Extreme Malice

by R E Swirsky

  Chapter 10

  Wednesday, September 28th 8:45 am

  Jack and Brad were ushered into the same small interrogation room. Jack sat in the corner chair, and Brad leaned up against the wall.

  “I need a few more questions answered, Jack,” Dean said as he walked into the room. “We came across some loose ends.”

  Jack shrugged. “Okay…”

  “First thing, Jack, neither you nor Donna smoked. Is that correct?"

  "That’s correct. Neither of us smoked," Jack answered.

  "Who was the last person who smoked at your house?"

  Jack looked puzzled. "Well, both my mom and dad smoke, but they haven't been to the house since June."

  Dean nodded.

  “Anyone else? A friend maybe?”

  Jack shook his head. “I really can't think of anyone lately,” Jack continued. “We didn’t have that many people over to the house this summer."

  "This is important, Jack."

  Jack frowned and tried to think about every visitor they had over the past few months.

  "Donna's sister smokes some. She may have been over the past few weeks to see Donna, but she always smokes outside."

  "Outside?"

  "Yeah. We have a tin out on the back steps. Everyone knows it's there. Donna and I didn't want butts all over the back yard. I just emptied it last Friday after I cut the grass. There were only a few butts in it, but I emptied it anyway. Part of tidying the yard before winter sets in."

  "Last Friday? I see. There was no one else?"

  Jack shook his head.

  "Josh never smoked?"

  "Never saw him smoke," Jack responded. “What’s with all the questions about smokers?"

  "Never mind," Dean replied. "When's the last time you purchased anything at the 7-11 store in town?"

  "7-11?" Jack shook his head. "I really can't recall. Six months maybe. I rarely go there. I like the Esso with the Timmy's coffee. Donna too."

  "So you never go to 7-11? No slurpees or coffee?"

  "Rarely."

  "So what do you take in your coffee, Jack?"

  "You're offering me a coffee? I'm not really in the mood for coffee."

  "Funny guy. Just answer the question. What do you take in your coffee? …and Donna? What did she take in her coffee?"

  "I just take it black, and I almost always do decaf. Donna liked it with cream, no sugar. Why?"

  "Who usually does the cleaning at your house?" Dean asked quickly.

  "Cleaning? Donna, I guess. I do the yard work, mostly. We would split the cooking and dishes, but she usually vacuumed and did the laundry."

  "The garbage, Jack? Who takes out the garbage?"

  "I did, I guess," Jack chuckled. "But only after Donna barked at me about it a few times."

  "What about the bathrooms, office, and bedroom garbage?"

  "Donna. I don't think I've ever emptied the garbage out of the bathroom or bedrooms. Donna was like, always emptying them. I would have let them get full before I emptied them, but not Donna. She was always carrying recycling and stuff out when she left the room. I don't think there really was any garbage sitting in any of the rooms, except maybe the office."

  "Hmm," Dean mumbled and made some notes in his little book.

  "You two get take-out very often?"

  "Once in a while. Almost always pizza. And only Domino's."

  "No Chinese, Taco Bell, or KFC?"

  Jack knew now Dean was digging for something. He found something and was now looking for the needle in Jack’s haystack of information.

  "No, Dean. We didn't regularly eat fast food. Except for pizza every so often, healthy eating was part of our life."

  "Let's change topics here. Did you and Donna want kids?"

  "We talked about it a little. Donna liked her freedom, and she wanted to travel. She said maybe in a few years."

  "So you used protection?"

  "Donna was on the pill."

  "And you? Did you wear a condom?"

  Jack shuffled in his seat and looked at Brad. Brad shrugged. "It's a fair question, Jack, considering where she was found and the way she died."

  "No. I never wore a condom."

  "Donna never asked you to wear one?"

  "No. She was on the pill, and we never really talked about it."

  "Hmm," Dean responded and made another note in his book.

  "I'd like to take a DNA sample from you."

  Jack nodded absentmindedly and wondered why Dean had never asked for a DNA sample before.

  "You don’t have to give one voluntarily, Jack, but if you don’t, they can have the court order a sample. And refusing to offer up a sample does not look good in front of a jury," Brad said.

  "Jury?" Jack asked curiously. "What jury? I'm not charged with anything." He looked at Brad.

  Dean jumped in before Brad could respond. "Josh has pleaded innocent. There will be a trial, and you will be called as a witness at some point. Now, on Sunday you were gone for quite a while in Calgary."

  "Not so long. I just zipped in, grabbed what I needed, and came home."

  "Look, Jack. We've compiled everything we could find about what you did on Sunday. We know everything from when you left to go to your office on Sunday to when you arrived at the hotel in Abbottsford."

  "Yeah, I expected you would."

  "We started with your office and looked at when you logged in and out. We know what files you accessed, modified, printed, saved, copied and e-mailed. Every keystroke."

