Ollie Clark—Saturday, June 29, 2019
Lieutenant Samuel Johnson wanted to talk to them. To both of them. Together was fine, but he really wanted Eli to know that he needed to talk to them. So. Eli called up his lawyer to explain the situation, and then Johanna called back to let them know what time the interview was scheduled.
It wasn’t quite long enough for Ollie to tackle all of the plates, and that just made her feel even grumpier. Push it back half an hour and she would’ve made it, but instead she had to shower and get dressed to talk to someone who looked familiar because he’d been there first to arrest Dad and then to find the shotgun walled up like Fortunato in the basement. Except it only lasted ten years instead of fifty. What if Dad sold the house and they did demo work in the basement and found that stuff? Drywall really wasn’t as solid as bricks.
Johanna Aho had always liked Ollie and had been as gentle with her as possible during the trial. It was the prosecuting attorney that really hurt, all things considered, but Johanna still didn’t have to be as nice as she was. Part of that might have been a show for the jury to contrast her with Denomie even more, but it didn’t matter if Ollie met her inside the courthouse, in front of cameras, or alone. She was young, so it was more of a big sister thing than a mother thing, but she was clearly protective, and she’d bring teeth and claws out if she had to. Ollie really hoped she wouldn’t have to, but she was glad Johanna was there in case teeth and claws were needed.
The uniformed man introduced himself as Samuel Johnson, purposefully leaving off his title, which Ollie suspected made him one high-ranking muckamuck. He wouldn’t have functioned as the lead in the investigation into Dad if he was just a nobody. “Can I get you some water? Pop?”
“No, thanks,” Ollie answered as she took her seat, mentally cursing Mom for making that thanks automatic.
“I understand that this is a very difficult time for you,” Johnson—he didn’t look like the kind of guy you called Sam on short notice—offered when Eli didn’t respond.
“Well. It’s not the worst week of my life, but it’s second worst, so that’s saying something.” Asking him outright about his role in Dad’s arrest would likely be deemed needlessly antagonistic and make Johanna clear her throat. Ollie didn’t mind being needlessly antagonistic, but that would just eat into their time and make this whole ordeal last longer.
Johnson did a good job of looking honestly uncomfortable with her response. “Well, let’s get you out of here as soon as possible, then. Ms. Clark, Mr. Chapman … you are aware that Jared Chapman has confessed to the murders of Wendy and Catherine Clark on June 19, 2009?”
For God’s sake, just call her Birdy. That’s what was on her tombstone: Birdy Clark, no middle name, because that’s who she’d been. Birdy, Birdy, Birdy.
“Yes,” Eli answered.
Johnson nodded. He didn’t mind playing the prolonged silence game. “Is there any reason you can think of that Mr. Chapman—Jared Chapman—would have wanted to murder you, Ms. Clark?”
Oh, well. Straight to the heart of it. “He didn’t give you a reason?”
“We like to confirm our evidence from multiple angles.”
So, what, if she gave a reason different from Jared’s, they wouldn’t believe him? But it wasn’t like confirmation from her was proof. “I inherited Birdy’s college fund. If I’d died, she would’ve inherited mine.”
“The amount in each individual account was not actually enough for a single person to attend an in-state school without assistance such as scholarships.”
The amount in each individual account was trotted out for the world during the trial, thank you, as well as Ollie’s scholarships and work-study package. “That is correct.”
Johnson shrugged. “It hardly seems enough motive for a double murder.”
Eli sighed. “Are you local?”
“Sorry?”
“Did you grow up around here?”
“No.” Johnson smiled. “I’m from downstate.”
“Yeah, see, grow up around here, any number with a comma seems like a lot of money. Take a peek at Jared’s paycheck back then. Hell, maybe even now. And if you’d asked him what cost of living meant ten years ago? Or cost of living in California?” He shook his head. “People like to throw around that quote about how money can’t buy happiness, but if you have enough of it, maybe you can stop worrying and get a good night’s sleep.”
