Vic leaned forward, her tone becoming more direct. "What kind of information? And through what channels?"
Carmen's jaw tightened slightly. She looked truly uncomfortable for the first time since the conversation began. "I'd prefer not to go into the specific details of my cooperation with Mr. Holloway's legal team."
"Ms. Rodriguez," Vic said firmly, "we're investigating four murders. If you provided information to Marcus Holloway through unofficial channels, we need to know about it."
"I understand your concern, but I'm not going to compromise ongoing investigations or reveal methods that could affect future cases." Carmen's voice carried the conviction of someone who had made a firm decision about what she was willing to disclose. "If you truly feel it's important to your case, you can obtain the proper warrants and documents…but I'm not giving that information of my own accord."
Miles could see Vic's frustration with Carmen's evasiveness, but he also recognized that they were dealing with someone who understood the legal implications of her cooperation. Whatever help she'd provided to Holloway's legal team, it had probably involved accessing records or sharing information in ways that might not have been strictly authorized. And she also knew that getting the proper paperwork and warrants for obtaining that information would take weeks. If not longer.
"Let's move on to the murders themselves," Miles said, deciding to shift the conversation toward areas where Carmen might be more forthcoming. "Can you account for your whereabouts on the nights when these victims were killed?"
Carmen pulled out her phone and opened what appeared to be a calendar application. “What are the dates?”
"Patricia Vance was killed on March 15th.”
Caremn nodded and took a moment to think about it. “That was…what, about a week ago? I was at home that evening, working on case files. I ordered dinner from a Thai restaurant, had DoorDash deliver it. That was round 8:00 p.m., and I was on a conference call with a colleague in Sacramento from 9:30 to 11:15."
"Can we verify that conference call?" Vic asked.
"Absolutely. It was recorded as part of our case documentation, and my colleagues can confirm the timing."
Miles continued to listen, and though her alibis were indeed strong, he was pretty sure the case files indicated that Vance had been killed later in the night. Her memory was precise and detailed, suggesting someone who maintained careful records of her activities—exactly what he would expect from a professional investigator.
"What about David Goldberg?” he asked. “His body was discovered early this morning."
"Last night I was at a community meeting about predatory lending practices. It ran from 7:00 to almost 10:00, and afterward I went home and worked until about three in the morning reviewing financial documents for the Goldberg case.”
"Can anyone verify that you were home after 10:00 p.m.?" Miles asked.
"I live alone, but I made several phone calls to sources who were providing information about Goldberg's lending practices.The calls would show up in phone records. Also, I sent a few emails out somewhere between midnight and three."
Vic made notes on a nearby legal pad about the verification steps they would need to take to confirm Carmen's alibis. "What about Rebecca Thornfield? Did you have any dealings with her or her gallery?"
"I never met Thornfield personally, but her name came up during my investigations into art market manipulation several months back." Carmen's irritated expression suggested she found Thornfield's practices distasteful. "She was accused of artificially inflating prices by withholding artwork from the market until her clients gained prominence, then slowly releasing pieces to create artificial scarcity."
"How does that work exactly?" Miles asked, genuinely curious about the mechanics of art market manipulation.
"Thornfield would acquire works by emerging artists and store them instead of selling them immediately. As the artists gained recognition and their market value increased, she would release the stored pieces one or two at a time, creating the impression that the works were rare and highly sought after. The artificial limitation of supply drove up demand and allowed her to charge much higher prices."
"And you considered this criminal behavior?" Vic asked.
"It's market manipulation, plain and simple. Not quitecriminalI suppose, but…close enough. She was deceiving buyers about the actual availability of artwork and artificially inflating prices through deceptive practices. It might not be prosecutable under current laws, but it's certainly unethical."
Miles found Carmen's explanation illuminating, not just for understanding Thornfield's business practices but for seeing how someone with Carmen's perspective might view all their victims as part of a broader pattern of wealth-based exploitation."What about Nelson DeWalt?" he asked. "Did you know anything about his business activities?"
"I'd never heard of DeWalt before you two mentioned his name to me," Carmen admitted. "If he’s ever been involved in the kinds of systematic fraud cases I typically work on, I’ve never heard of him."
Vic exchanged a glance with Miles, both of them noting that Carmen's lack of connection to DeWalt weakened any theory that she had personally targeted all four victims. If she was their killer, she would have needed some other source of information about DeWalt's activities. And with the passing of each minute, Miles became more and more certain that Carmen Rodriguez was not their killer.
"Ms. Rodriguez," Vic said, "I want to ask you directly: did you kill any of these people?"
Carmen's response was immediate and emphatic. "Absolutely not. I believe in using legal channels to prosecute financial crimes, not taking justice into my own hands through violence. For me to murder someone would be spitting in the face of the very system I work so hard to uphold."
"Do you know anyone who might have had access to the kind of detailed information about these victims that would assist in targeting them?" Miles asked.
Carmen considered the question carefully…much better than statingnoflat out, as far as Miles was concerned. "Believe it or not, the financial crimes community in San Francisco is relatively small,” she said. “There are maybe a dozen investigators working on these kinds of cases, plus attorneys like Marcus Holloway, some journalists who specialize in financial reporting, and academic researchers who study wealth inequality. That’s big on a lot of college campuses these days. Anyone serious about exposing financial corruption would probably have similar information about prominent targets."
"Can you provide us with names of people in that community?" Vic asked.
