On the short ride to the PD, Hector relayed the information he received from his office. “The Stones were stopped at the border when they attempted to cross into Canada. Their passports were phony and the Canadian officials were aware of the APB out on Burt and Connie. They were taken into custody and questioned but none of them are talking. My guess is that they’ll ask for lawyers as soon as I try to talk to them. My office didn’t have any other details when they called.”
Marlee and Hector made their way to the Elmwood Police Department and were shown in to a back room. An older man in a uniform opened the door a crack and motioned for Hector to follow. Marlee was left waiting to ponder the details of the investigation. Moments later, the same older officer appeared and summoned her to follow him. Marlee joined Hector, and Burt and Connie Stone in a room with a two way mirror and audio and visual recording devices.
“I’ve already explained to the Stones that you wanted to be here for their interviews and they agreed,” Hector said nodding at Marlee. She had to keep herself from grinning. Normally when an investigation got to this stage, the police treated her like a dog turd stuck to a shoe.
Connie and Burt Stone were clad in the same clothes Marlee previously saw them wearing when visiting their home in Mobridge. Their once ironed and well-tailored clothing looked like the items had been slept in and then put through a wind tunnel. Burt even had a tear in the sleeve of his Oxford shirt and both had underarm perspiration stains. Besides their clothes being disheveled, the Stones were a wreck. Connie’s eyes were red and tear stains streaked down her face. Burt’s eyes were sunken and looked ten years older. Both wore the look of despair as they stared at the table with unseeing eyes.
Hector started the interview by activating the visual and audio recording equipment, identifying himself and the others in the room, stating the date, time, and location. After he read the Stones their rights and both agreed that they understood, the questioning began.
Hector took an informal approach when initially dealing with the Stones. A gentler approach often resulted in more cooperation with some suspects. A heavy handed approach could be used later on during the interrogation, if necessary.
“Burt, Connie, I think we all know you’re in quite a bit of trouble here.” The Stones both nodded glumly, yet neither spoke. “First, I just want to let you know that Paula and Violet are fine. We have them in another room and they’ve been given some food and drinks.”
That seemed to appease Burt and Connie and they both looked up from the table. “Why don’t we start from the beginning?” Hector quietly asked.
Connie, although appearing the most distraught, was the first to speak. “I suppose you know everything by now. That we didn’t adopt Violet legally and that we’ve been hiding from Roxie and my parents for nearly eighteen years.”
Hector nodded, urging Connie to continue. “I know what you must think of us, but we did it all for Violet. We couldn’t let her grow up with Roxie as a mother. Roxie didn’t want Violet at first and even thought about an abortion. After Violet was born, Roxie was more concerned with partying and hanging out with her friends. That was no kind of life for Violet. We knew it would be a cycle of Roxie partying, then getting her act together, then drinking over and over again. My parents enabled Roxie, so they were no help in the situation.” Connie looked at Hector, pleading for him to understand the plight she and Burt were in those many years ago.
Again, Hector nodded, urging her to tell the story. “So when I had an opportunity, I grabbed Roxie’s identification, Violet’s birth certificate, and Violet and we took off. I was able to pose as Roxie since we looked alike. Nobody ever questioned my documents. But then we heard from Roxie and she wanted us to bring Violet back. We just couldn’t allow that, so we moved again. And again. When we reached Mobridge we never heard from her any more. We thought she gave up.”
Marlee saw a hole in Connie’s story and spoke up. “You told us before that Roxie sent a letter from a prison. We know Roxie was never in prison.”
Connie and Burt gave each other a quick look. This time, Burt spoke. “We thought you’d find our story more believable if you thought Roxie was an ex-con. Honestly, though, the way she drank and carried on, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had a prison record.”
“But she didn’t. As near as we can tell, Roxie battled alcoholism off and on, but was never imprisoned or even arrested.” Hector jotted down some notes on a legal pad, using his left hand to shield what he was writing. “Now tell me what you were planning to do when you got Paula and Violet into Canada? When you were stopped at the border you all had passports under different names.”
“We thought we’d settle in and start over. Maybe in Winnipeg. We could all get jobs and assume our new identities. It’s a big enough city that we could get lost and go undetected. Plus, Canada doesn’t extradite people to the United States because Canada opposes the U.S.’s use of the death penalty,” said Burt.
“That’s only when the offense is punishable by the death penalty. Like murder,” Hector said, looking Burt straight in the eye. “Let’s hear about your meeting with Roxie at the motel in Chamberlain. How did you get her to drink the poison?” Hector had switched interview tactics from gentle questioning to flat out accusations.
“No! Neither one of us had anything to do with that!” Connie shouted as she attempted to stand up before realizing she was handcuffed to the table. She flopped back onto the chair, her eyes swirling madly as she shifted her gaze from Hector, to Marlee, to Burt, and then back again.
“Look, we already know you did it. You poisoned Roxie because she’d finally found Violet and was going to tell her that she was her real mother,” Hector growled, the nice guy demeanor long gone. “We already have you on kidnapping and a bunch of other charges. If you confess to poisoning Roxie, we might be able to get the prosecutor to drop the other charges.”
