by Alec Peche
There was a silence in the room as the detectives waited for Ms. Fontaine to add more and so she did.
“I don't understand how that could happen as we each fill our own jug and Julien wouldn't have poisoned himself. He had too much to live for and was a contented man. Someone would have had to follow his truck each day and add whatever poison to the jug when he was out of eyesight of the truck. Typically we stop by farm fields and take samples and so the truck is in view of the driver. The only time it wouldn't be in view was if he came back to the office before going back out or if he stopped for a food or bathroom break,” Aimee said and then added, “Whomever murdered him would have to be in our parking lot at the beginning of the shift to figure out which truck he drove and which fields he was visiting. His area was too large for someone to hope that they might spot him during the workday.”
The detectives took notes during her final explanation. It was a complicated setup and again spoke to the sophistication of the perpetrator in this murder.
"You have cameras atop this building monitoring the parking lot?” Jill asked.
“No, we haven't had any crime or vandalism on the site and we don't do anything secretive here. We're resources to the state's farmers. We're experts in things like bugs, plants, herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, seeds, and crop production. Occasionally we do weights and measures. The only time we make a farmer angry is when we come across an illegal pesticide that they're using which is a rare event.”
Jill considered herself an expert in pesticides. She knew and understood the chemical compounds of the most popular pesticides used in America. She was committed to creating organic pesticides for use in her vineyard and so far she had been successful.
"What kind of illegal pesticides do you find around the state? And if you find them, what are the consequences for the farmer?" Jill asked.
"It's not so much that we find illegal herbicides and pesticides used rather they are applied to crops that they don't work on or they are applied in a way that is harmful to another farmer's crop's health. The best example of that is Dicamba. If a farmer is not careful when they apply that pesticide then the wind will carry it and damage nearby crops that it's not supposed to be used on. Also, it should not be used on cotton and soybeans, two of our most important crops in Louisiana. Some states have gone so far as to ban Dicamba, but so far we haven't had enough farmer complaints to go that far.”
Jill had heard of Dicamba as it was considered deadly to vineyard crops. She also knew that the state of California had recently labeled it as cancer-causing. In her mind, the passions surrounding Dicamba were between Monsanto and the states. Individual farmers either loved it because it helped them control weeds, or they hated it because they had lost crops from the drift of Dicamba during the application process.
“What's been the state's role in mediating the use of Dicamba among farmers?” Jill asked.
“It's been around for nearly fifty years and we average a few fights a year between farmers with allegations of damage to crops from Dicamba. Typically our inspectors will take a plant sample and send it to the lab to be tested for Dicamba. If we have a positive, we have issued notices of warnings, suspended applicators’ certifications, and assessed fines and penalties totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. That usually gets the farmer's attention, as they don't have much margin on the profit they make growing crops.”
“Are you aware if Julian Cheval collected any samples that became problematic for the farmers?” Briggs asked.
“Off the top of my head, no. I'll need to review his records to see what he was in the middle of.”
“Is it something we could review,” Jill asked. “I have a degree in botany, so I'll understand a lot of your nomenclature.”
Aimee frowned and asked, “I'm confused - aren't you a pathologist? Don't you look at the dead?”
Jill smiled and thought I do more than look at the dead, but said instead, “The autopsy is completed and now I'm using my botany background to assist the detectives in solving this crime. May I look at his records?” she asked again.
Aimee Fontaine thought for a moment about privacy rights of the work they did and decided she wanted to do what she could to help find Julien's killer. She'd asked for forgiveness later for any rules violations she did in connection with letting the officers look at the office activity of Julien.
“Do you have time now? I can show you his desk.”
They looked at their watches calculating hours left in the day. Briggs said to Heyer - “You go with Dr. Quint and I'll begin interviewing his coworkers. I expect you to be done sooner than I so contact me if you can help me with the interviews.” She nodded and they all stood up to exit the small conference room.
Chapter 11
Aimee showed Jill and the detective Julien's workspace. She also brought up on the screen the computer system the inspectors used to document their activities in the field. She would really have to ask forgiveness from the department head of Agriculture and Forestry. She knew she shouldn't be sharing the software program without a search warrant, but again she wanted to help. She'd met Julian's son, Jayden, and she thought it was terrible that he was now fatherless.
After a quick search of the desk yielded mostly office supplies with a few notes of things to follow up on, the two women turned to the computer hoping the answers were there. Jill started running down each entry in the spreadsheet that related to the activities that Julien performed in his work as an agriculture inspector. Jill studied the column titles and then moved down the page to make sure she understood the issues and terms. Fresh in the back of her head was the discussion they'd had with Ms. Fontaine concerning the herbicide. Jill noted that one of the last entries into the spreadsheet that Julien had made was related to Dicamba. How curious.