Johnson nodded slowly like this was profound. “So you believe that your cousin would have murdered your fiancée, then girlfriend, in order to get her college money.”
“Yes.”
“Because he’s the kind of person who sees murder as a solution to his problems.”
“Because he and Birdy had the kind of toxic relationship that brought out the worst in both of them.”
He tapped a pen on his pad of paper, which was out and open even though he hadn’t written a word on it yet. “That sounds awfully close to blaming Birdy for her own murder.”
“Really?”
Johnson turned to Ollie, one eyebrow raised politely.
“You didn’t read anything anyone else ever said about my sister? I get accused of looking at her with rose-colored glasses, but they don’t. Whiny bitch, right? Nothing’s ever good enough for her, she has to be the best, her home life sucks … if she found the right person, she could’ve easily wound him up enough to where he’d want to save her, even if she didn’t realize. It’s plausible, Mr.—Officer. It sucks, and I don’t like it, but unlike your other possible suspects, this one’s plausible.”
“And he gave you something, right?” Eli prodded. “That’s why you came out to Randy’s house and found the gun and the necklace. Jared told you where to look.”
“The purported murder weapon was still in your father’s house, Ms. Clark. We can’t rule out the possibility that Mr. Clark told Mr.—Jared about it.”
“Because a forty-year-old man would totally leave cheap couples’ necklaces behind and carve the initials of his younger daughter and her boyfriend on the gun?” Ollie didn’t really want to use the word shrine in front of this guy, but le mot juste was le mot juste.
“We do not currently have proper insight into the mental states of either Mr. Chapman or Mr. Clark, much less what they may have been a decade ago.”
Yeah, which was why this guy was asking them, but he didn’t have to come across as so skeptical.
“Look, Officer.” Eli leaned on the table over his crossed arms. “First you all thought I did it, and I knew you were wrong. Then you arrest Randy, and I knew you were wrong again. Now that it’s Jared?” He shook his head slowly. “This one could be right. That’s the scary thing, you know? This one could be right.”
Excerpts from Serena Chapman’s interview with Sergeant Parker Dennis, June 29, 2019
SC: I want you to know that you’ve made a mistake.
PD: Well, we want to be sure it’s not a mistake, but we’re not the ones who made it, ma’am. Your son came to us yesterday and gave us a detailed confession of the double murder.
SC: This past week has been very hard on him. The same way it’s been on all of us. They told us last winter it was solved. It was that serial killer, Sean Kelly. Jared could finally relax. It would have been better if there was a reason to go with the name, and not just “because he’s a serial killer,” but there you go. Randy even went down to Ohio to talk with that lawyer. He took Ollie and Eli with him. It was solved.
PD: I understand your frustration.
SC: Do you really? Because you weren’t the ones who solved it? All these years later, and it stopped being a cold case by accident. And then they walked it back. Oh, no, sorry, he had an alibi for that evening. And now they’re looking for alibis for all the other evenings and you’re after my son. It’s an outrage!
PD: Was it an outrage when your nephew was arrested?
SC: That’s the distant past. We’d really rather not think about it.
PD: I believe we have you on record saying you were shocked and saddened, but you never spoke up for Eli’s innocence.
SC: Well, did he need me to? Seems to me that all worked out just fine. Even though I heard the wedding’s off … it doesn’t matter. Eli’s not my concern.
PD: Because he never was?
SC: Mr. Dennis, I was a single mother with my own son. I tried to help my sister-in-law as much as I could, but human beings have limits. To both their resources and their patience.
PD: Do you recall how Jared reacted on Saturday June 20, 2009, when he saw Olive Clark at your sister-in-law’s apartment.
SC: How could I? I wasn’t there.
PD: But you got a phone call.
SC: Well, yes. You would expect one if your son’s been hauled off in an ambulance.
PD: You met him at the hospital?
SC: Once they allowed me back, yes. They said he was in shock, and … I don’t remember all the terms. They’ve got it on file, I’m sure.
