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CHAPTER 11 - THURSDAY: MORE QUESTIONS
Mr. Swier and the detective are back downtown.
“Well Gary, I want to thank you for coming in to see me again,” Cromwell opens.
“Detective, although you may have your own purposes in mind for bringing me in here, I also have a reason, and I plan to be faithful in doing my part to better explain this situation to you.”
“Sure, but right now, I’m leading the class. How long were you and Julie together before you got married?”
“Just a year. Actually, we got married on the one year anniversary of when I first asked her out,” Gary answers.
“That’s pretty quick… You must have thought she was the one.”
“She was the one, Detective.”
“And just how long were you married before the mur… ah, sorry, the accident?” Cromwell purposely fakes a mistake to attempt to anger Mr. Swier.
“It was just over two years. Actually, I thought that we were kind of celebrating it the night of the accident, but Julie had other plans.”
Cromwell is already deep in thought on how to proceed, and is barely listening.
“Yeah, that would mean you were only with her for three years then, and that was more than a decade ago. How many relationships have you had since then?”
“Mostly just one, the most important one.”
“Really? Even more important than your previous marriage, huh?”
“Absolutely Detective. It’s my relationship with my Lord, Savior, and God.”
Cromwell scoffs and smirks at Mr. Swier.
“Gary, I am trying to be serious, you know what I meant. Playing around isn’t going to help you in this case. You are facing murder conspiracy charges, remember?”
“Detective, I am serious, but I’m not trying to help me. It’s the other man in the room I’m worried about.”
After a momentary pause, Cromwell smiles.
“Cute, real cute. Look, don’t worry about me, I’m just fine. Now, back to the question at hand, Mr. Swier, if you please.”
“I have had no other intimate relationship with any other woman since the death of my wife. I am a single widower.”
“Do you want to know what I think?” Cromwell skips the pause normally inserted to await a reply and continues on, “You realized very quickly after getting married that you were not interested in living the married life. You did not like your new role as a husband and began to resent your wife. Perhaps it was something with your church friends, or maybe you just didn’t want to see her response to your decision, but you ruled divorce out and went for the more appropriate solution of ‘til death do we part. Then all you needed was the plan, a perfect plan to get away clean and get back to your free life on your own. Any of this sounding familiar, Gary?”
Cromwell switches back to sneering his name in an attempt to rile Mr. Swier up.
Mr. Swier shakes his head and looks up at Cromwell.
“Not yet Detective, but I’m sure it will next time you pull me in here. I loved Julie incredibly, and was really looking forward to our life together, but I had to put that behind me after the accident. Those years we were married were the best part of my life.”
“Sure, they must have been so good that you never wanted to marry again, or even date. You must have enjoyed having a woman around so much that you’ve never even considered it since. I guess that makes sense.”
“Look, I made a vow to Julie that I would never love another, and I intended to keep that vow… still do.” Gary gently smiles, reminiscing. “The way I see it, Detective, If the Lord had wanted me to be a husband and raise a family, that’s what I would be doing, but unfortunately, we both know what happened.”
Glaring at Mr. Swier, Cromwell sneers, “I do not believe everyone would see it that way, but I’m glad you pretend that it works for you. It will give me that much more satisfaction when I put you away for what you two did to her.”
Cromwell pauses and peers across the table at Gary, “Speaking of you two, when did you really meet Ray?”
“The truth doesn’t change. I saw him at the accident momentarily, and then eventually went to visit him in jail.”
“I don’t suppose you went to the trial then, probably wouldn’t have been the best place to thank Ray for all his hard work.”
“You know, Detective, I willingly took you up on your invitation to come down here, and I have no problem with leaving whenever you push me too far. I appreciate your concern as to what really happened with my wife’s death, but it is all in the original police report. “
“Well Gary, unfortunately I can’t buy that right now, but I am deeply concerned. How long have you had your job?”
“What!?! Man, you’re all over the place. About 13 years I guess. I got it just before Julie and met.”
“Another strange coincidence, too bad. You do realize that Ray lived just around the corner from your office before the accident, right?”
“Yeah, I guess three blocks away or so, why?”
“Well obviously you must have run into him around the neighborhood sometime. He probably passed by sometime while you were enjoying your lunch dessert at the ice cream place. He must have looked like the perfect patsy. A young angry kid, obviously full of angst and hatred and resentment,” Cromwell smiles again and winks at Mr. Swier.
