CHAPTER FOURTEEN

"Hey, Lena, got a minute?"

Lena wished wholeheartedly that she could tell Harris she didn't, but unfortunately, she had a lot of minutes right now. She'd probably have a lot of minutes for the next several months thanks to the way she mouthed off to Captain Slater after the Kensington case was dropped.

One of these days, she"d learn not to be a hero.

"Sure, Harris. Why not? Come on in. What ya got for me?"

"It's the pool boy from the Kensington Place. He wants to talk to you."

Lena instantly came to full alertness. "Harlow?"

"The same."

"Send him in."

"You want me to sit in on it with you?"

"No, that's okay. I want you focused on the drive-by in the Hills."

"Sounds good."

Harris looked relieved. Unlike Lena, he was happy to have Lila Kensington's death taken off of their plate. Like Lena, he was less than overjoyed to be working a case with a wealthy victim and two wealthy suspects. Unlike Lena, he'd been able to let Lila's death roll off of his back.

Lena had been kicking herself for not interviewing the pool boy again when she had the chance. Now, fate had given her a chance to remedy that mistake.

Nate Harlow walked in, his face an odd mixture of grim determination and powerful anxiety. Lena was sure suddenly that he'd had experience with the cops. She wondered why.

He lifted his right hand and absently scratched at the inside of his left elbow. Lena followed the movement and saw the tracks. Ah. That was why.

She smiled at him. "Mr. Harlow. Thanks for coming to talk to me."

"Just call me Nate."

"And you can just call me Lena."

He looked at her suspiciously and didn't answer.

She gestured to the chair in front of her desk. "Have a seat."

He sat and fidgeted nervously, knees bouncing a little.

She sat behind her desk and said, "So, what did you have to tell me?"

He took a deep breath and released it slowly. She waited patiently while he worked up the courage to tell her what was on his mind.

"I don't think Lila's death was accidental," he finally said. "I think she was murdered."

Jackpot.

"What makes you think that?"

"Um…" his eyes shifted to the left. "I don't know. I just have a feeling."

"You get that one chance to lie to me," Lena replied calmly. "I hope you enjoyed it. Because the next time you lie to me, I'll send officers to raid your apartment and find a reason to drug test you and pass that information along to your employers."

Nate paled. "All right. God. It's not that easy, okay?"

"I don't care." He stared at her in disbelief, and she said. "You came here to help me solve a young woman's murder. That matters a lot more to me than your habits."

"I don't do that anymore."

"I still don't care. Why do you think that Lila Kensington was murdered?"

"Because…" he hesitated a moment longer, then said, "I get a bad feeling about her parents. Especially her mother."

"What kind of feeling?"

"I don't know, like… like she's not in control of herself."

"Can you give me an example?"

"Um…"

His eyes shifted again, and Lena guessed at his worry. "I can make sure that no one knows you talked to me. A lot of people know that I was unhappy with closing the case. Anyone who asks is going to think I started snooping again. All you need to do is tell me where to look."

He thought a moment, then said, "I caught her doing drugs."

Double jackpot.

"What kind of drugs?"

"Cocaine."

"Powder or rock?"

"Powder. She was snorting it."

"Did she talk about Lila at all?"

"No. Not until I called her out for doing the drugs. Then she threatened to get me fired."

So Clara, the weeping mother who could barely speak three days ago, didn"t mention her daughter at all.

"How would you describe her mood when you talked to her?"

"She seemed… happy. It was weird."

"What do you mean happy? Like coked out happy?"

He shook his head. "No, coke won't make you happy. It might make you more energetic, but it won't make you happy."

He caught himself and looked at her warily. You've got a past kid, Lena thought.

"So you said you confronted her about her drug use. Anything else?"

"Yeah. She got crazy and threatened to have me fired."

"Did she?"

"Yes. I just told you."

"No, I mean, did she just call your bluff, or did she back off?"

"She backed off. I…" he hesitated again, but this time Lena didn't need to ask him to keep going. "I asked her what people would think if I told everyone that she was a drunk coke addict. She put the phone down and just kicked me out, but she didn't call anyone."

Lena leaned back in her chair and regarded Nate for a minute. The kid was obviously using. Not coke. Probably heroin or fentanyl. He was familiar with coke, though.

