Uncover Persona - Chapter 8

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Getting the search warrants proved to be a little more difficult than they had hoped. The judge refused to give them one for the Rodriquez's or Emily Jenkins' parents. "You don't have any evidence that points to any of these people to substantiate giving you the warrant to obtain their jewelry," the judge said.

It was true. They can only guess that Rodriquez's or Emily's parents might want to kill Kenton. Really, at this point, the only real suspects they had were the Butlers, and they didn't have much on them. They were still waiting on the CSI's evaluation of the evidence collected at the Jenkins' house, hoping that something would stick out. The ring angle was the only potential clue they had right now.

The Butlers were highest on their list of suspects. The fact that both of them were having an affair with Kenton Jenkins and they had both just found out about each other's affair made them prime candidates for the murderer. They decided to go to the Butler's home first to collect jewelry and then go to the Jenkins'.

"Can you imagine how angry both Mr. and Mrs. Butler must have been to find out that Mr. Jenkins was having an affair with both of them?" Janice asked as they drove to the Butler's home.

Harold said, "I would never think about having an affair with a man in the first place. But, if I were that kind of guy, and I found out that the dude I'm seeing is screwing my wife, too, I would lose it."

"Exactly," Janice agreed. "I've been in a similar situation with lovers having affairs with my friends behind my back, and there have been a few times that I wanted to kill some people. That's one of the reasons why I just have a dog now. I can count on him to be loyal to me. People aren't so trustworthy."

They arrived at the Butler's house, which was less than a mile from the Jenkins house. It would have been easy for one of them to walk from their house, kill Kenton Jenkins and walk back home. The house was a large two-story house, similar to the Jenkins' home. One of the doors of the three-car garage was open, and the space was empty. The other two bays had cars with them, including a 1965 cherry red Corvette and a new silver SUV.

Janice rang the doorbell and then knocked loudly. It took just a few minutes for Carol Butler to open the door. She was in her bathrobe, and her hair was messed up like she had just gotten out of bed. Her eyes were red from crying. "Officers?"

"Detectives Jones and Carter," Janice corrected. She held up the warrant. "We have a warrant to obtain all of the jewelry in the home."

"The jewelry?" Carol asked, confused. "What on earth for?"

"We have reason to believe the killer was wearing a ring that left indentations in Mr. Jenkins's head," Janice answered.

"Oh," Carol said, her eyes starting to tear up. She opened the door wider. "Come in. My jewelry is all upstairs in the bedroom." She led them upstairs. "This is my room. All my jewelry is in the jewelry boxes, with the exception of my real diamond rings. They are in a lockbox at the bank."

"We will need those as well," Janice said.

"That's fine. I'll get dressed, and we can go down there. I needed to get up anyway."

Janice watched her walk to the closet and start picking out clothes. She was very slight of build. She doubted Carol would have enough strength h to have hit Kenton Jenkins hard enough to cause the blow he got to the head. But, a person has more strength than they normally would when they are angry.

"Where's your husband's jewelry?" Harold asked.

"In his room," Carol answered. "Down the hall on the left."

Harold left and went to search Damon's room. Janice began filling the evidence bags with the jewelry. "So, you and Kenton had been having an affair for a year, and you had no idea that he was sleeping with your husband too?"

"No," Carol said, taking tissue out of a box by the bed and wiping her nose.

"How long have you been married?" Janice asked, surveying the room for anything that might provide her with evidence.

"Eight years."

Janice took out a clear evidence bag. "I'll need the rings you are wearing too."

Carol took off her wedding and engagement bands, the pinky ring Kenton had given to her a few months ago, and her mother's opal ring and put them in the bag. "Please be careful with the opal; it's an antique."

"But you thought that your husband was having an affair with someone?" Janice prodded.

"Yes, he was constantly getting texts and phone calls. I thought he was having an affair with Ashley Sjveck because of the initials from the texts on his phone. But after I met her and her partner, it was clear that she wasn't the one he was having an affair with. I would never have guessed it was Kenton," she sniffed and wiped her nose again.

"I thought Emily Jenkins was your friend?" Janice asked as she looked through each dresser drawer for more jewelry.

