Haley hesitated a fraction of a second too long. "I go walking there sometimes. To clear my head."
"At seven o'clock at night?"
"I like the quiet. It wasn't dark yet," she said defensively.
"Did you talk to Sabrina Lin?"
She stared back at him, folding her arms across her chest, taking a defensive stance. "No."
He waited for her to explain, but she didn't. "No?"
"No," she repeated. "I've never spoken to Sabrina Lin in my life."
His gaze narrowed. "Look, we can talk here, or I can take you in for official questioning. Why don't you stop stalling and tell me why you were in the park."
She stared back at him, conflict running through her gaze as she debated what she wanted to tell him.
"I'm a journalist," she said finally. "Sabrina asked me to meet her in the park. She had a lead on an old story I was chasing."
"But you just said you didn't talk to her."
"I didn't. I saw her on the bridge. I was about twenty feet away when she suddenly screamed and went down. It seemed like she was convulsing. I ran to her and tried to help, but she was already dead. It happened so fast. I heard someone in the brush, and I panicked and ran. I didn't want to be next."
"Why did you wait fifteen minutes to call 911? Why use a burner phone?"
"I just wanted to get away. I was terrified. And I didn't give my name because I didn't want to be targeted. Sometimes 911 calls and witness names get leaked to the press."
There was some truth to what she was saying, but he didn't think he was getting the whole story. "So, you see Sabrina on the bridge. She screams and collapses. Is that it? Did you hear a gunshot?"
"I didn't. That's the thing. I didn't know what happened to her." She hesitated once more. "When I got to her, there was blood on her neck, and I saw what looked like a needle in the skin under her jaw. I think someone shot it into her neck. She died almost instantly."
"Someone? Or maybe you killed her and ran," he suggested.
Her blue eyes widened in shock. "No way. I couldn't kill anyone. How could you think that?"
"Because you're being cagey. You didn't stay at the scene. You didn't identify yourself to the 911 dispatcher. You didn't call in this morning, having had time to calm down and think about it."
"I told you. I didn't want to be a witness. I didn't want to put a target on my back. I don't know who killed her or why."
"If she called you and asked you to meet her there, then you're connected in some way to her death."
"I—I don't know how. But that thought occurred to me, too," she admitted.
"You said she had a lead on a story. What was the story?"
"It was the death of a student at a university six years ago." Her gaze darted toward the files on her table before coming back to him. "But I never spoke to Sabrina. She left me a voicemail to meet her, but she died before she could explain. I've been trying to figure out what connection she might have to that old case, and I discovered this morning that she attended the same university's law school. Her time there overlapped with the death of the student."
Haley's account corroborated what he knew about Sabrina. He also knew that Haley Kenton was a thirty-one-year-old reporter for theLos Angeles Sentinel, where she'd worked the past two years. Before that, she'd worked for media outlets in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara.
"I have to get to work," she said. "Are we done?"
"We've barely started, Ms. Kenton."
"I don't have anything else to tell you. I don't know who killed her. Was there any evidence at the scene?"
"Our biggest lead is you."
"Then you have nothing."
