Kill the Ones You Love

by Robert Scott

  “Exactly, and we deal with that a bunch.”

  Gabe added, “The world should say, ‘There’s plenty of food to go around. There’s plenty of love. There’s plenty of everything.’ I don’t see why you can drive downtown, where you have a lot of people going hungry, and they’re throwing food away.”

  Troutner once again said he grew up in the Seattle area, and wanted to know why Gabe and his family had gone up there just before the shootings. Gabe said, “There’s no ulterior motive. I’m sure there’s some suspicions on that. You know, like maybe we had contacts.” And then he angled off again, “But God knows everything, and so did Nostradamus a long time ago. I don’t really think he was a prophet. I think he probably robbed a prophet and stole his writings and started making money off it.

  “You know, John, sitting on the island, was shown a whole hell of a lot. And I’m going to tell you the rest of the story. So you all know what’s going to happen, but you’re going to die before it does.” Gabe was alluding to the Book of Revelation. “I mean, you ain’t got M. Night Shyamalan making a movie right now, so I’ll just show it to you. Well, it’s like fiery wheels spinning. And it’s like someone’s telling me this stuff. But his name ain’t Fahad, and he ain’t no Arab, and it ain’t no Asian guy. It is a loving Creator, who would really love His children to know what they’re gonna do in themselves, not what He’s going to do to them. And it’s all a bunch of children who don’t want to know. Now, most people are going to say, ‘This guy’s a lunatic, ’ unless they meet me and sit down and have a chat. I’m kinda nutty, but, you know, I’ve seen nutty, and that ain’t it. All three of us have seen it, and you know you’re not looking at it. As a matter of fact, you probably know someone that lives in your neighborhood and they’re a hell of a lot nuttier than me. Probably eight people in this department, and we don’t need to confirm that.”

  Troutner laughed and said, “Yeah, I can touch that.”

  Gabe continued, “At least, we can have a laugh, because that’s the truth. So, how does anybody know anything? How did anybody learn anything? How does someone learn how to make a car? How does someone learn to have the balls to stand up and say, ‘My gosh, this slavery’s getting’ a little too old? Let’s march right to D.C. and talk about this shit right in the open.’

  “How do people get the inspiration? They get to a level of desperation when things get to be too much. Guess what? When you rub the lamp, the genie does show up. You know we can argue and say that the Catholic Church is true, this church is true, that church is true. Any human being that drops to their knees in humility and cries out for some help and some knowledge is gonna get it. And what they do with it is up to them. If they want to sell it and dance up on a stage and sing it and make their money, they can. Then that’s their reward. A lot of people like yourselves use your talents, and I fairly think this occupation could pay you a whole hell of a lot more for what you’re doing. And give you better medical insurance, but you do it because you’ve got the heart to serve. And I bet you anything, you guys have been inspired on cases plenty of times.”

  Coady agreed with that, and Gabe went on. “Sometimes something catches your eyes. And you go, ‘Oh, my gosh, I wouldn’t have noticed that at all.’ But then you go on. We all have lives. We all have bills to pay. We—”

  Coady may have had enough of this rambling and asked, “So, how’d you get out here from Oregon?”

  Gabe said, “Drove. You want to get a map? I’ll tell you the route.”

  Coady replied, “What were some of the highlights? What did you see on the way?”

  Gabe whistled and replied, “We stopped in a place and it was like an Indian relic. And we dropped in there and had a really awesome conversation with a gal that was trying to buy the place. And we felt what people were feeling out there. I mean, I know you guys feel what your wife is feeling sometimes. You walk in the door and you already know what she’s feeling before you start talking.”

  Gabe would not stick to the subject of what route they had taken to Virginia. Instead, he said, “There’s a reason ninety percent of our brain isn’t working. Most people aren’t quite ready when you’re even using twenty-one percent of it. And if someone develops that talent, they usually get them in the lab and create a nice form and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to create pure energy.’ And then they make a big-ass bomb with it and blow up two towns. Built with really cool people, I’m sure. So listen, I’m no terrorist. I have a plan. I have no bombs. I have nothing I’m going to drop on anyone. We can do a lie detector test on that.”

