Chapter 21 Pulling the Trigger
Carmen picked up Shane on Monday morning at Alice's old apartment on North Harper Avenue, and when they arrived at the conference room, coffees from
The Planet
in hand, they were surprised to see Marybeth Duffy sitting next to Lauren. They both had their laptops open.
"Good morning, park your butts in your chairs, let's get going," Marybeth said.
"Copy that. Roger, dodger. Ten-four," Carmen said. "Happy Monday morning to you, too."
"Hey, guys," Lauren said.
"Hey," Shane said back. "Hey, Lieutenant."
"You heard me tell Jack I was going to supervise this case personally," Marybeth said, "and that's what I'm doing. But there's something else. You guys have exceeded my expectations and turned up half a dozen viable suspects, not to mention an extra murder, so I'm officially kicking this thing up to formal, official status. Lauren knows what this means, which is she'll need to start filing more official paperwork and reports. And normally a murder investigation requires detectives to work in pairs, so there's always some backup. I'm not going to assign Lauren a partner, though, partly because she has you two tagging along with her, and partly because I'm assigning myself as her partner if and when she runs into anything requiring a second badge and gun on scene. If we were back in the 1880s, I'd just deputize you two guys and toss you some badges, but today I'd get my ass fired for even thinking about deputizing two rank amateurs."
"Badges? We don't need no steenkin' badges," Carmen said.
Marybeth looked at Lauren.
"Hey, don't look at me like that," Lauren said. "You walked into that one all by yourself. The minute you said the word 'badge,' I knew it was coming. Carmen's a world-class movie trivia expert."
"I'm your huckleberry," Carmen said.
Marybeth closed her eyes for a moment, composing herself. She decided to move on. "Even though we're going official, we're still going to keep it quiet, and we're not telling the DA's office yet, so don't you guys say anything to anybody, including Alice. I know that may be hard for you, if and when you talk to her. I understand she knows you're working on it with Lauren, and that's fine. Just don't get her hopes up, because I don't want her running around Humboldt telling everybody she's going to get sprung any day now. You may disagree, but my opinion is Alice doesn't have need-to-know what we're doing. We'll get her out if and when we get her out, and nothing anybody says to her will speed it up. So I'd appreciate it if you kept her out of our loop. Lauren and I have talked about it, and we know we'll have to re-interview her, maybe even more than once. So that's yet another reason I don't want you guys telling Alice anything she doesn't already know. I don't care about personal stuff, but I don't want a single word said about anything relating to the case or suspects unless Lauren is there and she's the one asking the questions. You both on board with that?"
Shane and Carmen looked at each other and back at Marybeth. "Yes, we're on board," Carmen said. "We get what you're saying. I'm okay with it."
"Me, too," Shane said.
"Good. Next up, Lauren's been updating the old timeline, as you know. So here's new, fresh copies. Lauren has boldfaced some of the key events and spaced them out so they stand out." She passed them each a sheaf of papers stapled together. "There's a lot of stuff in it for us to chew on. I'm going to insist it stay inside this building. If you're with Lauren, she'll have a copy, and if need be, you can work off that. I just don't want one of you guys found carrying an official LASD homicide case document."
