Chapter 11

Fuck, fuck, and triple fuck!

We were no closer to identifying a suspect after the four interviews than we were when we were called to the scene. We knew three of the four had cause, couldn’t say for sure about the fourth, and our last interview presented a jealous boyfriend as our fifth person of interest.

“Let’s definitely go talk to the neighbor in the morning. We need to have pictures,” Jones said. “He said a cute red headed woman came over that morning. I’m wondering if the cutie we’re looking for is Sims, or if there’s another person we should be trying to find.”

“Could she have gotten a dye job to change her hair color? You know women, especially models, do shit like that – change their hair color and nails and whatever else they can think of. And if Sims did go over, why did she tell us she only talked to him on the phone?” I was full of questions and not one answer.

“I agree, but before we run over to see your good friend Mr. Buckley, let’s go back to the office and lay out a timeline and note as many significant details as we can remember from our interviews. We have to be missing something,” Jones replied. It was a really good idea. We needed to make sure we had our facts together and laid out in front of us.

The past couple of days had been long and tiring. But yesterday paled in comparison to this day. It was already past five o’clock and we weren’t close to leaving.

We went into the conference room where I pulled over the flip chart so we could begin the painful exercise of walking through the details of each interview.

We started with Mrs. Dupree. We made sure to write down the comments from others about her. The neighbor referred to her as a brazen bitch. Larissa MacDonald said she and her son were cut from the same cloth and were anything but calm. But after talking with her, I was struggling to understand why she would kill her husband. What motive could she have had, other than the cheating which she’d known about for months? He was cheating on her and she knew it, thanks to her son. With her secretary no less. She knew about the baby and that Chase was the father, but hadn’t mentioned much else about him. We’d have to revisit and ask her about that detail. She didn’t appear to need money, but we’d have to dig into her financials to know if that could have been a motive or not.

“I also want to ask her about the morning of the murder again. She said Effridge was sleeping next to her when she got up. I’m not so sure about that. If he was sleeping when she left, why were there two coffee cups in the kitchen? One of which had her name on it,” I said. “She said she left around seven to go home to get ready for work. She would need at least an hour to shower, do her hair, make-up, and get dressed, I would think. And then there’s the drive time. I think we need to find out her normal start time.”

“It takes me an hour to get ready in the mornings and I don’t have hair.” Jones laughed. “I’d be willing to bet she didn’t kiss him good-bye like the loving wife she tried to portray herself as, either.”

Next we moved on to Jonathan, Carlotta’s son. He hated Effridge. “He had plenty of reasons for murder. He hated this guy when he became seriously involved with his mother. Then Effridge stole his fiancé and got her pregnant. I think those two things, in his mind, became the number one and two reasons,” Jones said.

“And Larissa made sure to mention his quick temper and violence toward her. Then Calhoun tossed in some information on McKenzie Sims and Effridge that I’m sure he was planning to use to win Larissa back.” I couldn’t help but wonder if his rage toward Larissa was just a result of jealousy. Or heart break. Or was he hell-bent on living up to his promise that if he couldn’t have her, no man would?

I found myself alone to mull over the details of the last two interviews. Jones received a call from one of his brothers and he had to leave.

The meeting with Larissa was almost too perfect. But what would she have to gain from Effridge’s untimely death? Was she the beneficiary of a life insurance policy? Was there something else that would drive her to kill the man she claimed she loved? Maybe she found out about Sims but didn’t disclose that fact.

Then there was McKenzie Sims. A model who wasn’t in a great relationship, and loved the adoration and attention she received from Effridge. But she had a jealous boyfriend who had promised to kill her and the man she cheated with. Was it just a bluff? Was he just threatening her to control her? Or was he serious? Knowing that, Sims went out with Effridge again anyway, and was caught talking to him on the phone the morning he was murdered. Did she have anything to gain from the man’s death? Did her boyfriend fly off in a jealous rage and kill him?

After spending a few hours listening to the interview recordings, making sure I hadn’t missed anything, I left the charts, recordings, and Jones’ notepad on my desk. If I didn’t get some sleep, the next day would become a blur despite the number of cups of coffee I’d consume.