Goodbye to the Dead (Jonathan Stride Book 7)

by Brian Freeman

  ‘When you arrived at the defendant’s house, did you accompany her to her front door?’

  ‘Yes, I did.’

  ‘At that time, did you see Jay Ferris, the defendant’s husband?’

  ‘Yes, he came to the door and opened it.’

  ‘He was alive?’

  Cindy smiled faintly. ‘Yes, obviously.’

  ‘Did you see or hear anyone else in the house?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Were there any other cars in the driveway or parked near the house?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘What happened next?’

  ‘Janine went inside with Jay. He closed the door. I left.’

  ‘Before you left, could you hear any part of the conversation between the defendant and her husband?’

  ‘I heard loud voices. It sounded like an argument.’

  ‘Would you characterize this as a heated argument?’

  ‘I guess so, yes.’

  ‘Was there physical contact between them?’

  ‘Yes, Jay grabbed her wrist, and Janine pushed him away.’

  ‘Did you see or hear anything else?’

  ‘No, I left after that.’

  ‘As you left the house that night, Mrs. Stride, did you see anyone else?’

  ‘No. There was no one else there. I was alone.’

  ‘What about other cars?’

  ‘Mine was the only car.’

  ‘Did you see anything that raised your suspicions?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Thank you, Mrs. Stride. Now is it fair to say you consider the defendant a friend?’

  ‘Yes, it is.’

  ‘Do you see her regularly on social occasions?’

  ‘Yes, I do.’

  ‘Has the defendant ever shared any information with you about her perspectives on the state of her marriage?’

  ‘She told me that she considered her marriage to be a mistake,’ Cindy acknowledged.

  ‘Did she express an intent to seek a divorce?’

  ‘Yes, she did.’

  ‘On more than one occasion?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Mrs. Stride, in December of last year, did you ask the defendant about the status of a possible divorce from Mr. Ferris?’

  Cindy didn’t want to say it. She’d known the next question was coming. They’d gone over all of it in her statement to the police. Even so, she hated having to say it out loud, in a courtroom, with the jury listening. With Janine listening.

  ‘Yes. We had lunch, and I asked if she was going ahead with a divorce.’

  ‘What did she say?’

  Cindy opened her mouth, but her throat was too dry to speak. She reached for the water and drank.

  ‘Mrs. Stride? How did the defendant answer that question when you asked her if she was proceeding with a divorce?’

  ‘She said no.’

  ‘Do you remember her exact words?’

  ‘She said, “I wish I could, but Jay has me trapped.”’

  *

  Archibald Gale stood up to conduct the cross-examination.

  ‘Mrs. Stride, while you were driving Dr. Snow home from the party on January 28, did you stop the car at any point?’

  ‘Yes. Janine wasn’t feeling well. I stopped, and she got out and threw up.’

  ‘So she was a mess?’ Gale asked.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Mrs. Stride, if you threw up on the side of the road, what would you do when you got home?’

  Cindy smiled. ‘I’d take a shower.’

  ‘And what would you do with your clothes?’

  ‘I’d put them in the washing machine.’

  ‘Thank you. Now when you arrived at Dr. Snow’s residence and you saw Jay Ferris, did he have a gun?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘He wasn’t waving one in the air?’

  Another smile. She saw the jurors smiling, too. ‘No.’

  ‘What about Dr. Snow? Did she have a gun at the party?’

  ‘No, not that I saw. I mean, she had a purse, but it was tiny. It would have been noticeable if something as big as a gun were inside.’

  ‘Okay. And you say you left Dr. Snow’s house at approximately 9:45 p.m., is that about right?’

  ‘Yes, that would be about right. A couple minutes on either side of that.’

  ‘You have no idea what happened at the house after you left, do you?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘If a car drove up to the house thirty seconds after you turned onto Skyline Parkway, you would have no way of knowing that, is that right?’

  ‘That’s true.’

