The female of the species

Wednesday 24th May 09:11

"Wasn't easy getting prints off the weapon" Rod growled as he crossed the floor to Steve's desk "least that what the shmucks in the lab are saying to cover their ample behinds. The blood smeared most of them and the kid moving the weapon just about wiped away the rest but they persevered and" he handed a sheet of paper to Steve "they did bring up two other partials."

Steve scanned the page and frowned "well as we've ruled out suicide Max Simmons' prints don't cast much light."

"It was his weapon and the poor sap probably grabbed for it in the struggle" Rod agreed. "Which begs the question…"

Steve groaned in response.

Wednesday 24th May 12:17

Lexie sat flanked by her mother on one side and her lawyer on the other. Steve and Rod had taken up positions on the opposite side of the table and from behind the huge one-way mirror, Mark, Cheryl and Jesse looked on.

The lawyer spoke up "May I remind you that my client is a minor and has already admitted to having access to the safe, a fact which you verified for yourself I believe."

"Didn't your mommy tell you never to play with guns Lexie?" Rod scolded.

"Please refrain from…" the lawyer butted in only to be interrupted himself by Lexie.

"This is crazy, CRAZY" she pleaded, her eyes boring into Steve's. "You believe me Detective Sloan, please say you believe me" she implored.

Steve remained silent, still cursing his mixed instincts over the young actress. She seemed genuinely scared by the proceedings but strangely enough there had been no shock in her eyes when they'd informed her of the forensic results. What was she scared of, he wondered. That she'd been found out? Or that she was an innocent girl caught in a very adult drama?

"I want to believe you Lexie" he began in a soothing voice, "just tell us how your prints came to be on the gun."

"I don't know" she whined, "I don't remember"

"You'd better start remembering" Rod scowled.

"Take your time" Steve soothed before the lawyer could object, and Lexie responded by once again gazing into his eyes.

Corrine huffed and drummed her fingers on the table.

"I'm sorry Mrs Simmons" Rod snapped "are we keeping you from something?"

"I just don't see the point of this" she retorted.

"The point" Rod bellowed "is finding out who killed Mr Simmons. It may not be a priority for you, but it sure is for us."

"Rod" Steve silenced his partner with a glare.

"For goodness sake, you have Matthew Green in custody, he's admitted the robbery so what makes you believe he didn't kill Max too?" Corrine barked.

"Mom!" Lexie squealed "Matt would never hurt anybody, how can you say that?"

"We haven't closed any avenues of our investigation just yet" Rod replied in answer to Corrine's question.

"What does that mean?" Lexie quizzed Steve anxiously "you can't think Matt did this!"

"For goodness sake Lexie they think You did this, so forget about Matthew Green and just tell them how your prints got on the gun" her mother sighed.

"Forget about Matt! What, like you did?" Lexie rose to her feet "Well I'm not like you mom, I don't just get tired of people and drop them when it suits me. Matt and I love…"

Corrine shook her head "Lexie, for all we know he murdered your father…"

"No he didn't!" the young girl squealed.

"Lexie" Steve interrupted

"He didn't do it" Lexie continued "he couldn't have done it, he couldn't have" she rambled. "He took the stuff from the safe but he didn't kill dad, he couldn't have." She paused for breath and when she spoke again it was in a more measured tone "He couldn't have killed dad" she stated firmly "because dad was alive when I got home from school."

Wednesday 24th May 12:24

A degree of calm had washed over the interview room after Lexie's surprise announcement. Steve knew he had to move gently now that Lexie was talking. "In your earlier statement you said you'd gone straight to a friends house after school, but now you're saying that's not right?"

"Nice and gently" Cheryl coaxed him from the observation room. On Jesse's puzzled look she repeated "that's not right", adding, "he can't come out and ask why she lied, accuse her of anything or she'd just clam up."

"At least Steve has some sort of rapport with Lexie" Mark observed.

"Yeah, unlike Rod" Jesse scoffed "what was that? Good Cop Bad Cop?"

"Something like that" Cheryl smiled "Get her angry, get her shouting, and you never know what she might blurt out. But now she's talking they've got to keep her calm, keep her, and the lawyer on their side"

Back in the interview room Lexie seemed to be weighing up her options. "Lexie?" Steve asked in an almost whisper and leant across the desk to close the gap between them a little. "Let's just start from the beginning, everything that happened that day."

