Page 30 of The Lincoln Lawyer

“Um, four at the most. Over two, two and a half, hours. I left one drink untouched at Morgan’s.”

“What were you drinking?”

“Martinis. Gray Goose.”

“Did you pay for any of these drinks in any of these places with a credit card?” Levin asked, offering his first question of the interview.

“No,” Roulet said. “When I go out, I pay cash.”

I looked at Levin and waited to see if he had anything else to ask. He knew more about the case than I did at this moment. Iwanted to give him free rein to ask what he wanted. He looked at me and nodded. He was good to go.

“Okay,” I said. “What time was it when you got to Reggie’s place?”

“It was twelve minutes to ten. I looked at my watch. I wanted to make sure I didn’t knock on her door early.”

“So what did you do?”

“I waited in the parking lot. She said ten so I waited till ten.”

“Did you see the guy she left Morgan’s with come out?”

“Yeah, I saw him. He came out and left, then I went up.”

“What kind of car was he driving?” Levin asked.

“A yellow Corvette,” Roulet said. “It was a nineties version. I don’t know the exact year.”

Levin nodded. He was finished. I knew he was just trying to get a line on the man who had been in Campo’s apartment before Roulet. I took the questioning back.

“So he leaves and you go in. What happens?”

“I go in the building and her place is on the second floor. I go up and knock and she answers and I walk in.”

“Hold on a second. I don’t want the shorthand. You went up? How? Stairs, elevator, what? Give us the details.”

“Elevator.”

“Anybody else on it? Anybody see you?”

Roulet shook his head. I signaled him to continue.

“She opened the door a crack, saw it was me and told me to come in. There was a hallway by the front door so it was kind of a tight space. I walked by her so she could close the door. That’s how come she was behind me. And so I didn’t see it coming. She had something. She hit me with something and I went down. It got black real fast.”

I was silent while I thought about this, tried to picture it in my mind.

“So before a single thing happened, she just knocked you out? She didn’t say anything, yell anything, just sort of came up behind andbang.”

“That’s right.”

“Okay, then what? What do you remember next?”

“It’s still pretty foggy. I remember waking up and these two guys are sitting on me. Holding me down. And then the police came. And the paramedics. I was sitting up against the wall and my hands were cuffed and the paramedic put that ammonia or something under my nose and that’s when I really came out of it.”

“You were still in the apartment?”

“Yeah.”

“Where was Reggie Campo?”