  ‘Thank you. Mrs. Stride, did Dr. Snow ever threaten her husband in your presence?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Did she ever tell you that she wished she could kill him? Or that she wished he was dead?’

  ‘No, nothing like that.’

  ‘Did she ever seem desperate to you about her marital situation?’

  ‘Janine? Desperate? No.’

  ‘Thank you, Mrs. Stride,’ Gale said. He began to sit down, but then he stopped. ‘Oh, I’m very sorry, could you tell the jury – did you have a frightening experience at Miller Hill Mall this spring?’

  Dan stood up immediately. ‘Objection, your honor. This line of questioning is outside the scope of direct examination, and it’s not relevant to the case.’

  Judge Edblad waited. ‘Mr. Gale?’

  ‘Your honor, the incident I’m asking about arose because of the witness’s relationship with Lieutenant Stride of the Duluth Police – a relationship that Mr. Erickson inquired about under direct examination. In addition, the incident arose because of Lieutenant Stride’s investigation into this specific case, which certainly makes it relevant.’

  ‘I’m overruling the objection,’ the judge replied.

  Gale continued to Cindy: ‘You can answer the question.’

  ‘I – yes, I did,’ Cindy said.

  ‘Please tell us what happened.’

  ‘I followed a man at the mall, and he confronted and threatened me. He had a gun.’

  ‘What was the nature of his threat?’

  ‘He said I shouldn’t stick my nose into his business. He said bad things happened to people who did that. And then he showed me a gun.’

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ Gale said. ‘What a terrifying experience for you. Please tell the jury, Mrs. Stride, why did you follow this man in the first place?’

  Cindy felt herself flushing. ‘I believed that he was a man that my husband, Lieutenant Stride, was looking for.’

  ‘Why did you believe that?’

  ‘I saw a set of photographs in a stack of evidence that Jonny – that Lieutenant Stride left on our kitchen table. The photos showed a man in the woods carrying an assault rifle, and there was a note about trying to find him. This looked like the same man.’

  ‘This stack of evidence that the Lieutenant brought home to study, do you know what case it was part of?’

  ‘Yes, it was evidence connected to the murder of Jay Ferris,’ Cindy said.

  Gale nodded as he sat down. ‘Thank you, Mrs. Stride.’

  *

  ‘Mrs. Stride, how long did you look at these photographs?’ Dan Erickson asked on his redirect examination.

  ‘A few seconds, I guess.’

  ‘Ten seconds? Twenty? Thirty?’

  ‘Closer to ten,’ Cindy admitted.

  ‘Were these crisp, clear, high-resolution photos?’

  ‘No, they were blurry.’

  ‘And how long after you saw these photographs did you follow this stranger at the mall?’

  ‘Several days.’

  ‘You saw a couple of blurry pictures for maybe ten seconds, and days later, you saw someone that you thought m
ight be the same man – do I have that right?

  ‘Yes,’ Cindy said.

  ‘Can you say for sure that this was the same man, Mrs. Stride?’

  ‘Not for sure, no.’

  ‘Thank you, Mrs. Stride. That’s all.’

  22

  Stride had sat in the same witness chair in the same courtroom many times before. Testifying in court was one of the few tasks for which he wore a suit. He owned only two suits, and today he wore the navy blue one, freshly dry-cleaned. He’d tried to tame his restless hair, and he’d shaved. Appearances mattered. Trials were about evidence, but they were also about perceptions. Finding facts meant deciding whom to believe. Whom to trust.

  Dan guided him through a review of his experience, including nearly twenty years with the Duluth Police and nearly ten in charge of the Detective Bureau. Stride talked about his background in felony investigations, including dozens of homicide cases. It was all prologue.

  ‘Lieutenant, were you called to the home of the defendant on the evening of January 28 of this year?’ Dan asked finally.

  ‘Yes, I was.’

  ‘Is this house located in the city of Duluth in St. Louis County?’