And he was at the Kensington house for the third time in the past week. Lena was inclined to believe he was telling the truth about Clara, but she was not inclined to think he was doing this out of the goodness of his heart.

"What were you doing at the Kensington house again?"

"They wanted me to clean the pool again. Because… you know."

"Hmm. So this encounter with Mrs. Kensington happened when you were cleaning their pool?"

"Well, I didn't actually clean the pool. I was about to when she kicked me out."

"So if I go back to their house, I'm going to see a dirty pool."

He shook his head. "No, it was spotless. Like, super clean."

"So they called you to clean a pool that was already clean?"

"Yeah, I guess that…" his eyes widened. "Wait, they really did! I promise! You can call me…" his eyes shifted again. "Actually, please don"t call my boss. I don"t want them to know that I"m mixed up in this." His brow furrowed. "Why didn"t you call them? I mean earlier, why didn"t you tell anyone that I was a suspect."

"You weren't a suspect."

He didn't buy it. "You sure talked to me like I was."

"I talked to you like you weren't telling me everything. And you weren't."

"Yes, I was. I told you that I found Lila in the pool, ran out of there and called you."

"You didn't tell me that you suspected Clara of being involved."

He frowned. "Well, you're the detective. It's not my job to solve this case for you."

"So why are you here now?"

"Because…" he sighed. "Because it sucks. They killed Lila, and they're just going to get away with it because they're rich." He met her eyes, and the accusation in his was strong enough that Lena flinched slightly. "You know that wasn't a damned accident."

Yes, I do.

She sighed and tapped her desk. "I'm going to be honest with you, Nate. I don't know if I believe you. I mean, I believe some of what you're saying, but there's a lot you're not saying that you should, and there are a few things you're telling me that you don't realize you're telling me. So here's where I'm sitting: I have a kid who shows up out of nowhere, who's clearly on drugs."

He flinched. "I'm not high!"

"Not now, but you have been very recently. Not all of those tracks on your arm are old."

He flinched again and crossed his arms.

"So I have a kid who's clearly on drugs, who is experienced enough that he can tell immediately that someone's using drugs—"

"I saw the coke on the damned table!"

"Let me finish. You show up out of nowhere, and Lila Kensington dies. Then, after the death is ruled an accident, you show up in my office and claim that Clara"s a junkie and probably killed her daughter. Maybe everything you"re saying is true. Maybe Clara did kill Lila. Certainly, she didn"t help keep her alive.

"The big question here is how do you fit into all of this."

"I don't! For God's sake, I just started this job!"

"I know. I just wonder what you were doing before."

"What do you mean? I was…" There go those eyes again.

"Selling drugs?"

"No!"

She lifted her hand. "Okay. But this is where I get confused. Lila Kensington is an honor roll student in high school. She gets a full ride to UCLA and is comfortably top of her class in every subject. Then last semester rolls around. Her glades start slipping. She starts getting into fights."

"I didn't know about that."

"Let me finish. Her parents pull her out of the dorms and start keeping her home. Stop letting her friends see her. Supposedly, she has an eating disorder, but they keep that under wraps. Then, out of nowhere, a kid her age shows up who"s clearly got a habit. Next thing I know, Lila"s dead and Mom is coked out, and new kid is somehow at the house for both of those events."

"So you think I sold them drugs? That's it?"

"You said it, not me."

"All right." Nate stood up. "I was just trying to help, but clearly you only care about rich people. Just like all fucking cops."

"Hold on."

"No, fuck you. You want to pin this on me? Go ahead. I'm sure you can figure out where to find me. But Clara Kensington killed Lila, and if you give a single shit about actual justice, you'll look at her again. But hey, what do I know? I'm just a poor junkie."

He stormed out of the office, and Lena let him leave. Harris came in a moment later. "That looked bad."

"Maybe." She tapped her desk again. "I'm going to have to take a rain check on dinner tonight, Damien."

Harris frowned. "Don't get pulled down a rabbit hole, Lena. The case is over."

She smiled. "You want to catch a bunny, you have to dive down a few holes."

"Your dry humor needs work," he said. "Do what you want. You get yourself fired, it's another step up the ladder for me."

He left, and Lena leaned back in her desk. She stared up at the ceiling for a moment, then opened her web browser and typed Clara Kensington into the search box.

Harris was right. She was risking her career digging into something the department considered buried.

But it was too late. She was already down the hole.