Uncover Persona - Chapter 13

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Harold took the first watch on the Butler house while Janice got with Kim and Ashley to talk to them about what they had overheard in the bar, the Twister. Janice met the two women there, and they talked over a couple of beers.

Kim recounted what she had heard Damon saying about Junior spilling the beans about Kenton's affairs. "You know," Kim said, after telling what she remembered. "If anyone should have been the killer, it should have been Kenton. It would seem that he was the one who had the most to lose. He was going to lose both Carol and Damon and quite possibly his wife. Not to mention that Walter might have found out and fired him for his unprofessional and sinful behavior."

"This is true," Ashley agreed. "The contract our law firm has with Morgan Chase is just that, a contract. We have other contracts. Damon has other contracts he works on, as do I. Damon wouldn't have gotten fired, maybe slapped on the wrist, but that would have been about it."

Janice shook her head and took a drink of her beer. "I swear this case makes less and less sense all the time. We have to be missing something or someone."

"Well, I think you have the right idea about trying to find out who Junior is," Kim said. "I'm just not sure how you will do that unless you have people scouting out all the gay bars between here, Atlanta, and Louisville."

Janice sighed, "That's what I'm afraid of too. I am hoping they will come here since Damon and Kenton had met here before."

"They might, " Ashle said. "You haven't formally brought Damon in for charges, and Junior probably doesn't know that you know about him. They might feel safe enough to come in here together."

Janice looked around the bar. She wasn't so sure. "The Kentucky Derby is this weekend. Damon went up to Louisville last weekend to run in the marathon. Do you think he will go up there for the race?

"I would say yes," Ashley said. "He and Kenton were both really into betting on the horses. They went to races together all the time or bet online. Last year they spent the whole two weeks of the Derby Festival up there."

"Do you know where they stayed?" Janice asked, suddenly excited that they might have a lead to follow.

"No, but I'm sure they have receipts for it. They most likely filed it on their taxes as a business expense."

"What? They went up there to party and wrote it off their taxes?"

"Sure," Kim said. "All they had to do was talk to a few people about investing, hand out some business cards, and say that they had done business on the trip."

"I wonder if Kenton had his tax stuff at home."

"More than likely, especially stuff like that, he wouldn't want that someplace where Walter Chase could get hold of it," Ashley said. "You should call Emily and ask her to check Kenton's office. I don't think she would care."

"That's a good idea. I'll call her tomorrow." Janice finished her beer. "Well, I guess I better get going."

Just as Janice was about to get up, Kim noticed a man that looked familiar to her. "Wait here for a minute," Kim said, got up, and headed to the back of the bar. She saw the man slip out the back exit and hurried to try to catch up with him. By the time she got to the parking lot, whoever it had been was gone.

Kim went back to the table. "I would swear that I just saw Frank Chase, but by the time I got to the back of the bar, whoever it was had gone out the back door and was gone."

"Frank Chase?" Janice said. "Why on earth would he be here?"

"Maybe looking for Damon," Ashley said. "They have become pretty good friends."

Janice looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"Not that kind of friends," Ashley said, shaking her head. "Frank is just as homophobic as his father, but Frank had gone to school to be a lawyer, so he and Damon have a lot in common and often discuss the legal issues involving the company. Frank is very devoted to his wife. Whatever she says goes."

"Hum, that's interesting." Janice opened her phone and called Harold. When he answered, she asked, "Have you seen any movement?"

"Nope. The lights came on in a few rooms when it got dark, but other than that, no one coming or going."

"Okay. I'll check back in later."

"Why would Frank come here looking for Damon if he's that homophobic?" Kim asked Ashley.

"I don't know. But we don't know that it was Frank. You didn't really get a good look at the guy. It could have just been someone who looked like Frank," Ashley said in her lawyer tone. "We can't assume that it was Frank just because the guy looked like him."

"True," Janice agreed. "I do have to get going. I appreciate you ladies meeting with me tonight. If you hear or see anything else that might be useful, please call me."

"We will," Kim promised.

Janice got up, grabbed her purse, and left. After she was completely out of the bar, Kim turned to Ashley. "You've been around both men a lot over the past year. Have you ever heard them referring to someone as Junior?"

"No," Ashley said. "But, I would never have suspected they were sleeping together either. They hung out a lot, but they were very guy-like when they were around me. You know, talking about how hot chicks were. Both of them kept telling me that I just hadn't met the right man. I mean, Kenton propositioned me twice. So I had no clue that the two of them were fooling around with each other."

Kim shook her head. "Isn't that typical of gay men who are

trying to pretend they aren't gay?"