“But we didn’t do it!” Burt shouted. “We didn’t!”
“Look, I understand how it could happen.” Hector was back to his gentle approach. “Roxie was an unfit mother and you gave Violet a good life. You didn’t want Roxie interfering, so you did what you had to do to protect your family. Most parents will do whatever it takes to keep their kids safe. I think anybody could see how this might happen.”
“We didn’t poison Roxie!” Connie maintained. “We didn’t want her or anyone dead. We just wanted her to leave us alone. We were going to disappear into Canada and hopefully we’d never hear from her again.”
“But with the Internet the world has become much, much smaller. It’s easy to track down people, even when they change their names. And Roxie was persistent. She’d tracked you down before and you knew she would again,” Hector replied.
“We didn’t poison Roxie! And that’s all we’re going to say. We want a lawyer!” Connie shouted.
“Okay, this concludes the interview,” Hector stood up and turned off all the recording equipment.
As Marlee and Hector proceeded to leave the interview room, Connie yelled, “And we want a lawyer for Paula and Violet too! Don’t talk to them without a lawyer!”
“Both girls are legally adults, so if they want lawyers they can ask for them. It’s up to them to decide if they want to talk to us,” Hector said matter-of-factly as he closed the door. Connie’s wailing could still be heard as they walked down the hallway to the room where Violet and Paula were being held.
Hector repeated the same spiel to Violet and Paula Stone about the interview and their rights. When both girls nodded, he continued. “Right now you’re both being held for possession of phony passports and attempting to illegally enter Canada. Since you’re both adults, you’re being charged as such.” The girls, with their light brown curly hair now frizzy and out of control, looked at each other. They too were wearing the same clothes Marlee had seen them in during their last visits.
Paula broke down and began to cry. “All we wanted was to be left alone! We just wanted things to go back to normal li
ke they were.”
Violet stared blankly at Paula, then the others in the room, as if struggling to comprehend the situation.
“Violet, do you know what’s going on? Do you know why you were going to Canada?” Marlee asked her student who was still in shock.
“We had to leave South Dakota,” Violet squeaked.
Paula interrupted, “We didn’t want to upset Violet!”
“So she doesn’t know the truth?” asked Marlee.
Paula shook her head from side to side. She was deflated, knowing the big secret kept by their family was about to be spilled.
“Violet, Connie Stone isn’t your mother. She’s your aunt. Connie and Roxie Harper were sisters. Roxie is your birth mother. Connie and Burt stole you away from Roxie when you were just a baby,” Hector said with a gentle tone.
After a long pause, Violet looked Hector straight in the eye and said, “I know.”
I knew people who believed their own lies. That’s the sign of a pathological liar and they’re the ones who tend to be the most successful.
Chapter 26
“What?” Paula shrieked. “Mom and Dad didn’t kidnap Violet. They adopted her so she would have a better life since Roxie was such a mess.”
“No, they kidnapped her.” Hector looked up at Violet. “But you already knew?”
Violet nodded. “Roxie told me everything. How my Mom and Dad had taken me away and hid me. How they kept the secret all these years.”
“When did Roxie tell you?” Marlee asked.
“On Monday night,” Violet said.
“Were you in her room?” Marlee asked
“No, I talked to her outside. It was late and Johnny and Paula were asleep. I couldn’t sleep so I slipped outside to walk around a bit. Roxie was drunk and standing outside her room. She was talking nonsense and I tried to get away from her. Then she started talking about being my real mother. I didn’t know what to think. I thought she was just drunk and crazy, but she showed me some pictures of me as a baby and she was holding me. I didn’t know what to think, so I just went back to my room. I didn’t sleep all night.”
“Did you poison Roxie?” Hector interjected.
“No! I would never…”
“Why would she do that? It doesn’t make any sense!” Paula shouted.
“Maybe to make sure your family wasn’t disrupted. So that Connie and Burt wouldn’t get into trouble for kidnapping you,” Hector suggested, nodding toward Violet.
“No, I didn’t poison Roxie. I didn’t have any reason to. I wasn’t even sure if she really was my mother. I wanted to talk to mom, uh Connie, first to see what she had to say.”
“Did you talk to Connie that night?” Marlee asked.
“No, but I talked to dad. I told him what Roxie said and he called her a liar,” Violet stated.
“How did you know for sure that you were the baby in the picture Roxie showed you of her holding a baby?” Hector asked.
“Because I was wearing a pink bunny suit, with ears. We have several baby pictures of me wearing that same outfit,” Violet said.
“So you were fairly certain that Roxie was telling the truth after she showed you the picture?” Hector inquired.
“I was shocked and at first I didn’t believe it, but the more I thought about it that night, I started to believe it. Then I called dad and said it wasn’t true,” Violet said.
“How much of this did you know?” Hector asked Paula.
“I didn’t know Roxie talked to Violet. I didn’t know Violet already found out she was Roxie’s child,” Paula said.
“Maybe you overheard this conversation between Roxie and Violet and you decided to get rid of Roxie so she wouldn’t wreck your family,” Hector said accusingly to Paula.