  Coady said, “I don’t think either one of us would accuse you of something like that.”

  “I know. My trip was to go to New Mexico and show Jessica and Kalea a little bit of the countryside. We stopped at a couple of churches, met some people and attended a service.” Interestingly, Jessica would not mention this later. “Went to a restaurant and listened to people’s stories. Saw a guy asking for a ride on the side of a street, cold fella waiting for the bus or something. And I said, ‘Hey, man, let me give you a ride. Where you going? Tell me about the town. How’s the economy here?’ And I gave the guy a White Castle burger. It was like thirty-nine cents. And, my gosh, he thought I was the Savior. I don’t think there’s probably a human being in town who couldn’t have spent fifty cents on at least one bum for a White Castle burger. I mean, where was that guy going to go and get any kind of job? You can’t go to a store and beg for help, because people will just turn up their noses and they won’t help.

  “You can’t go to your cousin’s, because your cousin’s got the same problem. So, what do you do? You can’t go to the countryside and farm. So you’re stuck and nobody is out there caring. And you know what? I see Melissa Etheridge telling us we need to spend eight dollars a month to feed our doggies and kitties. But what about that dude right there? I see people giving charity funds for Haiti. I mean, they’re God’s children. But Tom down at the White Castle, he just needs to get some gas money to get a job in a better state.”

  To all of this, the detective just kept saying, “Mmm-hmmm,” to keep Gabe talking.

  “Jesus often said when he was here, ‘Man, this isn’t my job this time around. But, boy, I’ll tell you what. There’s something waiting on the other side that isn’t happy with the way you treat each other and women, especially women.’ And that’s the world we live in. It’s going to get worse. We have an economy right now where there are three organizations powering us—gas, food and electricity. And in law enforcement, you guys are doing an excellent job. I swear you’re overworked, man. The tide coming in at you is just going to get worse. Because you’ve got a whole lot of lions who ain’t got enough food for their kids. So they’re just going to be jacking each other.

  “What happens, hypothetically speaking, is China pulls off trade and says, ‘We don’t make shit for you anymore. We’re not going to supply your plastic, your peanuts. We ain’t gonna make your shirts. We ain’t gonna make your shoes. We ain’t gonna make nothin’ for you.’ Who’s going to make it for us? Mexico? I mean, we’ve got plenty of them over here doing our jobs, anyway. Have we got a populace that is going to be willing to get paid three-fifty an hour to do that?

  “Which means you guys aren’t going to have cell phones, because the public doesn’t give much of a damn about you. And you’re not going to have the technology. You’re not going to have what you need. And so, hypothetically speaking, there doesn’t need to be terrorist acts to cause trouble here.

  “It’s just people being fed up. So don’t be telling me you should be buying stuff made in America. You can’t buy it. Guess where I shop, gentlemen. The clothes I’ve got, the shoes I’ve got—Walmart. They’re Chinese. The president doesn’t say it’s getting better. The governors aren’t saying it’s getting better, except for Schwarzenegger, who’s going to legalize marijuana and he’s hoping that’s gonna boom the economy. But that’s a joke. So it isn’t going to get better.

  “People want more and
more stuff and want to do less and less and less. I mean, you’ve seen this civilization. That’s why we go to history. I don’t have to sit down here and say, ‘I’m a prophet of God.’ I’ve read my history books. I mean, this is exactly the climate in almost every major civilization when things started to go seriously downhill. So this isn’t a conversation of what I’m guilty of. This is a conversation between three men about what’s coming and it’s predictable. I mean, an intelligent human being could predict it.

  “The big one is coming. But it isn’t God punishing His children. Like people want to believe He’s super angry. Is He angry? Yes, yes, you would be angry if something happened to your children too. And you would lose control, or humble yourself for the rest of your life. One or the other. I would strongly suggest you pick the first one. You’ll feel a hell of a lot better about yourself about it. I guarantee you.”

