“Maybe they were arguing about the money that Manny had taken from the church funds to get you back on your feet?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you do, Ray,” Decker said. “We’ve talked to people who were there. Alyssa Bright Mapplethorpe, Christian Woodhouse…members of the church. They remember you and your brother and Beth very well.”

Holmes said, “I did not take any money and I did not kill Beth! Period!”

“I didn’t say you took it, Ray. I said that your brother took it.”

“Jesus!” Holmes gnashed his teeth and mopped up his brow. “First of all, Manny borrowed it. Second of all, if he borrows money and doesn’t pay it back, how is that my fault?”

“It isn’t,” Decker said. “So tell me your side of the story. Because I have lots of others who are telling me their side and it doesn’t look good for you.”

“Okay, okay.” Holmes wiped his face, though he wasn’t sweating nearly as much as before. Dealing with the truth, even partial truths, seemed to calm him down. “This is what happened in a nutshell. I needed a place to crash. My baby brother invited me to L.A., but his bitch wife wasn’t at all happy about it. Even though I never did anything to her, even though I stayed out of their way, even though I minded my own fucking business, that bitch just had it in for me. Finally, Manny couldn’t take it anymore. He said he loved me, but it just wasn’t working out and I’d have to leave. I told him it was okay. I told him I had a buddy in Arizona and he could probably give me a crash pad for a couple of weeks until I could find construction work there. I didn’t want to work construction in L.A. Too many damn greasers. I am not a fucking Mexican. I am an American citizen from New Mexico and I’ll be damned if I’d work side by side with a bunch of illegals.”

“I got it,” Decker said. “Go on.”

“Manny felt real bad about kicking me out. I was his big brother after all. So Manny offered…I repeat, he offered to give me money. I said okay. I didn’t ask questions. I was in a bad way and I needed help. I didn’t know where it came from. I didn’t ask how he got it. I only found out later, when Beth was yelling at him, that he was the treasurer of his church and that he borrowed the money from the church funds.”

“When was this?”

“The night it happened. Beth was yelling at him, demanding that Manny get the money back. I felt bad that I was the reason they were fighting, so I finally knocked on the bedroom door and explained to the bitch that I didn’t have a penny in my pocket. I was trying to tell her that I’d pay the loan back as soon as I got on my feet again. I even offered her interest.”

“How much did he give you?”

“Around a thousand bucks.”

“Try again, Mr. Holmes.”

“It was a thousand dollars.”

“The account was looted completely.”

“You want to know what happened, you got to let me finish, okay?”

Decker said, “Go on. So Manny loaned you a thousand dollars and Beth wanted you to give the money back.”

“Exactly.” Holmes drank another glass of water. “Now this is the part that gets a little fuzzy. At that point, all I’m doing is trying to leave the goddamn apartment, but by then, Beth is in overdrive. Screaming at him, screaming at me, insisting that I give the money back right now! ‘Fuck her,’ I say to myself. ‘Manny gave me the money, not her. I don’t have to listen to her.’ So like I said, I start to walk away, then Beth screams that she’s going to call the cops on me and report that I stole the money.”

He exhaled with a snort.

“She picks up the phone and starts to dial the police or the operator or information, someone. So that’s when Manny goes over to her and grabs the phone from her hand. He says to her, ‘Beth, you can’t do that.’ Then she says, ‘I’ll do what I please and you can’t stop me!’ Then, I guess that was too much for Manny. He finally decides to be a man. So he says, ‘You let my brother alone and let me worry about the money. I’m the treasurer and you’re nothing but a mousy piece of shit without me.’ And to emphasize the point, he pushes her, not meaning to hurt her, just meaning to get her out of the way.”

Holmes swallowed, his eyes as blank as the wall he was looking at.

“He pushes her a little too hard and she cracks her head against the wall and drops to the floor.”

Dudley was about to say something, but just shook his head instead. He continued to stare as if the scene were taking place in front of his eyes. It was certainly replaying itself in Holmes’s brain. But Decker knew that the evidence didn’t match the story that Holmes was recounting. The bash on Beth’s skull was caused by a blunt object striking her in the forehead region and was probably delivered face-to-face. It was not an injury that could have been caused by the back of Beth’s head hitting the wall.

Decker didn’t say anything. All of that would come out later.

Holmes continued to speak. “As soon as it happened, I knew we were in big trouble. I did time for burglary in a medium-security place and that was bad enough. I wasn’t about to go to Santa Fe Correctional and do real hard time. My old man was there. We both knew what Santa Fe Correctional was from visiting him. No fucking way that we were going down because some little bitch couldn’t control her mouth!”

Decker nodded encouragingly. “About what time of the day did it happen?”

“Not late, but it was after dark. I don’t know. Maybe around six. I don’t remember.”

“Okay. So what happened after you realized she wasn’t moving?”

“I remember feeling paralyzed. I didn’t know what the fuck to do. I was in a strange city and I had no friends and here I was with a dead bitch and I didn’t even kill her. I told Manny that we’d better just get the hell out. My baby brother’s reaction was funny. He was calm and collected. Maybe he even felt good about it. She’d been getting on his case for a long, long time and he had enough I guess. He was the smooth one. He told me to help him wrap up the body and he’d take care of it. So that’s what I did. I helped him wrap the body. I helped him load it into Manny’s pickup. Then Manny took it from there. I don’t know what he did with it. I never asked and he didn’t say.”

“How long was he away?”

“I don’t know. A couple of hours maybe. I was cleaning up the mess while he was gone.”

“And you don’t remember when Manny returned to the apartment?”

“I remember it was late. We spent the night packing up the truck, and the next day, Manny took out the rest of the church money from the bank. We needed everything we could get our hands on.” Holmes took in a breath and let it out. “Manny wanted us to go together, but I wanted o-u-t, out, know what I mean?” He pointed to his chest. “I didn’t kill her; he did. Let him figure it out. Besides, I could tell he was scared. The adrenaline had worn off and I didn’t want him to freak out while I was around. I told him to take the truck and go, that I’d take care of myself. I told him to look me up in Arizona in about six months after everything had calmed down. He never did call me. I never saw or heard from him again. I don’t know what happened to him, if he’s alive or dead or what.”

Sure you don’t, Decker thought. “Where’d you go after the two of you split up?”

“I hitched a ride to Las Vegas. I played the tables and turned my measly grand into five big ones. I lived it up for about a week-booze, drugs, hookers, you name it. I was the happiest that I’ve ever been in my life.”

“What happened after that week?”

“What do you think?” Holmes laughed. “Booze, drugs, and hookers cost money. I left glitter city with about three hundred in my pocket, and thumbed a ride to Arizona. I rolled up my sleeves, learned the construction business, and became a working stiff. I started paying taxes, and I’ve been a solid citizen ever since then.”

“And you never heard from Manny again?” Decker asked.