Also, if he didn’t give me a million dollars, I’d go to the police.
He actually started crying, said he never meant to hurt anyone-just
like he used to do when we were together.
But this time it didn’t work. I said no dice.
Then he said he’d give me a good-will payment often thousand dollars
and try to come up with some more, but I had to give him time and it
wouldn’t be anything near a million-he didn’t have that kind of
money.
I said fifty up front and we finally agreed on twenty-seven five. The
next day he met me up at Barnsdale Park in Hollywood and gave me the
money in cash. I told him he’d better come up with at least two
hundred thousand more by the end of the month. He started crying again
and said he’d do his best.
Then he asked me to forgive him. I left and used the money to buy a
new car because my old one was broken down, and in L.A. you’re nothing
without a good car. I put Chad Jones’s chart in a locker at the
airportLAX, United Airlines, Number ~6~~-and the next day I quit the
hospital.
So now I’m waiting till the end of the month and writing this down as
collateral. I want to be rich and I want to be a doctor. I deserve
all that. But just in case he tries to renege, I’m leaving this floppy
in a locked drawer each night, then collecting it in the morning.
There’s also a copy in my locker at school. If you’re reading it, I’m
probably in Dutch, but so what. I’ve got no other alternatives.
March 7, 1989
Dawn Rose Rockwell Kent Herbert bET. SrvRGIS: That’s it.
MR. TOKARIK: Are we supposed to be impressed? Decoded hocus-pocus?
You know this is totally inadmissible.
bET. STURGIS: If you say so.
MR. TOKARIK: Come on, Chip, let’s get out of here-Chip?
MR. JONES: Uh-huh.
bET. SryRGIS: Sure you wanna go? There’s more.
MR. TOKA~I~: We’ve heard quite enough.
bET. Srv~GIS: Suit yourself, Counselor. But don’t waste your time
asking for bail. b. A.”s filing Murder One as we speak.
MR. TOKAR]K: Murder One! That’s outrageous. Who’s the victim?
bET. STURGIS: Dawn Herbert.
MR. TO~ARiK: Murder One? On the basis of that fantasy?
bET. STURGIS: On the basis of eyewitness testimony, Counselor.
Collaborator testimony. Upstanding citizen named Karl Sobran. You do
have a thing for your students, don’t you, Prof.
MR. TOKARIK: Who?
bET. STURGIS: Ask the prof.
MR. TOKARIK: I’m asking you, Detective.
bET. STURGIS: Karl Edward Sobran. We’ve got a windbreaker with blood
on it and a confession implicating your client. And Sobran’s
credentials are impeccable. Bachelor’s degree in interpersonal
violence from Soledad, postgraduate training from numerous other
institutions. Your client hired him to kill Ms. Herbert and make it
look like a sex thing.
Not much of a challenge, because Sobran likes to get violent with women
did time for rape and assault. His last paid vacation was for larceny
and he spent it up in the Ventura County Jail. That’s where old
Professor Chip, here, met him.
Volunteer tutoring-a class project his sociology students were doing.
Sobran got an A. Old Chip sent a letter recommending parole, calling
Sobran graduate-school material and promising to keep him under his
wing. Sobran got out and øø enrolled at West Valley Community College
as a sociology major. What he did to Dawn- What was that, Prof?
Fieldwork?
MR. TOKARIK: This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of
bET.
SryRGIS: b.A. doesn’t think so.
MR. TOKARIK: The b.A. is totally politically motivated. If my client
was any other Jones, we wouldn’t even be sitting here.
bET. S’IURG~s: Okay… have a nice day. Steve?
bET. MARTINEZ: See y’all.
MR. TOKARIK: Coded disks, the alleged testimony of a convicted
felon-absurd.
bET. SryRGIS: Ask your client if it’s absurd.
MR. TOKARIK: I’ll do no such thing. let’s go, Chip.
Come on.
MR. JONES: Can you get me bail, Tony?
MR. TOKARIK: This isn’t the place toMR. JONES: I want out of this
place, Tony. Things are piling up. I’ve got papers to grade.
MR. TOKARIK: Of course, Chip. But it may takebET. SrvRGIS: He’s not