On screen, Gavin started taking questions. Most of them were about Park: “How did you rule Livingston out as a suspect?”
“Howdid the suspect break into Livingston’s apartment?” Gavin was cagey with his answers, consistent with what Jackson had just said about not wanting to give away too much. Finally, he said, “Look, Mr. Livingston had a solid alibi on the night of the murder, but we have plenty of other evidence that he was not involved in Ms. Haufman’s death. I’m currently not at liberty to disclose that evidence,as this is an ongoing investigation. But I can confidently say that he is innocent of any wrongdoing.”
“It’s nice to hear that on TV, I have to say,” said Park.
“I know.”
“Can you speak to the rumor that Livingston and Zoe Haufman were dating?” one of the reporters asked.
“I believe that rumor to be false,” said Gavin. “They knew each other in passing, but that’s all.”
“Thatphoto,” Park said.
“You have to admit, it’s an easy explanation of the crime,” said Jackson.
“Sure, if you don’t look deeper than the surface.”
“Be glad you had Gavin on the case, then.”
Park grunted. “Be glad I had you, you mean. Gavin wanted to hang me, remember?”
On screen, Gavin said, “That’s all the time we have, but I thank you for coming. Again, if anyone has informationabout this case, please call the NYPD tip line.”
The uniformed cop fiddled with the TV again, and the phone number for the tip line came up on screen. Gavin gestured toward it. Then walked off screen. The broadcast returned to the local news anchors.
“There you have it,” said Jackson.
Park let out a breath and sank into the sofa. “Is it over?”
“Not quite. You still have to do thatwalkthrough of your apartment with Gavin tomorrow.”
Park closed his eyes. “My heart aches for that girl’s family, but I selfishly want to put all this behind me as quickly as possible.”
“I understand that.”
Then something occurred to Park. He turned his head to look at Jackson, who leaned forward. They sat beside each other on the little sofa, and maybe only a couple of inches separatingtheir thighs. Park liked having Jackson there with him for this pivotal moment in his life. But. “Why are you here, Jack?”
Jackson turned his head and looked back at Park. “What?”
“Not that I don’t appreciate your being here, but you didn’t have to come here to watch the press conference.”
“I thought, as your attorney—”
“No, fuck that.” Park sat up. “You keep saying you can’t bemy attorney, and besides, you didn’t have to come here because it’s Sunday. We could have just as easily watched this from our own respective televisions, and if something had gone wrong, we could have called each other. Why did you take the time to come here, brave the press gauntlet downstairs, and watch this with me?”
Jackson flipped off the television, where the local reporters had movedon to other stories. “I...wanted to. I don’t know.”
“I mean, Martha’s not even here with us. Although she probably watched from her room. Hang on.” Park stood and walked to the adjoining door. He banged on it.
Martha opened it a moment later. “Yes, dear. Oh, hey, Jackson.”
“Did you watch the press conference?” Jackson asked.
“I did.”
“We did, too. You could have watched itwith us. I told you Jackson was coming over so we could do that.”
Martha smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, but I thought you might want some alone time. To discuss legal matters of course.”
