Love Me or Else

by Colin McEvoy

  “And poor Judy, I bothered her, jeez, ’cause I don’t know, it must have been after Rhonda had been, after this happened to Rhonda,” Mary Jane started in. “I called to get something from Judy from the directory. I needed her mother’s address, I didn’t have the current one at home.”

  The troopers were confused. “Whose mother?” Egan asked.

  “Rhonda’s mother,” Mary Jane replied. “I wanted her address and my directory didn’t have it, so I asked if she would be kind enough, and she was very annoyed. I called her at a decent time, 8:30 or 9 in the morning. I’m sorry I aggravated her, but I wanted to send her mother a…” Mary Jane trailed off.

  “Right, she sounded annoyed that you were calling her,” Stumpo prompted, trying to get her to continue.

  “Yeah, she was a little annoyed and I felt bad about it,” she said. “I said, ‘Touchy, touchy.’ Of course, she’s upset.”

  “But she found Rhonda,” Stumpo said.

  “What’s that?” Mary Jane asked. “She was crazy about Rhonda.”

  “Well, she found Rhonda,” Stumpo said, emphasizing his point again.

  “She did, she found Rhonda,” Mary Jane said in agreement.

  “Well it’s got to be pretty traumatic for her,” Egan contributed.

  “Oh, yeah,” Mary Jane said.

  “Terrible,” Stumpo chimed in.

  “You know it, it was terrible,” Mary Jane said. “At the time, I was afraid to tell anybody that I had talked to Rhonda.”

  “Yeah, you said you hadn’t told anyone,” Stumpo said.

  “That’s correct, I was afraid to,” Mary Jane said with a nod. “I was afraid, really look at all these people, so many other people had called her on the phone. I said, I’ll just wait to tell you guys.…”

  “The pastor,” Egan said, changing the subject a bit. “I mean, he’s realizing he could lose this whole congregation.”

  “I know,” Mary Jane said glumly.

  “Because of what happened,” Egan continued.

  “I know it,” she offered. “You know, I’ve had feelings of not going in. I’ve had feelings of backing out, feelings of only going to one service in the morning.”

  “How many are you going to now?” Stumpo asked.

  “I go twice,” Mary Jane answered. “Since he saved me—that man saved me a lot. He was a wonderful guy and he really inspired me. He’s a damn nice fellow.”

  It seemed there was nothing Mary Jane could do to hide her infatuation with the pastor, Egan thought. She just keeps bringing it up, he thought. She’s playing into our hand here.

  Jumping at the opening, Egan said, “But someone has to save him right now. Somebody has to save him because this is never going to leave the church.”

  “What can I do for the pastor? What can I do for him?” Mary Jane wanted to know. “I’m a grown woman, you know. A wonderful guy …

  “I have no information I could give him other than what I’m telling you fellows,” she continued. “I mean, I can help him if I could do something. I’ve offered to help him at the church. I will say this, I at many times as a friend offered, in a friendship way, ‘Please, let me help you out.’ I at many times approached the pastor and he never needs any help.”

  “Well he needs help now,” Egan prompted.

  “I would gladly go over there,” Mary Jane offered.

  It wasn’t registering with her. Egan tried again, “And the help comes through us.”

  Mary Jane continued, but not where Egan was hoping. “I, truthfully, you know, between you guys and myself, the pastor is a wonderful guy and I’m crazy about this pastor,” she said. “He’s a swell man, and he’s a real man, a real man.”

  “But we need to find out who killed Rhonda,” Egan said, trying one more time.

  “I can’t help him by saying anything or telling him who did it, I can’t give him any ideas,” she responded. “I didn’t do it. It’s not the help he’s going to get because I didn’t do a thing to that lady, okay? And I’m sorry, I did not do it, I’m not touching, didn’t do a thing.…”

  Mary Jane trailed off and the three sat in silence for a few moments.

  “Do you have any ideas who did?” Stumpo asked.

  “Of course not, I don’t know,” Mary Jane answered. “If I did, I’d tell ya. If I had an idea, I’d tell ya. I certainly would.”