"Everything?" she questioned meekly.

"Everything" Steve clarified. "Just tell us everything you know, everything that happened and we can start to sort this whole thing out."

She looked at him for guidance and he nodded for her to begin.

"Matthew called me" she began

"What time?" Rod butted in immediately, seemingly unconcerned by the latest revelation. Next-door Cheryl winced at his first interruption.

"A little after 10:15, recess was just over" she replied calmly.

"Go on" Steve prompted.

"Matthew had driven to the house, he was calling me from the car. He said he'd been sacked, he was really angry and it took a while for him to calm down enough for me to understand what he was saying."

"And what was he saying?" Steve probed gently.

"He said that he'd been sacked and that it wasn't his fault and it wasn't fair. He said that he'd driven over to the house to get dad to reason with Craig but that nobody was home. He asked what time dad would be back and I said that I wasn't sure, then he asked where mom and Alyson were and I said I wasn't sure about mom but that Alyson wouldn't be in until five, it was her day off. So then he said he had a plan," Lexie paused, glanced at her mother and began to chew her lip. After a moment she took a breath and continued. "Matt asked if I loved him and if I wanted to be with him and I said sure, so he said that if nobody was home he could use his key to get into house and he could steal the money and stuff from the safe. Only problem was….." Lexie again cast a guilty look towards her mother "he needed to combination for the safe."

"Oh you stupid, stupid girl" Corrine muttered casting her eyes to the ceiling.

"Mrs Simmons" Rod glared.

Lexie continued without hesitation "I told Matt I had the number written in my journal so I flicked through until I found it"

"You had your journal with you at school?" Steve clarified.

Lexie nodded and carried on "I gave him the number and he said not to worry, he'd call me in a few days when the dust had settled and we'd arrange to meet somewhere and that would be it."

"Did you hear from Matthew Green again?" Steve asked gently. Lexie shook her head glumly and cast her eyes down to the table.

"Can you tell me what happened next Lexie?" he invited calmly.

"School stuff" she shrugged, alternating again from confident young woman to scared teenager.

"And after school?"

"I went home" she replied simply.

"What time was that" Rod asked less gruffly this time.

"About 3:30 I guess, that's my usual time" she shrugged. "Yeah, 3:30."

"And your dad was home?" Steve prodded carefully.

She nodded "Yes, and he was alive" she stressed turning towards her mother "so there is no way Matt killed him when he opened the safe" she declared petulantly.

Not strictly true, Steve thought, it was still possible that Green had returned to murder Simmons. Possible, but looking increasingly unlikely, especially with none of his prints on the weapon and no gunpowder residue or blood on his clothes.

"What happened at home?" Steve enquired.

"Nothing happened!" she growled defensively, then realising it wasn't an accusation she continued more calmly. "I mean, nothing like you're thinking. Dad was there and the safe was open in his study but he didn't say anything about it, which I thought was a little weird. But I was worried, you know, like maybe Matt had been caught doing it or something so I asked, sort of casually, where's all the stuff from the safe?"

"And what did your father say?" Steve prompted.

Lexie sighed deeply "At first he said it wasn't anything for me to worry about, but we went back and forth a little and I guess he could tell that I was getting agitated. So he said that a "friend" of mom's had taken the stuff." She glared at her mother "so I asked how he knew and he said that he'd seen him driving off. He guessed mom had given him a key like she usually did with her latest beau, and now that the guy was upset, I don't know if he meant with mom for ditching him or with him for getting the sack at SKE, but that he'd probably taken the stuff because he could, and for revenge."

"So your father had seen Matthew Green driving away from the house?" Steve asked for confirmation. Lexie nodded. "Did he mention Green by name?"

"No" Lexie shook her head, "but it must have been Matt he saw driving off".

"So your dad told you he knew who'd robbed him, then what happened?"

"OK, so I asked dad if he'd called the police, 'cos I wanted to know if Matt had been arrested or if I needed to warn him or anything."

Steve nodded to show he understood her train of thought.

She continued; "Dad said he hadn't and I asked why not." Lexie gave a nervous laugh "I think dad was getting suspicious with all my questions, said it was really nothing for me to be worried about. Then I asked….I.." A guilty look crept over the young girls face. In a barely audible whisper she continued "I asked how much."

