An Interview with TG Wolff

Sometimes it’s easier to take responsibility for something than to be the victim. (415)

There are worse things than coping. (1645)

Intellect without purpose is a waste. (1844)

It took experience, hard lessons to begin to imagine how things you thought

were only about you could hit others hard. (2634)

TG Wolff, Driving Reign

The woman in the stingy hospital bed wasn’t dead. The question for Detective Jesus De La Cruz: did the comatose patient narrowly survive suicide or murder?

Faithful friends paint a picture of a guileless young woman, a victim of both crime and society. Others describe a cold woman with a proclivity for icing interested men with a single look.

Beneath the rhetoric, Cruz unearths a twisted knot of reality and perception. A sex scandal, a jilted lover, a callous director, a rainmaker, and a quid pro quo have Cruz questioning if there is such a thing as an innocent man. Truth is a strong rope, tied in a noose. As he closes in, the knot tightens, but who will pay the price? A killer or a member of Cruz’s own family?

https://tgwolff.com/mystery/

Driving Reign is TG Wolff’s second book in The DeLa Cruz Case Files. I interviewed TG about her first book, Exacting Justice, in May of 2018. You can read that interview here.

The plot of Driving Reign is compelling. A lone, young woman, Sophie, is attacked and raped. All the institutions, her sorority, university, and the justice system, designed to help her, fail her. Detective Jesus De La Cruz, TG’s main character, is asked to look into her case after she is found unconscious from an overdose of sleeping pills, an apparent suicide attempt. She lies in the hospital in a coma. The reader wants justice for Sophie.

Please welcome TG Wolff, who also writes under the pseudonym of Anita DeVito, back to WWK.                                                                                                  E. B. Davis

Falling snow can be calming. But in this Cleveland setting, it is anything but. How did you use it to set the tempo, accompany the clashes in this book, and affect the plot? Growing up in Cleveland, lake effect snow is as normal as Stadium Mustard and the Cleveland Browns changing head coaches. I only recently became aware of how rare the phenomenon is. There are only a hand full of places in the world where winds and lakes combine the way they do around the Great Lakes. If lake effect is new to you, check out this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHkKVEvscmg

You can see lake effect coming. It can bury half of Greater Cleveland and leave the other half untouched- it just depends on the winds. This story, on one level, is about the winds that change the lives of the three characters central to the mystery: Andrew Posey, Val Hannigan, and Sophie DeMusa. The decisions each makes permanently affects the others, as well as spilling over to Det. Jesus De La Cruz (Cruz), his family, and other characters. To an extent, the lake effect snow is a metaphor for the idea that we share this world, and change, when it comes, blankets everyone. That message is much more relevant now, amid COVID-19, than when I wrote the book just a year ago.

I was surprised that Aurora had horrible credit card debt. Her parents seem like responsible people who would have taught her financial responsibility, but her response is to get more credit cards. Was she spoiled as a child?

My initial reaction was no, Aurora was not spoiled, but the truth of that answer depends on the point of view. She and her sisters grew up in a two-parent household where both were professionals. They were not given everything, but they also didn’t want for much. If there was a parenting flaw, it was that they did not recognize Aurora did not know how to live within her means. By choosing to be an elementary school teacher, her means were significantly lower than those of her parents. But Aurora is an adult, one intelligent enough and capable enough to be trusted with children, so we won’t be blaming Mommy and Daddy. Truth is, this is fall out of Aurora’s personality. She is not motivated by money. She’s an artist; she is motivated by passion. Like all good characters, it is both her biggest strength and her greatest weakness.

How does Jesus convince Aurora to move in with him?

Jesus De La Cruz loves Aurora Williams. He had wanted to get engaged amid the hunt for a serial killer (Exacting Justice). Aurora loved him but realized the time wasn’t right. When he discovered the extent of Aurora’s debt and that some of the debt came from buying him gifts he took for granted, he searched for a solution to save her. She needed to slash expenses.  He used the practical solution (bye, bye rent, utilities, renter’s insurance) as the leverage to move them another step closer together.

Although Jesus claims to separate his professional and private life, he seems to transfer his suspicions to those dear to him like Aurora and Bollier. Why can’t he have faith in them?

Cruz isn’t a perfect detective. (If he was, Exacting Justice would have a different ending.) Cruz is a man who lived undercover for seven years, separating himself from his family, living a double life that drove him into a bottle. Then and now, as a homicide detective, people lie to him constantly. It has left a mark on him. Once bitten, twice shy, thrice determined to not let it happen again. With his analytical brain, it truly doesn’t dawn on him that “lying” can be about anything other than deceit.

