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?
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.
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.
