by Jeff Carson
“—client chooses to not answer your questions. Jesse, I advise you to not speak.”
“I know. I heard you the first time,” Jesse said. “I didn’t do anything. I didn’t kill Kyle, and whatever you’re finding was planted. This is crazy. Something’s going on. What did you find? What are you talking about?”
“Jesse,” his lawyer pleaded.
“No. I want to hear.” Jesse put his cuffed hands on the table. They seemed calm and steady. “Come on, I want to know.”
Roll and Milo eyed each other.
“Jesse, why don’t you tell us what we want to know, and then we’ll tell you what you want to know,” Milo said. “Like these lawyers say, quid pro quo.”
Jesse raised an eyebrow. “What do you want to know?”
The lawyer sat back and put a hand to his forehead. “Jesse, you realize anything you say can be used against you in the court?”
“Yes. I know my rights. Thanks, Chip. I appreciate it. Don’t worry, you’ll get your payment.”
That seemed to be enough to satisfy, or offend, the man, because he sat back, crossed his legs, and looked at his watch.
Roll nodded to Milo.
Milo reached into the cloth bag onto the table and produced the evidence bag containing the bracelet. He pushed it across the table in front of Jesse. “You recognize this, Jesse?”
Jesse frowned and studied it. “Yeah. It’s my bracelet. Where did you find that?”
“This is your bracelet?”
“Yes. I lost it the other night, the night Kyle and I got in a fight. It ripped off my wrist. I’ve been wondering what happened to it.”
Milo pulled it back slowly. “You lost this during the fight.”
“Yeah. I mean, I think. That’s the only place I can figure. It would make sense.”
“Where did you get this bracelet, Jesse?” Milo asked.
“From my dad. I took it from his stuff when he died.”
Milo nodded. He reached in and got a second evidence bag, this one containing the headlamp. “Do you recognize this, Jesse?”
Jesse made a face and studied it, then shook his head. “No, sir.”
Milo stared at him for a beat, then pulled it back.
“And how about the cell phone battery, Jesse?” Milo asked.
“What about it?”
“Why was it removed from your phone when your uncle and Detective Wolf came to get you down in Canyon of the Ancients.”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“No, Jesse. It’s not.”
“I didn’t want you guys to track where I was.”
Milo nodded. “Is that the same reason you took your cell phone battery out of your phone on Friday night?”
Jesse stared at the desk for a full ten seconds. “I never took my battery out of my phone Friday night.”
“We think you did, Jesse,” Roll said.
“Why would you think that?”
They stared at each other across the table. Jesse didn’t blink.
“It was in my pocket that whole time during the fight. I noticed it was acting up after that. Kyle slammed me hard on the ground. Ask Jimmy.” He glanced at the window.
Milo sat back, a mirthless smile on his lips.
“Little bastard,” Triplett said under his breath.
“What happened to your father, Jesse?” Milo asked.
The question pulled Jesse’s lower eyelids up. “He had an aneurism. Died in his sleep. You know that.”
“And you know we’re being recorded. Gotta be thorough.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Just trying to understand what this bracelet is all about, Jesse. Did you love your father?”
Jesse remained silent.
“Jesse, your father was never around, right?” Milo asked.
“What does this have to do with anything?” the lawyer asked.
“That’s a good question, Chip,” Jesse said.
“Even though we’re friends, Jesse, I gotta ask the questions like this for the recording.”
Jesse scoffed. “Friends. With a question like that? The way you guys harass me and Kyle all the time? That’s friends?”
Milo tapped a finger on the table. “Harassing? How?”
“You guys have been all over us lately.”
“You two were posting videos online that specifically said you wanted to kill Alexander Guild. You don’t think that’s a valid reason for us to come check on you two? See what you’re up to? That’s not harassment, Jesse. That’s good police work.”
“I never said I wanted to kill Alexander Guild.” Jesse leaned forward. “Check that video. Kyle said that, I didn’t.”