They finished going through any possible clue in Julian's office. Jill had saved a copy of the spreadsheet on a zip drive, and also emailed it to herself and they joined Detective Briggs for the interviews. He was just finishing up the last interview and so they exited the building together. The coworkers had not been much help and it was the detective's sense that they just weren't close. Several of them mentioned the individual that they would stop and interview on their return to New Orleans. It seemed that the issue was geography. These co-workers lived in Baton Rouge while Julien lived in New Orleans and the cities were too far apart for much socializing to take place. The other co-worker lived in Bywater which was close to Julien's ninth ward home. So they occasionally would meet outside of work and to commute together a couple of times a month. The detective hadn't found any helpful information from his interviews. They piled into the patrol car and headed back south to New Orleans. Again Jill observed crops from the window and thought about farming and the hazards of picking a wrong herbicide or pesticide.
They would interview a Mr. Keith Townsend in about fifty minutes and then they would be done for the day. Jill planned to look at the spreadsheet and explore any issues listed there. She hadn't noticed any financial fines or crop destruction as a resolution to problems Julien might have encountered in his farm surveys. Finally, they turned down the street where Mr. Townsend lived. Jill hadn't been in this part of New Orleans and like the French Quarter, Garden District, and Ninth Ward, Bywater had a unique look to it. There were lots of murals painted on walls and the predominate architecture style was the shotgun style – long narrow houses.
They parked in front of a house and got out to walk to the front door. Just as they reached the front stoop, the door opened and a man in his 30s stepped out and onto the stoop.
"Hi I'm Keith Townsend. You must be the detectives from the New Orleans Police Department. I have young children inside and my wife just arrived home to corral them. Since this discussion is about my murdered coworker I prefer to have it outside, away from the young ears of my children.”
“I understand Mr. Townsend,” said Detective Heyer. “Is there someplace we could go and sit down to talk? Perhaps there's a
park nearby?”
“Actually we could just go in my backyard, the children won't be able to hear me outside.”
They followed him through a side gate into a small backyard that had a picnic table that they could all sit at for their discussion. Once seated, Detective Briggs began the interview.
“We just came from talking to your co-workers and Ms. Fontaine at your office. Sorry to intrude into your home, but you're a vital part of this investigation. From all accounts, you were the co-worker closest to Julien Cheval.”
“I would agree with that,” Keith said. “I hung out with Julien as we were the two employees that lived in New Orleans and we carpooled to work at least once a week. You get to know someone when you're stuck commuting. He was a good man and father.”
“How long have you known Julien?”
“We've worked together perhaps seven years. He knows my wife and kids and I know his mom and son. I don't think I ever met the mother of his son in part because they were never married or lived together. We held the same position for the state but had different geographic responsibilities. What else can I tell you?”
“You knew he wasn't feeling well the last several weeks?” Heyer asked.
“Yes, you could see that he lost weight, and I encountered him in the bathroom throwing up at least twice. On his last day of work, he asked if I could drive him as he wasn't feeling well. So I picked him up but as we traveled through the French Quarter, he asked me to pull over so he wouldn't vomit in my car. As he didn't want me to be late to work, he said not to wait for him and he'd call his mom to pick him up and take him home. I knew his nausea was bad, but I never would have left him if I thought it was bad enough to kill him.”
This last statement was made with several large swallows by Keith who seemed to need time to gather himself before he continued.
Detective Heyer waited a few moments then asked her next question, “Was he worried about anything in his private life or at the office? Had anything unusual happened in say the last four to six weeks?”
“You think he was killed because of something at the office?”
“We have no evidence that leads us to think that, but at this stage of the investigation we've not yet found any motive for Julien Cheval's murder.”
“You haven't? It's been several days since he died. Why don't you have any suspects yet?”
“Well for one thing in real life we don't solve murder investigations as quickly as they do on television shows, and my second comment is that it wasn't identified as a murder until late yesterday.”
“Are you kidding? Why would a young otherwise healthy man die on the street in New Orleans? It wasn't cold, he wasn't drunk, and he had no diseases that would have killed him. Why wasn't his death suspicious from the beginning?”
“We'll explain that later to you,” Briggs said. “Let's get back to the detective's question. Was Mr. Cheval worried about anything? Had anything unusual happened at home or at work that you were aware of?”
Keith glanced out into space thinking about the interactions he had with Julian over the time frame specified by the detectives. Then he remembered the monster truck interaction that Julien had described. It was the only thing he could think was unusual in their daily lives.
"You're going to think this is weird, but Julian had an interaction in a field with a monster truck about a month ago."
"Tell us more about the interaction," Heyer said. "What's a monster truck and how did the interaction feel strange to Julien?"
"Julien was passing by a field somewhere between New Orleans and Baton Rouge and noticed a field that wasn't looking healthy around the edges. So he parked his vehicle and took a sample of one of the plants to test for Dicamba. Unfortunately we lose a fair amount of healthy crops to the drift from other farmers spraying their fields with the herbicide. Usually we take a sample of the plant to verify the presence of the herbicide and then we issue penalties or other corrective actions to the farmer who uses the substance. This also gives the farmer with damage to their crops evidence to collect reimbursement from the farmer who damaged his or her crops."
"Do you do a lot of sort of refereeing between farmers?" Jill asked.
Keith thought for a moment and then replied, "I suppose so in any given season it can be from ten to twenty-five percent of the findings in my role as an agricultural supervisor."
"So what is a monster truck and what's its role in this story?" asked Heyer.