  “So you had nothing to do with her death?” Egan asked, steering the conversation back to Mary Jane.

  “No, and I’d do anything, like I said, to help the pastor,” Mary Jane said. “Over all the last couple years, how many times have I offered to help that man and he doesn’t need any help. I’ve offered to help him many times, I could sit here, say he needs a secretary and he needs someone to sit in the church or stay in the church, I was willing to volunteer my time.

  “He is supposed to have two people in the church at all times now because of this thing happening and I’d be willing to go over,” she continued. “I’m not working and it’s no excuse unless this pastor doesn’t care for me, or is suspicious of me. You cannot say I did not offer my help to this man many times.”

  Egan tried to pick up on Mary Jane’s reference to the pastor’s possible suspicions. “Do you think some people in the church think that you killed Rhonda?” he asked. “Do you think that that’s the case?”

  “No,” she answered, refusing to take the bait.

  “You don’t? Because you had mentioned a Mr. Catino kind of inferred it was somebody in the congregation. Do you think…?” Egan prompted.

  “He’s not saying it about me,” she answered.

  “Well, what I’m thinking is if people are thinking that, are they going to push you out of the church or away from the congregation?” Egan inquired. “Do you think that’s possible?”

  “It certainly is possible, and I certainly hope if they feel that uncomfortable in me they can certainly call me, talk to me, or discuss that with me,” Mary Jane said. “They ought to be big enough and honest enough to talk it over with me. I say confront your accuser, and confront me. I don’t like dealing with phonies, people that don’t like me, that kind of crap.”

  She was getting more and more worked up, her voice getting higher and higher. “How would the pastor like it if I thought he did it? How would the pastor like it if I thought to myself, ‘Pastor Shreaves, did you have any personal thing with that lady?’ How would I know? I don’t know what he does personally outside the church. I don’t know his activities outside the church.”

  She thought for a moment before continuing, “It’s a possibility that my pastor’s reputation is at stake. I thought this, too, lots of people think maybe my pastor was involved with that lady. I thought she was friendly, she’s pretty, she’s attractive, she’s warm, and she’s very approachable and people liked her. And I thought, ‘My God, how do I know?’ Even today, this thought came to me when I was up at the doctor’s office, ‘Oh God, I wonder if the poor pastor was in love with that lady.’”

  “Maybe he was just being a pastor and helping her,” Stumpo suggested. “There’s no indication there was any love connection there.”

  “That’s right,” Mary Jane said.

  “So there’s a lot of rumors flying around and you know—” Stumpo started in.

  “Since I’ve never been asked, I never touched a hair on his head, he never touched a hair of mine,” Mary Jane interjected. “I always liked him.”

  “Right,” Egan said, looking for more.

  “There’s a lot of other ladies that have affection to that man,” Mary Jane insisted. “He’s a popular man with the ladies.”

  “Sounds that way,” Egan said.

  “And I’ll tell you something, just because I’m one of those ladies that liked that guy doesn’t mean anything,” she said. “It could have been anybody, because they’re so ingrained with this clique at church.”

  Egan continued the back-and-forth. “It sounds like there’s quite a clique at church,” he said.

 
; “There is quite a group of them at the church, and maybe I’m not as intimately involved outside as they are together. Still, Sue was my neighbor, I liked her,” Mary Jane said. “We have this inner group of people who were intimately friendly with Rhonda, sponsoring Rhonda. I wasn’t sponsoring Rhonda, I was never told a thing about her. The whole world’s going around this lady and I don’t know it.”

  Mary Jane started in on a story, “But one thing I didn’t tell you about, Wednesday, the week before this happened, Wednesday night was choir practice. Rhonda was a little late coming, but she came and Mrs. Catino came and we had a very nice time and a wonderfully happy time.

  “The group disbanded and I was getting my things,” she continued. “Not a soul in the choir room, not a soul in the kitchen, the lights were out. I went to get my car and I looked in the parking lot and there were all these cars, everybody’s car was in the parking lot.

  “I thought, ‘Where did they go?’ It was all really funny. If I’m not mistaken, I was checking around and found out I believe Rhonda’s birthday was on the 17th. It would have been that night, that maybe they had a birthday party for her. It was nice of them to have a birthday party for her,” she concluded.