Shane and Carmen nodded. "Yes, sure," Carmen said. She began to read the updated timeline.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau
Homicide Case 51039 Schecter, Jennifer Diane
Date/Time of Homicide: 03/08/09 Approx 2100 hours to 2115 hours
Investigators: Det. Sgt. M. Duffy, Det/2 S. Holden, Homicide Bureau
Location: 254 14th Street, West Hollywood CA and adjacent house at 256 14th Street,
where vic resided
TIMELINE
Timeline modified by Det/2 Lauren Hancock, LASD Badge #1471
5/14/07 Jenny gets offer to turn book into film
5/23/07 Jenny signs contract, receives $100,000 for film rights to Lez Girls
6/06/07 Tina and Jenny (via Shaolin Studios) hire Kate Arden to direct Lez Girls, Jenny to write screenplay
7/23/07 Kate fires Jenny from writing screenplay, assigns Stacey Merkin to write
1/05/08 Jenny returns from Mexico vacation with financier William Halsey
1/08 to 03/08 Jenny fights with Tina, studio, gets Halsey to finance Lez Girls; Kate Arden, Stacey Merkin fired
4/14/08 Jenny signs contract for $20k/month to direct Lez Girls, will be paid $200k to write/finish screenplay; pre-production meetings begin that week
7/10/08 Studio (Aaron, Tina, Halsey) accepts screenplay, greenlights production, Jenny bank account receives $200k wire transfer payment for screenplay
8/02/08 Adele becomes Jenny's assistant
8/02/08 Casting for Lez Girls begins
8/05/08 Natalie Portman says no to Lez Girls
8/06/08 Big fight w/Aaron, Tina over casting Niki Stevens
8/09/08
SheBar
party -- Niki talks to Jenny
8/11/08 [Monday] First table read-through, full principal cast
89/13/08 [Afternoon] Shane and MyLoverCindi [MLC] affair
8/13/08 2000+ Party at Jenny/Shane's for cast plus Friends group; Denbo makes scene, war with Planet begins
8/14/08 [Late morning] Shane goes to SheBar to apologize, Denbo wants SheBar to replace Planet as location for $50k/day; Shane says no
8/18/08 [Monday] Principal photography on Lez Girls
begins
8/23/08 [Saturday night] SheBar Turkish Oil Wrestling Night; Denbo, MLC arrested, $10k fine
8/??/08 [End of summer] The Creep shows up at unoccupied house behind Jenny/Shane's house [256 15th Street, West Hollywood], intermittent appearances thereafter
9/13-14/08 Subaru Pink Ride bike marathon,
Jenny/Niki make sex tape
9/17-14/08 Denbo, Cindi Tucker (MLC) buy 51% of
Planet
from Ivan
9/18/08 [Day] Kit buys gun
9/??/08 Kit goes to SheBar
with gun; nothing happens
?/??/08 MLC sells her share of Planet
to Helena;
SheBar crisis over
10/06/08 [Monday] Jenny, Niki make bank withdrawals of $9,950 each
10/29/08 circa late morning Adele coup against Jenny on film set
11/06/08 [Thursday] Jenny, Niki make bank withdrawals of $9,950 each
12/08/08 [Monday] Jenny, Niki make bank withdrawals of $9,950 each [Saturday 6th bank closed]
1/06/09 [Tuesday] Jenny, Niki make bank withdrawals of $9,950 each
1/13/09 Jenny bank account receives $500k check for movie treatment [alleged to be Alice's]
1/18/09 [Afternoon] Molly returns Shane's jacket to Jenny, assume placed in attic
1/24/09 [Day] Adele signs three-picture deal for $1.5 mil
1/24/09 [evening, night] Lez Girls
wrap party, Jenny discovers Shane/Niki sex. Shane evicted.
1/25-26/09 [Sunday night/Monday morning] -- Jenny has all-night sex w/ Niki, rejects her in the morning
1/26/09 Deluxe Motion Picture Labs ready to ship negatives, Mid-afternoon fax sent saying messenger will pick up negatives
1/26/09 2000-2100 Eastside Messengers picks up negative canisters, delivers to Wilson/Cramer Productions attn. Jenny Schechter [sic misspelled]
1/26/09 after 2100 or unknown time later -- Someone (Niki?) picks up negative canisters (effective date/time of theft)
1/27/09 to approx. 2/04/09?? Niki puts canisters in Jenny/Shane's attic (assume earlier date)
2/06/09 [Friday] Jenny, Niki make bank withdrawals of $9,950 each
2/08/09 [Morning] Max walks out after LaMaze class
2/22/09 [Night] Bette art gallery opening; Jenny sees Bette & Kelly in believed (untrue) kitchen sex
2/15/09 Alice discovers/claims Jenny stole manuscript/treatment
2/15/09 [Evening] Tina/Bette have dinner, Tina accuses William/Aaron of stealing negatives
2/22/09 1800 Baby shower; Jenny tells Dylan about Niki plot, angering Helena
3/1/09 Jenny threatens to tell Tina about Bette/Kelly
