Paulson looked reluctant but led them back down the hallway. The apartment was modest in size but well-appointed with what looked like antique furniture in the living room that they passed by quickly. He directed them into his office, which was small but had a great view of the Hollywood Hills to the north. Though the whole apartment couldn’t have been over 800 square feet, Jessie suspected that in a building like this, it rented for a pretty penny. After they sat down across the desk from him, Sam continued to press.
“I’m surprised that you haven’t heard about the case,” he said. “It’s been all over the news.”
“I’ve been prepping all day. I have several cases set for tomorrow. I’ll be bouncing around among different courthousesall day so I haven’t really paid attention to anything other than that. Please tell me what’s going on.”
Sam launched in. “The short version is that both women were found in their dining rooms, stabbed multiple times, with their green cards lying on plates sitting in front of them.”
“Dear God,” Paulson muttered under his breath.
“Exactly,” Jessie said. “It’s that last element that brought us here. You may have valuable information for us.”
“Like what?”
“Like, did either woman mention any threats having been made against them during the permanent resident application process?”
Paulson paused for a moment to think about it.
“I’m aware of one issue,” he said, “but it wasn’t specifically related to any work I did for them. The Tanakas once mentioned that there was a man harassing them online about their marriage, as well as his position at the movie studio where he’s an executive. They said it was some crank. I guess it wasn’t technically a threat and they sounded more annoyed by it than truly worried. I’m sorry but I can’t remember his name.”
“Thomas Bradford?” Sam offered.
“Yes, that’s it!”
“We’ve spoken to him,” Sam said. “Any others?”
“I can’t think of anyone, but honestly, I’m not sure why they would discuss those kinds of threats with me. When I met with them, we were always focused on residency issues. Same with the Cains.”
“Speaking of residency issues,” Jessie said, “tell us about that. During the process, was there anyone in the system that made it unreasonably hard for either woman?”
Paulson scrunched up his lips.
“We’re in a little bit of tricky territory there,” he said. “It was one thing to reference potential harassment I was told about thatwas unrelated to my work for them, but now we’re getting into some areas that may involve confidentiality.”
“How does that involve confidentiality?” Jessie asked, annoyed. “We’re not asking you to share the particulars of their application or any potentially unflattering personal or financial information. We just want to know if anyone made the process harder than it typically is, if anyone seemed like they had it out for either woman.”
“Look,” Paulson said, squirming in his chair, “I’m just not comfortable with throwing out the names of people who are difficult to deal with. That could tar them unfairly.”
Jessie was getting increasingly agitated and decided it was time to let it show.
“Are you sure that you don’t mean thatyouhave to work with these people, and that mentioning them to us might hurt your business? It sounds like you’re putting your professional comfort ahead of solving two murders.”
“That is a scurrilous accusation!”
“That doesn’t make it untrue,” Jessie noted.
“You’re asking me to breach client confidentiality,” he balked, sounding wounded.
“I still don’t see how,” Sam demanded, sounding equally put out.
“The entire application process, even interactions on their behalf with government functionaries, is subject to attorney-client privilege, unless they waive it.”
“These women are dead,” Jessie pointed out.
“But their husbands aren’t,” he shot back, “and they’re the ones who paid me.”
Jessie leaned back in her chair, trying to stay cool.
“We can certainly reach out to them,” she said. “I doubt either would object to sharing their information if it led to catching their wives’ killer. But in the interim I can’t help butwonder why you’re being so difficult, Mr. Paulson. One would think you’d happily jump through hoops to help us solve this case.”