  And now Gabe got to a point where he couldn’t even string together a coherent sentence. “If I get to live, I’ll bet you anything . . . I’ll meet a new friend. I don’t care how violent or ugly they are. I mean, Dad threw me in the ocean, man, let’s dance. Who cares if that guy don’t love Jesus? He gives me permission to say okay. But that is reserved for His . . . whatever. I mean, my plan is to love everybody. I love you two guys. If we met under different circumstances, you would all be real happy you met me. If I met you in a bar, I’d buy you ten shots. I’ve been in your seat. I used to pull people over and tell them that their car matches the description of stolen circus monkeys. I saw the damn tail on the back.”

  Troutner laughed at that comment.

  Coady said, “You spent time as a cop. And you know what it’s like to wear the uniform. I’m just wondering if the night Robert and your mom walked in the house, that this confrontation happened—if there was a police officer walking in with them, would that have happened the same way, or do you think it would’ve been different?”

  Gabe said, “It depends on what cop walked in with ’em.”

  Coady stated, “Well, just hypothetically speaking, what would have happened?”

  “I think if a cop walked in and Bob reached for the gun, and made me make the same decision, I’d be safe from all this crap because the cop would have shot him. I’d thank goodness, because now I can hang with my daughter and have a life, or different life, or whatever. But you know, that didn’t happen.”

  Then Gabe laughed and said, “Unless Robert Kennelly is a cop. Boy, that’d be crazy, wouldn’t it?”

  Troutner said to Gabe, “Okay, when we pulled you guys over, in part of the car, we found a nine-millimeter casing. The gun we found was a Beretta nine-millimeter. So, obviously, a round had been expended at some point.”

  Gabe said, “Oh, gosh. Out in the desert. I wanted to make sure the gun worked.” (Author’s note: Gabe’s admission was at variance with Jessica’s saying that he shot at an embankment near a home in Ohio.)

  “What state was that in?”

  Gabe replied, “I can’t remember. But you know, I’m a bright fellow, and if I think it’s massively important to take a good look at something and memorize it, like anatomy or physiology, because I need to understand those things, or better understand the world, I pay a lot more attention.” And then Gabe asked, “Has anybody else been damaged, hurt? No. And if they had, I would tell you.”

  Troutner said, “So there’s not going to be any more shell casings showing up? Because you know they’ve got the national computer database. So, how many times did you shoot it out there?”

  Gabe said, “Maybe two.”

  “This is not going to show up at a robbery scene?”

  “No, no, no, no, no.”

  Coady asked, “So your adventure through the country has been crime free?” Coady and Troutner already knew about the two robberies.

  Gabe shaded his answer. “Harmless. I’ve hurt nobody. Nobody has been hurt with the gun. I’ve done no damage. I’ve done nothing to anybody, except tell them I love them.”

  Coady said, “Where’d you get your money? That’s expensive traveling around.”

  Gabe replied, “Begging. Jessica was very humble and I was too. I’d go over and say, ‘Hey, bud, I’m hurting for gas and I’m trying to get a job, heading south.’ Usually to truckers. You know, guys that have been traveling and probably have secrets of their own. You look them right in the eye and you’ll probably see what they’re seeing. And they say, ‘Yeah, I got some money for you.’ Not a lot. Spend enough time at the gas station and ask enough people to get gas, and off you go.”

  Then Gabe said, “Specific questions? Shoot it. Go straight to the point. You guys got questions or anything else out there that you want to know. I’m gonna tell you.”

  Coady asked, “When you guys left that night in Oregon, who drove?” Coady already knew that Jessica had driven away from the Eschlers’ home.

  However, Gabe lied to him, straight-faced, and said, “I drove.”

  “Um, does Jessica even know the people who gave you the car?”

  “No, not really.”

  “She had never been there before?”

  “No, not to that house. Those people were at our wedding, like seven or eight years ago.”

  Troutner asked, “If we hadn’t caught up with you today, where do you think you would have ended up in the next few days?”

  Gabe replied, “I really knew you were catching up, so I don’t know.”

  Troutner said, “Something going on down South?”

  And Coady added, “Family or something in Florida?”

