PART III Chapter Six
Kate and Megan had dinner together at their house and discussed the case while they ate. Kate enjoyed having someone she could discuss evidence with who understood what she was talking about. It was good to have Cindy as a partner and the two had grown close but to have someone in her house that she could talk about things with was exceptional.
She doesn't see her old partner, Sean, very often now. He was never able to return to work and had retired early and drew disability. She stopped by once in a while at holidays or special events but not every day. They had spent a lot of time eating somewhere together when he was still on the force and they often had a case file opened anytime they were eating a meal together.
Kate said, “I have plans to interview the people that worked with Susan at the bank. That would be for background info, no one at the bank was suspected except for the robbers. She wanted to talk to the guys who visited their robbery suspect at the jail. Kate suspected that a hit was put on Susan by Dan or one of the guys that visited. She doubted that anyone from the robbery performed the murder themselves, it would be too easy to tie them to that event.
Cindy had gone through the recordings and transcribed them all and found no discussion of Susan. Cindy and Kate both knew that didn’t mean a lot and they could have used a code of some kind but there was nothing they could translate at the current time. Cindy made the list that included addresses and phone numbers of each of the guys that visited their boss at the jail.
Kate knew that detectives had already interviewed Dan for a few minutes before he invoked his right to an attorney so she wouldn’t get much information from him. Kate and Cindy both hoped they could get some information from the guys that visited Dan at the jail.
Kate wanted to talk to all who visited Dan but she knew there was not much point in interviewing the spouse, Angela. Kate knew the wife couldn’t be compelled to testify against her husband. Kate also knew that it was information about the other three guys she wanted. She could inform the spouse that the information she was looking for would be for the other three guys who worked for her husband. The two detectives knew they should interview all of the possible suspects and see if they could get them to flip on the others. Kate knew it wasn’t likely yet since they didn’t have any evidence on anyone.
Kate called the spouse, Angela, first and explained that she wanted to ask questions about her husband’s associates, Gary Cleaver, William Gunn, and Robert. Wilson. Angela agreed to talk to her and they set up a meeting at a local restaurant. Angela wasn’t comfortable going to the station so the restaurant was a nice place for her to feel safe.
Kate arrived first and took a seat close to the front door so she could see Angela when she came into the restaurant. She ordered a glass of wine while she sat waiting. It gave her something to do while she waited and relaxed her just enough to make her comfortable for the interview.
Angela walked through the front door and Kate waved from her table and the maître d led Angela to the table where Kate was seated. The women shook hands and Kate motioned to a chair as an invitation to sit. Kate had already been served her drink and was looking at a menu.
Kate said, “I ordered a drink earlier to get comfortable and was still looking at the menu.”
Angela replied, “A glass of wine sounds good. I think I will order one while I look at the menu.”
The two women received their food orders and busied themselves with small talk avoiding the main reason Kate wanted to have the meeting in the first place. Finally when Kate’s glass was almost empty Kate ordered another and after the waiter walked off Angela smiled and decided to speak.
Angela said, “I thought you guys weren’t supposed to drink on duty.”
Kate said, “I drink a little when appropriate because I am never really off the clock. I asked you here to inquire about what you know about Gary Cleaver, William Gunn, and Robert Wilson.”
Angela answered, “I don’t hang out with any of these guys, but I know my husband was associated with these men and they worked together. Gary Cleaver was around the house the most. He was like a manager or foreman of sorts. Dan would tell him what needed to be done and he would make sure it was done.”
Kate asked, “Does your husband have a legitimate job?”
Angela responded, “Yes, he has a small construction business. They mostly do smaller jobs like remodeling but occasionally they do a major build. No commercial work is done, only residential.”
Kate said, “I am not going to ask about your husband’s case. I work in homicide and not robbery so my interest is in the death of the witness, Susan Warren. I am interested in finding out if you think any of the men working with your husband is capable of violence.”
Angela replied, “I wouldn’t have commented on my husband’s case anyway but I am sorry that young girl was killed. I saw that in the news and was heartbroken for her family. I don’t think any of those men would be capable of murder, but I do think Gary would have done whatever he felt was necessary. He wouldn’t have done it himself but could have hired someone to do it.”
Kate responded, “Thank you for your honesty. Do you think either of the other two would have taken the initiative and had it done?”
Angela replied, “William and Robert are good workers but someone has to tell them what to do. Gary is in charge of the crews for a reason. He can get things done.”
The two women finished their meal. Kate had all of the information she thought she would get and thanked Angela for meeting with her. Kate handed Angela her card with her phone number and told her to call if she thought of anything else that could help. Kate thought Angela gave her useful information without any compromise to her husband.
Kate wanted to talk to the others who were recorded at jail. She was especially interested in interviewing Gary Cleaver, but she thought it might be a good idea to talk to the other guys first. She hoped she could get one of them to break down and give her information she could use when she interviewed Gary.
She made an appointment with William Gunn next and he agreed to come to the station for the interview. Kate liked that. It was the best of any of the locations that could have been offered. She always thought that home field advantage was important with any interview. She was also glad William would be coming that afternoon. She wouldn’t be rushed but would be soon enough to put it behind her.
Kate had enough time to waste before the interview, so she invited Megan and Cindy to go to lunch with her. They both agreed and they decided to meet at the “Squealing Pig”. Kate had a lot of memories of her and Sean meeting there and talking about a case. Megan remembered it too and had fond memories of her own about the “Squealing Pig”.
Kate drove and the other two women rode with her. They were seated quickly; being well known by the staff helped a lot in getting good service. They placed their order and talked about where they thought they were with the case at this point.
Megan was still waiting for results to come back on DNA and other tests. They were researching who drove an SUV and also wore eleven and a half shoes. They would narrow their search down by looking for someone who had shoes and vehicles in common that also had a connection to Susan.
Kate said, “I don’t think robbery was a motive since nothing was taken. This looked like someone was specifically out to get Susan. She was hit, almost like an execution. That was why I thought one of the robbers either did the crime or had someone to do it.
Cindy said, “I am going through Susan’s contact list from her phone and looking at the calls that had come through. There were a lot of calls from her siblings of course and many from her boyfriend as you would expect. I was surprised to see several from a number we identified as her bank manager.”
Kate said, “I guess we need to be asking him if there was a reason why there would be so many calls. There could be a good reason for it, after all we all get calls from our captain more than we would hope to. If you work for a living you will probably get some calls from your boss.”
Megan said, “I am going through her photos on her phone and extracting the GPS coordinates to find the location of each photo taken, it may help us to see where Susan had been to. I am also checking phone records to see the location of everyone on the night Susan was murdered. So far none of the people we have on our suspect was anywhere close to Susan’s house.”
Kate said, “We may eventually have to change course but for now we have to follow the information we have until someone shows us something different. The motive of eliminating a witness is the strongest one we have at the moment and it is a good one. I think we should continue interviewing the robbers. I don’t think they did it themselves but were in the loop for getting it done.”
The women finished their meal while continuing their discussion about which interview to schedule first. After they walked back through the parking lot to Kate’s car she drove them back to the station while she prepared for her interview with William. She wanted to get his opinion of Gary and hopefully maybe he would reveal something about himself as well.