Chapter 2

We saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith come into the building. We asked them both to come with us and placed them into separate rooms. Bobbie and I both went into the room with Carly. Bobbie was going to do the talking since she had talked to her previously.

First Bobbie read Carly her rights. We wanted to make sure that she knew that they could have an attorney present. She said she didn't have anything to hide.

"Why am I here? I've told you all I know. I told you about the affair and everything. What do you want from me?" We could tell she was extremely nervous. "Bob wanted to know if I did something wrong since you called us both down here. You told me he would never find out."

"Mrs. Smith, we have been reviewing your statements and have a few questions for you. But, first we have a few questions about your past," replied Bobbie.

"My past? What about my past? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Carly, we were wondering why you and your family left Kentucky. It's no use lying to us; we had your information forwarded to us. According to the report your husband was charged with Assault and Battery, is that correct?"

"Yes, he was found innocent. He was just protecting me. Brett was going to rape me and Bob stopped him. Bob was found innocent."

"Let's see, according to the report, you were at your school reunion and you and Bob went to your room. You weren't sleepy and decided to go down into the game and weight room and go in the spa. Is that correct so far?"

"Yes, but what are you getting at?"

"Just bear with us. We are looking at your report," said Bobbie. "Apparently your old boyfriend happened to be there also, and started to make a pass at you."

"He was going to rape me. We were sitting in the spa and he put his hands on me. I told him, 'No' over and over but he was overpowering me. He kept trying to kiss me and he had his hand inside my swimsuit bottom and was trying to finger me. I was lucky that Bob showed up and grabbed Brett and beat him up. Brett was taken to the hospital and they arrested Bob for assault. The judge threw the case out."

"Carly, why did you wait to file attempted rape charges? According to the investigation you didn't file charges against Brett till the DA had assault charges filed against Bob."

"I wasn't sure what to do. Bob told me I should file the charges against Brett to help his case. It's the reason that he assaulted Brett, because he was trying to rape me."

"According to the court documents, you both decided to drop your charges if the whole mess would just go away. Is that true?"

"Yes, our attorney said that Brett was willing to drop the assault charges against Bob if I would drop the attempted rape charge against him."

"Is that part of the reason you moved to Ohio, to leave the mess behind?"

"Bob was offered a job here with a nice raise in salary. We thought this would be a great place to raise our family. We love it here."

"Does Bob get jealous of you or does he get mad when other men look at you?"

"I don't quite know how to answer that. I love Bob and he loves me. He takes a medication for stress. If he forgets to take them or drinks alcohol, he gets loud or aggravated. He's been really good about taking his medication for quite a while now. He's always under a lot of stress."

"Carly, about the day you were with Wayne."

"I already told you everything. I'm not going to sit here and repeat it on a tape recorder."

"Carly, we just need some clarification and also your fingerprints."

"Fingerprints? For what? I told you he was there for Christ's sake."

She was aggravated but let us take her fingerprints. We sent them out immediately to have them compared to our samples. Carly asked for something to drink so we had a beverage brought in.

In a few minutes the sample was returned. The unknown prints belonged to Carly.

Bobbie looked at Carly and said, "You lied to me. You told me that you had never seen the Moore's spa but your fingerprints are on them. How could that be? You were there, weren't you? You were there the night that Wayne Moore died. Admit it, we have the proof, admit it, you were there."

"Yes, yes, I was there. As soon as my oldest kids got home, I walked over and put the movie he wanted on their table. I then went out and looked at the spa. Wayne was already sleeping. I guess I put my hand on the spa while looking at it. I only stayed a couple of minutes. I had to get home and take the kids to a school function. Honest, I was only there for a minute. Wayne was very much alive when I left, just sleeping. I didn't want to wake him; I had to get back to my kids."

"Why did you hide this information from us? How did you get there?"

"After you said he was dead, I didn't come forward. What difference would it have made? I just dropped off the tape, that's all. I cut through our back yard. It's shorter and no-one would see me."