Ashley nodded. "It is. I've been going over in my head all of the times that I was around Kenton, trying to picture someone who might have wanted to kill him. There were several of the coal company executives and some of the environmentalists that I could see wanting it done, but it would have been a much more violent death if any of them had done it or paid for it to be done."

Kim nodded. "I would really hate to be in Janice's shoes right now. I can't even imagine how frustrating it must be to try to find someone who murdered someone else with no concrete evidence to prove it."

"Yeah, they are really screwed right now from a legal standpoint. Even if they did have a suspect, they don't have any physical evidence, so unless they get a confession, they've got nothing."

Janice called Harold after she left the bar. "I think we need to question Damon Butler again. He really didn't tell us much, other than that he and Kenton had been lovers. Terrell Donnell confirmed that, but I want to try to get either him or his wife to tell us who Junior is."

"I agree. They were both pretty vague about it. His wife said that Junior had called her and said that he was a friend of Kenton Jenkins'. Damon Butler said that he was a friend and refused to comment more unless we were formally charging him, and if we were, he was getting a lawyer."

"Of course, being a lawyer, he knew we couldn't formally charge him. But that son-of-a-bitch is hiding something or someone. I just know it. When I was at the bar with Kim and Ashley just now, Kim thought she saw Frank Chase come in, but she didn't get a really good look at him. I wonder why he would come to the Twister if that were him."

"That is weird. Where are you?" Harold asked.

"I'm on my way out there. When I turn on the Butler's road, I'll call you back, and we'll both drive up to the house."

"Got it. See you in a few."

Janice clicked off her phone and slid it into the holder on her visor. When Kim said she thought she saw Frank Chase, something hit Janice's gut. She had a feeling it really was Frank Chase. There was something about the way he had avoided looking at everyone at the funeral. She suspected he was guilty of something. She just wasn't sure exactly what.

Harold pulled out onto the road from his hiding position in a  neighbor's driveway when Janice called him to let him know she had turned on the road leading to the Butlers' and Jenkins' houses. When she had told him about the suspected Frank Chase sighting, like her, he had a suspicion about the guy. There was something squirrelly about him, but Harold just couldn't put his finger on it. Maybe he knew something about what was going on with Kenton and was afraid they would question him about it. Maybe they should question him; if he doesn't have anything to hide, there shouldn't be a problem, but he'll probably lawyer up if he does.

Harold pulled into the Butler's drive first. He parked sideways in front of the garage so no one could leave the garage in a car without hitting his SUV. Janice pulled up toward the front walk. They both got out of their vehicles and made their way to the front door.

Janice rang the doorbell. She looked at her watch. It was ten-thirty so that they might be in bed. A light went on in an upstairs room, and the curtains moved. A few minutes later, they could hear someone coming down the stairs. Carol Butler peeked out the curtain of the window next to the door. She opened the door a crack, pulling her pink, furry dressing robe around her. "Officer Jones, Officer Carter, what are you doing here?"

"It's Detective Jones," Harold said through gritted teeth. "We had a few more questions for Mr. Butler."

"He's not home," Carol said. "He went to Louisville earlier to go to a Derby Festival party tonight."

"Would you mind if we come in and ask you a few questions?" Janice asked.

Carol shrugged, "I guess not." She stepped back and pulled the door open. "Come in."

Harold and Janice stepped into the foyer, and Carol led them into a formal sitting room that was filled with antique furniture.

Carol sat on the edge of one of the chairs while Harold and Janice both sat on the couch facing her. "Mrs. Butler," Janice began.

"Please call me Carol. I feel like you are talking to Damon's mother when you call me Mrs. Butler."

"Of course," Janice said. "Carol, you said that you had never met the person who called himself Junior and told you about Kenton Jenkins having an affair with your husband, correct?"

"That's right. Other than that phone call, I'd never spoken to him."

"Did you recognize or think you recognized the voice?" Harold asked.

Carol thought about that for a few minutes, trying to recall the man's voice. "No, now that I think about it, it sounded a bit muffled, like he had a bad connection."

"Or maybe was disguising his voice?" Janice suggested.

Carol shrugged. "I guess he could have been." She thought about it for a few minutes more and shook her head. "I don't know. I was so freaked out when he told me that they, Kenton and Damon, had been sleeping together for over two years. I said he was lying, and he said that he knew about Kenton and me, too and that we had started about a year ago. I asked him how he knew, and he said that Kenton liked to brag about his conquests."

"So Kenton had been bragging to this person about having an affair with both you and your husband?" Harold asked.

"I guess so," Carol said quietly. She let out a long, heavy sigh and shook her head. "Things are so messed up. I've lost my best friend. Damon is not speaking to me. Barbara is trying to help me deal with all this, but she has her own problems. Mom and Dad want me to move home to Atlanta to be with them, but I can't leave Damon. I told him that I wanted to try to work things out, but he gathered his stuff and said he was going to Louisville."

