Page 61 of The Writer

Nobody was there, dead or otherwise.

At least there’s that,Cordova thinks.

He swallows the rest of the coffee, has to squeeze his eyes shut to do it, then looks back up at the board.

Denise Morrow couldn’t have killed either victim, not from across town.

Geller Hoffman had time to kill Mia Gomez.

It’s very possible Denise Morrow put him up to it.

Lucero fingered Hoffman for the Maggie Marshall murder. Maybe he also told Denise Morrow about that. Maybe she found proof and used that as leverage on Hoffman:You kill my husband’s lover for me, and this never gets out.

Could Hoffman have killed David Morrow too?

How far would Geller Hoffman go to keep a secret like that?

Damn far. If it’s true and it gets out, his life is over.

If it’s true.

So why give his bloody clothes to Denise Morrow and make her wear them?

Three-card monte.

Shuffle the evidence.

Muddy the case.

Declan might just be right about that.

Maybe Declan is right about all of it.

Across the bullpen, Lieutenant Daniels’s office is dark. The door’s closed.

If Lucero told Daniels about Hoffman, why didn’t Daniels tell him or Declan? Lucero was their case.

Investigating the investigation is Harrison’s case. IAU’s case.

Cordova grabs a sheet of paper and scribbles out a possible timeline:

Lucero tells Denise Morrow about Geller Hoffman.

Denise Morrow tells Harrison.

Harrison tells her to call Daniels, gives her the lieutenant’s personal cell number.

Daniels drives up to Dannemora to talk to Lucero himself.

He returns and has every file related to the Lucero investigation brought to his office.

Those files aren’t there anymore.

Cordova is in the LT’s office all the time. They’re gone.

That means either he didn’t find anything worth pursuing and he put it all back—or he found something worth pursuing, something so damning that he had everything moved to someplace more private.

Private like IAU.