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“Were you extorted in any way by Harris to provide an alibi for him?”
“No, I wasn’t!”
“Were you an anonymous source for thatTimesarticle?”
“I was not! I think you really need to go now. I have a Zoom.”
Beecher stood up but Ballard and Bosch did not.
“Please sit down, Mr. Beecher,” Ballard said. “We have more questions.”
“My Zoom is in, like, five minutes,” Beecher complained.
“The sooner you sit down, the sooner you will get to your Zoom.”
Beecher had moved behind his chair and put his hands on it as if for support. He bowed his head and then raised it angrily.
“I want you to leave,” he said.
“Sit down,” Bosch said. “Now.”
Bosch’s first words in the house gave Beecher a jolt and he looked at Bosch as if scared.
“Please,” Ballard offered.
“Oh, whatever,” Beecher said.
He came around the chair and dropped into it.
“Laura’s father died of Covid last year,” Ballard said. “He never saw justice for his daughter. Her mother is still alive and waiting for justice. We need your help, Mr. Beecher. We need the truth.”
Beecher ran both hands through his thick dark hair, messing up what had been a carefully composed front wave.
“You’re barking up the wrong tree,” he said.
Ballard leaned a few inches forward. It was not a denial or an admission that he had lied. But she took it as an indication that there was a new story to be told.
“How so?” she asked.
“Harmon didn’t kill Laura,” Beecher said. “There is no way in the world that happened.”
“Is that why you gave him an alibi?”
“He had an alibi but he couldn’t use it.”
“Which was?”
“He was with someone else, not me. But that person couldn’t go to the police. He was a famous guy and he couldn’t risk it coming out that he wasn’t straight. His career would have been over.”
“You knew this man?”
“At the time I knew of him. A lot of people did. So Harmon made me say I was the one with him that night, end of story.”
“Who was it who was really with him that night?”
“I’m not telling you. It’s the same risk today that it was back then. He’s still a star. I’m not going to ruin his career.”
“We would keep it confidential. We wouldn’t even put it on paper.”
