“What?”
“Come on, Tommy, “ she said, “we know all about your social media posts, first attacking David Tanaka for his top position at a movie studio, and then haranguing the couple about their marriage. That doesn’t look great.”
“I expressed my views,” he retorted unapologetically. “I never threatened them.”
To the best of her knowledge based on what Jamil and Beth had sent them, that was true. But sometimes these things escalated.
“Where were you last night?” she asked sharply.
“So now we’re up to the alibi portion of the interview?” he said with a sneer.
“We are,” Sam told him. “And if you can’t provide a solid one, that sweater had better be really warm.”
That seemed to temper the man’s arrogance slightly. “When exactly are we talking about?”
“Last night between 10:30 P.M. and 2 A.M.,” the detective said.
The sneer returned. “That’s easy. I was at a political rally for a congressional candidate in Orange County. It lasted until 11. I helped coordinate a meet and greet for him afterwards that ran close to midnight. Then I drove back here. I probably got home around 1 A.M. I was asleep within a couple of minutes of my head hitting the pillow.”
“Do you have proof of that?” Sam asked.
“Only if you count video of me up on the stage with the guy and later at the meet and greet. It’s all posted on my website.”
“You got those bleary bloodshot eyes from a rally?” Sam pressed, trying to throw Bradford off balance. “You sure you didn’t do a little partying afterward?”
Jessie fought the desire to wince at her partner’s misstep.
“First of all, wouldn’t it help me if I did?” Bradford shot back. “More witnesses to support my alibi, right? But if you must know, the reason I look so tired is because I got up early, around 6 A.M., to edit and post the video. I wanted to get as many views as quickly as possible.”
“We’ll be checking all that video,” Jessie said, quickly moving on, “and we’ll want the GPS data from your phone and car too.What about Friday night? Where were you between 6 P.M and 2 A.M.?”
The sneer returned. “You really should do your research before you harass a law-abiding traditional citizen,” he mocked. “I was at a demonstration. The president of Peru was here for the premiere of some crap movie celebrating the “cultural identity” of that backwater. Me and my group members protested outside the theater. But your fellow LAPD thugs said we violated some distance rule and took us into custody. I didn’t get released until around 3 the next morning. The LAPD is my alibi.”
“We’ll have to check that as well,” Jessie said without emotion, “and we’ll need the names of everyone in your group.”
“You’re not entitled to that!” he objected.
“You can give the list to us willingly or we’ll get a court order,” she said. “But if you make us do the latter, it won’t look great for you. If someone else is killed and the perpetrator is part of your group, how do you think it will go for you when a jury learns you could have given us their name beforehand and refused?”
“Plus,” Sam added, “if you don’t comply, we’ll need to do the whole station/sweater thing. We can’t have you out and about calling your members and warning them while we’re trying to get that court order.”
Bradford stared at them sullenly. Jessie decided to throw him a bone.
“Look, you might actually be helping them,” she said. “If we can cross-match every one of your members with people who were also arrested at that protest, they should have alibis too. You’d actually save them from having to replace broken door hinges, like you’ll be doing.”
Bradford pretended to think about it but she could tell that he was going to cave on all fronts. She suspected he was lessmotivated by helping out his members than by avoiding a night behind bars with people of color.
Either way, she was already preparing herself for the very real possibility that this whole Traditional Citizenry group might be a dead end. If it was, that meant they were back to square one, without a good suspect, and with time running out.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Hannah was startled out of her nap by a knock on her apartment door.
Her roommate, Lizzie, with whom she’d shared a dorm room last year, wasn’t arriving on campus until tomorrow, so she knew that unless she answered the door, no one would. She briefly considered ignoring the knocking, but it got persistently louder. She sighed, realizing she had no choice but to get up.
She got off the living room couch and stumbled to the door. When she peeked through the peephole, she was surprised. It was Finn. She swung the door open just as he was about to rap on it again.
“Jeez, she muttered. “You’re relentless. What’s the big deal?”