“You guys pulled the video from the web, but I seem to remember you exploding a watermelon perched on top of a dummy dressed in a suit and tie with a sign pinned to his chest that read ‘Alexander Guild.’ That was you pulling that trigger in that video.”
Jesse’s eyes darted and squinted. “I didn’t…”
Rachette looked at Wolf. “You heard of that video before?”
“Shhh.” Triplett put a finger to his lips.
“Yeah, yeah.”
Milo continued. “You can see why we’re talking to you, Jesse. Right? You can see why you would be a person of interest for Kyle and Alexander Guild’s deaths, right?”
“Jesse, I advise you to not answer that question.”
“I have nothing to hide.”
“It doesn’t matter,” the lawyer said. “They’re baiting you into saying things that will be used against you.”
“Just please be quiet.”
The lawyer held up his hands and re-crossed his legs.
“I know it looks like I did it,” Jesse said. “I was dating Hettie behind Kyle’s back, and I would have been pissed off at Guild for killing Hettie’s father.”
“One could look at it like you were avenging her father,” Roll said. “A chivalrous act.”
“Whatever. Call it what you want. I didn’t do it.” He nodded at the bag. “So, what’s with the bracelet?”
Milo picked up the bag. “When we found Kyle’s body, we found this wrapped around one of his fingers.”
Tears poured out of Jesse’s eyes, and the suddenness and severity of his crying made everyone behind the glass exchange glances.
“Why are you crying, Jesse?” Milo asked.
“Because I miss my friend.”
“You miss Kyle.”
Jesse wiped his eyes, and then they erupted in more tears. The wracking sobs twisted his face. “I’m such an asshole. I was such an asshole to him. He was so nice to me.”
“What do you mean, Jesse? Tell us what you mean,” Roll said.
Jesse waited for the tears to stop, then he spoke with his eyes shut. “You know what I mean. I was screwing his lady behind his back. I was a bad friend.” His voice was a whisper now. “I’m so terrible.”
“Can you tell us about what happened at the bar, please Jesse?” Milo asked.
Jesse opened his eyes and sat back. “I had enough of sneaking around Kyle’s back. Me and Hettie had been talking, and I decided I wanted to tell him the truth. It wasn’t like Hettie and Kyle were that close, anyway. They were like barely ever spending the night at each other’s houses and stuff. He was …”
“He was what?”
“He was kind of an asshole to her. I didn’t like it. She didn’t like it. She wanted to break up with him, but then when Hettie’s dad was killed a few months ago, she just checked out. She didn’t have the strength to break up with him on top of burying her dad and all that.”
“Why don’t you tell us about you and Hettie,” Roll said. “When did you two start dating? Just recently?”
“We’ve been dating like six or seven months now. She and I…we’ve always been good friends growing up. We were in the same classes in middle school, and then in high school. But, never, you know, boyfriend-girlfriend. And then, after we graduated, we kind of lost touch. We weren’t really
friends at all.
“But then, some time last year Kyle started dating her. They hooked up at some party, and she started hanging out with us.”
“Who’s us?” Milo asked. “You and Kyle? Or do you guys also hang out with other friends?”
Jesse shook his head. “You know it’s just me and Kyle hanging out. She became the third. And, from the beginning, we both realized that we were attracted to each other.”
“So, from the beginning you started dating Hettie behind his back,” Roll said.
“No. Not from the beginning. But, like some months later…yeah…we hooked up one day and talked about it.”
“But you never talked to Kyle about it,” Milo said.
“No. We didn’t.”
“Did he suspect anything?”
“I don’t think so. I think he was oblivious. He didn’t pay much attention to Hettie. Treated her like a thing.”
“And that made you angry,” Roll said.
Jesse’s eyes flashed. “No. It didn’t make me angry.”
Roll nodded. “My mistake.”
“It made me want to tell Kyle that I was dating her. That I was going to take care of her from now on. Like I said, he didn’t even like her anyway. Treated her like garbage.”