  Gabe answered, “No. You know what? We talked about possibly going on a road trip with Doug, and said, ‘Hey, where would you like to go?’ And that was hypothetical. We even thought about staying here. I thought about finding a place for Jessica and Kalea, and seriously was thinking about turning myself in, finding an environment where I could walk straight into a police department, hands on the table, and say, ‘Gentlemen, my name is Gabriel Christian Morris. Let’s talk about what I’ve done.’

  “And I’d tell them, ‘You probably want to put some cuffs on me and put me in one of these rooms and let’s have a chat.’ You know, I almost did that in San Diego. But I didn’t feel comfortable that Jessica—well, Jessica does what I tell her to do, because I’m intimidating. I mean, if you’ve got a guy who just shot two people, and he told you to get in a car, you’re going to get into the car. That type of woman is going to get into a car, especially if you’ve got a four-year-old girl. You’re terrified—wouldn’t you be? So that’s the case with her.

  “Because when you hear that girl’s story, man, she’s an honest girl. Who is ever talking to her, she’ll tell them everything. She’s as clear about things as I am. And I truly believe that Kalea is more than most parents can handle. People put their kids in day care, and they’re not there intently listening to what they say. So Kalea is going to end up in day care or with some parents who give her Ritalin because she is so much. That girl is insanely bright, insanely fast, insanely quick on the take. Very aware of what’s going on around her. And she listens. And I meant that ain’t LSD or smoking some weed. That’s a girl praying to God, and guess what, man? You’ve got . . . you’ve got spiritual something in there—”

  Coady interrupted and said, “Speaking of kids, there’s going to be a CPS worker talk to you. Just who can call for Kalea and that sort of thing.”

  Hearing about Child Protective Services, Gabe said that was fine.

  Troutner added, “Our priority’s been her this whole time. They’re coming up with a safety plan for her, and she’s going to be taken care of.”

  Gabe said, “You guys are fantastic. I would really like, no joke, and this ain’t no bullshit. . . . It’s probably going to sound crazy comin’ from the main suspect, but the gentleman who made that stop on me, and commanded me back, I mean he was fan-fucking-tastic. He did not treat me roughly. He knew I was complying. He paid real attention. He was conscientious. While he was giving me the command, he had cont
rol of a lot of edgy dudes. He was calming people down while giving me directions, had dogs barking, had me on the ground, had me completely under control, was talking to me, talking to you guys. That guy was a pro.”

  Coady answered, “There are a lot of good people here.”

  Gabe wistfully said, “I wish I could have gotten a job here ten years ago.”

  All Troutner had to say to that was “Hmm.” Then Troutner added, “You know there’s no allegations or suspicion of you guys doing anything wrong with the child. But you’re both in custody, so we have to come up with a safety plan. We already talked to your wife and she said it was okay if her parents came and picked up the child, for the time being. She’ll be with someone that you guys trust and everything.”

  To this, Gabe said, “If Jessica feels that’s the solution, then that’s the solution.”

  After that, Gabe was led away to a jail cell. For Coady and Troutner, it must have been one of the most memorable interviews they had ever conducted.

  CHAPTER 26

  Around that same time, Judy Ward was being interviewed by Investigator Bill Fugate. Fugate was an OSP detective and he told Judy, “We’re getting a lot of details here and just want to let you know that we’re just trying to get a better light from talking to you and your boyfriend.”

  Judy corrected him and said that Doug was her husband. They just had different last names. Bill acknowledged that and added, “We’re just trying to piece this all together. You’re here as a witness, not a suspect, and you’re free to leave whenever you want.”

  The first thing Fugate wanted to know was how Judy first came in contact with Gabriel Morris. She told him that she’d known of Gabe since September 2009, when they first “met” on the game Perfect World. They, of course, hadn’t met in real life, only on the Internet. She said she had checked her log on that; the last time they had been on the computer to each other was on January 26, 2010.

  She explained, “It was in a game and I sent him two e-mails, one the first week and one a couple of days after he didn’t log in, after January twenty-sixth. It was, like, ‘Where’d you go? What happened?’ And he replied on the day before Valentine’s Day, so that made it February thirteenth.”