Murder For Comfort

by John L. Work

  “I had access to the cash register at the gym. I knew where Jim and Sheila had their bank accounts. I read his credit card and the receipts. It was issued by the First Colonial American Bank. He always paid for his membership and his training sessions with the card, so it wasn’t hard for me to come by the information. I knew where their money was.

  “Sammie was the one with the head for business – she had aspirations to have a lot of cash. She was the driving force between us. She always talked about someday going to some far off exotic place to retire in comfort, without ever having to worry about there being enough money to pay for anything we needed. She wanted a big home close to the beach on some little island in the South Pacific. I can’t remember which of us thought of the idea first. I really can’t. But we began to discuss Sammie applying for a job at the First Colonial American Bank, so she could get access to Jim and Sheila’s account information. I knew he had money, but I didn’t know how much. He always drove a nice car and he was well-dressed. I knew he was in the construction business and he had his own company. He always paid cash for the motels where we went to meet – his wallet was never empty. He’d buy us a nice bottle of wine, not cheap stuff. He was very nice and treated me well. I really cared for him.

  “So, last January, Sammie got a job at the bank and worked her way into a position where she could access Jim’s savings, checking, business account, and credit card information. We knew there was plenty of money for us to eventually be set for life, if I could work things out with him. So, I began to talk with him about how I wanted to be number one and not just be the other woman in his life. Every once in awhile, I’d drop a hint to him, you know, that I couldn’t wait around forever for him to make up his mind. I told him I wanted to build my life while I was still young enough to find someone else if he couldn’t make that commitment to me. That made him jealous and afraid. I did have a big hook into him, I’ll admit. His wife was going through this huge bout of depression and he didn’t know how much longer he’d stay with her. He was getting no emotional support from her and no sex. So, I gave him what he was lacking at home. I started to put some pressure on him to leave Sheila. Living a double life was getting to him, anyway. He was in a quandary as to what he should do. I gave him a little push and he fell.

  “He told her all about me and moved out of their house. He divorced Sheila. We got our new place in Colorado Springs. But Sammie and I were still seeing each other every chance we got. I really wanted to just be with her. That’s what all of this was about – so we could eventually be together. Jim was busy with his construction company and I could always tell him I had some clients to train once in awhile, so I could meet Sammie. It was about that time that she began to develop the plan for us to end up with all of his money.

  “She started to talk with Sheila when she’d come into the bank to take her college friend, Janet, out to lunch. Sammie even went out with them a few times. Then she and Sheila began to meet in secret, you know, first the usual cup of coffee, then Friday evening drinks. And Sammie eventually seduced her. They carried the whole thing on by emails. They never called each other by phone. At first I was jealous, but Sammie kept reassuring me that it was all so that we could be together. I believed her and I just stuffed my jealousy inside me after awhile. It never bothered her that Jim and I were having sex. But Sammie and I had some terrible arguments over her and Sheila. I was so afraid of losing her to a woman. She’d tell me in detail about their love making and laugh when I got upset. She knew it turned me upside down inside – and at the same time it aroused me. So, she taunted me with it. Then we’d make love. After awhile I began to hate Sheila – enough to want her dead. It was pure jealous passion. It was all I could ever think about.”

  Welch interrupted, “What was Sammie’s internet name when she communicated with Sheila?”

  “Iron Maiden.”

  “Did she use a laptop computer when she sent her emails?”

  “Yes. She told me one time that you’d gone into the bank and asked Janet about that computer, after Sheila was dead. So, yes, that was how they kept in touch with each other and made all their arrangements to meet in secret. Sheila was supposed to erase all of her email messages from Sammie. And, so she wouldn’t ever get caught, Sammie always went someplace that had wireless internet service, so her letters couldn’t be traced back to a desktop computer terminal. She paid cash for that laptop after reading about the wireless feature. It came out just at the right time to suit our purposes. But Sheila must have left something on her computer that you found, right?”

  Welch didn’t answer the question. He’d never spoken with any of the players in the case about anything he may have found on a computer. But Marnie had guessed correctly about the partially erased message. So, Sammie had gotten her tip about him being onto the laptop clue from Janet, after he’d asked her at the bank about her own computer. Of course. They were friends. They worked out together. Janet told Sammie what questions he’d asked. He guessed that Sammie had very skillfully drawn out of Janet exactly what the nature of her conversation with the detective had been. He still had no evidence that pointed to Janet being involved in any of the murders. And he had to admit to himself, he was hoping it would stay that way. He spoke again.

  “I know that Sammie paid cash for the laptop computer. But the computer wasn’t sold to her. Or was it? Did she use some other identity to make the purchase?”

  “Yes. Jimmie got her a temporary New Mexico driver’s license that didn’t have a photo on it. While the woman was looking away he stole it from her shopping cart in a grocery store down in New Mexico. He gave it to Sammie and she used it when she bought the computer. Then she used it to get a cell phone service started. Oh, and she also got a Post Office box with it.”

  “So, at what point did the idea come up to kill Sheila?”

