“Good. Aside from the phone, they also have evidence corroborating the affair,” LeMarcus says rather solemnly. “Gabriel didn’t tell me exactly what they had, but I’m guessing it’s surveillance footage at the hotel that captures you and Lauren together. It’s also likely that one or more hotel clerks remember you. Two women checking into a single hotel room regularly is semimemorable. Even in New York City.”

In my head, the loop plays of what this is going to look like in court. Stuart sitting in the gallery’s first row, hearing people testify about my weekly appearances at the Best Western hotel, hand in hand with Lauren.

“Let’s talk for a second about the gun,” LeMarcus says. “As you know, it was registered to Detective Gregory Papamichael. The good detective is no longer with us, but I’m sure they’re trying to find a connection between you and him. If they do, that’ll be another bridge we need to cross. But until they disclose what they have, I don’t want to hear anything from you about it. Papamichael was on the force a lot of years. He must have worked cases with a lot of ADAs, and so my working assumption is that he never gave you a Glock Nineteen.”

I want to affirmatively deny that Papamichael ever gifted me the gun, but I hold my tongue. In part that’s to follow my counsel’s directive not to say anything he hasn’t expressly asked me to impart, but the primary reason is that I know he’s not going to believe me. He’s probably never had a client who didn’t swear innocence, and my bet would be that every single one of them was guilty.

“Also, they have your current phone. The one they took from you when you were arrested, but it has nothing on it that predates the murder. I know that’s because your communications with Lauren were on your prior phone, and you lost that.”

I’m amazed LeMarcus is able to keep a straight face. I can’t even imagine the number of defendants who told me that some vital piece of evidence had been lost or conveniently stolen—guns, cars, credit cards.

“What’s their theory of motive?” I ask.

“They haven’t said. Can I assume from your question that there is nothing on Lauren’s phone that indicates a recent breakup, or a fight of any kind?”

I recognize the carefulness of the wording. He doesn’t want to know if Lauren and I actually had a fight or had broken up. He only cares about whether there’s proof the prosecutor can find of either on her phone.

“That’s right,” I say. “There won’t be anything on her phone like that.”

“Good. That, in a nutshell, is what makes your case triable: the age-old question of why.”

37. ELLA BRODEN

37.

ELLA BRODEN