“I’m in the dark!” Melinda cried out. “Can’t you get that through your heads? Why would one of the Doodoo Sluts murder my husband? Who are we even talking about, by the way?”

Decker said, “Rudy Banks is missing. And we’ve got a witness who has implicated him in Ekerling’s death.”

“Rudy?” Melinda gasped. She seemed genuinely shocked. “I…I…Rudy murdered Primo? I can’t believe…Rudy? They were friends!”

“They haven’t been friends for many, many years,” Marge said. “For the last ten years, they’ve been involved in multiple lawsuits with each other.”

Melinda shook her head. “I didn’t know. I walked away from those bad boys about a year before my husband was murdered, and I haven’t seen any of them since.”

Decker tried a different tactic. “Why’d you break away from the group?”

Melinda blew out air. “Because I felt tremendously guilty. It felt good for a while, and then it felt very dirty. I wasn’t getting any affection at home, but I didn’t care anymore. I just wanted out.”

“Especially after the band stopped giving you spending money,” Decker said.

She turned daggers onto his face. “Yes, especially after the band stopped giving me money. Don’t be so damn smug, Lieutenant. I’ve paid for my sins in more ways than you could count. After it was all over, I was haunted by a lot more than just nightmares.”

“Haunted by what?” Oliver asked. “That Ben would find out?”

“Uh, yeah, that, too. Look, guys, I’m exhausted. I can’t deal with this anymore. You’ve got to go.”

Something clicked inside Decker’s brain. “You weren’t afraid of Ben finding out, you were afraid of the band. And not the entire band, only one member. He was stalking you.”

Tears leaked from Melinda’s eyes. Decker gave Marge a barely perceptible nod.

“Tell us about it, Melinda,” Marge cooed. “Unburden yourself.”

When Melinda finally spoke, her voice was so soft Decker had to lean forward to hear her. “He’d show up as soon as Ben left for work and the kids were in school. And when he wasn’t bothering me in person, he’d phone me ten times a day. He was a big guy. I was terrified.”

Decker said, “You mean Ryan Goldberg. Mudd. He was obsessively in love with you, wasn’t he, Mrs. Warren?”

“He was crazy!”

“And it never occurred to you that he had something to do with your husband’s death?”

“Maybe…” The tears were streaming down her cheeks. “Even if I knew he did it, I wouldn’t have said anything.”

“You were afraid he’d come after you?” Marge asked.

Melinda wiped her eyes. “He was big, he was strong, and he was psycho! He thought I was going to leave my family and run away with him. I was petrified that if I implicated him in Ben’s death or even mentioned him to the police that my sordid past would come out, but even more important, I was scared that Ryan would come back and finish off the kids!”

Decker regarded her flushed face. Yet, he wasn’t totally satisfied. “So you did think that Ryan might have done it.”

She dabbed her eyes. “I thought it was a possibility, even though he told me he didn’t do it. He swore that he didn’t lay a finger on Ben.”

Decker said, “So he was still coming around after Ben was murdered?”

“He came a couple of times. That’s when he swore he didn’t do it.”

“And you believed him?”

“I don’t know what I believed,” Melinda said. “All I know is he finally stopped showing up at my doorstep. I had to convince him that if he didn’t leave me alone, the police would think he murdered Ben. I told him that, for his own sake, he had to hide out for a while and that I would contact him when it was safe.”

“And he agreed to that?”

“All I know is he stopped coming around and we never had any more contact.”

“Did you wonder why he stopped seeing you, stopped trying to contact you?” Decker asked her.

“No, I didn’t wonder why. I was just relieved. After Ben died, I was so stunned. I was scared, I was broke, and I was crazed. I had two kids to support, and I had no one to turn to. I suppose that I assumed that Ryan got bored waiting for my phone call and moved on to another woman. He was an easy mark. A little flattery and he’d give you anything he had.”

“He gave you money.”

“He gave me lots of money until the other band members took over his bank account.”

“You were angry at them?” Marge asked.

“Of course. I was furious. But it was the best thing that happened to me. It made me realize how low I’d sunk. I tried to call it quits with Ryan, but then I realized he was in love with me.”

Oliver said, “So why didn’t you just dump him?”

“Because I was afraid he’d say something to Ben. And I felt a little sorry for him…he seemed like a gentle giant until he started showing up at my house ten times a day. Then all pity flew out the window.”

“So you think if anyone murdered Ben, it was Ryan?”

“I don’t know.” She threw up her hands. “It’s over. Ben’s dead. I’ve moved on.”

Decker said, “What was your relationship with Rudy Banks like?”

“It was torrid and it was brief. Rudy was a good-looking guy and a total psychopath. We had an affair and then poof, it ended, which was fine for both of us.”

“Did you know that Rudy was a North Valley student and that he knew your husband?”

Melinda looked confused. “I don’t…I seem to recall him being a local.”

“Rudy didn’t like your husband,” Marge said. “He claimed that your husband got him expelled from high school.”

“News to me,” Melinda said.

Oliver said, “Your husband also busted up Rudy’s drug business.”

“Rudy had a drug business?”

Her surprise seemed real. Decker said, “Rudy sold drugs to North Valley High. He used ghetto kids as runners because they were easy targets. One of his runners was Darnell Arlington. When Darnell got suspended, the whole business collapsed.”

Melinda said, “I didn’t follow what went on in my husband’s school.”

“But you knew Darnell Arlington.”

“I knew that my husband had a special interest in him. And I knew that Darnell had a grudge against Ben when he got expelled. But he had an alibi and that was that.”

“Rudy never mentioned anything about knowing your husband?”

“No, of course not. I wouldn’t have gone with him if he had. When I met him, he was pure punk-lots of drugs, kinky sex, and angry music. He was young, he was really good-looking, he was wild, and for a while, he was very exciting. Then it got boring. When he stopped giving me cash, I hooked up with Mudd, who was very generous. Why else would I have a fling with Ryan? It certainly wasn’t his dashing looks.”

Decker could see the calculated shrew inside the respectable woman. He said, “Where did Liam O’Dell fit into the string?”

“You don’t need to know all the sordid details, okay? It ended with Ryan. I did not murder my husband and I don‘t know who did!”

Decker raised a finger. “You cheated on your husband. You stole from his bank account. You resented his time away from you and his disinterest sexually. So tell me why I should believe that you had nothing to do with your husband’s murder.”

“How about this!” Melinda snapped back. “The police spent hours checking me out. They checked out my story on the evening of the murder and it was all true. They checked my phone records. They checked my financial records. They checked insurance policies. They checked if I had ever purchased any weapons. If I was cheating on him at the time…which I wasn’t, by the way. I had come to appreciate how much I had. I truly loved Ben.”

She became suddenly angry.

“Look, I’ve been cooperative. I’ve told you everything and I’ve talked without a lawyer. What more do you want from me?”

Oliver said, “Really quickly…you were interviewed at the time by Arnie Lamar and Cal Vitton. They’re the ones who cleared you?”

Melinda rolled her eyes. “I don’t know who cleared me, but they were the primary investigators in my husband’s case and, yes, I spoke to both of them many times. If you don’t believe me, go ask them.”