  “I guess she brought it up after we’d been lovers for about a year. She was working in Janet’s department at the bank. By then we knew Jim had plenty of money for what we wanted to do. Sammie said if we got rid of Sheila and I could talk Jim into getting married, we’d have a way to get all of the money and we could take off to be together forever – because as his next of kin, I’d inherit all of it. At first, she never mentioned killing Jim. The original plan was that I would divorce him after we’d been married for awhile. I’d get half of the money in the settlement. But Jim threw a pre-nuptial at me that said I’d get nothing if we divorced. I told Sammie about it. She said to go ahead and sign it and get married, anyway – we’d figure out the rest later on.”

  Welch interrupted again, “Let’s back up, Marnie. We’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. Who decided how and when Sheila would be killed? When did Slaikovitch come into the picture?”

  “We figured the best way to do away with Sheila would be for Sammie to find someone else to kill her, someone with a criminal record, and try to make it look like a robbery. Then she’d kill him and get rid of the body where it couldn’t be found. The way it was supposed to work was that Sheila’s murder could never be traced to Sammie or me, because someone else did it. So, Sammie started to think about where the best places would be to find someone who’d kill her for us. She figured that, other than inside a jail or prison, since we didn’t have ready access to one of those, an A.A. or N.A. club would be our best bet. Lots of people there have been in jail or prison. She told me she was going to look for a very young man with a certain mentality – someone she could seduce and manipulate easily. And she found one down on Larimer Street. It was Jimmie Slaikovitch. He was perfect.

  “They met sometimes on Friday nights – when Sheila had her kids with her and she couldn’t be with Sammie. He was out here all by himself from California. He had no contact with his family. She got Jimmie hooked on her, too. Her affair with him didn’t bother me so much. I knew she was just using him and that eventually we’d get rid of him after Sheila was dead. So, when she offered him ten thousand dollars to kill someone, he said he’d do it. She
’d turned him upside down and inside out, too. She could do that. You have no idea. She’s got a way about her that’s irresistible.”

  Welch did a flash-back on his view of Samantha Newsom lifting weights with Janet at the gym that night, on those unbelievable legs – and quickly pulled himself back to the moment. He said, “Sounds like Sammie must be very persuasive, to be able talk you into both marriage and a murder – and then to convince Jimmie to kill Sheila for, how much was it?”

  “Ten thousand dollars is what she promised him. And he believed her, too – just like I did. And Sheila. Sheila was in love with her, too. That just killed me. I couldn’t stand it. Sammie was persuasive and very seductive, both with men and women. I guess it was a combination of beauty and she just had this magnetic way about her. I wanted to be with her all the time, forever. Once the plans came together, I couldn’t stop myself. All I could think about was I’d have her to myself and eventually we’d live in comfort with everything we could ever want – even if we had to murder someone to get it. I guess it was all about murder for comfort.”

  Again, it was Welch, “Tell us how Sheila’s murder happened.”

  “Well, I’d never seen Jim’s will. He refused to show it to me. He did make me the beneficiary of his bank assets and stock funds and I was co-holder on the accounts. But, then Sammie told me he could have set up some trust or something for part of the business assets he could leave in Sheila’s name – something I didn’t understand – and for us to be sure I’d get everything, they both had to be dead. She figured it was the only way. I don’t know for sure if that’s true or not, but Sammie had the head for all of it and I figured she knew what she was talking about. Anyway, she had a key to the home. When Sheila and Jim divorced, she didn’t change the locks. She’d done everything she could, and so had he, to work it out with a minimum of argument over their kids, their possessions and assets. They wanted to make the divorce as easy as possible for Kim and Adrienne, and they knew that getting into a lot of conflict over money and possessions would make things more difficult for the girls. So, Jim left Sheila their home and she trusted him enough that she didn’t think it’d be necessary to re-key everything. So, she didn’t. I took Jim’s house key off his ring one day and got a copy made. I gave it to Sammie and she got it to Jimmie Slaikovitch.

  “On the Friday they killed her, first Sammie and Janet took off from work at the bank at about three o’clock. Sammie dropped Janet off at home and took the car. They only had about two hours after that to get everything ready. Sammie and Jimmie drove both cars up to the mountains. Sammie had Janet’s SUV for the whole weekend. Jimmie drove his Blazer. They left Janet’s SUV at the coffee shop in the back lot and then Sammie took Jimmie in the Blazer down to near where Sheila lived and dropped him off there. He walked up to the house from the open space behind her place, off the back road, jumped the fence and got inside with the house key through one of the rear doors. He had on a paper suit, a hat and paper shoes, like they wear in hospitals. And he wore some plastic gloves so he wouldn’t leave any evidence behind. They got him there just in time, because Sheila arrived home at about five-thirty in the afternoon. Jimmie was waiting inside the house.