"You won't find jewelry anywhere else, but you are welcome to look if you want to waste your time," Carol said and then sat down on the bed. "Yes, Emily was my friend and a good friend ever since she married Kenton six years ago. I was an idiot to let Kenton seduce me, but I was lonely, and he was charming."

"Emily mentioned that Kenton had become more and more sexually rough over the past few years. Was he rough with you?" Janice asked as she headed to the closet.

"No, he was very gentle with me. Ironically, Damon was the one who had become rough and weird. He wanted to do weird stuff, which now that I know he was sleeping with

Kenton makes a little more sense. "

"Do you mean kinky things like tying him up and such?" Janice asked.

"Yeah, but he wanted to tie me up, not the other way around," Carol said.

Janice stopped her search in the closet and looked at Carol, who was still sitting on the bed looking at her feet. "He didn't want you to do rough stuff to him; he wanted to do it to you like he was punishing you?"

Carol nodded and started crying. "All I wanted was a happy life, to be loved and have fun, and now this."

Carol gathered the clothes she'd picked out. "I'm going to slip into the bathroom and change."

Janice nodded. "That's fine. I'll be done out here in just a few minutes. We'll get Detective Jones and head to your bank."

Harold poked his head in the bedroom and motioned for Janice to follow him back to Damon's room. He took her in the closet and showed her a box where there was an assortment of sex toys, including handcuffs and whips.

"Christ!" Janice spat. "I will never understand people needing or wanting all that stuff."

Harold shrugged. "Beats me."

"What the hell are you doing in my room?" Damon bellowed from the doorway.

Janice held up the warrant. "We have permission from the judge to find all your jewelry."

"I don't wear jewelry," Damon snapped.

Harold picked up a set of handcuffs with a gloved hand. "Oh really."

Damon snatched them from his hand. "Give me that." Damon shoved the cuffs back in the box. He looked at the warrant they had. "This warrant is for jewelry, not anything else."

"No," Janice said calmly, "but we can look anywhere we think jewelry might be located."

Damon held up his hands. "Fine."

Janice noticed the white ring of a tan line around Damon's pinky where a ring had been before she saw the wedding ring. "So, no jewelry, not even a wedding ring?"

He took off the wedding ring and handed it to her. All yours."

"And what about the ring that had been on your right pinky?"

Damon looked down at the digit as if it were an ugly tumor. "I lost that one a few weeks ago."

Harold looked at Janice and raised an eyebrow. They both knew he was lying. "Where do you think you lost it?" Harold asked.

"In Atlanta," Damon said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Janice pursed her lips and studied him for a moment. He was very muscular. His light blue button-down short-sleeved shirt stretched over his chest and arm muscles and was tucked into his tan slacks. His dark brown eyes hid any emotion as he stared at them coldly. "Was there somewhere in particular in Atlanta where you might have lost it?" she asked, knowing he was going to give her a vague answer.

He shrugged smugly. "I was in a lot of places." "When, exactly, were you in Atlanta?" Harold asked. "Exactly?" Damon said in a bored tone. "I was there for a week the week before last." "Well," Harold said, "If you remember where you might have lost the ring, be sure to give us a call." He handed Damon his business card. "I think we're done here for now," he said to Janice. Janice looked at Damon. "We would appreciate it if you would keep yourself available for further questioning." "Am I a suspect?" Damon asked coolly.

"You are a person of interest," Janice answered equally as coolly.

"Unless a judge orders me to stay in Nashville, I will continue with business as usual, and you can call my secretary if you want to set up an appointment with me." He turned and walked out of the room.

Janice and Harold looked at each other. "Pretty cool for having just lost his best friend and lover," Harold commented.

"That's what I thought too."

They left Damon's room to see him talking to Carol in a low tone in the hallway. She was clearly not happy about what he was saying. She glanced in their direction and then said something curtly to him. He turned and looked at them and then walked off.

"Problems?" Janice asked.

Carol looked toward the stairs where Damon had gone down. "He's going to the Kentucky Derby Festival to run in the marathon this weekend." She gritted her teeth. "I can't believe he's just going about life as if Kenton had not been killed."

Janice raised an eyebrow. Maybe she and Harold should go to Louisville this weekend as well.

Carol said, "I just need to freshen up in the bathroom, and then I'll be ready."

Janice nodded and watched her go to her bathroom.

