, trying to lock him up.”

“Who told you that?”

“Connor did.”

“I don’t know whether he’s trying to snow you, or if he genuinely believes that. But I assure you, Ms. Baxter’s lawsuit has nothing to do with our case. The information that led us to reopen the case came from Barry Ogilvy, the doctor who testified at the inquest. He got caught in a federal sting operation, trading opiates for sex. That obviously undermined his testimony. So, we brought him in, and he had quite a story to tell. A young woman visited his office and bribed him to say those things about Nina Levitt.”

“A—a young woman?” I said, shocked.

I sat back in the chair, feeling faintly sick. Neely’s eyes were locked on my face.

“Yes. Was that young woman you, by any chance, Tabitha?” he asked.

“Did he say it was me?”

“Answer the question, please.”

“Hold on one minute,” Suzanne said.

“No! Absolutely not, it wasn’t me. Did you ask the doctor who she was?”

“We did. He gave us her name, and we couldn’t associate it with a legitimate identity. In other words, the name was fake. She used an alias.”

“Show him my picture, then. It wasn’t me, I swear. Did he say what she looked like?”

“He said she had dark hair, and I note your hair is blond.”

“Dark hair. Okay, then. That could be a couple of people I can think of. But it’s not me. You believe me, right?”

“A woman smart enough to use an alias would probably think to wear a wig.”

I threw up my hands. “I don’t know what to say. Put me in a lineup, then. It wasn’t me.”

Suzanne put her hand on my shoulder and leaned forward.

“Tabitha, stop talking. For the record, Brad, we don’t agree to a lineup.”

“You don’t have to agree,” he said. “She doesn’t have a Fifth Amendment right to refuse a lineup. I think it’s a brilliant idea.”

“I need to speak to my client alone, please,” Suzanne said.

“Fine. We’ll be outside. Knock when you’re done.”

The DA and the detectives left the room, closing the door behind them. When we were alone, Suzanne turned on me with a troubled expression.

“Tabitha, what are you doing? We agreed that we’re here to get information, not give it. You can’t just go running off at the mouth like that—”

“Suzanne, you don’t understand. What Neely just said is huge. The woman who bribed the doctor? That wasn’t me, I swear to you. Who was it?”

“I don’t know. Who do you think it was?”

“I don’t know either, but whoever it was killed Nina. Maybe working with Connor, maybe not. There were two dark-haired women in Nina’s life. Lauren Berman, the head of PR at Levitt Global. She had a motive. Her husband left her for Nina, then she had an affair with Connor, and he left her for Nina, too. There’s Juliet Davis, Nina’s personal assistant. Whether she had a motive, I don’t know. But she was around constantly, in the middle of everything. Actually, there’s a third dark-haired woman. Nina’s yoga teacher, Dawn something. I only met her once in passing, but people say she’s a real whackjob. We have to tell the DA.”

“I explained the rules earlier. This session is for us to get information. We’re not telling the DA anything yet. You understand? We don’t just blurt things here. That’s not smart. You’ve been arrested on a murder charge. You. Not Lauren, not Juliet, not— Who was the third one?”

“Dawn. The yoga teacher.”

“Whatever. You’re in a very difficult position, and we need to proceed with caution. After the interview, I’ll follow up. I’ll research these women. Figure out if that’s information we want to trade. But only if we get something in return. You need to keep quiet and let me do the talking. Do you understand?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, you’re right.”

“Promise you won’t say anything more without clearing it with me first. Otherwise, I’ll end this session right now. I can’t sit here and let you dig yourself into a hole.”

“I promise. Forgive me, Suzanne. I appreciate your advice, and I’ll follow it.”

“All right. Ready? Deep breath.”