Roll and Milo nodded. Said nothing.
“Anyway, we talked about telling Kyle the truth, and we were going to. But then Hettie’s father was shot by Alex Guild, and that threw a wrench in our plans. She was really broken up about her father’s death, obviously. We kind of took a break after that. Hettie didn’t really hang out with me or Kyle for a couple months. She was too shaken up, you know?”
“But she started spending time with you two again, right?” Roll asked.
Jesse nodded. “Yeah. And we started hanging out more.”
“You and her,” Roll said.
“Yeah. And this time, I was pushing to tell Kyle everything. He deserved to know, and we deserved to be together without hiding.”
“And what did she say?” Roll asked. “Was she on board with that? Did she want to tell Kyle, too?”
“Yeah. She did. But she was scared.”
“Why? Did she think Kyle would hurt her?”
Jesse shrugged. “Maybe. He can…could be pretty mean. I mean, you guys know.”
They sat in silence for a beat.
“And, finally, we decided we were going to tell him,” Jesse said. “And so we did.”
“So, you two told Kyle,” Milo said. “The night of the fight. At the bar.”
“Yeah.”
“And then what?”
Jesse scowled. “He was real pissed, that’s what happened. Punched me across the table. Started swinging at Hettie, trying to slap her. Then I punched him, and he came after me. I led him outside, and I turned and faced him, and he gave me this.” Jesse pointed to his still-black eye. “And the lip. He threw me down, kept hitting me until Jimmy came out and broke it up. Thanks Jimmy.” Jesse nodded at the window again.
Wolf looked over and saw Sobeck narrow his eyes.
“And then what happened?” Roll asked. “You got in the fight, and where did you go?”
“Kyle got in his truck and sped off. And me and Hettie hung out for a minute or two, and then we left.”
After a moment of silence, Milo opened his notebook and flipped to a page. “You went straight home?”
“That’s right.” Jesse looked at Milo’s notebook. “Well, technically I dropped Hettie off at her house and then I went home.”
“So, you dropped Hettie off and then went home.”
“My client—”
“I dropped her off and went home.”
“And what did Hettie do?”
Jesse shrugged. “She was home for a bit and she came over to my house.”
“What’s a bit? Two hours? Two minutes?”
“I don’t remember.”
Milo jotted something down.
“It was like an hour. I was pretty upset. I went home and smoked some weed, had a beer. Then she showed up. Whatever time that took. I wasn’t staring at the clock.”
“Okay, understood,” Milo said.
“He said he was going to kill me,” Jesse said.
Milo raised his chin. “Who?”
“Kyle. During the fight. He said he was going to kill me.”
Milo stared at him for a beat, and then scribbled in his notes some more. “Okay.”
Jesse sat back with a huff.
“And what about Hettie?” Roll asked. “What did he say to her?”
“He said he was going to beat the shit out of her. That he’d kill her. Make her pay. That kind of stuff.”
“And what did you say?”
“I don’t remember. He was freaking out. He was coming after me and telling me I’m dead. That we’re both dead. That’s why Hettie came over. She was scared. She wanted to be with me, and not at home with her mom. She thought Kyle might come after her.”
Milo scribbled some more. “We checked Hettie’s phone records, Jesse.”
Jesse shrugged.
“She called you twice after you dropped her off at home. We can tell she made the first call at her house, and the second call outside your house.”
“Is that a question?”
“No, Jesse. But we are confused. Why would she call you at your house?”
Jesse shook his head slowly, staring at the table. “I don’t know why she did that.”
“Did you talk to her on the phone?” Milo asked.
Jesse looked at him. “The battery was screwed up on my phone. How could I have done that?”
“Okay.” Milo nodded and put down the pen. “Jesse, what clothing were you wearing the night you were at the bar?”
“A pair of jeans. A t-shirt. A Browning t-shirt.”
“Browning firearms?” Milo asked.
“Yeah.”
“You mind if we go into your house and take a look at that clothing?”