The detective is really starting to creep him out now.
“I told you, I NEVER EVEN SAW RAY BEFORE THE ACCIDENT!”
“Anytime you want to change your story, just let me know, because I think I already know what happened. I can almost see it now…” Cromwell says as he begins to visualize and narrate the scenario to Mr. Swier.
“I can see you sitting down outside the ice cream shop finishing the last of your vanilla cone. As you get up to throw your napkin away, you hear a loud bang behind you. You spin around to see a young, frustrated Ray who just kicked a garbage can into the street. You pocket your napkin and start to approach Ray as he storms by.
“Hold up a minute! Are you all right?” you ask as you catch up to Ray. Ray stops and turns.
“What do you want?” He growls.
“I just wanted to make sure you’re doing OK, or to lend a sympathetic ear if you wanted to talk or vent to someone,” you answer.
“What do you care? You don’t even know me!” Ray snaps back.
Then you say something like, “I don’t need to know you to be concerned,” and Ray opens up from there.
As Ray began to tell you his sob story, the abusive, alcoholic dad, the passive punching bag of a mother, the failed attempts at running away, your gears must have started turning. Somehow, you must have eventually steered the conversation to your wonderful plan to help him. He must have voiced the option of killing his dad, but you would have talked him out of it. Not that you were concerned about the old man’s life, he probably deserved it more than your wife anyway, but you knew you could use this kid. You probably explained that by killing his dad he would destroy his mom, since both of her men would be gone then, her husband dead and her son in prison.
But, there was a better way.
You must have explained that no matter where Ray tried to run, his dad would always be able to find him and bring him back, but prison could prevent that. Ray’s mom could probably deal with him being locked up as long as she still had her husband to distract her. I don’t know what you told him to talk him into taking your wife out, but it must have been incredibly cunning.
Maybe preventing her from dying slowly from a lengthy battle with cancer or a brain tumor or something, but I bet he thought a mercy killing would help Julie out in the long run and get him out of his dad’s reach for long enough. I mean, he must have thought it was a good idea, he went along with it didn’t he?
After you finished convincing him, you just had to wait for the right time. A little rain... a T intersection… a perfectly placed car… oh yeah, and a little alcohol.” Looking Gary dead in the eyes, Cromwell adds, “They don’t call it liquid courage for nothing do they?”
Mr. Swier just stares in disbelief.
Cromwell asks “Who’s going to win, anyway?”
Partially puzzled, Gary asks, “You mean me or you?”
“NO. I mean you or Ray. If I let him know that you clued me in to what really happened but hadn’t cut a deal yet, I bet he’ll choose it’s your turn this time, not his again. Am I right?”
“I think Ray knows me well enough to not be foolish enough to believe that, and I think he knows the Lord well enough to only tell you the truth, so I guess if you’re sticking to your conspiracy theory about my wife’s death, then you lose.”
“Not yet, big guy. How exactly is it that you can be so completely distant from what you say was the best part of your life? How is it that with so much of your life missing, there is not the slightest sign of a hole in you?”
Gary compassionately looks across at Cromwell.
“Tough questions have tough answers, Detective. I’m not sure if you really want me to answer that one.” Gary pauses, but Cromwell just stares, so he continues, “You lost someone too, didn’t you.”
Immediately Cromwell tenses up and is now a rigid rock of a man.
The intense glare eventually subsides and he shares, “I lost them all… They are gone, and I’m here.”
“It’s hard, man, but there is hope. There are answers. I know what you are dealing with,” Gary offers.
The rock glares back momentarily before rising and violently pointing a finger across the table at Gary.
“YOU HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT ANYTHING!!!” the volcano erupts.
“I loved that woman so incredibly. She was everything! And he was perfect! The best kid ever. Nine short years completely vanished in a night, and the love of my life was forever removed. Just a painful memory of a life that never existed. Do you have any idea what it’s like to stay late just to finish a presentation and come home to a dead, empty, cold, corpse of a house? Door left open, lights off, window broken, family murdered?” Cromwell stops screaming and pants heavily.
