Who Killed Jenny Schecter? Ch. 22

"Were these made before or after the Subaru Weekend video Jenny made?"

"Both."

"How did the blackmailer communicate with both of you?"

"Jenny and I each got an envelope in the mail with a thumb drive in it. There were instructions on the thumb drive."

"Do you still have the thumb drive?" Lauren asked.

Calloway nodded to The Bitch, who placed a thumb drive on the table. "Yes, we know about fingerprints, but it's way too late to do anything about it. By the time we got the thumb drive, Niki and and Jenny had already touched it. I strongly suspect it had been wiped, anyway, before it was sent."

"Do you still have the envelope?"

This time Calloway and The Bitch just let Niki twist in the wind.

"No. I threw it away," Niki said.

"Before you ask," Calloway said, "when Niki told us about the blackmail and the thumb drive, we had an IT guy look at the metadata to see if there was any way to trace the video and audio files. There wasn't, all the metadata had been wiped. I know you'll want to check it out for yourselves, and we're happy to let you talk to our IT guy. But I'm just advising you up front that there's nothing useful on the thumb drive. Believe me, if there was something, we'd have preserved it for you."

"How long have you known about the blackmail and the thumb drive, Mr. Calloway."

"I'm happy to answer that, Detective Hancock, but I'd like Niki to answer it first, if I may. Niki?" He was letting her twist again.

Niki looked at her hands. "This week," she mumbled. "When I heard you wanted to re-interview me."

"This week?" Lauren said. "You kept the blackmail quiet from your own lawyers for two years?"

Lauren, Marybeth, Carmen and Shane looked at Calloway and the Bitch. They looked at their hands and the paperwork in front of them. It was their way of saying, "Yes, we know our client is fucking dumber than a tree stump. There's nothing we can do about it."

Niki said nothing.

"We have discussed this aspect of the blackmail and the thumb drive with our client," Calloway said. "She is aware of the legal implications and the consequences. She has been duly and properly advised. We request that it be noted for the record that she is making these statements voluntarily and of her own free will."

Marybeth was clearly furious. "Goddamit," she said, "this is withholding material evidence in a murder investigation. Fuck it, TWO murder investigations."

"Niki has been made aware of that," Calloway said calmly. "The first murder, anyway."

"I am so pissed I can't see straight," Marybeth said. "And when you first came in, we said nothing Niki said in her first interview would be held against her."

"That's correct. And you said nothing about things she didn't say. That's where you are going, correct, Lieutenant?" Calloway asked.

"Damn right."

"At this point, I'd like the record to note that I could advise my client to decline to answer any more questions. However, I'd like to note that we previously discussed this very possibility of obstruction of justice with her. At this time Miss Stevens declines to invoke her rights, and wishes to proceed with this interview. It is her hope that by fully and freely discussing the blackmail she will contribute to the apprehension of Jenny's murder, and she hopes your department and the district attorney will take her willing cooperation into account regarding any future charges that may be contemplated."

Marybeth and Lauren glanced at each other. They figured out what was going. Calloway was saying, "Niki is cooperating because we know you'd never get a good conviction of the obstruction business because of her various and sundry visits to rehab for drug and alcohol. Her defense will be she was too fucked up on booze and pills to know that she was obstructing."

They knew it was bullshit, but also knew Calloway was right. And in any case, Marybeth and Lauren didn't care about Niki as long as she wasn't the murderer.

Marybeth drummed her fingers on the table, thinking.

"All right, let's move on," she said. "You got an envelope in the mail. When was this, and what happened next?"

"It was about two weeks after the Pink Subaru Ride," Niki said.

"You sure of that? Two weeks after?"

"Yes, I'm sure. It was on a Monday. I was in my trailer on the set when Jeremy brought it to me."

"Jeremy?"

"He's one of my people," Niki said. "It was this brown, padded envelope, like you buy in a shipping store. It's lined with those little plastic bubbles you can pop. It was in with some other mail and stuff. Scripts my agent sent me. Like that."

"Was Jeremy there when you opened it?"

"No. I didn't open it until the next morning."

"Why not?"

Niki looked at her hands. "I was busy Monday night."

"With Jenny?"

"Yes."

"After filming ended for the day?"

"Yes." Fucking our brains out, she might have added, but didn't need to.

"So the next morning?"

"Jenny came to my trailer. She was really upset, but at first she wouldn't say why. She asked me, did I get an envelope with something in it. Like what, I said. She says, 'You'd know if you saw it.' I said, I don't know what you're talking about. She said, did I get this envelope with a thumb drive in it. I said Hell if I know. She starts looking around my trailer, she sees my pile of mail on the kitchen counter, she starts going through it. She finds it right away, and starts tearing it open, I say, hey, that's my mail. She says, just shut the fuck up a minute. She pulls a thumb drive out of this padded envelop. She says, see? This envelope is just like the one I got. See? It says 'Personal and confidential for Niki Stevens. Your eyes only.' She hands me the envelope and I look at it, and yeah, that's what it says. My eyes only. What is it, I say. She says, get your laptop. So I get my laptop, which is on the table in the dining nook, and I start it up, and Jenny hands me the thumb drive. She says open it, play it. So I do. There's these video files and sound files. She says, play one. So I do. And it comes up, and there's me and Jenny in her car. It's night, but, you know, there's enough light. Whoever took it comes up from behind the car, videos the car license plate and the car type, you know, so you know whose car it is, and then uses the camera to peek into the window, and there we are."

