By now Rachel had calmed down a bit and was blowing her nose in Frank's handkerchief. She smiled a little and said, "I'll take it home and wash it and bring it back."
"That's all right," Pembleton said. "I don't care about the handkerchief. I care about finding out—WHY ARE YOU LYING TO ME!"
Rachel let out a screech and cowered away from Pembleton even though he was standing five feet from her. She burst into tears again, and said, "I'm not lying!"
Pembleton took his seat from before and looked contrite. "Oh, Rachel, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you. Of course you're not lying. Why would you lie? You came here out of the goodness of your heart, and here I am, yelling at you. I've been having a really stressful day. Can you understand that?"
Rachel nodded.
"So, we're cool, we can talk some more?"
"Sure," Rachel said quietly. "But I don't understand what you think I'm lying about."
"Well, maybe not lying as much as mistaken," Pembleton clarified.
"Mistaken about what?"
"Haven't you been following this story? Isn't that why you came in now, because of what's been going on?"
"Actually, no, I haven't been following the story. I came in now because it's coming up the year anniversary of Luther Mahoney's death and people are talking about memorials and stuff for him. I couldn't believe that anyone thinks he's a good person. It made me remember what I saw. Not that I ever forgot, but I didn't think about it for the longest time. When you're home every day the weeks and months seem to flow together one into the other until you're not ever sure what the date is. All this talk about memorials made me think that it was my civic duty to say that I was a witness and I saw something. It's like jury duty. One summer when I was in college all of my friends got jury duty except for me and I really wanted to also, so after I graduated I actually called and asked them to call me. They did and I got put on a case. I didn't really like it, though. Having the power of life or death, so to speak, over someone. Oh, it was a minor case, but the whole time I felt like I didn't really know the whole story, that there was a lot more going on that the cops and lawyers weren't telling us and I didn't want to convict without knowing the whole story.
"I did vote to convict in the end, but I didn't feel good about it."
Pembleton tried to cut through all of Rachel's ramblings. "So you're saying you haven't heard anything about Det. Kellerman."
"No, why? Did something happen to him?"
"Nothing, forget it. Did you come here to speak to Det. Kellerman, to meet him? To talk to him about this experience you both sort of share?"