Janice saw the tears forming in the other woman's eyes and went over to her. She took her hand and knelt in front of her. "I know this is hard, but it might help us to know when the problems between you and Damon started and why you ended up having an affair with Kenton Jenkins. Anything that you can tell us that might give us a clue as to why someone would kill Kenton would be helpful."

Carol patted Janice's hand. "It's kind of a long story. Maybe I should start some coffee?"

"That would be great," Harold said.

Carol got up and went into the kitchen. While she was gone, Harold turned to Janice. "What are you trying to get out of her? She already told us about how the affair started."

"Maybe the name of another person, maybe a change in habits, locations, just something," she said. "We are drowning right now. We have absolutely nothing to go on other than the fact that we know that Kenton Jenkins was a pig."

Harold nodded. He knew she was right. Anything they might be able to get out of Carol Butler, even something small, couldn't hurt, and he could really use some coffee.

Carol came back with a silver tray. On it was a coffee carafe, three mugs, a bowl of sugar, and a small pitcher of cream. She set the tray on the coffee table between them. "I have two percent milk if you prefer it. I've always used real cream in my coffee."

"That's fine," Janice said.

Carol poured them each a cup and let Harold and Janice doctor each of theirs to their satisfaction. After they had both finished making their coffee, she poured a little cream in hers. "Okay, where do you want me to start exactly?"

"I guess when the problems started, "Janice said.

"Well, that would probably be at the beginning," Carol laughed. "I wanted to have kids, but Damon didn't. We did try, though, and I had a couple of miscarriages."

"How sad," Janice said, sipping her coffee.

"Yeah, I'm glad now, but I was depressed about it for a long time. Damon was always a workaholic, so he was gone a lot. When we lived in Atlanta, it wasn't so bad because I was close to my parents, but when we moved here, I didn't know anyone but Emily."

"When did Kenton start coming on to you?" Harold asked.

"The first time I met him," Carol laughed. "He was a huge flirt. Emily ignored it for the most part. I don't know-how. I would have been furious, but I'm also a very jealous person."

"What did Damon say about that?" Janice asked.

"Oh, he didn't know about it. Kenton didn't do it in front of him."

"You and Damon don't really seem to have anything in common; how'd you end up together?" Harold asked.

Carol smiled at the memory. "Damon was working for my father's attorney in Atlanta. I thought he was so handsome. He was always very nice and polite. We used to talk about politics and social affairs. Damon was a stickler about knowing who was who in the political arenas. I just loved to gossip." She paused to sip her coffee. "My parents liked him a lot, especially my father. He thought he would be a perfect husband. Damon didn't act like he was interested in our money or what we could do for him through our connections." Carol paused, thinking back. "You know, it's funny, now that I think about it, but we didn't really date in the traditional since. Damon visited our house, and he and I would talk, but we didn't go out on dates. I'm really not sure what sparked his decision to ask me to marry him. We hadn't slept together yet. I think my father liked the idea of having a lawyer in the family, so he encouraged the engagement. We'd really only known each other for about six or seven months when we got married."

"Wow, that's really a short time to know someone before you marry them," Harold said. 'I dated my wife for three years before I asked her to marry me."

"True," Carol agreed. "It was a short time, obviously too short because I apparently don't know Damon at all. I think what really drew me to him was the fact that he didn't seem to want my money. Every other guy I had dated, including guys who came from money like mine, was just interested in getting their hands on my inheritance."

"So, does Damon come from that kind of money?" Janice asked.

"Oh no, his parents weren't that well to do. They have money, but not old money like my family. My father's family comes from money that goes back past the Civil War. Damon's father worked his way up to CEO of a plastics manufacturing company. His mother stayed at home with Damon, but she did a lot of charity stuff and was very involved in their church. Both of his parents are ridiculously religious or say they are anyway. My personal opinion is that you can't be as judgmental as they are and be true Christians."

"So, I take it Damon is not close to his parents?"

"No," Carol said, "They have pushed everyone in the family away with their religious fanaticism. Even Emily's mom, who is Damon's mom's sister, has very little to do with them."

"So, they would definitely be angry if they found out he was bisexual?" Harold asked.

"Oh, yes," Carol said, nodding emphatically. "His parents would probably disown him completely."

Janice made some notes on her notepad and then asked, "Why exactly did you guys move to Nashville? It couldn't have been because Damon wanted to be close to his family."

"No, he got a job working for the firm he's with now, Barker, Bennett, and Hardin. It was better money."