PD: I’m sure they do, but what do you remember of that day?
SC: Well, I was worried. I can’t say I was thrilled he was dating Birdy, but he did actually seem serious about her. And this whole thing … the collapse … we’d been through a lot, what with his father being … who he was … and then leaving us, but this … this was bad. No one expects an eighteen-year-old girl to be brutally murdered in her own house, right there on the front steps where all the neighbors could see. Of course, we all thought it was Ollie, but a nineteen-year-old isn’t any better. And he was in shock. Medically, not just how we say that about people.
PD: Did he say anything?
SC: Well. He tried.
PD: Can you remember what he said?
SC: I suppose … the things you’d expect. “I can’t believe it.” Maybe even “I can’t believe it was her.” Things about how she was supposed to be at camp. That was the main thing we all thought, though. It shouldn’t have been Birdy dead because that would be the first time anyone knew where the sacred weekends were disrupted. Randy was always a tyrant about those. Jared couldn’t see Birdy, you know, on her weekend with him. I never understood it. It was like a divorced family, and he never let Wendy leave the house, poor thing. Of course she died in it—she never went anywhere else.
PD: Back to your son in the hospital …
SC: I really can’t remember anything else. I was worried, but it’s not … it’s not like he suddenly grabbed my wrist and looked me in the eye and told me he shot her.
PD: It’s not?
SC: No, of course not. How could you even suggest such a thing?
PD: Mrs. Chapman …
SC: He was in shock. He was upset that Birdy had died. He even—well.
PD: He even?
SC: It’s gossip. I’ve never seen it confirmed. She probably lied to him.
PD: Mrs. Chapman, if it’s something he said at the hospital that way …
SC: Fine. Under duress. I don’t want you spreading this around. He said something about Birdy being pregnant. And that it was his. Which would have been terribly irresponsible of both of them, and they weren’t even together that long, so I really doubt it could have been, considering her track record, but he was very upset because she’d told him she was pregnant and he …
PD: How did he react?
SC: Well, he’d been calming down, but then all the monitors started going off and people came in and had to give him something else.
PD: That seems to indicate he believed it was true. Even if it wasn’t.
SC: Right, so, not only was Birdy dead, but she’d lied to him and ruined him for any other relationship in the future. Did you know that? Ten whole years, and he’s never so much as dated anyone else. Hasn’t even met women for drinks, and sometimes I think that’s all he’s good for these days. Drinking. But she lied and told him she was pregnant, he was going to be a father, and then she got killed before he could find out the truth. It ruined him.
PD: He was also in the hospital when he made that comment about waking up and Eli wasn’t there.
SC: Yes, and then he explained that he meant “in the bedroom” and not “in the house.” Honestly, you shouldn’t even have been allowed into that room. Questioning him while he was still in the hospital, good Lord. How reliable is a young man supposed to be when he’s just learned his girlfriend, possibly pregnant, was shot in the face and killed for no reason?
PD: So you think he was far more reliable yesterday than ten years ago.
SC: I have no idea what he told you yesterday, but you’d just arrested Randy Chapman for the murders, and the one good thing that came out of all of this was Randy. Jared barely had a father when his father was around, and he didn’t get a dad until Randy showed up. And kept showing up, because that’s what dads do.
PD: Mr. Clark’s the one who realized your son attempted suicide.
SC: Yes.
PD: Can you tell me about that?
SC: I’d really rather not.
PD: Mrs. Clark … it’s a delicate situation, but your son did confess yesterday. If you can provide us information that he’s not …
SC: Not entirely stable?
PD: Not entirely trustworthy, then … you’ll help him.
SC: Well. You should really ask Randy.
PD: We will. I believe Sergeant Waara is talking to him as we speak. But … the more perspectives we can get …
SC: Yes, of course. Well. For me it started with another phone call.
Bury the Dead 33 – coming May 3
Rebecca Frost 