Ten
“OK NATE, WHY DON’T you tell me how you came to have that girl in your bed, naked and dead?”
She and I are seated together in the interview room on one side of the metal table. A tired and forlorn-looking Nate Rodriguez is across from us, not meeting our gaze. Instead, he looks at his hands folded on the table. He didn’t even look up when we entered the room.
My heart goes out to the young man.
“Nate,” Helen says firmly, “I’ll ask again. How did Ashley Becket come to be in your bed, tied up, nude, and dead?”
Nate shakes his head slowly. “I don’t know,” he says in a barely audible voice. He looks up furtively, his eyes darting to the camera. “Is Gladys watching this?” he asks quietly. “I know she usually does.”
“No, Nate,” I say quietly, trying to reassure him. “Gladys is not in h