Harold asked, "Do you want to find something to arrest him on to keep him in town?"

"We don't have anything other than suspicions at this point, but I think you and I are going to go to Louisville this weekend. I wonder if he is really running in the marathon or meeting someone."

Nodding, Harold said, "I'll go down and wait by the car. I think she should ride with us."

"Me, too; I'll talk to her about that when she comes out," Janice said.

Harold was leaning against the car, waiting for Janice and Carol when a baby blue Cadillac pulled into the drive, and an older woman who looked like she could have been Carol's sister got out of the car. She walked up to Harold and said in a flirtatious tone, "Morning handsome, what are you doing out here?"

Harold took out a business card. "Detective Harold Jones, homicide."

"Homicide?" All of the colors drained out of the woman's face. "Carol and Damon? Are they okay?" "Yes, ma'am. Did you know Kenton Jenkins?" "Yes, I know that son-of-a-bitch; he took me for fifty grand on an investment on land in Eastern Tennessee; why?" "And what is your name?" Harold said, taking out a notebook. "Barbara McKinley, why?" Barbara asked. "Kenton Jenkins was murdered. Where were you last Saturday morning around two in the morning?" "What?" She gasped and put her hand to her throat. "Kenton was murdered?" "Yes," Harold said, still holding his notepad. "Where were you at two in the morning Saturday?"

"I was in Louisville at a Derby Fest party, and I have several witnesses who will testify that I was with them," Barbara answered, clearly shaken by the news.

"Barbara!" Carol cried. She ran to Barbara and wrapped her arms around her. "Thank God you're here."

"I just got your text from a few days ago; I had lost my phone," Barbara said, hugging Carol. "Why didn't you tell me Kenton had been killed?"

"I didn't want to tell you over the phone," Carol said.

"Where are you going now?" Barbara asked, looking at Janice, who was standing behind Carol.

"I have to go get the jewelry I have in a lockbox at the bank for the detectives."

"Do you want me to wait here for you?" Barbara asked.

Carol looked at Janice. "Would it be okay if she rode with us?"

"Sure," Harold said, thinking that it would give him time to question the woman about this investment deal that apparently had gone bad.

Janice gave him a questioning look, but he just nodded toward the car. Fortunately, they were in Harold's large black SUV instead of Janice's small, fuel economy car. Harold held the front passenger side door open for Carol, and Janice sat next to Barbara in the back seat. They left the house following Carol's directions to her bank.

Harold looked in the rearview mirror at Barbara. "Mrs. McKinsley, you mentioned an investment deal you had with Mr. Jenkins. What happened with that?"

Barbara looked at him and smiled. She knew he was trying to find out if she had a motive for killing Kenton. "Kenton's company Morgan Chase Investments was trying to purchase land from coal companies outside of Knoxville. The land had once been mountains that the coal companies had cut the tops off to get to the coal. Now that the coal was gone, they were selling the land. The company was bringing investors into the project. Besides buying the land, they planned to build a resort and shopping center. I gave Kenton fifty thousand dollars with the promise of more money once the land was secured. There were at least fifty investors involved in the deal, which is going south because a group of environmentalists is suing to keep the land from being developed. They want to try to restore the mountain back to as close to its natural state as they can get it."

"If the deal is not going through, can you not get your money back?" Janice asked.

"Not according to Kenton," Barbara said. "He said that the investors' money was used to purchase the land and pay for the legal team trying to keep the environmentalists from closing down the deal."

"So there are about fifty pissed-off investors looking to get their money back?" Harold asked.

"Possibly," Barbara said. "I talked to Walter Chase at the party at Kenton and Emily's house a few weeks ago, and he assured me that the deal was still going to go through, and the resort would be built, but I told Kenton that I wanted out, and he told me that I couldn't get my money back."

"Have you seen Kenton since then?" Harold asked.

"No, I expected to see him in Louisville last week because he always goes to the Derby Festival, but he wasn't there." Barbara looked sadly at Carol. "Now I know why?"

"How long have you known the Butlers?" Janice asked.

Barbara looked at Carol. "Oh, I don't know, two or three years. Is that about right, dear?"

"That sounds right. It was after Damon and I bought the house."