With Bollier, Cruz did have faith in him. Absolute faith. Cruz had unconsciously put Bollier on a pedestal. When Cruz concluded Bollier lied to him, it broke that pedestal. Cruz didn’t know how to handle it and Bollier wasn’t much better. Good thing Aurora was smarter than the both of them.

When it came to Aurora, Cruz doesn’t have full confidence in himself as her man. The incident that ended his undercover career changed forever the face he knew. He hated what he saw, especially when the wounds were fresh. He has not learned to see what others see when they look at him. Aurora is beautiful; he has trouble believing  when she can have anyone, she chose him. 

Does the cat’s eye necklace have more significance to Jesus than a gift from Aurora?

Keeping with the theme of not believing Aurora would want a man like him, the cat’s eye stone, which is a reminder of Aurora’s eyes, symbolized her commitment.  Aurora gave him the stone on a leather necklace the morning he left to go back under cover. She was afraid, not knowing how long this goodbye would be. Cruz had just hit bottom, dealing with Internal Affairs, missing her art show. She was afraid to let him go but knew he needed to redeem himself in his own eyes. The necklace signified her acceptance of him, her commitment to wait for him to come out the other side.

Do all sororities and fraternities have employed representatives for each of their houses?

I did use creative license here. The original inspiration for the story was the Medusa (anagram DeMusa) legend. In the story, Poseidon is after the beautiful Medusa. She runs, hiding in a temple of Athena. Poseidon rapes Medusa. Rather than defend Medusa, Athena rages that her temple has been violated and turns Medusa into, well, Medusa.

The sorority (Alpha Theta Nu = Athena) is used to illustrate this “woman turning on woman” as a form of exerting power. The representative is the power, the women in the house are the future.

Sophie seems rather proactive. Why didn’t she immediately go to the police and have rape procedures done on her after the attack?

Sophie didn’t believe she was a victim. She was ashamed of her behavior (eating too little, drinking too much), she was uncertain of what she agreed to. She told herself she was a grown woman, grown enough to live with her mistakes. For Sophie, this was more acceptable than being a victim. If her head believed it, her heart did not. Over time, she began to exhibit the symptoms of being a victim, which her employers recognized. Seeking help and taking control back of her life was an inciting incident to the story, albeit one that happened weeks before Page 1.

Since the case Bollier asked Jesus to look into isn’t official, why does Jesus’s commander get involved? I thought it was an informal investigation.

Cruz isn’t a renegade cop, like Bosch or others. He doesn’t have an asshole boss or asshat co-workers. He respects his commander, Kurt Montoya, and so brings the case / request to his attention. With Montoya’s backing, Cruz is able to take the case farther using the resources of the Cleveland police. You’ll note that when it’s Cruz’s family being threatened, he does step over the line. Montoya snags him by the proverbial collar, pulling him back before he makes a career ending mistake.   

How does Yablonski, Jesus’s best friend and a narcotics officer have time to assist Jesus? Why doesn’t Jesus have a partner from homicide?

Cruz had a partner when he transferred to Homicide, an experienced detective who taught him the ropes. He left the force suddenly; Cruz never got the whole story. Montoya isn’t motivated to bring another person in to the department. Cruz is effective on his own, cheaper (kidding, not kidding) and after the years of undercover, Cruz prefers to work alone.

Narcotics and homicide overlap often enough that inter-departmental support is encouraged (at least in my fictional world). Yablonski is very good at managing his time and delegating. When he can lend a hand, he does. When he can’t, he says so. He’s also not shy about asking Cruz for help. It is a very balanced relationship between the two equally strong detectives.

Sophie’s cat’s name doesn’t describe the feisty one-eyed cat. Why would she name such a cat, Diana?

Sophie found the cat bloodied and soaking wet. Clean and dry, the cat had a regal air about her, regardless of the missing eye. Sophie named the cat for the Roman goddess Diana, the goddess of animals. 

How did 7Up and cranberry juice get the name Brass Ball?

Yablonski’s brother-in-law created the drink, Yablonski gave it a name. In Exacting Justice, Yablonski explained that “any alchy who has the balls to be in a bar deserves showing what he has—big, hug, brass balls that ring when he walks.” Since that was so long, he shortened it to Brass Ball. My brother-in-law is a recovering alcoholic. He openly talked to me about his addiction, which greatly informed Cruz’s recovery. After he read Exacting Justice, he ordered the 7-Up and cranberry, giving it his seal of approval.