  ‘Yes, it is.’ Stride gave the specific address and described the location of the house. Dan introduced a map of the area enlarged on foam core, and Stride pointed out the residence and described the access in and out – specifically, that Janine’s home was located on a dead-end street at the summit of a sharp hill.

  ‘What did you find inside the house?’ Dan asked.

  ‘We found the body of Jay Ferris,’ Stride said. ‘He had a single gunshot wound to the forehead.’

  ‘Can you tell us exactly where the body was located?’

  ‘There’s a large marble foyer inside the front door that leads to the living room. The body of Mr. Ferris was located in the living room, approximately ten feet from the edge of the foyer.’

  Dan introduced photographs of the crime scene and an enlarged floor plan of the house. Stride identified the photos and matched them with positions on the floor plan for the jury. He also pointed out the wine glass found near Jay’s body and the other lipstick-smeared wine glass on the coffee table. He noted a pair of stiletto heels belonging to Janine that had been left on the floor of the foyer.

  ‘Did you find a gun near the body or in the house?’

  ‘No, we conducted a search of the area but did not locate the murder weapon.’

  ‘During your investigation, did you determine whether the victim, Jay Ferris, held a Minnesota permit to carry a handgun?’

  ‘Yes, he did.’

  ‘Did the defendant make a statement to you about whether her husband in fact owned a handgun?’

  ‘She claimed that Mr. Ferris used to own a handgun but that she made him get rid of it when they got married,’ Stride said.

  ‘Did you nonetheless uncover physical evidence during your investigation that Mr. Ferris continued to own a handgun long after his marriage to the defendant?’

  ‘Yes, Mr. Ferris’s brother provided us with a photograph that showed a gun in his possession.’ Dan introduced the photo of Jay and Clyde Ferris, and an enlargement showed a close-up of the portion of the gun visible in the holster.

  ‘Were you able to confirm when this photograph was taken?’

  ‘Yes, it was taken last October 27, three months prior to the murder.’

  ‘Were you able to locate this gun during your investigation?’ Dan asked.

  ‘No, we weren’t.’

  ‘Thank you, Lieutenant. Now when you arrived at the house that night, was the defendant present?’

  ‘Yes, Dr. Snow was there, along with her counsel, Mr. Gale.’

  ‘And did Dr. Snow make a statement to you with her counsel present?’

  ‘She did. Dr. Snow told us that she was dropped off at her house that evening by my wife. This was about 9:45 p.m. She told us that she had some wine with her husband, and they argued. She said she then left her husband to take a shower. Her bathroom is adjacent to her bedroom, two floors down from the living room. She was in the shower for a long time, she said, but she couldn’t tell us exactly how long. When she got out of the shower, she said she noticed that two drawers in a jewelry box in her bedroom were open, and several expensive items were missing. She told us that she went back upstairs and found her husband’s body.’

  ‘At that point, did the defendant tell you that she called 911?’ Dan asked.

  ‘No, she said that some time passed before she called the police.’

  ‘What did the defendant claim to be doing during this time?’

  ‘She said that she simply stared at her husband’s body,’ Stride said.

  ‘How much time passed between Dr. Snow’s arrival at her house that evening and the call to police?’

  ‘Approximately one hour. The actual 911 call was received at 10:47 p.m. A patrol car was at the scene within ten minutes.’

  ‘And do we have any way of knowing exactly when during that hour the shooting occurred?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Lieutenant, based on the evidence gathered in this investigation, and based on your extensive experience in these kinds of crimes, did you form an opinion about the truthfulness of the defendant’s statement?’

  ‘Yes, I concluded that her statement was not supported by the evidence.’

  ‘Please explain how you reached that conclusion,’ Dan said.

  Stride took a pointer and referred to the floor plans of Janine Snow’s house. ‘Dr. Snow alleged that her husband was killed as part of a home invasion and robbery. However, there was no sign of forced entry, and the door between the garage and the house was locked. So Mr. Ferris would have had to let an intruder inside voluntarily. Then the shooter would have needed to murder Mr. Ferris, proceed down two flights of stairs and along a hallway to the defendant’s bedroom, remove jewelry from her jewelry box, and return upstairs and escape.’