"Oh yeah, the monster truck. It really shook up Julien. As he was bending down to snip a sample, he saw dust in the distance like you see when a truck travels on a dirt road. The cloud of dust continued his way and he could hear the roar of an engine. It really freaked him out because once the cloud of dust cleared, there was a large pickup truck with enormous tires and two men inside the cab and another two seated on chairs mounted in the truck bed. They were seated behind rifles and at first Julian thought he was going to die. One of the men in the back of the truck bed pulled something from his side and Julien thought it was a pistol. However, it turned out to be a cell phone and the guy took his picture. Then the truck spun a one-hundred-eighty degree turn and took off from wherever it came from blowing more dust at him."
"Did he report this once he got back to the office? Is this how you heard about it?"
"No, it was such a bizarre occurrence that Julien felt he might be laughed at or told that he was dreaming as none of us have ever encountered a monster truck let alone what was mounted in the back of it. So we went to lunch that day and he told me about it."
"And even after telling you at lunch he never reported it to Ms. Fontaine?" Briggs asked.
"Not that I know of."
"Do you remember what day this was?" Jill asked.
"No it was sometime a month ago, or so."
"Did you pay for your lunch with the debit or credit card that might contain the date of the monster truck sighting?" Heyer asked.
"That's a good question, let me pull out my bank app and I'll look and see. I often do use my debit card."
Silence reigned while he hit several buttons on his smartphone. Moments later he looked up and said, "It happened on October second."
With the date in mind, Jill opened the file she'd sent to herself from Julien's office. She found the specimen that he submitted on that date. Actually there were two specimens so he must've gone to another field on that day. She debated sharing the information with Keith but decided she didn't want to snitch on Ms. Fontaine's release of the information.
"Do you have an address of where this encounter occurred?" Heyer asked.
“No, but I believe he submitted a sample to the lab and there's part of that paperwork where we indicate the geographical coordinates of where we collected the sample so I'm sure the supervisor can give you the address.”
Heyer looked at Jill who nodded.
"Did Julian connect his illness to the encounter with the monster truck?" Jill asked
"If he did, he didn't tell me. I know at one point he thought he had the flu, then he worried about bigger things like cancer causing his nausea but so far the doctors hadn't found anything seriously wrong with Julian. I remember the day that it happened I offered to go collect a specimen for him but he said it was such a scary encounter that he wouldn't do that to me as a friend.”
"Did you ever hear what the results of the tests were from that field?” Jill asked.
“No, but ordinarily it wouldn't come up in the conversation. We each did our work and when we met for lunch or carpooling or just after work we didn't talk about work we talked the Saints or our families.”
“One more question Keith, when you left the parking lot at your office to go collect samples in the field what was your process? Did you have a vehicle assigned to you? Did you have to fill the truck with supplies that you needed for collections, did you fill it up with gas, or fill up the water jug on the truck? What did you do to make it easy for you to do your work in the field?” Jill asked.
&n
bsp; Keith gave her a look that suggested that he found her question unconnected to the murder of his friend and co-worker but he complied with her question.
“Ms. Fontaine probably told you that we don't have vehicles assigned to each of us personally. So I would go see her assistant as she kept the key box for all the vehicles. She would give me the keys and I would go out to the truck and take a look at what supplies were already stocked. Sometimes I didn't need anything at other times the supplies were really low. If it needed gas I have a gas card assigned through the office. As for the water jug; we have a good department procedure for keeping it clean, but I never trusted that and I always brought my own bottle of water or soda. Does that answer your question?”
“Yes thank you,” Jill said as she looked at the two detectives indicating she had no further questions.
“Did Julien Cheval ever indicate that he was having problems with his child's mother?” Detective Heyer asked.
“No ma'am, that part of his life seemed to flow smoothly. If he wanted extra time with Jayden she would give it to him. If he needed to switch weekends, she was flexible. They seem to be more friends than former lovers.”
“Mr. Townsend, we appreciate you taking the time to talk to us today about Julian Cheval. How should we contact you if other questions arise?” asked Detectives Briggs.
“You can contact me at the cell phone number that Ms. Fontaine gave you to arrange this meeting.”
The detectives asked where Jill wanted to be dropped off and the car headed in that direction.
"What do you think about the monster truck story?” Heyer asked Jill.
“I know this is going to sound weird, but I likely had the same experience maybe twenty years ago on the island of Maui in Hawaii. A friend and I were in a rental car in the north part of the island which was pretty deserted. There was no reason for tourists to head down the road other than to see what was there and so we did. The paved road ended and we could see a dirt path ahead and so we decided to turn around as our curiosity had been sated and we didn't want to damage a rental car. As I was making the three-point turn, a monster truck just as described by Mr. Townsend came out a grove of pineapple plants. It was filled with native Hawaiians giving us the stink eye. To this day, I don't know if I got the stink eye for being a Caucasian on land owned by native Hawaiians for centuries, or perhaps they were protecting a crop that I wasn't supposed to see like marijuana or poppies that might be produced into heroin. At the time I remember thinking that it was overkill - the big tough guys, the monster truck and if only they put a sign up a few hundred feet back that said 'private property' we would never have gone down the road.”
