The Trial (Women's Murder Club 15.50)

“Sergeant Boxer, it’s Elena.”

It took me a moment to put a face to a name. It came to me. Elena, a.k.a. Maura Steele, was Jorge Sierra’s reluctant wife.

I bolted into an upright position. Had we thought to protect her? No.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I have an idea.”

“I’m listening,” I said.

Chapter 26

When I’d met with Elena Sierra, she had let me know that she wanted nothing to do with her husband. I had given her my card but never expected to hear from her.

What had changed her mind?

I listened hard as she laid out her plan. It was brilliant and simple. I had made this same offer to Sierra and utterly failed to close the deal. But Kingfisher didn’t love me.

Now I had reason to hope that Elena could help put this nightmare to bed.

The meeting between Elena and her husband was arranged quickly. By late afternoon the next day our cameras were rolling upstairs in a barred room reserved for prisoners and their attorneys.

Elena wore a belted vibrant-purple sweaterdress and designer boots and looked like a cover girl. She sat across the table from Sierra. He wore orange and was chained so that he couldn’t stand or move his hands. He looked amused.

I stood in a viewing room with Conklin and Brady, watching live video of Elena’s meeting with Sierra, and heard him suggest several things he would like to do with her. It was creepy, but she cut him off by saying, “I’m not here for your pleasure, Jorge. I’m trying to help you.”

Sierra leaned forward and said, “You don’t want to help me. You want only money and power. How do I know? Because I created you.”

“Jorge. We only have a few more minutes. I’m offering you the chance to see your children—”

“Mine? I’m not so sure.”

“All you have to do is to plead guilty.”

“That’s all? Whose payroll are you on, Elena? Who are you working for, bitch whore?”

Elena got to her feet and slapped her husband hard across the face.

Joy surged through my body. I could almost feel my right palm stinging as if I had slapped him myself.

The King laughed at his wife, then turned his head and called out through the bars, “Take me back.”

Two guards appeared at the cage door and the King was led out. When he was gone, Elena looked at the camera and shrugged. She looked embarrassed. She said, “I lost my temper.”

I pressed the intercom. “You did fine. Thank you, Elena.”

“Well, that was edifying,” said Brady.

“She tried,” I said to Brady. “I don’t see what else she could have done.”

I turned to Rich and said, “Let’s drive her home.”

Chapter 27

Elena Sierra had curled up in the backseat and leaned against the window. “He’s subhuman,” she said. “My father warned me, but I was eighteen. He was…I don’t remember what the hell I was thinking. If I was thinking.”

There was a long pause, as if she was trying to remember when she had fallen in love with Kingfisher.