“Did you have any idea what Ms. Moon was going to tell you when she asked you to turn off the video camera?”
“Had no idea. I turned off the camera because she asked us to — and I thought it was the only way we were going to get the truth. And you know what, Ms. Castellano? It worked.”
Chapter 38
YUKI WISHED ALL of her witnesses were as good as Rich Conklin. He was solid. He was believable. Made you think of a young military officer, a mother’s good son. It didn’t hurt that he was also good to look at. In answer to her questions, Conklin affably told the jury that he’d been with the SFPD for five years and that he’d been in the homicide division for the last two.
“Did you interview the defendant on the night of April nineteenth?” Yuki asked Conklin.
“Sergeant Boxer and I talked with Ms. Moon together.”
“Did you have any preconceived notions about her guilt or innocence before you talked to her?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Did you read Ms. Moon her Miranda rights?”
“Yes, I did.”
“As I understand it, Ms. Moon wasn’t in custody when you Mirandized her, so why did you warn her that anything she said could be used against her?”
“It was a gamble,” Conklin told Yuki.
“When you say it was a gamble, could you explain what you mean to the jury?”
Conklin brushed his forelock of brown hair away from his eyes. “Sure. Suppose I say to a suspect, ‘I want to interview you. Can you come down to the station?’
“And the suspect comes in of his or her own volition. That person doesn’t have to answer our questions and can leave at any time. I don’t have to Mirandize that person when we sit down to talk because they’re not in custody.”
Conklin sat back comfortably in his seat and continued, “But, see, if that subject then starts to get wary, he or she could ask for a lawyer, who would end the interview. Or that subject could simply leave. And we’d have to let her go because that person is not under arrest.”
“If I understand you, Inspector, you were taking a precaution, so that if Ms. Moon incriminated herself, you’d already be covered by having told her that anything she said could be used against her?”
“That’s right. I was thinking how Ms. Moon was our only witness, maybe a suspect in a serious crime, and I didn’t want to take a chance that if she had something to do with Michael Campion’s disappearance, we’d have to stop the interview and Mirandize her. That might have ended the interview. And we not only wanted the truth, we wanted to find Michael Campion.”
“And did Ms. Moon ask for a lawyer?”
“No.”
“Did she give you the details of Michael Campion’s death and the disposal of his body?”
“Yes, she did.”
“Inspector Conklin, what was her demeanor as she confessed to you and Sergeant Boxer?”
“She seemed sad and remorseful,” Conklin said.
“And how did you determine that?”
“She cried,” said Conklin. “She said she was sorry, and that she wished she could change everything that happened.”
Chapter 39
“INSPECTOR CONKLIN,” Davis said, smiling. “You sound like a very smart police officer.”
Yuki tensed. She could almost see Davis setting the trap, baiting it, tying the trap to a tree. Conklin just looked at Davis until she spoke again.
“Isn’t it true that from the beginning, the defendant denied that she’d ever met Michael Campion?”