"Did you and your husband decide to move out there because that was where Emily and Kenton lived?" Janice asked.

"Yes," Carol said, turning in her seat so she could look at Janice, who was sitting behind her. "Damon and Kenton became fast friends after Kenton married Emily."

"Did you have a career before you and Damon got married," Harold asked?

"No, I'd been going to school but didn't really know what I wanted to do." She looked away. "I was very spoiled. My father is CEO of Courtland Investments, and I have a large inheritance coming after he passes."

"Did Kenton ever try to get you to invest in the eastern Tennessee deal?" Janice asked, wondering if the investment deal might have something to do with the murder.

"He was trying to talk me into getting my parents into the deal, but my father refused to take a gamble on such a troubled project." Carol sighed, "But he had talked Damon into investing in it. I think Damon gave him a hundred thousand."

"Really?" Barbara asked. "I wasn't aware that you and Damon had invested in the land deal."

"I didn't, Damon did, and he didn't want anyone to know," Carol said. "He wasn't supposed to because he's one of the lawyers involved working with the coal companies. He said something about it being a conflict of interest, although I didn't see how when he was working for Morgan Chase."

Janice made a mental note to look further into the land deal. Kim said that her girlfriend, Ashley worked with Damon Butler. She would call them and see what Ashley could tell her about the deal.

"Did Kenton have any other really close friends?" Janice asked.

"Not really," Carol said. "He was a bit of an ass toward most people. He could be very charming when he wanted to be, but in the blink of an eye, he could be cold and hateful."

"So, what made you want to have an affair with him?" Harold asked.

Barbara gave Carol a raised eyebrow. So her close friend didn't know about it either, Janice thought to herself.

"I was lonely. Damon hadn't been romantic in months. Kenton was sympathetic. He told me that Emily and he hadn't been intimate. That she constantly made up excuses to get out of sex." Carol looked off into the distance again. "I knew it was wrong, but it became like an addiction."

"When did this start?" Barbara asked. "I had no clue you were seeing Kenton."

"About a year ago," Carol laughed bitterly. "Now that I think about how it started. Damon was in Knoxville working with the coal companies about the negotiations on the land Morgan Chase wanted. The project was just getting started. I was getting ready to go to a spa treatment when the garage door opener stopped working." She grabbed the dash of the SUV as Harold had to make a sudden stop at a stoplight that changed. "Of course, I have no idea how to fix something like that, so I called Kenton because I knew he was home. He came over and fixed it. We got to talking, and one thing led to another."

"So," Janice said slowly, a suspicion forming in her head. "Your affair with Mr. Jenkins started about the same time as the deal in East Tennessee started coming together?"

Carol thought about it for a few minutes. "Yeah, they had just made the first offer to the coal company."

Harold looked at Janice in the rearview mirror. He must be thinking the same thing, Janice thought. "How long after that did he start talking to you about investing in the land deal?"

Harold had taken off again. "The bank is just up there to the right," Carol said, and then she turned back to Janice, an angry look coming over her face. "He had asked me about it before that happened, but he really started trying to get me to talk to my father about the investment after we started seeing each other."

"Was he still trying to get you to talk to your father about the investment?" Harold asked.

"No, once my father says no, it's no, but," Carol said through clenched teeth, "he was trying to get me to take out a loan against my inheritance, which he said he would pay back as soon as they built the resort and sold it." Carol slammed her fist down on the dash.

"Hey," Harold yelled. "Don't be hitting my car."

"Sorry," Carol said. She turned back to Janice and Barbara. "That son-of-a-bitch was playing me all along. I can't believe I was so stupid. I hurt Emily and Damon, not that I give a rat's ass about hurting Damon now. But, if he hadn't been cheating too, I would have hurt both of them over Kenton's stupid lies."

Janice nodded knowingly. "It happens to a lot of women, Mrs. Butler. I wonder when exactly his affair started with your husband."

Carol thought back over the year before she started sleeping with Kenton. Damon had become more distant after he met Kenton. "You know, Damon was never really big on sex. I mean, it was okay and had been pretty regular up until Damon started working for Morgan Chase. After that, sex was less frequent because he was gone all the time or too tired when he was home. That was about a year before Kenton and I started."

"Hmm," Janice said. "Isn't that interesting?"