"Tell me, Carly, how did the tape get back to your house? When we came and talked to you it was sitting on your counter."

"I didn't know at the time but I think Bob must have brought it back. When we came back from the school function, Bob was home and so was the tape. I figured he went over to see Wayne and brought it back. I didn't want to say anything and talk about Wayne to Bob, so I kept quiet. Later when you guys came by, I figured Bob would have told you guys if he was there, so I didn't. I sure didn't want to make any waves."

"Does Bob know about you and Wayne, Carly?"

"God, no! He's been a wonderful husband since Wayne's death. He's been spending more time with me and the kids. That's why I didn't want to come down here. I don't want him to find out. Bob is very protective of me and would do most anything to protect me. I made a mistake with Wayne and didn't want Bob to find out."

"That's all we have for you, Carly. Thanks for talking to us. If you can think of anything else, please let us know."

Now it was time to talk to Bob. At first we excluded him as a suspect since he wasn't around during the day. After we checked with the coroner, he figured the time of death to be between 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. So now we needed to talk to Bob. I was going to do this interview and Bobbie would be at my side. The DA was still listening in.

As we walked into the room, Bob stood up and said, "What the hell's going on? What do you want with me and Carly?"

"Please sit down, Bob, or we will have to cuff you to the chair. We will give you your rights and you can have an attorney present if you would like."

"What's going on, I got nothing to hide. I work for a living. I pay your wages."

"Easy now, Bob. We just have a few questions for you. Is it true that you moved here to get away from some troubles you had in Kentucky?"

"Man, that's old news. He was trying to rape my wife and I took care of business. He was coming onto Carly all night and then, when she went to the spa, he followed her. They dropped the charges; all I did was protect my wife."

"You put the man in the hospital for two weeks. You nearly beat him to death."

"Every upstanding husband would have done the same thing. If a man messes with my wife, he's going to pay the price."

"Did Wayne Moore ever come on to Carly?" I asked.

"What do you mean? He was just an old fuck who thought Carly was a pretty woman."

"The day he died, didn't you get a call, something about taking care of your wife? According to your caller ID, you called the house. Did Carly answer it or was something happening at the time?"

"How do you know that?"

"It's our job to find information. Did you get mad all day wondering what your wife was doing? We know you came home and your wife wasn't there."

We could see him starting to get mad and he jumped out of his seat. Two uniformed officers came in and cuffed him back down to his chair. He was beginning to fume.

I continued, "We know that when you got home, you headed over to the Moore's house to confront Wayne. Did their phone number show up on the caller ID at work? We have eye witnesses who saw you going there. We also know that you took your, 'Mash', tape back home so no-one would know that Carly was there. I bet you were fuming looking at Wayne lying there naked after doing your wife. I bet it really got to you. Tell me Bob, what did you do? What did you do?"

"That dirty old cock sucker. He's wanted my wife ever since he first saw her. He went to my house and probably tried to molest her. I'm guessing he tried to have sex with her and then came home and got in his damn hot tub. I couldn't take it seeing him sleeping there with a grin on his face, lying naked in the tub.

"It was so easy; I just put one hand on his shoulder and the other on his head and just pushed down. I just wanted to scare him. I wanted him to wake up and I was going to beat the shit out of him. He started kicking and eventually I let go and he just stayed there, under the water. I got a little nervous and saw our tape on the table and grabbed it and went back home. I changed my shirt and waited for my family to come home."

"Does Carly know what you did?"

"No, I did it to protect her. That old man probably tried to have sex with her and I know she was afraid to tell me, so I took care of business. You guys came by to talk to us about an hour or so later."

"Bob, we are going to have to arrest you and charge you with murder. We will read you your rights again since you are being charged."

"It's okay. He got what he deserved; I did it to protect my wife. The old man tried to rape her and, when she tells the judge, he will let me go again, just like last time. All I was doing was protecting my wife."