"There you are what?"

"Me and Jenny. Having sex." Niki paused and no one said anything. "We ... uh... the quality of the video was awful. You couldn't see a lot, exactly, you couldn't even tell who it was. But ... uh ... we were naked, we were going sixty-nine in the front seat. Basically all you could see was my ass, sticking up in the air, and somebody under me. It was only about three minutes long, and then the camera guy backed away, took another view of the license plate, and then the video ended. Jenny said there was a sound file that went with it, and I played it. Somebody had put some kind of microphone inside the car, and you could hear us talking. It started when Jenny and I got into the car at the studio, and we went for a ride. There was no video, just the sound, and it had been edited and condensed, it left out gaps and stuff. But there was some conversation about where we were going, and ... you know ... personal stuff. What we were going to do. Sex talk. And then we parked, and uh, started undressing each other, and uh, doing stuff, and you could hear us. Talking, or making, you know. Sounds. You could tell what we were doing."

"So then what?"

"I'm like, omigod, omigod, I'm freaking out. Jenny says play another one. But my hands are shaking and she just takes over the laptop, starts playing another one. It's her and me in her bedroom. The camera guy is filming us through the bedroom window. It's kind of like the Subaru tape."

"What do you mean?"

Niki didn't look up. "It's me, wearing the strap-on. The same one we used at the Subaru weekend. And then Jenny wearing it. You could see our faces this time. You could tell right off who we were."

"Was there sound?"

"No, not on the video. But when you opened one of the sound files, there was sound of us."

"How long was the video and sound file?"

"I don't know. Jenny only played a minute or two, then she fast-forwarded, so we could see that the video was long. I mean, it might have been an hour or more, I really don't know. I guess the sound, too."

"Okay. Then what?"

"Jenny played a few more of them. There was one of her and me skinny-dipping in Bette and Tina's pool one time when they weren't home. We ... you know. Did stuff. It was clear who we were and what we were doing."

"Where was the camera person shooting from? The back lot line of the house?"

"No. He was near the back porch. Bette and Tina hadn't started the renovations yet, so there was no deck or stairs up to the deck."

"He was standing near the driveway?"

"No, the other side."

Carmen spoke up for the first time. "There was no driveway on that side, and there was a tall privacy fence. They had a lot of plants on that side, and it would have been dark. Somebody could stand there near the corner of the house and be invisible."

"How would you get there?" Calloway asked.

"Just walk up the side yard from the street. Anybody could do it."

"But whoever did this would have to know the layout? And they'd have to know Jenny and Niki were back there?"

"Yes," Carmen said.

"Where were you and Jenny right before you went into the pool?"

"At her house," Niki said.

"You drove over there? Parked out front or in the driveway?"

"In the driveway."

"You knew Shane wasn't going to be home?"

"Yes. Jenny said Shane was at some event somewhere. I don't remember where, just that Shane wouldn't be home."

Everyone looked at Shane, who shrugged. "Could be. I don't know what date you're talking about, but sure, it's entirely possible. Wherever I was, I'd have told Jenny if I was going to be out late or staying over somewhere."

"What it sounds like," Marybeth said, "was that someone was watching Shane and Jenny's house. He saw Niki pull into the driveway and go into the house. Sometime later Niki and Jenny come out, go next door and start cavorting in the pool. He gets his camera, if he already doesn't have it in his hand, walks around to the street, walks up the side yard into the shadows, and films Niki and Jenny."

Lauren turned to Niki. "What did Jenny say while you were looking at these videos?"

"She said she opened her envelope the night before, and was up all night, looking at them, worrying, angry, all that. She said she couldn't sleep. While I was looking at some of the videos she sat down on the settee and started to cry. I said, are you all right? She stood up and came back to my laptop and said, Here, look at this. We're being blackmailed. So she opens up this other file, and it's addressed to us. It was the blackmail note with the instructions."

Calloway interrupted. "If I may, we printed out the blackmail note. Here's copies." The Bitch had them ready, and passed a page to everyone in the room. "The file is still on the thumb drive. I'm sure you're IT people will look at it, but we found nothing useful. And believe me, we tried. But the file is intact. For the record, if it ever becomes necessary in court, we will stipulate that the file and the entire thumb drive is intact and has not been tampered with or altered in any way since it came into our possession."