  Egan and Stumpo looked at each other. “If they had, we don’t know if they had.…” Egan said.

  “I’m making a statement and I just say it’s possible they did,” Mary Jane insisted. “Those cars were parked, six, seven cars parked there. Maybe they went somewhere. It was a mystery to me.”

  “So, Wednesday,” Egan said, changing the subject. “The day Rhonda was killed, were you at the church at all? Did you stop by the church at all?”

  “No, I didn’t,” Mary Jane said.

  “Okay. So you went from your house to the salon?” Stumpo said, returning to the timeline.

  “To the hairdressers, yeah. I had been there the other week, and I saw, usually you write up on the sheets…” she trailed off, trying to remember.

  “The sign-in sheet,” Stumpo offered.

  She nodded. “There is a time when they used to take sign-in sheets and they would save the information. I found out they don’t do it anymore. There’s no way of indicating I was there.”

  “Well, what about the person that worked on your hair?” Stumpo asked. “They would remember you, wouldn’t they? You’ve been going there for a while, right?”

  “Yeah, there’s about eight or nine girls in that place and I don’t know what the girl’s name was,” Mary Jane said, thinking. “Cindy. Her name was Cindy.”

  “And what do you get worked on at the salon? ’Cause you told me the last time we spoke to you that you—” Stumpo started.

  “I get a wash and set,” she interrupted.

  “But you wear a wig,” Stumpo said.

  “Yeah, I like a wig,” she responded.

  “So that’s your own hair?” Egan asked.

  “This is a wig,” she answered.

  “That’s a wig?” Egan clarified.

  “But my own hair is under here, yeah,” she said.

  “It looks different than when we spoke that one Wednesday,” Stumpo interjected.

  “Yes, it does look a little different,” she said. “Well, I brushed it better and I have two or three wigs.”

  “Do you have all your wigs?” Stumpo asked.

  “Yeah, as far as I know, I have them all,” Mary Jane said.

  “We have one of your wigs,” Stumpo said, hoping to rattle Mary Jane.

  It worked. “You do?” she said, clearly surprised. “You’re joking.”

  “No,” Egan said in a completely serious tone. He was impressed with the way Stumpo had brought up the wig, and was pleased with the impact it seemed to have on Mary Jane.

  “You’re kidding me, really?” she asked, still shocked. “How come you have my wig?”

  “’Cause you left it at the salon,” Egan offered.

  “Did I really?” she asked.

  “They said you forgot it and you left it there,” Egan continued.

  “It’s a joke—you’re kidding me!” she said with a half-hearted laugh. “Isn’t that a scream that after that I would lose my … Ah, thank you, I’m glad you have it.”

  “Yeah, we have it,” Egan said, not breaking his serious tone.

  “So you know, we have your wig, but we’re not going to be able to give it back to you just yet,” Stumpo said, serving her up another surprise.

  “Okay, so you want to hold it,” Mary Jane said, becoming more serious.

  “Well, we sent it out to a lab looking for some information,” Stumpo said.

  “In the hair—you’re getting information out of the hair?” she asked. “That’s good. Interesting.”

  They had her where they wanted her. Both men noted that Mary Jane appeared to be digesting the information in her mind even as she spoke, trying to figure out the best thing to say.

  She’s freaked out, Stumpo thought.

  Egan continued, “’Cause there’s a lot of things they can do with a wig these days, for instance, looking for molecules and different things.”

  “So I’d be happy to talk to you about the wig, if you’d like,” Stumpo interjected. “Are you curious to know anything about the wig?”

  Mary Jane nodded. “I’d like to know what you’re going to tell me about the wig.”

  “Well, I can tell you about the wig, but I’m going to have to read you your Miranda rights beforehand, and you don’t have to talk to us,” Stumpo said.

  He was under no obligation to read Mary Jane her rights, as she was not in custody, but Stumpo decided he’d rather be on the safe side. On the off chance that Mary Jane was about to confess, he didn’t want some slick lawyer to have her statements thrown out because she wasn’t aware of her legal rights.