We went out and broke the news to Carly. She started crying and asked to see Bob. We told her he was being booked and she should go home and come back tomorrow. Bobbie did ask her if she had any idea that Bob killed Wayne and she said she knew he was capable but was hoping he didn't do it. She hoped that Wayne's death was an accident. It was the reason she didn't want Bob to find out about her affair. She said she knew he couldn't handle it well.

The DA came out to talk to Bobbie and me. "Wow, that was quite unbelievable. Of course he will be charged with murder. His wife can't claim rape like she said she did the last time. Bobbie got her statement the other day saying she was a willing participant. Let me tell you two something I find quite odd. Edna Moore could have been charged with the evidence you two found. It would have been a really rough case due to the type of evidence. It's why I wasn't going forward with a charge against her. The jury would have been against us as he was a cheating husband and there were no witnesses.

"We also could have charged Carly Smith and made a case there also. The idea of her coming back and we would have believed she was the last one to see Wayne Moore alive, other than if it was Edna. It would have been a hard case to prove also but the evidence showed she was there and that she lied. It would have been two things in our favor.

"Now, let's look at Bob Smith. If he wouldn't have admitted to it, we didn't have enough evidence to prove him guilty. No fingerprints, no evidence against him other than what he told us. After he admitted to it, it pretty much closes the case. I want to congratulate you two on another job well done. I know it's not easy dealing with crime every day."

We thanked the DA and went to finish our reports. In the days that followed, charges were brought against Bob Smith for second degree murder. The DA said by Bob's own testimony was that he was intending to beat Wayne up, not kill him. He thought that eventually the lawyers for the defense would ask for the charges to be reduced to manslaughter or have Bob plead temporary insanity.

It would probably be a month or more before the case would be brought to trial. Bobbie and I were now working on separate cases. We weren't together everyday and I kind of missed that. I was thinking about her often and it always bothered me when I heard other guys saying how they would like to get in her pants or similar things. It was pretty much guy talk but we never said it in front of a guy's girl or wife. Most didn't know she was my girlfriend or they wouldn't have said anything in front of me. I corrected them a few times and they told me to chill; they liked Bobbie as a friend too. They told me that they just thought she was a fine looking woman and I was lucky to have her as a partner.

Bill, one of the guys that knew I had a crush on Bobbie asked me why didn't I ask her out and to be my girlfriend. Maybe then the guys would lay off the talk. I had to admit I was really falling for her but we both agreed on no commitment right now.

I talked to her a few times but our schedules didn't allow us much time to get together. I often wondered if she missed me as much as I missed her. I thought that we better start discussing our feelings. I was hoping it was a two way street.

I rode through the Moore's and Smith's neighborhood one day and saw The Able's sitting on their porch swing. Mrs. Moore was sitting on a chair talking to them. They all waved to me as I rode by. As I passed the Smith's house, I noticed the kids playing in the yard. It made me think how it's always the kids, the innocent ones that suffer for their parents' wrong doings. I saw a 'For Sale' sign in the yard. I guess Carly either couldn't afford the property anymore or couldn't take the abuse she and her kids must be getting.

It was a sad situation, but that's what my job was all about, finding the bad in people, or at least collecting the evidence to help find the wrongdoers. I would never be out of a job.

I was heading home when I my cell phone started ringing. It was Bobbie.

"Hi, Jim. Are you busy?" she asked.

"I'm never too busy to talk to you, Bobbie. What do you need?"

"I could use some help on this case I'm on. I want to try and get it done tonight but I can't have it done by myself. Do you have the time to come by and help me?"

"Sure, I was just headed home. Where exactly are you?" I asked.

"Right now I'm at the Ramada Inn on Hayward Blvd. Just go to the desk and tell them you're Detective Jim Lee and they will give you the key to room one-twelve. It's on the first floor. I have to keep the door closed to preserve the evidence."

"Okay, I'll be there in about ten minutes. See you then?"