Becks shook his head—once, twice.
“I saw them together,” he said finally.
“Saw who together?”
“Frankie and Dad.”
Gretchen reached for the banister to support herself. “What do you mean, Becks?”
“The day before I left for school. On the Lower East Side,” he said. “Ludlow Coffee Supply.”
None of this made any sense. “You just happened to see them?”
“No, I, um— Dad was texting with someone and then he went to leave and he was acting…weird. And so, I guess, I followed him.”
“What do you mean,weird?” she asked.
Maybe Frankie Callahan had forced Richard to see her? This possibility hadn’t even occurred to Gretchen. A bright gap in the dark storm clouds.
“Excited or something,” Becks said. “I don’t know, it— He didn’t seem like himself.”
“Wait, when was this?”
“The day before I left for preseason,” he said. “The weekend after you got back from Atlanta.”
And just like that, the darkness folded in around her once more.
“Just coffee?” Her words felt thick, sticky. “That was all?”
“Just coffee,” Becks said. “They seemed to get into a fight or something at the end. She kind of stormed off.” His voice cracked.
“Shhh. Shhh,” Gretchen soothed. She moved closer and wrapped her arms around her son. “It’s okay,” she said. “Everything is okay.”
Okay.Gretchen was an addict frantic for a fix. Except the high she was chasing was hope.
Grand Jury Transcript
Testimony of Investigating Detective Raul Reyes
Conducted by Abigail Hoffman, Assistant District Attorney
November 27
Q. You were a senior investigating detective in the murder of Frankie Callahan?
A. Yes. I was assigned to that case at the beginning, eleven weeks ago.
Q. Were you on the scene in Ms. Callahan’s apartment in the early-morning hours of September 11th?
A. I was.
Q. How did you come to be there?
A. An individual in an adjacent apartment overheard an argument at the premises at approximately 11:00 p.m. on September 10th. The neighbor heard what she thought might have been a scream and then sounds of a physical altercation. She wasn’t sure. When she didn’t hear anything else, she went back to bed.
Q. And then what happened?
A. The neighbor woke up again around 3:30 a.m., feeling concerned still. She went out into the hallway and saw that Ms. Callahan’s door was ajar. She looked inside and saw obvious signs of a struggle and a significant quantity of blood. She called the police.