  Mary Jane nodded and said “um-mm” as Stumpo continued to explain she could leave whenever she wanted. The entire time she read Mary Jane her rights, she simply continued to say “um-mm” over and over.

  “That was a surprise that you have my wig,” Mary Jane said when Stumpo had finished the legal procedure. “I’m shocked that I left it at the salon that day.”

  The troopers were glad she was back to the wig. “Yes, and it’s amazing what they can do these days with science and with gunpowder residue,” Stumpo said.

  Mary Jane thought for a moment. “I’m sure that nothing has appeared in my wig because I don’t have a gun and I didn’t do anything,” she said.

  Stumpo decided it was time for a more direct route. “You were at the church on Wednesday,” he said.

  “No, I wasn’t,” she responded.

  “You didn’t see Rhonda on Wednesday, January 23?” Stumpo asked.

  “No, I did not,” she said, continuing to assert her innocence.

  “You left your house…” Stumpo said, starting in.

  “I left the house at five of 11, I got to the hair salon at 25 after, had my hair done,” she offered.

  “You stopped by the church before you went to the hair salon,” Egan interjected.

  “No, I did not. I did not,” she said, getting upset. “Are you trying to tell me that you found gunpowder residue in my wig? Which is ridiculous because there is none. There couldn’t possibly because I don’t have a gun, it’s impossible.”

  “Then who did this to Rhonda?” Egan asked.

  “I have no idea,” she responded.

  “You didn’t do this to Rhonda?” he tried again.

  “No, I didn’t,” Mary Jane said.

  “Did you like Rhonda?” Egan asked.

  “I liked her. I found her friendly and thought she was nice, yes,” Mary Jane responded.

  “Do you think Rhonda was having a relationship with the pastor?” Egan continued.

  “I have no idea. Just as I spoke to you earlier, it’s a conjecture,” she said. “I feel sorry for him, I feel sorry for all her friends, but like I said, there is always a question of his reputation.

  “Since you read me my Miranda rights,
it has to do with my reputation, too. Heaven help me,” she said, with a little laugh. “Heaven help anybody.”

  “How’s your reputation going to be tarnished?” Stumpo asked. “What happens here today stays in this room.”

  “It doesn’t,” Mary Jane insisted. “It stays on the tape recorder, which can be removed from the room. We could keep going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, as you, like Officer Triol tried to get me to do in 1993.”

  “What’s that?” Egan asked. “Get to the truth?”

  “No, try to make me confess to killing somebody, which I did not,” Mary Jane said. “I did not do a thing to Rhonda. And we could go on and on forever. You seem to feel you have some information of some kind on my wig and I don’t see how there could be gunpowder on it because it’s impossible, I don’t have a gun.”

  “When was the last time you fired a gun?” Stumpo asked.

  “The last time I fired a gun was in 1994 into my yard,” she answered.

  “Have you been around anyone firing a gun lately?” Stumpo asked.

  “No,” she answered.

  “So if there’s gunpowder residue on your wig, you wouldn’t be able to explain that?” he continued.

  “Of course not, of course not,” she said.

  “But there shouldn’t be any on there,” Stumpo offered.

  “I don’t believe that there is any gunpowder on it, I really don’t, because there couldn’t be,” she said.

  Egan leaned in, his voice deeper than before, and he bluffed. “Why else would we be talking to you for four hours if there wasn’t anything in your wig?” he asked.

  “Yeah, that’s interesting,” Mary Jane said, a bit wistfully. “It’s getting more interesting the whole time.”

  After a pause, she said, “I think I shall pursue an attorney. I’m sorry it’s taken a turn like this, but you know, too bad. I didn’t hurt the lady.”

  CHAPTER 24

  Though exhausted by the nearly four-hour, ramble-filled interview, Stumpo and Egan were pleased with the results they had achieved. They did not get a confession, but neither man really expected to, although Stumpo thought Mary Jane was on the verge of cracking when she became so frazzled about the wig testing. But confession or not, they learned a whole lot more about Mary Jane and her feelings toward Rhonda and the church.