“No suspect, no fingerprints, no leads, no help, no justice. Just dead ends and rabbit trails. I never wanted any of this. Do think I enjoy talking to liars, thieves and murderers all day, Gary? I hate creeps like you! I hate them all. Crafty, deceitful little weasels! All of you. The very bottom of the bottom. The worst the world has to offer. That’s my life now! No more love and affection and joy and happiness! Now I just chase filthy rats from one crime scene to another, and you rats never stop coming!”
“My life was perfect! It lacked nothing! We had the house and the car. My son and I would play and go fishing all the time. My wife couldn’t have been any better. She was the only woman who ever loved me like that, and one night she’s slaughtered while I’m busy preparing to pitch some new development plan?”
“I had just talked to her. They were still warm when I got home. He had just been right there! And they never found him, Gary. Just another one of you running around guilty for years now, continuously eluding justice. That’s why I get to deal with jerks like you now. Someone has to do a better job than those clowns working on their case. And I’m great at it. I catch them all, Gary, and you’re next! But no matter how many I put away, I can never find the one I’m looking for. He’s still free. They’re dead, he’s free, and I’m here with you!!! With you, the exact opposite of all that I am and all that I stand for!!!”
“Cromwell we really aren’t that different…” Gary begins.
“Shut up! You don’t know love, you don’t know sacrifice, you don’t know suffering!”
“My life is suffering. I think that we have brought together by the Lord to comfort each other.”
Cromwell’s face is distraught and menacing.
“We have been brought together so that you can pay for what you did. I know this “Lord” of yours too. A while after we married, my wife started getting into all that. Reading the Bible and going to church. She was always telling me how happy the Lord made her, and then she was ripped open and butchered while she was waiting for me. I wasn’t there to protect, and her precious Lord apparently wasn’t either. You would think that someone as wise and powerful as He is could have stopped just two little murders don’t you?”
Gary is unresponsive, carefully evaluating how to proceed.
“DON’T YOU!?!” Cromwell spits and slams his fist on the table.
“You don’t understand what awaits a believer after death. Jesus has taken away all fear of death and of the grave. He offers us-“
“Can it, Saint Bernard! I’ve heard that all before, you miserable little fake. Don’t you think I can see what you’re up to? This little game you’re playing? Distracting me from the issue at hand?”
“I’m not playing any games. This hope is real. If what you say is true about your wife, she’s with my Julie right now in heaven-“
Cromwell flies across the table and slams Gary’s head against it. Without hesitation or missing a beat he is holding his pistol tight to the man’s temple.
“Not afraid of death, huh? Count to three, Hotshot! You wanna see Jesus?”
Gary is wincing slightly, but says nothing.
“Come on,” Cromwell eggs, “I’ll get you started. One…Two…”
Another pause.
“Your turn Gary. Show me this confidence you have. Where is your absence of fear now?”
“Detective, you can do as you see fit, but please don’t ruin your life.”
“My life, Gary? It’s yours that is in limbo right now!”
“My life will go on, but yours will be forever changed. Please think about what you are doing? How long do you think you’d last-“
”How long will you last, Gary. You stinking dirt bag. Let’s hear you say three. God’s waiting for you right?...”
Cromwell looks upward as he mentions God, and notices the camera pointing at him.
The gun disappears back into his jacket as he stands and rounds the table, back to his side.
Gary slides off the table onto the floor, surprised by the sudden lack of pressure being applied to him.
After a moment he stands, and painfully looks across at Cromwell.
“I sincerely hope that you will allow the Lord to forgive you for this, Detective.”
“Ha!” is all that Cromwell says as he spins and leaves the room.
He rapidly makes his way down the hall to the computer room thinking, “Who cares about him, I have got to erase that recording now!”
THE END OF CHAPTER 11
TO READ THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS, CLICK BELOW:
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 2: THE FUNERAL
CHAPTER 3: MONDAY, & FREEDOM
CHAPTER 4: TUESDAY
CHAPTER 5: INTERROGATION
CHAPTER 6: PROBATION
CHAPTER 7: RAY’S TURN
CHAPTER 8: ICE CREAM
CHAPTER 9: LATE NIGHT
CHAPTER 10: WRESTLING
MY NAME IN PEPPERS
(I didn't have any lights....)
Thank you, and stay tuned for LOVE LIKE HIS : Chapter 12 - Coming soon to a steemit near you
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