Page 57 of The Writer

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

Transcript: Dateline interview with Denise Morrow

Present: Daphne Brown

Denise Morrow

[Daphne Brown] I truly appreciate you taking the time to sit down with us tonight on such short notice. I can’t imagine it’s easy for you to talk about all this so soon. I’m so, so sorry about your husband.

[Denise Morrow] Thank you for that. And thank you for having me. These last few weeks have been difficult, to say the least.

[Brown] There is so much speculation floating around out there…

[Morrow] We live in a time where the desire for ratings will sometimes trump the truth. People will say anything.

[Brown] Your husband wasn’t just murdered. You were blackmailed.

[Morrow] [ Nods .]

[Brown] By your own attorney, a man named Geller Hoffman. Someone you considered a family friend.

[Morrow] I did.

[Brown] This man—Geller Hoffman—killed your husband, killed an… associate, and—

[Morrow] She was my husband’s mistress. It’s okay—you can say it.

[Brown] Hoffman did all this, hurt these people, because you were writing a book that could potentially expose him as a serial killer. He wanted to stop you.

[Morrow] Yes.

[Brown] [ Shakes head .] I can’t imagine.

[Morrow] When I… I first suspected David was having an affair, I confided in him, in Geller. He used his resources to confirm it was true.

[Brown] Hoffman found the other woman. Showed you pictures. Proof.

[Morrow] I was devastated. The person I gave my life to… When you’re all in and you suddenly find that he’s not, it’s heavy, you know?

[Brown] You wanted to fix things. Most women would be angry.

[Morrow] Oh, I was angry, but…

[Brown] But you loved him.

[Morrow] [ Nods .] David was my soulmate. I didn’t want to lose him. When you’ve been with someone as long as we were together, when you’ve worked through some of the worst this world can throw at you together , then you get through it, same as any other crisis. I wanted to save us. We were bigger than this.

[Brown] Geller Hoffman, he knew all that. He was your attorney, and you confided in him.

[Morrow] David and I knew Geller for years. He sometimes vacationed with us. We regularly shared meals. We were all very close. At first, I thought he wanted to help. Who knows, maybe in the beginning he did, but that all changed…

[Brown] It changed when Geller Hoffman learned you were writing a book about a teenage girl who had been brutally assaulted and murdered in Central Park in 2018.

[Morrow] Maggie Marshall.

[Brown] Did you know he had a connection to that case?

[Morrow] [ Shakes head .] No. He never mentioned her name.

[Brown] You had no suspicions?

[Morrow] Suspicions? No. Why would I? Things with Geller weren’t like that. David and I saw a side of him most people didn’t—he was funny. Sarcastic, but funny. He was an early reader of my books. He helped me get the legal aspects correct. He’d always been there for me. Me and David. I had no reason to suspect he was involved in Maggie’s case.

[Brown] Not at first.

[Morrow] Not until I started speaking to the man convicted of her murder.

[Brown] Ruben Lucero.

[Morrow] Yes.

[Brown] What did Lucero tell you?

[Morrow] In one of our early interviews, he said his public defender had accepted a job in the private sector and he felt she had one foot out the door and didn’t provide the defense he deserved. Ruben felt betrayed by the system.

[Brown] Rightfully so. The woman’s focus was no longer on her caseload; she was looking at her cushy new job. But that’s not the worst of it, right?

[Morrow] No. During my research, I learned her new employer was my attorney.

[Brown] Geller Hoffman.

[Morrow] Correct. Now keep in mind, Lucero’s trial, Hoffman hiring Lucero’s attorney, that all happened four years ago. I had no clue back then. I only learned of that connection recently.

[Brown] When you started researching your book. When you first interviewed Lucero…

[Morrow] Yes.

[Brown] We now know Geller Hoffman killed your husband. He killed your husband’s mistress. Evidence now suggests he may have killed others.

[Morrow] Yes.

[Brown] As an observer of all this, putting the pieces together, I think it’s safe to say Hoffman hired Lucero’s attorney away from the public defender’s office in an attempt to insinuate himself into Lucero’s defense.

[Morrow] Or lack of. Geller wanted, needed, Ruben Lucero to go to prison for Maggie Marshall’s murder.