When Jesus and Yablonski interview the main suspect, Posey, Jesus allows Yablonski to take the lead, which eventually ends up rebounding on him. Why did Jesus allow that?

Cruz trusts Yablonski’s judgment as much as his own. There is not one iota of competition between the two. When Posey incorrectly assumes Yablonsky is the lead, Cruz uses the misdirection to his advantage, searching the office in plain sight. Neither Cruz nor Yablonski had any expectation that the situation would rebound the way it did. Had Cruz expected the backlash, not only would he not have let Yablonski take the lead, he would have found a different approach all together.

This scene was inspired from a real one in my past. In my day job, I am a civil engineer. I went to

college at a time when it was one woman to every ten men. I have always been greatly outnumbered by men in my career. It isn’t a problem, it’s just reality. At a national convention years ago, my husband borrowed a friend’s badge and went onto the exhibit hall floor with me. There was a product I wanted to look at, so we went to the booth. The salesmen talked to my husband, a middle school teacher, and took no interest in me. When I didn’t intervene, my confused husband let the salesman keep talking. When he walked away, my husband was pissed that the salesman had disrespected me so badly. He asked me why I didn’t take control, exactly as Yablonski asked Cruz. The answer was…I didn’t want to talk to him. I wanted to look at the product on my own without the pitch. And, if the salesman was so oblivious as to not recognize his customer, that was his problem, not mine.

I wasn’t angry. I don’t like being angry. I don’t find it productive. Nothing I said was going to affect his opinion and I didn’t care to beat my head against a wall. I got what I wanted, he got nothing. Whether someone is biased against you because of gender, race, sexual orientation, age, etc., different people are going to react different. Cruz chose to move forward, as I did. It doesn’t matter that everybody wouldn’t react this way. It only matters that someone would.

Jesus is quite territorial of Aurora—to the point of putting a tracking device on her vehicle. Why doesn’t she see this behavior as controlling?

Aurora has a very accepting nature and doesn’t see Cruz’s behavior as anything except silly. She rolls her eyes at his opinion that other men hitting on her and doesn’t change her behavior one bit. The tracker pissed her off and she let him know. That won’t be happening again. In this story, they learn more about each other’s insecurities. Mutually, they will be more careful to give what the other needs, not because they have to, but because they want to.

What is a “river card?”

River card is a term from Texas Hold’em Poker. After each player is dealt two cards, the community cards are dealt face-up for all players to use. The first three cards are turned together and are referred to as the flop. The fourth card is called the turn card. The fifth is the river card. Bets are placed before, in between, and after the community cards are dealt.

In Driving Reign, the negotiation between the assistant prosecutor and Hannigan’s attorney reminded me of a poker hand. Each was playing to win, trying to read the other to see what it would take.

You describe Sophie as flying on roofies. But I thought roofies were depressants?   

It is a depressant. In describing her as flying, I was describing her lack of awareness of her situation, her acceptance of what was handed to her. In this case, it was enough sleeping pills to kill her.

What jurisdiction does the FBI have in getting involved with the case?

In this case, the Cleveland police invited the FBI in once they realized the political implications. They wanted transparency in the investigation to protect the trust built within the community. I write my answer as though it were a real case, which it is not. However, I saw in early July where the FBI arrested four councilpersons from Toledo, Ohio on bribery and extortion charges. This is on the same level that the fictional character would be facing.

https://www.justice.gov/toledo-city-council

Heroin and fentanyl are usually injected. What are the differences in effects of drinking such a potion?

In consulting a drug and alcohol counselor, he advised that the combination would slow reflexes, slur speech, and disrupt coordination. Someone exhausted could show similar symptoms. The conversation between Cruz and the patrol officer who pulled him over reflected the description of the effects of the cocktail.

Jesus came from a loving and close, traditional family. Why does he have trust issues?

His trust issues were learned. They are a combination of being lied to (by witnesses, victims, and suspects) and emotional baggage from his injuries. When those who Cruz trusts wholly—his family, Aurora, Yablonski, Bollier, etc—break his trust, it hurts him, so he pushes back hard.

I observed something like this in family members with careers in law enforcement. It seemed to me—as someone completely outside of that field—that they so often dealt with the rough people in the bad situations that they went into every situation prepared for a poor outcome. This is where Cruz is. The glass is always half empty.