"How much what?" Steve asked softly, again leaning in to close the gap and to better hear her response.

"I asked how much money had been in the safe" Lexie admitted meekly.

"Typical" Corrine spat.

"That's was dad said" Lexie continued shyly. "Said not to worry, the guy got peanuts, a measly ten grand. 'Don't worry Lexie' he said, 'you'll get your allowance at the weekend like nothing's happened'."

For the first time Steve noticed tears welling in Lexie's eyes and his heart sank. Surely it wasn't the thought of Green getting so "little" money that was at last bringing out some real emotion in the girl.

"I was angry" Lexie continued calmly, focussing on the space between Rod and Steve. "I was angry that Matt had got ten measly grand and I knew he'd be angry too. Dad always kept so much more in the safe, I don't know why there wasn't more." Indeed she looked truly perplexed. "And I was angry at dad for being so calm, I don't know why, maybe I was just frustrated. And I asked him, is that why you didn't call the police, cos it was only ten grand? And he said only? Didn't I know what ten grand could do for starving children, didn't I know how long and hard my grandparents would have had to work to make ten grand? He didn't say it but I knew what he meant, I'm spoilt and I don't know the value of anything. One of dad's favourite lectures."

Steve gave her a moment to compose herself then asked "what happened next Lexie?"

She snorted "I walked over to the safe, that big, empty safe. I was just looking at all that space thinking how much money could have been in there. All that was left was the gun and box of bullets, lying in the middle, and I walked over and picked it up." She looked closely at the expression of each person around the table then resumed. "I picked it up and turned it over in my hand a couple of times until dad saw me and told me to put it down" she paused "and so I did. I put the gun down and I laughed, I laughed 'cos I still couldn't believe it and I said" she chuckled "I said the stupidest thing. I said Matt is going to be so pissed when he finds out he got ten measly grand."

Lexie broke into a broad, desperate smile. Her lawyer had long since relaxed, defeated, in his chair and Corrine was staring blankly at the door, shaking her head solemnly.

"How did your dad react when you mentioned Matt's name?" Steve asked.

Lexie laughed again "there was like a three second delay, you know? Like his brain had the information but couldn't quite process it. Then it all clicked and he looked angry at first, but he soon fell back into good old Max mode." She looked across at her mother for support "you know, make everything better, damage control, whatever you want to call it. The first thing he actually said was 'Thank God I didn't call the police'. And I gave him this look 'cos I still really didn't understand why he hadn't and he says to me 'It would be hard enough explaining that my wifes lover had robbed me but could you imagine the field day the press would have if they'd found out he'd been taking advantage of my daughter too!'" With those words the smile fell from Lexies face, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by Steve. He gave her a moment then waited until she made eye contact and nodded for her to continue.

"The rest, Detective Sloan, really makes no difference" she croaked.

"We'll be the judge of that" Rod jumped in.

Lexie shook her head "I told my father that Matt hadn't taken advantage of me and gave him plenty sordid details to back that up." Her voice began to quiver "I told my father he was self righteous and boring and feeble and I told him" a single sob escaped "I told him I hated him, and then I left." More sobs, yet Corrine made no attempt to comfort her daughter. Lexies lawyer leant forward in his chair but before he could speak Lexie sobbed once more "I told him I hated him then I went across to Margarets house. He was alive when I left Detective Sloan, Matt couldn't have killed him and I certainly didn't, and I don't care if any of you believe me or not 'cos this is all such a mess, such a mess, such a……"

Rod terminated the interview as Lexie disintegrated into tears.

"I'll confirm the story with this Margaret girl" Rod told Steve in hushed tones as Lexie left the interview room. The lawyers comforting arm around her Steve noticed, not her mothers.

"OK" Steve nodded, "I'll go through the interview tape and then we can talk to Green again, check that his story holds up."

"Should do" Rod asserted.

"Yeah, getting the safe number from the journal is the only discrepancy that jumps out" Steve noted.

Rod shrugged "If you see a ray of light at the end of this particular tunnel, get out the way." Steve raises a questioning eyebrow. "The way this case is going" Rod explained "it may just be a train."