Jeffery Deaver - The Lesson of Her Death

"Nope. Good student, good athlete."

"That's not unusual. Birth order is often a significant factor in dyslexia. And your husband's a policeman?"

"A detective. He works like a maniac, he's away from home so much." Diane found herself about to blurt, "And that's with a case he's been ordered off of!" But she said only, "We don't get many murders in New Lebanon."

"From what I've read it's got the town in quite an uproar."

"Well, all this talk of Moon Killers and cults and that nonsense…"

"Is it nonsense?"

"Well, they've caught that boy. I shouldn't be telling you this but that's why Jamie was a little moody. The one they've indicated was a friend of his."

"Really?" Breck frowned in sympathy. "Poor kid."

"I'm of mixed mind. I didn't want to say anything in front of Sarah but the reason the deputy's out there? Somebody's left some threats."

"How terrible."

"To get Bill to stop the investigation."

"And they think your son's friend did that?"

"Philip's a sorry soul. With parents like his I'm not surprised he turned out bad. He's been abused, I'm sure. And his mother drinks. But threatening my daughter… I don't cut him any slack. He gets no sympathy from me."

"But if they've arrested him, why the guard?"

"That's my Bill. Between you and me and the fence post, he's not sure the boy's guilty. He asked to have the deputy kept on the house for a few days longer. I can't say that upsets me too much." Diane hesitated. "I guess I shouldn't… I mean, this is pretty much classified stuff I'm telling you."

Breck acknowledged the discretion with a nod and Diane turned the talk back to the PTA. After ten minutes Breck looked at his watch and stood. "Thanks for the coffee. I'd like to stay longer," he said with sincerity, "but I have a lecture to prepare."

Diane took his hand and found she was studying parts of him – his floppy hair, his eyelids, his lips, reaching conclusions about each. This allowed her to avoid conclusions about Breck as a person. Or as a man.

She thought suddenly that this was the first time in years she was having a serious talk alone in her kitchen with a man not related by blood or marriage. She asked, "Next Tuesday?"

"I'll look forward to it." Breck added, "I've enjoyed talking with you. I think we have some good rapport established."

"Is that important?"

"Indeed." Breck took her hand again. He continued to hold it, pressing firmly, as he said, "You'd be surprised how important the tutor's relationship with a parent is."

MEMO TO: Files

FROM: Dennis B. Brann, Esq. DATE: May 8

RE: People v. Halpern, a Minor Attached are the relevant portions of a transcript of my interview with Philip Halpern, defendant in this case, which interview took place today at the New Lebanon Sheriffs Department, following a bail hearing at which bail was set in the amount of $1 million and was not posted. The Grand Jury of Harrison County has indicted Philip with one count of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree manslaughter, one count of first-degree rape and one count of first-degree sodomy, in connection with the death of Jennifer Gebben, and one count first-degree murder and one count first-degree manslaughter in the death of Emily Rossiter.

DNA genetic marker test results indicate that the semen found in and on the Gebben victim was Philip's (see Attachment "A").

DBB: Philip, I'd like to talk to you about what happened at the pond. Everything you tell me, even if you tell me that you did what you're accused of, is only between us. The court will never find that out.

PH:Yessir.

DBB: Tell me what happened that night, that Tuesday, April 20.

PH: I was with Jamie -

DBB: That's Jamie Corde?

PH: Yeah and what it was, we'd been fishing, only nothing was biting so we thought since it'd rained during the day there'd be some worms close to the surface, so we thought we'd dig some and we walked over along the dam. It was around ten. Jamie and me were walking along there and we looked down and we seen this white thing and we thought it was, I thought it was one of those, you know, those dolls they sell in the back of magazines sometimes…

DBB: Dolls?

PH: You like blow them up and, you know, do things to them.

DBB: Inflatable dolls.

PH: Yeah. So I go, "Let's go look," and we go down there and it isn't a doll, it's this girl and she's lying there and she looks dead.

DBB: Where was she?

PH: Next to the truck. The old Ford.

DBB: What position was she in?

PH: Lying on her back. They're not listening in, are they? I mean is there a microphone here or anything?

DBB: No, there isn't. It's okay to talk to me.

PH: She was lying in the mud on her back. Her arm's up over her face and her fingers were all curly. It was like weird. Jamie and me walked down to her and we think she's like asleep but then I think maybe she's dead and I don't want to touch her at first and we just stand around and look at her then we look at each other for a while and we're like, oh, man, what're we going to do? And we can't think of anything. So I finally bend down and feel on her neck like they do on TV for the pulse or whatever, and I'm like I can't feel anything and then I…

DBB: Go on.

PH: Then I keep touching her. And Jamie bends down and he touches her leg and she's cold but she's not hard like, you know, with rigid mortis. I…

DBB: Go on.

PH: I touch her, you know, her tits. Then I pull up her skirt and Jamie's like, "Man, this is too much." He goes, "Like I'm serious, we gotta call somebody. Let's call my dad." But I'm still touching her. I can't help myself. I cut her underwear off with the knife.

DBB: Your Naryan knife?

PH: Uh-huh. I cut them off, her underwear, and Jamie was touching her, you know, down there. He stuck his finger in a couple times… Then I, you know, I did it. I couldn't stop myself.

DBB: You had intercourse with the corpse?

PH: Yeah, I guess.

DBB: Did you ejaculate?

PH: Uh, yeah.

DBB: Did you have both vaginal and anal intercourse with her? You know what I mean by that, don't you?

PH: (inaudible)

DBB: What was that?

PH: I wasn't sure how it, you know, worked at first.

DBB: What happened then?

PH: I kind of just finished. I asked Jamie if he wanted to. But he didn't. He was like totally freaked. So we went home.

DBB: Did you touch her in any way afterward?

PH: Oh yeah. She didn't look right, lying there. So I made her look better. I pulled her dress down and folded her arms.

DBB: Why did you do that?

PH: Well, in this movie I saw, The Lost Dimension? - it's a really really good movie – the hero brings this princess back to life. The Honons had killed her. They're like totally evil. And Dathar like made her look like that.

DBB: Did you think you could bring her back to life?

PH: I don't know.

DBB: Did you ever see the girl before? When she was alive?

PH: No.

DBB: Could you tell me about those pictures of the girls you had in your file cabinet? The drawings?

PH: Well, it was sort of a game Jamie and me made up. It was like based on the movie -

DBB: The Lost Dimension?

PH: Yeah. And we wanted to do a computer game of it and sell it but we don't know programming too good so we made up this board game. We used some of the girls from school as characters. We cut their pictures out of the yearbook.

DBB: Was this like a religion or a cult?

PH: No sir. It was just a game. We were going to sell it to Parker Brothers or Milton Bradley. I was going to make a lot of money and get a house of my own and move out.

DBB: Did you see anyone else around the pond that Tuesday?

PH: We saw some guys fishing but that was at dusk.