The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson by Jeffrey Toobin Page A

some parts adhering to one another. Fuhrman stepped around the glove and kept walking along the path, but he started hitting cobwebs, which he had not previously encountered. He followed the path all the way to the end, which was an untended patch of dirt, then headed back out, passing the glove once more. He didn’t touch it, but he noticed something about it: “It looked similar to the glove on the Bundy scene.”

    While Fuhrman had stopped in Kaelin’s room to talk to him, the other three detectives had knocked on Arnelle Simpson’s door, which she promptly answered. Phillips told her there was an emergency, and he needed to speak to her father—did she know how to reach him? Arnelle gestured to the main house and asked, “Isn’t he there?” The officers told Arnelle that her father was apparently not there. Leaving her guest house, Arnelle began walking toward the Ashford gate to see if her father’s car was there—that was where he usually parked it. The detective informed her that the Bronco was in fact parked on Rockingham. Using her key, Arnelle let them into the main house.
    On the way they passed the third guest house—it belonged to the housekeeper, Gigi Guarin—and noticed that it was empty, thebed still made. Once they were inside the main house, Arnelle called Cathy Randa, her father’s longtime secretary, who always knew O.J.’s whereabouts. Arnelle handed the phone to Phillips, who told Randa there was an emergency that required their speaking with Simpson. Randa said he had taken the red-eye flight to Chicago the previous night and was staying at an airport hotel, the Chicago O’Hare Plaza.
    Phillips called the hotel at 6:05 A.M. and asked to be put through to O.J. Simpson’s room. Though he recognized the voice, the detective still asked, “Is this O.J. Simpson?”
    “Yes, who is this?”
    Phillips chose his words carefully when he delivered news of Nicole’s death to O.J. “This is Detective Phillips from the Los Angeles Police Department. I have some bad news for you. Your ex-wife, Nicole Simpson, has been killed.”
    Simpson was distraught. “Oh my God, Nicole is killed? Oh my God, she is dead?”
    Phillips tried to calm him. “Mr. Simpson, please try to get ahold of yourself. I have your children at the West Los Angeles police station. I need to talk to you about that.”
    “What do you mean you have my children at the police station? Why are my kids at the police station?”
    “Because we had no place else to take them,” Phillips answered. “They are there for safekeeping. I need to know what to do with your children.”
    “Well, I’m going to be leaving out of Chicago on the first available flight,” Simpson said. “I will come back to Los Angeles.” Phillips then handed the phone to Arnelle, who agreed with her father that she would ask his friend Al Cowlings to pick up the children.
    Phillips never spoke to Simpson again. Later, the detective found it worth noting what Simpson did
not
say in their brief conversation. Simpson never asked how or when Nicole had been “killed.” Phillips had not said (and Simpson did not ask) whether she had been killed in an accident or a murder.

    The drowsy children waited at the police station for someone to explain what had happened to them. At one point, eight-year-oldSydney Simpson asked to make a phone call, and she dialed her home number. The answering machine picked up, and Sydney left a message: “Mommy, please call me back. I want to know what happened last night. Why did we have to go to the police station? Please answer, Mommy. Please answer, Mommy. Please answer, Mommy. Please answer. ’Bye.”

3. BEING O.J.
    T he pace of events picked up quickly after Mark Fuhrman discovered the glove on the path behind Kato Kaelin’s room. After Phillips spoke to Simpson in Chicago, Tom Lange had the melancholy duty of notifying Nicole Brown Simpson’s parents of her death. LAPD policy called for detectives to notify a homicide