"Okay," Marybeth said. She read the blackmail note silently to herself, then read it out loud:

"'Dear dykes. You girls look like your having a lot of fun.' Spelled your wrong. 'That's good. Its going to cost you and lucky for you can afford it. Unless you want these porn vids of you ladies eating snatch all over southern California' -- misspelled southern -- 'eating snatch all over southern California sent to every media outlet as well as creating a hot new porn sight' -- misspelled site -- 'your going to each pay $9,950 each per month in cash on sixth of every month. 'Each pay each.' Your first payment due this Monday October 6. Go to bank get out $9,950 in cash small bills not in sequence. Put in brown paper lunch bag buy from store. On afternoon of Oct 6 I will text you with location to drop off cash. Drive to location follow text instruction. Do NOT contact police, do not even think about staking out drop off location. If I se anything , see with one e, suspicious deal is off and I will send videos out and set up Niki Fucks Jenny porn web sight, see preview. Next month same thing. Go to bank on 6th, get cash etc. Yes I am blackmailing you but I am keeping your payment low enough it is affordable for you. I know from trade papers Niki signed big contract, Jenny got screenplay deal etc so I know you can afford this. I am not going to bankrup you, no 't,' or bleed you dry. Just consider a business expense. I will text on Oct 6."

"There's a lot of stuff here our profiler can work on," Lauren said. "The guy's syntax and spelling. I can see a few other things right off the bat."

"Me, too. We can run it all through the databases," Marybeth said, "but I'm guessing we won't find anything, even though blackmail and celebrity blackmail are major growth industries in LA. But we'll do the due diligence. Niki, what did you and Jenny say after she showed you this? Niki, are you all right?"

Niki wasn't all right. "I'm ... I'm..." She put her hand over her mouth, looked around, saw a trash can at the far end of the room and ran to it. She just made it in time, holding it up and puking into it as Calloway and The Bitch ran to her to support her.

"Lieutenant," Calloway said, "I think we need a break."

"Yes, fine, I'll stop the video."

"Bobbi," Calloway said to The Bitch, "can you take Niki to the ladies room?"

"I'll go, too, follow me," Lauren said, going to Niki and helping Bobbi escort Niki down the hall. Niki was able to walk under her own power, but her face was pale and her legs were shaky. Marybeth went to the trash receptacle with the puke in it, took it out of the room and returned a minute later with a different receptacle.

"Mr. Calloway, do you and Mr. Cartwright want some coffee? We have water and a soda machine, too, if you want anything. I think we're officially on coffee break time-out."

"I'm fine, Lieutenant, thanks for asking. Elliott, get something if you want," Calloway said.

"I'm good, thanks," the Briefcase Carrier said. If the boss doesn't get anything, nobody gets anything. Rule.

"I'm going to stretch my legs," Calloway said. He wandered casually out of the room and went down the hall a short distance. The Briefcase Carrier went with him.

Marybeth perched on the edge of the conference table near Shane and Carmen. "What do you guys think?" Marybeth asked quietly, so she couldn't be overheard. "Was that an act? Can she throw up on cue?"

Carmen looked at Shane, the expert on unspoken messages and body language.

Shane shook her head no. "I don't think so. For one thing, Niki has never been such a great actress anyway. If that was an act, it was Oscar-worthy. I think it was real. And I can see why. She's re-living that morning. Fuck, I'd get sick, too, if that was me on those videos."

"Carmen?"

"I agree with Shane. Anyway, if it was an act I don't see the point. But there's something else, it has nothing to do with Niki getting sick."

"What's that?

Carmen looked at Shane. "Shane, I think we have to tell Lieutenant Duffy about Mark and his tapes."

Shane closed her eyes and exhaled heavily. "I know. I was thinking about that, too."

"Not in front of Niki and her lawyers, though," Carmen said.

"Can you give me a one-sentence summary?" Marybeth asked.

Carmen nodded. "Way back when, when Jenny and I were having our affair, Shane and Jenny rented out the garage studio to a guy named Mark. He had a videotape business, he made these scuzzy exploitation flicks, College Coeds Go Crazy, that kind of shit. Anyway, he put up secret cameras around the house and secretly videotaped all of us. He claimed he was making this documentary about lesbians, and maybe he was. But there were videos he made, some fairly innocent, Jenny and Shane and me, just doing normal stuff around the house, talking, cooking. But there were videos of us having sex, too. Me and Jenny. Shane and, uh, some girls. One or two parties they had. Mark actually filmed those in person, we knew we were being taped. They were like interviews. Anyway, one day he told Jenny about the secret tapes and the spy cameras. She kept it secret while we went on a vacation cruise for a week, and only when we got back a week later did she tell us. Mark took the cameras down and we made him give us all the videos, and we burned them. The point is, Mark was a scumbag, and he made secret videos. Obviously, he also learned a lot about Jenny, and he knew the house and the grounds and Bette and Tina's house, and people skinny dipping in their pool."

"So we have to consider him a suspect, too. Do you know where this Mark is now?"

Carmen looked at Shane, who shook her head. "No. After he finally moved out I never heard from him again. I have no idea where he is. But he shouldn't be too hard to find."

Calloway and the Briefcase Carrier walked back into the room. "Niki's coming back," Calloway said.