  ‘And this all would have had to happen in the time the defendant was in the shower?’

  ‘According to her statement, yes.’

  ‘Did you find other evidence to discredit the theory that an intruder came into the house?’ Dan asked.

  ‘Yes, there was no evidence of a fight or of defensive actions by Mr. Ferris. In addition, there was no physical evidence of an intruder in the house. The walkway to the front door was wet and dusted with dirt and gravel. Traces of snowmelt, dirt, and gravel were found in the marble foyer, but we didn’t find any “tracked” dirt on the living room carpet, on the stairs, or in the defendant’s bedroom.’

  ‘In your experience, Lieutenant, are persons who commit homicide and armed robbery typically gracious enough to remove their shoes before invading a house?’

  Stride suppressed a smile. ‘No.’

  ‘Lieutenant, let’s look at other possible explanations for the events that night. Did you run any chemical tests to determine whether the defendant fired a gun on the night of the murder?’

  Stride shook his head. ‘No. That would be standard procedure, but in this case, the defendant told us that she had taken a shower, which would have erased reliable evidence of chemical residue on her hands, body, and hair. She also washed the clothes she was wearing, which would have accomplished the same thing. In light of that, running gunshot residue tests would have been unrevealing.’

  ‘You didn’t find the murder weapon, Lieutenant,’ Dan went on, ‘so it must have been removed from the house?’

  ‘That’s correct.’

  ‘Did the defendant have time to hide a gun and jewelry outside the house before she contacted the police?’

  ‘Yes, she did,’ Stride said. ‘We conducted exercises in which a policewoman put clothes in the washing machine, showered, and then drove from the defendant’s house to separate locations to secrete evidence and then drove b
ack to the house. We ran that exercise several times, and in no instance did it take longer than thirty minutes. Sometimes, it took less than twenty minutes. So yes, she had time.’

  ‘Now did you tell us that the defendant admitted to arguing with Mr. Ferris on the night of the murder?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did she say what the argument was about?’

  ‘No, but she said they argued about everything.’

  ‘Did she give other indications of trouble in their marriage?’

  ‘Yes, in a later statement, she admitted to an affair with a former police officer named Nathan Skinner.’

  ‘Did you subsequently interview Mr. Skinner?’ Dan asked.

  ‘I did.’

  ‘And did he provide you with any physical evidence related to the defendant’s knowledge of handguns?’

  ‘Yes, he provided me with a photograph of Dr. Snow at a gun range, where she is in the process of firing a revolver.’

  Dan introduced the photograph of Janine at the range, which was presented to the jury. More than anything else, Stride knew that the real impact of the photograph was Janine’s expression. Confident. Assured. Almost aroused. She knew how to fire a gun, and she liked it.

  ‘Based on your interview with Nathan Skinner, did you also learn that the defendant owned property in addition to the home where she resided with Mr. Ferris?’

  ‘Yes, we discovered that she owns an apartment on Michigan Street in downtown Duluth.’

  ‘Did you conduct a search of this apartment?’

  ‘We did. We discovered a cache of prescription pain medications. There were nearly five hundred pills in fifteen bottles, made up of medicines such as Percocet, Oxycontin, and Vicodin.’

  ‘Did the defendant subsequently admit to you that these pills belonged to her?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Were the prescriptions in her name?’

  ‘No, the prescriptions were all in the name of Holly Jorgenson. She acknowledged that this was a fictitious patient she created to obtain pills for herself illegally.’

  ‘Lieutenant, did you find that fictitious patient name significant?’

  ‘Yes, the defendant’s husband, Jay Ferris, published a column in the Duluth News-Tribune last July about a prescription drug addict named Holly. The column threatened public exposure of this information.’