  “He already knew about Sheila’s dog being there. He lured her downstairs with a piece of meat. After she ate the meat, he shot her. He was supposed to just shoot Sheila when she got home. He was going to take her purse and a few things to make it look like a robbery and a car theft, but his gun didn’t work. I mean, it worked when he killed the dog, but then it misfired when he tried to shoot Sheila. So he forced her out into the garage and into her car. He made her drive the car to a vacant lot off the road up near the foothills. Sammie was there waiting for him. She was really pissed that he had Sheila with him, because she was supposed to be dead already and he was supposed to be alone. But they had to go ahead with it and she drove them all up to that picnic area. On the way Sheila must have figured out they were going to kill her and she tried to get out of the car. She started screaming and struggling when they stopped at a red light right at the base of the foothills, but Jimmie held onto her and got her back into the car. He punched her in the face a couple of times to get her to stop fighting with him and they went up to where Jimmie killed her.

  “He pulled her out of the car and told her to walk ahead of him to the men’s room. He picked up a big rock as he walked behind her and followed her inside. Sammie said she could hear the screaming and crying as he hit her with the rock. She said it made cracking sounds. She had the window down on the car, so she could hear everything that was going on. After some time the screaming and crying stopped, but the hitting sounds went on some more. A few minutes later Jimmie came out. She told him to wait while she spread out a plastic drop-cloth on the seat and all over the floor on his side of the car. She told him to sit on it. Sammie said he had Sheila’s blood splattered all over the paper suit, so it was a good thing they thought to bring the plastic along. She always thought of everything. Or maybe that was Jimmie’s idea. I’m not sure which of them it was.

  “He got out of the suit while she drove them back to the coffee shop parking lot to switch to Janet’s SUV. They cleaned out the BMW. They took the plastic drop-cloth and paper suit with them. Then Sammie dropped him off at the vacant lot and he took his Blazer back into town. She got rid of the plastic and the paper suit in a dumpster behind some gas station in downtown Denver. I’m not sure where it was.

  “She called to tell me when it was all done. I felt, I felt relief. I was glad she was dead, so she and Sammie couldn’t ever make love again. I couldn’t help myself. I was so totally taken with her. I just couldn’t bear the thought of her with another woman. So, yes, to be completely truthful with you, I was happy to hear that Sheila was dead.”

  Welch asked, “How long after they killed Sheila did you and Sammie meet up again?”

  “We met on the next Saturday night at a motel. That was where she told me all about it. We made love for a couple of hours and then I had to get home.”

  Steve Reilly asked, “Who decided to kill Jimmie Slaikovitch?”

  “Sammie did, originally. But we sort of planned that together. We never intended for him to live much longer after he killed Sheila.”

  Reilly said, “Tell us about Slaikovitch’s murder.”

  “Well, we knew he had to be gotten rid of so we couldn’t be tied to Sheila’s death. Sammie strung him along for awhile about getting paid for killing her. He believed Sammie had made all of the arrangements for both of them to get ten thousand in cash for killing Sheila. She kept him mollified with sex and pot. But, he owed his drug dealer a lot of money. By the time he finally got insistent that he wanted his payment, we’d done enough exploring up in Park County to know a good place to get rid of him, where nobody could hear what happened. We thought no one would ever find his body. It took us some figuring and a lot of driving around to find that place.

  “On the night she killed him, she met him at the A.A. club around nine o’clock, right after the meeting was over. She rode with him in his Blazer. We both thought that the best way would be if they went up there at night, so he’d be completely dependent on her for directions and wouldn’t know where he was. He came here from California and he’d never been in that part of the mountains before, so she had him lost. When they stopped, he wanted to have sex with her right there, but she refused. She knew he’d insist, since they hadn’t been in bed for about a week. It always gave her a charge to lead him on, to make him wait. So, she got out of the car and walked off to relieve herself – told him she had to pee. When he followed her, she turned around and shot him. When I drove up with a couple of shovels in my husband’s truck, he was already dead. We dug a grave and buried him about three feet deep inside the tree line near the clearing where she killed him. It was hard work – there are lots of rocks in that dirt and it took us a few hours to finish. We were both exhausted from all the digging. We were so sure no one would ever find where he was. We had no idea th
at a bear would dig him up or a couple of hikers would find him.”

  “How do you know a bear dug him up?”

  “Jim said you told him. And I think I saw it in the papers.”

  “What did you do with Jimmie’s Blazer?”

  “Sammie drove the blazer back to town and left it in that big vacant lot behind the A.A. club on Larimer Street. It’s probably still there. I don’t know.”

  Stanley spoke.

  “I’d like to move on to your husband’s murder, now. Tell us about that.”

  “After Jimmie’s body was found we knew we’d have to not make any more mistakes. Shortly after she killed Slaikovitch, Sammie started talking bout killing Jim. It was all her idea. At first I objected. The kids had already lost their mother. But, I knew I’d get nothing in a divorce settlement because of the pre-nuptial agreement I’d signed. I decided that her way was the only one that would work for us. I guess I agreed to do it without really thinking about how hard Jim’s death would make things for Kim and Adrienne. I was just so blinded by my love. So, I opened an off-shore account on Grand Cayman. I did it all online – it wasn’t a problem at all. They were willing to hold the account open with no funds and I could wire them in whenever I got around to it. I knew Jim had a business conference coming up in Chicago, so we decided she’d go back there and kill him.