  "Okay," Jack nodded. "So, what are you saying exactly?"

  "Just telling you how thorough we are being. We pulled your credit card records. You went from the office to IKEA as you said. We watched video of you inside IKEA. We tracked you over to the Best Buy too. Watched video of you going in the store and leaving fifty-seven minutes later. We know what purchases you made. We tracked you to the service station where you got gas."

  "I don't get it," Jack said and looked at Brad now for some guidance. "Why are you digging for so much info on me? I thought you had charged Josh with Donna's murder."

  "Is there some evidence that you think links Jack to the murder, Dean?" Brad asked. "If there is, as Jack's attorney, I need to see it."

  Dean continued without answering Brad. "We timed the route from the service station to your house. That lines up as well. You would have been back in time for dinner and out by 7:30 p.m. Everything is solid and tight."

  "So why all the questions? I told you I had nothing to do with her murder."

  "Just one last question. What two audio books did you purchase?"

  "You already know that, Dean. You have my credit card information."

  Dean stared at Jack.

  "Okay, okay. I got Day of the Jackal and Jonathon Livingstone Seagull."

  "It took you a while to purchase those two books. Why did it take you so long?"

  "It didn’t take that long. I was in and out right away."

  "You were in Best Buy for fifty-seven minutes. We have footage of you entering and exiting the Best Buy. Fifty-seven minutes seems like a long time to pick out two books."

  "Look, Dean. I read the book covers. I read a bunch of book covers when I’m trying to decide which ones to purchase. Maybe I was there that long. It didn't seem that long to me. Is there anything else? You're making me feel guilty for no reason. I wasn't there when Donna was murdered."

  "That brings me to the last thing I wanted to mention."

  "What's that?"

  "Donna called you Sunday night at 10:27. That's the call that went to your voicemail when you were on the road near Golden. Then, a few minutes later, she also called Josh."

  Jack frowned.

  "That's right. Donna called Josh after she called you. Based on these phone calls, the coroner puts the time of her death somewhere between that call to Josh and midnight."

  "She called Josh? Did Josh tell y
ou what Donna called him about?"

  "Funny thing, Jack. Josh denies receiving any call from Donna Sunday night. Your house phone records show she called you and then called him, but Josh denies it. He claims to have received a call Sunday night, but it was some guy with a wrong number. Josh couldn't even remember what time that call came in."

  "Well that's something," Jack stated.

  "Yes it is. Her calling Josh while you were in the mountains driving to Vancouver also re-enforces the assumption that they had something going on. It also goes against the idea that you put Josh up to this. You get what I'm saying here?"

  "Uh huh," Jack replied nodding.

  "Anyways, the real reason I brought you down here this morning is to let you know where we are in this investigation. As you can see, we have been pretty damn thorough on this and it looks like you are in the clear."

  Jack nodded again and smiled at Brad who nodded and rubbed his hands together.

  "One more thing, I didn't really tell you all there is about the guitar wire."

  “You haven’t told me anything, Dean.”

  Dean ignored Jack’s comment. “When we entered the crime scene, we found the guitar wire still wrapped tight around her neck. She was strangled from behind as she was face down and naked on the bed. A D'Addario package lay on the floor."

  "A what?" Jack asked. Brad sat up straight and listened carefully for anything incriminating.

  "When you buy a set of guitar strings, each wire comes in its own separate little package. Each string is coiled up neatly inside, and all of those little packages are tucked inside a larger package. A single 'A D'Addario" package was found on the floor of your bedroom, and the wire from that package was wrapped around Donna's neck. When we searched Josh's bedroom, we found a set of these D'Addario packages in his night side table with some used guitar wires in each package. He told us he replaced all of his guitar strings about a month and a half ago. Funny thing was, there were only five little packages instead of six and each had an old wire wound up inside. Put the packages in Josh's room with the one found in your bedroom and you have one complete set of guitar strings."

  "Sounds like pretty solid evidence," Brad said.

  "You know, Jack, your wife’s murder reminds me of another murder. You may remember the trail of evidence left by the boys in the Ralston murder a while back. There was so much evidence that we didn't even have to present it all to put those boys away forever. You do remember that murder, don't you?" Dean let the words hang in the air and watched Jack carefully.

  Brad frowned, and looked at Jack. Jack knew Dean was still hanging onto his suspicion that he had a part in the murder of his wife. He could see Dean was seething inside. Dean was putting on a show for Brad, that's all. It was still only ten days after Donna's murder. Dean had yet to receive any of the DNA results back. Jack suspected another round of questioning would come once those results came in.

  Dean opened the door and waved Jack out. "Let's get that DNA sample, if you don't mind."

  Jack nodded. He knew there was nothing there to find. His DNA was already everywhere in the house.