Chief Santiva's eyes said that he had every intention of entering and confronting the suspect.
Jessica eased him out of the room and closed the door behind her, leaving Keyes alone for a moment with the suspect. “Shannon's a lot easier on the eye and a great deal less threatening than you, Eriq, and with this guy, we need to be less threatening, not more. He's squirrelly and jittery as a starved cat,” Jessica told Santiva.
“ Oh, and you're not threatening, Jess?” asked Santiva, his eyes challenging her now.
“ I didn't say we shouldn't lean on the guy. Just trust me. I think Keyes might give us some insights we might otherwise miss.”
“ You told me you didn't need her help, remember?” he whispered just before she turned and reentered the interrogation room, closing the door on him.
Jessica felt great relief that Santiva hadn't managed to bully his way past her. He could easily have pulled rank, but perhaps even he knew that he'd have scared the hell out of the possible witness, and in doing so perhaps shut the frightened man completely down. So J. T., Santiva, and Richard now listened and watched via the one-way mirror, while the stranger, Keyes, took a bold run at the only man who might shed some light on what had happened to DeCampe.
'Tell us what you saw just prior to finding the purse, sir,” Keyes asked the man.
Jessica felt a stifling heat inside the interrogation room, and this, combined with the suspect's body odors, made her slightly ill. Beneath the layers of hair and dirt, Warren Paul Marsden had the facial characteristics of an aristocratic man who'd stepped out of time, and he was huge and daunting, even while sitting, where his head came up to Jessica's breastbone. With Jessica at almost six feet, this placed Marsden at nearly seven feet high, and yet this grisly Grizzly Adams look a like had somehow escaped the attention of the parking garage attendant? The question begged an answer, and it further corroborated a growing suspicion that the attendant was either on drugs and busy the entire night on a binge of his own, or knew a hell of a lot more than what he'd given up. Now that the attendant was reported dead, it appeared his secrets would never be revealed, making Mr. Marsden here even more valuable to the case.
“ You've got to tell us what you saw in the garage, Mr. Marsden,” Jessica began cajoling the man in her most encouraging tone.
Marsden's straight mouth twisted into a wry grin, and his keen, twinkling, intelligent eyes, which seemed at odds with his condition, traveled from one to the other of these people who were suddenly interested in him. “Been some time since somebody called me Mr. Marsden. Hell… one time it was Dr. Marsden. Was a choirboy before I lost everything. Model citizen, not a day of debt, and a nice home and Millie meeting me every night at the door with… with her unconditional love. She was all the family I had.”
“ I'm deeply sorry for your loss, sir,” Shannon Keyes offered.
He gulped back a tear and said, 'Funny how things turn on a dime.”
“ Isn't it so,” agreed Keyes.
Jessica had lost all patience with the man. She stood and paced around him, fuming, working to control her anger.
“ I was a school superintendent You believe that? Respected, you believe that? Not as if I expect you to, not looking at me now.”
“ Where was this, sir?” asked Dr. Keyes.
“ Everyone in Jasper, Georgia, held me in high esteem, even though they all called me a damn Yankee.”
“ Then you're not originally from Georgia. I didn't think so,” said Jessica from behind him.
“ You got that?” he asked. “How'd you know, no ac-cent?”
She frowned and from behind his back threw up her arms for Keyes to see.
Marsden continued spottily speaking. “I was born in Zion, Illinois. Went to college at Northwestern. Went through the ranks of teaching. Got my Ph. D. on the job. Took the position in Georgia. It was my dream… a dream come true, but it all came apart, as you can tell from my current situation.”
Jessica, having gotten hold of her anger, commiserated, saying, “I know how that goes. Things fall apart. Three years ago, I was on my back in a hospital, out of money, out of a job, shafted by my employer, when my hubby tells me he wants a divorce,” she lied.
“ Life sucks rocks, like the kids say, huh?” he replied, his eyes now fixed on Jessica, who had come around to face him while telling her make-believe tale of woe, designed to put them on the same side.
“ With me, it all went to hell when… when Millie… when she died.”
Keyes bit her lower lip and stared across at Marsden, who saw her struggling to hold back her emotions. “We're all very sorry to hear of your loss, Mr. Marsden,” she offered.
“ In my private time with Millie… well, she was all I had, my whole life outside the job, but I should've given her more of my time, you know?”
“ Sure… sure,” replied Jessica.
“ Should've devoted myself to her. She certainly did as much for me. Before the disease struck.”
“ Disease?” asked Shannon.
“ She contracted a rare disease. Blood disorder. Ripped my heart out to watch her slowly succumb. Doctors all said it was only a matter of time; best I could do was make her comfortable in the end.” Marsden rose as if under some invisible force. “She came into so much pain in the end, so I… I put her down myself, you see, and afterward… I couldn't just go on with life as if… as if everything were the same as before. No way of doing that…”
“ Easy, Marsden,” cautioned Keyes through clenched teeth, hissing, when suddenly the huge man came up out of his seat. Jessica had to reach up to put a hand on his shoulder, but she was right up with him, toe-to-toe, eye meeting eye. Something in Jessica's stem gaze caught firm hold of the lean giant, and he dropped back down into his seat, almost toppling it with the sudden impact of his weight against it.
Once righted, he allowed his legs to fully extend and relax beneath the table. With a shaking hand that he balled into a fist, he muttered, “I–I-I put a bottle of painkiller into her. A whole fucking bottle. Figured the more I used, the quicker and faster and less pain that way, you see?”
Keyes tried to get control back, saying, “You don't have to relive these events here and now, sir. We are only interested in what you saw in that parking garage at the courthouse where you stole that woman's purse.”
“ Millie… she went just as peaceful as nightfall then… after I took it on myself to… to… you know…”
“ I'm sorry for your loss, Mr. Marsden… really. But we have a situation on our hands here and now that requires our full and undivided attention. Do you understand?” Keyes firmly asked.
Jessica continued to be impressed by Keyes's approach.
Leaning into his space, Keyes added, “How you came to be in that parking garage, and how you took Judge DeCampe's purse off the floor and emptied it. That's what we're interested in here and now, sir.”
“ If we have your full cooperation, Mr. Marsden, you're outta here in the time it takes to answer a few questions.” Jessica's lie would have to suffice for now.
The others all knew that with a confession of having killed his wife, they would have to return Dr. Marsden to the Georgia judicial system, likely to stand trial for mercy killing.