[Brown] And why was that?

[Morrow] [ Long pause .] From my first meeting with Lucero, he swore he was innocent. He consistently told me the same story—how he witnessed another man following Maggie Marshall in the park shortly before she was killed.

[Brown] He told the police too, right? And they did nothing?

[Morrow] If they investigated that angle, I never found evidence of it.

[Brown] And he was able to identify the man he saw?

[Morrow] He did.

[Brown] Who was it?

[Morrow] My attorney.

[Brown] He identified Geller Hoffman.

[Morrow] From a photograph.

[Brown] Wow.

[Morrow] Yeah.

[Brown] Did you take this information to the police?

[Morrow] I should have. I know that now, looking back on it, but at the time, I just wanted to make sense of it all.

[Brown] So you wrote it down.

[Morrow] I wrote it down. I needed to do that. That’s how my brain works. That’s how I process. I’d already been working on Maggie’s story, so I began plugging in this new information. Researching Geller’s background, looking for overlap not only with Maggie Marshall but with other victims possibly associated with Ruben Lucero.

[Brown] And you found that overlap…

[Morrow] It was like finding missing puzzle pieces. It all fit. He fit. I realized Lucero was innocent. He’d been telling me the truth the entire time. Telling everyone, and nobody listened.

[Brown] Then, after that realization, did you finally take everything to the police?

[Morrow] [ Long pause .] I never got the opportunity. I came home one night to find Geller in my office reading my notes, the draft of the book, everything. He knew that I knew.

[Brown] And that’s when the blackmail started, the intimidation…

[Morrow] He made it very clear that if I said a word, I was done.

[Brown] He controlled you. Kept you under his thumb. That wasn’t enough for him, though. He felt he needed something he could hold over you. Something to ensure you’d stay in line. That’s when he did the unspeakable.

[Morrow] [ Wipes her eyes but says nothing .]

[Brown] Take your time.

[Morrow] I was at a bookstore appearance in Tribeca. He came in and handed me a bag. He told me he’d just killed my husband’s mistress. He told me he had an associate at my apartment and if I didn’t change into the clothing in that bag, his associate would kill David. He started to explain how he mixed up the evidence, how he could pin it all on me or make it all go away, how once he had this over my head, he knew he would be able to trust me… he started in on all that, but honestly, I barely heard him. My only thoughts were of saving my husband, so I did what he asked.

[Brown] He lied. We know that now. Your husband was already dead.

[Morrow] [ Soft sob. A nod .] I found him when I got home. He’d been stabbed. I called 911, but he… he was already gone.

[Brown] You were in shock when the authorities arrived.

[Morrow] [ Nods .] I still can’t believe David’s gone.

[Brown] [ After a long silence .] We all know what happened next. You were arrested, but the charges were quickly dropped when it became clear you had nothing to do with either murder.

[Morrow] [ Looks to the floor, then back at Daphne .] I don’t blame the police for initially thinking I did it. My attorney painted this picture for them; he put the guilt on me, then shifted it away, just as he’d said he would. It was his idea to file a suit against the city when their case came apart. I think he saw it as a way to profit from it all. I had to go along. He made that very clear.

[Brown] This man controlled you.

[Morrow] I’m not proud to say it, but yes, he had complete control over me. [ She goes silent for a moment .] I woke once and found him standing over me, just watching me sleep. I don’t know how he got in—I imagine the same way he did when he killed David. He didn’t say anything. When he knew I’d seen him, he smiled and left. The implication was clear. He’d made his point. He could get to me at any time, and he would if I somehow crossed him. I can’t begin to explain how terrified I was.

[Brown] When he died, you must have been so relieved.

[Morrow] [ A deep sigh followed by a soft smile .] You have no idea. I was finally able to tell the police everything. When they searched his home and office, they realized the true extent of his manipulation, and it was finally over. At least, I thought it was…

[Brown] [ Long pause .] Ruben Lucero died in prison. Murdered in his cell. Do you think your attorney somehow orchestrated his death as a last-ditch effort to protect himself?

[Morrow] I really can’t speculate on that. I only hope Ruben Lucero has finally found peace.

[ End of recording .]

/DB/GTS