Chapter 11
"Wilkins doesn't have anything more to give," Captain Ross said.
Goren nodded. This was no surprise to him. "But he was approached, with an offer."
"Yeah, you were right about that. He said two mil. He said Borseth turned it down. He was loyal to your friend."
Bobby nodded and turned to go back in with Forelli. Ross stood watching from the window.
Interrogation A
Alex laid out the crime scene photos in front of LaCombe. Immediately, his emotions overtook him. He pushed the pictures away with his hand and turned his head, squeezing his eyes shut.
"You didn't intend for her to die, did you, Brandon?" Alex asked.
"I loved her," he said.
"I believe you. But something went wrong. Something went terribly, terribly wrong." Alex paused to give him time to think about it. "Tell me," Alex said. "You and Forelli. Tell me about it."
"It was supposed to be in the football player's glass, not hers!"
"What was?"
"The poison! Methanol."
"How did it get into the bottle, Brandon?"
"Forelli. Forelli delivered the champagne for me." He sobbed. "He wasn't supposed to kill her!"
Ross had shifted his attention to Interrogation A, on the opposite wall from room B, where Goren was working. He'd raised the volume and was listening as LaCombe broke down in front of Eames.
He knocked on the window once again, and soon Bobby joined him.
"I bought the champagne, it was Bollinger, expensive stuff. And-and then I gave it to Forelli. He did the—I don't know what he did exactly, except he did it wrong." He wept again. "I didn't want her to die! Celeste, my love!"
"Where did the methanol come from?"
"I-I-I don't know." LaCombe was realizing the position he was in, now, and he was starting to clam up.
"Did you know Borseth was sleeping with her?" Alex lied.
"No! No he wasn't! She loved me!" he cried, and pounded a fist on the table.
"You got a package while you were on your trip, Brandon. It was a little white box from White Mountain Labs. You paid for it on your credit card."
"Okay, okay, okay, okay," He stammered, speaking quickly. "I bought the methanol. I-I-I-I was thinking about that biodiesel stuff. Save the planet and all that."
"Most people get the vehicle outfitted before they buy the chemicals. We can have a look at your car."
"She wasn't supposed to drink it! HE was! That Forelli, he screwed everything up!"
Bobby nodded proudly at the work Eames was doing and went back in with Forelli.
Interrogation B
"You know," Bobby jerked a thumb in the direction of the other interrogation room, "that LaCombe, I think you're right. He is a nutjob. He's in there," Bobby chuckled, "He's in there right now saying you put the methanol in the champagne bottle. Only," Bobby laughed a little harder, "He's saying you screwed it up! That you were only supposed to kill Borseth, not Ms. Phillips."
"He thought Borseth was sleeping with her," Forelli said. "He came to my apartment the night he got back, and he was out of his fucking head. He ranted about her for 45 minutes and then he took the champagne and the methanol and he told me that if he couldn't have her, no one could. He told me to drink a toast to them when I was through. I handed the shit back to him and told him I wasn't gonna kill anybody." Forelli looked up at the Detective. "He said it wouldn't kill them, it would only make them sick. He said in a couple of hours they would be fine, and they would have a reason to reconsider my offer."
"When I delivered that bottle to her, it was still unopened."
In interrogation A, Alex heard a knock and took a breather. She came around to find her Captain in observation.
"Forelli says he delivered the champagne untouched." Ross informed her. Goren gave me that look through the window. He believes him."
"Okay," Alex said. She sauntered back into the interrogation room.
"You went back to her apartment, didn't you? You had to find out if it was true that she was sleeping with him?"
"She wasn't."
"But you had to know, didn't you?"
"I only wanted to congratulate her. I found out about the book deal when I was in Seattle. I hadn't had the chance to congratulate her myself."
"So you went to her place…"
"I brought her the champagne to celebrate. He was there, I told her to share it."
"What did he do, Brandon? Stare a little too long at her? Caress her with his eyes?"
"Shut up!"
"Did he confront you?"
"He had the nerve to tell me to leave! To get out of her life! He said she didn't want me!"
"And you couldn't stand that."
He started to shake with rage. "And sh-she… she told me, too. I pleaded with her, I begged! But she said that it was time I moved on. How do you just walk out on the one you love?! So I told her I was going to offer them a toast first. And I popped the bottle open and I poured them both a drink."
"She humored you?"
"She drank it and so did he. The fools never even noticed the taste was off!"
It took another hour, but they got a signed confession and then set to work filling out the rest of their reports. Forelli was booked as an accessory, since he had failed to report on LaCombe's homicidal plan.
When the work was finally done, Alex looked across the desks at Bobby. "You should take a few days," she said.
"No, I'm fine."
"Don't do it for you. Do it to honor her, what you had with her."
He rolled his head from side to side. "Oh, Eames, I don't want to—"
"I think you need to." She reached out and straightened their paperwork into a nice stack. "But, hey, that's just my two cents. Just think about it, okay Bobby?"
Goren frowned a little as he stared at his partner, but she didn't bother to look back at him again. She gathered up the paperwork and turned it in.
As they both left for a well-deserved night of rest, Eames was much kinder. She told him good night, and when her hand wrapped around his upper arm, a warm feeling washed over him.