“I didn’t think it was important. Is it?”
“I’m not sure. But tell me — why did you say to Inspector Chi that you didn’t think Candace was capable of shooting her husband?”
“She’s a doctor. ‘First, do no
harm.’ Killing Dennis would have harmed everyone in the house. And look. It did.”
I closed my notebook and thanked St. John for his time. As I left his apartment, I thought about Phil Hoffman telling me that what he knew about Ellen Lafferty could cause the charges against Candace Martin to be dismissed.
Candace had speculated that her husband had been sleeping with Ellen Lafferty, and now Bernard St. John had confirmed that part of her theory.
Had Lafferty gotten jealous, as Candace had suggested?
Was Ellen Lafferty the so-called intruder who killed Dennis Martin?
Chapter 56
I THOUGHT PAUL Chi might still be steamed at me for questioning the slam-dunk first-degree murder charge against Candace Martin. If he wasn’t fuming now, he would be after I told him I was still turning over stones on his case, that I still wasn’t prepared to let it go.
It was about 5 p.m. when I brought him a latte and sat down across from him at his very tidy desk in the squad room.
Chi looked at me, his expression absolutely blank, and said, “You still trying to pry open my closed case?”
I nodded. “You just have to let me get this out of my system,” I said. “If you were me, you’d do the same.”
“You’re the boss.”
“You remember Bernard St. John?” I asked him.
“The piano teacher. How could I forget that guy?”
“I just spoke with him.”
“I’m not pissed off, Lindsay. I just want to understand you better. Fifty homicides a year come through here. We solve only half of them. And that’s in a good year. So, here we got one that we actually close. Why has this case gotten to you?”
“I can’t explain it.”
“Can’t explain an insult to me, McNeill, Brady, the SFPD as a whole, and the DA’s entire office? You think this is going to score us any points with the DA?”
“I’ve got to do this, Paul. If Candace Martin is guilty, my poking around isn’t going to change that.”
“But you don’t think she is guilty, do you?”
“I don’t know.”
Chi grinned. A rare occurrence. Like a blue moon in June.
“What’s funny?” I asked him.
“I like this about you, Lindsay. You never give up. But you know, Brady doesn’t have a sense of humor.”
“I’ll deal with him when I have to.”
Chi shrugged and said, “So what did Bernard St. John tell you?”
“That Dennis Martin was sleeping with Ellen Lafferty. Lafferty confided in him.”
“Whoa-ho. Well, there’s your motive, Sergeant. You’re making the case against Dr. Martin even stronger. Candace found out her husband was sleeping with the nanny, so she shot him. Motive as old as the history of mankind.”