“You want to get into my client’s house you can get a warrant.”
Jesse seemed to like that remark from his lawyer because he nodded.
“We’re working on that, Jesse. Today. Just so you know, we will be searching your house. Probably right after our talk here. Later this afternoon”
Jesse sat still, his face calm.
“Are we going to find a .45 caliber handgun?”
“Nope.”
“Are we going to find Kyle’s blood on the clothing you wore Friday night?”
“No.”
“Are we going to find gunshot residue from that fifty-caliber rifle that shot Alexander Guild?”
“Nope.”
“Did you kill Alexander Guild?” Roll asked.
“No.”
“Did you kill Kyle Farmer?”
“No.”
“Do you know who did?”
“I don’t know.” Jesse chuckled to himself. “Maybe.”
Milo leaned forward. “What do you mean by that, Jesse? Maybe.”
“Well, somebody trying to make it look like me, right? I’ve had a lot of time to think about all this sitting here. And I’m thinking maybe it’s one of those two deputies of yours.”
“What two deputies?” Roll asked.
“Rod Triplett. Jimmy Sobeck. Jimmy was in the PTSD group with Hettie’s dad, wasn’t he? He has a pretty good motive to be shooting Alexander Guild.”
Wolf, Rachette, and Triplett looked down the window at Sobeck.
The man’s face had gone white. He was blinking rapidly and pointedly not turning to face them.
“And, I don’t know,” Jesse continued. “You don’t know those two, sheriff.”
Roll’s lips peeled back. “I don’t?”
“I mean, they hate us. Frickin’ hate us. Pulled me over for DUI a while back, made me eat dirt while they searched my car. I wasn’t even drunk.”
“Had you been drinking when they pulled you over?” Roll asked.
“I had, like, a beer. I wasn’t even driving funny. It w
as way over the top the way they were treating us.”
“Did they find anything in your car?” Roll sounded like he already knew the answer.
Jesse exhaled.
“Did they?”
Jesse said nothing.
“Because they told me they found some marijuana, a gun under your seat, and an open beer.”
Jesse fluttered his lips. “That was Kyle’s beer. I wasn’t drunk. It was over the top.”
They sat in silence for a good minute.
The lawyer cleared his throat. “If you three are done, I’d like to discuss dismissal of my client from this holding facility. You clearly have nothing on him.”
“We’re not ready to discuss that yet,” Roll said.
“Then you’ll need to charge him.”
Roll stood up. “We’ll be in touch soon.”
“That’s not good enough, Sheriff.” The lawyer stood, buttoning his jacket with a flourish.
“Thank you, Jesse,” Roll said, making for the door.
Milo got up slower and followed his superior out.
“How’s that warrant coming?” Roll asked his deputies.
They both seemed shell-shocked. Wolf and Rachette remained silent.
“Well?” Roll asked.
“We’ve been watching the interrogation, sir,” Triplett said.
Sobeck was still staring through the glass, eyes locked on Jesse.
“Let’s get out of here,” Roll said. “He’s not giving us shit. The way I see it, we can remedy all that easily enough. First, we get inside his house. We have the body, we have the slugs. We get into his house and we can maybe find that weapons. We can get that clothing he was wearing Friday night. If he shot Kyle, and then wrestled around with the body, wrapping him like a burrito with that tarp, then he’ll have blood on those jeans and t-shirt. He’ll have GSR all over it. Maybe we’ll find the boots he trudged around in.”
Triplett gave his partner a sideways glance and straightened. “Yeah.”
“Let’s go.” Roll left for the door.
“You believe what that shit bag just said in there?” Sobeck said.
They all stopped and looked at him. Sobeck’s skin was red, his mouth turned down. His eyes bore into the sheriff’s.
“Nope. Let’s go.” The sheriff walked out.
The rest of them followed, and Sobeck passed Wolf and Rachette as they marched down the hall, beating them out to the parking lot, Triplett following in stunned-looking silence.