"What about the work he was doing for your father's company?"

"Weston, Aubrey, and Hinton have a strict policy about doing work for the family. Once we got married, they took Damon off my father's account."

"I thought he was the attorney for Morgan Chase Investments," Harold said.

"He is. He's the lead attorney with Morgan Chase's account with Barker, Bennett, and Hardin."

"But Morgan Chase is based in Atlanta. Don't they have lawyers there?" Janice asked.

"They do. Barker, Bennett, and Hardin handle their Tennessee dealings, like the land deal, because some things require you to have an attorney licensed to practice in the state you are doing business in."

"Ah," Janice and Harold said simultaneously.

"When did you two move up here again?" Janice asked, going back to her notes from their first conversation.

"Two years ago," Carol answered and started to sip her coffee. She stopped with the cup midway to her lips. "That's about the same time Damon was supposed to have started having an affair with Kenton."

"Isn't that also about the time Walter Chase took over Morgan Investments?" Harold asked.

"I believe so," Carol said.

"Is that when you started suspecting he was having an affair?" Janice asked.

"Yes, that's when he really started being gone all the time and not wanting to have sex hardly at all."

"So was his not being interested in sex the only thing that made you think he was having an affair?" Harold asked.

"No, he got really secretive." Carol gritted her teeth, sipped her coffee, and looked at Janice, who was making notes. "Then, about a year ago, shortly before things happened between Kenton and me, Damon started texting a lot on his phone. He would always erase his conversations. I found out a few months ago that I could put a program on his phone that would notify me every time he got a text or a phone call."

"Spyware?" Janice raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah, I know it's illegal and all that," Carol said with a flip of her hand and roll of her eyes, "but I had to know what was going on. So, every time he gets a text, I get a notification. Lots of them are in code, so I think Damon, or whoever he was talking to, suspected someone was either listening in to their conversations or reading their texts. He got a new phone after Kenton died, so I guess he must have found out about the spyware."

"Do you still have any of those texts?" Janice asked hopefully.

"Oh, yeah, I have them all downloaded on my computer. I figured I might need them if I ever decided to get a divorce."

"Can you let us have a copy of them?" Janice asked.

"I'm not sure," Carol said, suddenly nervous. "You aren't trying to accuse Damon of being the murderer, are you? He was right here at the house with me that night or morning, or whenever it was."

"No, no," Harold assured her, with his fingers mentally crossed. "We are trying to see if we can find out who this Junior person is. Obviously, they must have had some kind of contact with Damon before they told you about the affair."

Carol thought about this. "That is true. Maybe that's why they muffled their voice. Maybe they knew about the spyware or thought I might recognize their voice."

"Exactly," Janice agreed.

Pursing her lips, Carol said. "I'll think about it. Was there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?"

Janice and Harold looked at each other. They had been so close to getting those text messages and phone calls. Somehow they had to talk her into letting them have access to that file. "Well, we have a couple more things," Janice said. "First, I remember you saying something about Damon getting rough with the sex; when did that start."

"About the same time, I started the affair with Kenton."

"Do you think he ever suspected you and Kenton?" Harold asked.

She looked at Harold, "I didn't think so, but now, who knows."

Harold nodded, "I have one more question." Harold reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring in the plastic bag. "Do you recognize this ring?"

Carol put her hand to her mouth. "That was Damon's. He said he lost it in Atlanta. Where did you find it?"

Janice pursed her lips. "So Damon wore this ring?"

"Yes, he got us ones that matched. You have the one of mine like that."

"When did he lose his?" Harold asked, moving closer to the edge of his seat.

"About a year ago." She looked up at them, the look on her face anger and horror. "About the same time, I started seeing Kenton. Kenton had one just like it. I asked him about it, and he said that he'd always liked Damon's, so he had one made just like it. It was Damon's ring he was wearing, wasn't it?"

"Not exactly," Janice said quietly.

"That mother fucker was playing me the whole time!" Carol growled. She stood up abruptly. "I need to be alone. Please leave."

Harold and Janice both jumped to their feet. "Of course, but if you decide about the text and phone call information, please call us," Janice said, laying a card on the table right before Carol ushered them out of the house.

"Oh man," Harold said. "She's really starting to piece things together about Damon and Kenton's relationship and how Kenton was probably using her to get at Damon."

"Yep, which makes Damon look even more guilty. Damn, I wish we had some kind of proof!" Janice growled.

"We need those text messages and phone calls," Harold said. "Let's go talk to the Chief and see what we can do about getting a warrant." Harold walked quickly toward his SUV. "I'll see you at the office."

Janice waved as she got in her car. Maybe, just maybe, they might finally be close to getting a break.