“No, I swear I didn’t. I didn’t even know Violet left the room. I’m a sound sleeper,” Paula insisted.
“Violet, why didn’t you tell officers about this on Monday morning when you learned Roxie was dead?” Hector asked. “You’ve been lying to me from the beginning.”
“I didn’t want to get anyone in trouble,” Violet mumbled, tears now streaming down her face.
“Who did you think you’d get in trouble?” Hector asked.
“Mom and Dad,” Violet whispered.
“You think your Mom and Dad killed Roxie?” Hector leaned in closer toward Violet.
“I don’t think they did, but… it would make sense…” Violet was sobbing again and choking her words out between gasps.
“Did your parents tell you they met with Roxie on Monday night?” Marlee asked.
“No. They never said anything about meeting with her.” Violet was regaining her composure and was able to talk in complete sentences without crying.
“When you met with Roxie did she say anything about being scared of someone or worried about something?” Marlee asked.
“No. She just showed me the picture and told me I was her real daughter. Then I ran off.”
“Did you say anything to Roxie that would upset her?” Hector asked.
“No. Why?”
“I know why. You think Roxie was upset when Violet didn’t immediately accept her as her real mother. Then that pushed her over the edge and caused her to poison herself.” Paula glared at the detective. “Violet isn’t responsible for Roxie’s death in any way. None of us are! Why aren’t you looking for the real killer instead of harassing our family?”
“You’re right,” Hector conceded. “We still don’t know for sure that Roxie’s death was a murder and not a suicide. We’re still waiting on testing from the lab for a final determination.”
Paula nodded, still shooting daggers at Hector as he asked additional questions. When it became clear that Paula and Violet either could not or would not offer up any additional information, the questioning came to a close.
As Marlee stood, she thought of one non-related detail that could be put into place right now. “Which one of you is seeing Johnny Marble? Romantically.”
Paula and Violet both looked at each other, deciding whether to lie or come clean.
“I am,” said Violet, hesitantly.
“Why did you lie about it?” Marlee asked in her best non-accusatory tone.
“I don’t know. It didn’t seem like anybody’s business but ours,” Violet said.
“Did you know?” Marlee raised her eyebrows as she looked at Paula.
“Yeah, I knew.”
“And Johnny knew you two and your parents were fleeing to Canada didn’t he?” Hector asked.
The Stone girls both nodded, neither looking at Marlee or the detective.
“When he left voicemail messages for you he sent you a hint that the cops were after you, right?” Marlee asked. Hector raised his eyebrows, wondering how Marlee knew this.
“Yeah. Our code word was abracadabra, and he was supposed to say it if the cops were questioning him about us,” Paula said.
“So Johnny knew you were going to Canada. Did he know about Burt and Connie taking Violet from Roxie when she was a baby?” Hector asked.
“I told him everything that night when I got back to the room. I couldn’t sleep and I finally woke him up and told him what Roxie told me,” Violet mumbled.
“And were you in on the conversation too?” Hector asked Paula.
“No, I was asleep in the other bed. I took an allergy pill after drinking alcohol and was out like a light,” Paula said. “I didn’t hear anything from the time I went to bed until I woke up the next morning.”
“One last thing,” Hector said before he walked out the door. “Do you know a guy that hung around with Roxie? His name is Pete.” Both girls indicated that they did not.
After Marlee and Hector left Violet and Paula Stone, Hector asked, “How did you know one of the Stone girls was seeing Johnny?”
“I didn’t know for sure, but suspected it and then when Violet confirmed it I knew he was helping them get away,” Marlee said. “I think we need to talk to Johnny again to see what he can tell us.�
�
“Yeah, I already had one of the patrol units pick him up. He’s in another interview room waiting. I don’t know how much we’ll get from him. One thing I’ve learned about these so-called nice kids is that they’re all very sophisticated liars!”
If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck and smells like a duck, then most likely it’s a duck.
Chapter 27
Johnny Marble sat slouched in the interview room. He tried to appear nonchalant, but his tapping foot betrayed his true feelings. He was dressed in jeans shorts, a plain blue t-shirt, and brown sandals. The hickies on his neck were now a sickly green color as they faded. He wore a heavy splash of cologne that overtook the jailhouse stench.
Hector took a different approach in interviewing Johnny than he had with the Stone girls. He pulled his chair up right next to Johnny so close that they were almost touching. Hector leaned in toward Johnny, who sat up straight in an attempt to regain some personal space. “Look here, you little punk. You’ve been lying to me from the start. I know all about you and Violet being lovey-dovey. She told us you knew about Roxie being her mother and that you tried to help the Stones escape to Canada. Right now you’re looking at several different criminal charges and a long time in prison, so you need to tell us everything you know right now!”
Johnny paused, looking from Hector to Marlee. After what seemed an eternity he said, “I want a lawyer.” The student then folded his arms across his chest and looked away, a small, smug smile creeping to his lips.
Hector stormed out of the interview room and Marlee followed behind. “Damn it! I was hoping we could get something from this kid!” Hector’s frustration was contagious as Marlee also thought Johnny could reveal new information or at least poke holes in the stories the Stones were telling.
Murder to Go Page 22