Page 80 of The Writer

[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.Hefit. I realized Lucero was innocent. He’d been telling me the truth the entire time. Tellingeveryone,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.