Uncover Persona - Chapter 12

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"Yep, the ring is a match for the indentations on Kenton Jenkins' temple," the forensic pathologist, Dr. Garrett, told Janice and Harold. "But it was completely wiped clean. The only thing we got off of it was traces of bleach. There's not a dent, a scrape, or a diamond out of place."

"Damn it," Janice growled, slamming her right fist into her left hand.

Harold shook his head. "We're no closer than we were before we found the ring."

"That's not necessarily true," said Dr. Garrett. "The trademark inside the ring is from a custom jewelry store in Atlanta."

"What?" Harold said, taking the ring and looking at the tiny writing inside.

"Yeah, it's a Terrell Donnell. I've seen his work before, usually on wedding bands, but he does custom designs for a variety of jewelry. I think he even has his own studio in Atlanta."

"I wonder if Kenton or whoever purchased this ring bought it directly from Terrell Donnell," Harold said, studying the tiny markings.

"Most likely," Dr. Garrett said. "There are very few stores that carry Terrell Donnell's work. From my understanding, Mr. Donnell is very picky about who can carry his jewelry and who can't."

"Well, let's hope he remembers this ring and who bought it from him," Janice said.

"Let's hope so," Harold said and clapped Janice on the shoulder, "Time for a road trip."

Janice called headquarters and got approval from the Chief to go to Atlanta to question the jeweler. She also had her friend, Marge, in the fraud department find Terrell Donnell and do a background check into his business.

Marge called her on her cell as they hit the outskirts of Nashville on Interstate Sixty-Five southbound. "Hey, Jan, I found your jeweler. He has a studio in downtown Atlanta. He's completely clean. Apparently, a much sought-after designer." She gave Janice the phone number for the studio.

Janice called the number and got an assistant of the jeweler. "Hi, this is Janice Carter of the Nashville Police Department. I need to speak to Terrell Donnell."

"Mr. Donnell is not here," the male assistant said in a feminine voice.

"When will he be back?" Janice asked. "Sometime this afternoon." "I need to know when exactly." "I don't know when exactly," the assistance said in an exasperated tone.

"This is the deal. We will be there in about three and a half hours. You need to get hold of Mr. Donnell and tell him he needs to be there when we get there. We are investigating a murder and need to speak to him," Janice said in her angry cop tone.

"I'll call him and explain the situation," the assistant assured her.

She gave him her cell phone number. "If he has any questions, tell him to give us a call. But we need to meet with him as soon as possible."

"Okay, I'll get in touch with him right away," the assistant promised.

Janice clicked the end button on her phone. "You think he'll really call him?"

"Yeah, either the jeweler will not want his name associated with a murder investigation, or he will want it associated with it for the publicity and potential sales he'll make."

Harold nodded, "Thank God this murder hasn't been played up in the news too much."

"Not yet," Janice said. "But if we don't find the murderer, and it turns out to be a serial killer, rather than a crime of passion, which I believe it is, there will be hell to pay with the papers and the Chief."

"Too true," he agreed.

To drive to Atlanta went by quickly. They arrived downtown around two in the afternoon, so they missed the lunch traffic. It took a little while to find a parking spot. They ended up having to walk about five blocks to get to Terrell Donnell's studio. The front of the store had a beautiful window display, and they could see people milling around inside looking in the jewelry cases.

They entered the studio and were immediately greeted by the assistant. "Hello, and welcome," he said, extending his hand to both of them. He gave Janice a gentle squeeze. He gave Harold a little stronger and longer squeeze.

Janice almost burst out laughing at the look on Harold's face. Harold was a nice-looking guy for his age, she had to admit. He'd just turned forty-five a few months ago. He was almost six foot tall, one hundred eighty pounds of pure muscle. His graying black hair that he kept cut close to his head gave him a distinguished look. His black eyes could cut a criminal in half. His steely gaze didn't stop the assistant, who had introduced himself as Eric while openly flirting with Harold.

"Harold Jones and Janice Carter from the Nashville P. D., we called earlier," Harold said curtly.

"Ah yes, Terrell, Mr. Donnell, will be right with you," Eric said to Harold, batting his eyes before flouncing off to the counter. Eric picked up the phone and spoke into it, and then went on to greet a new set of customers who walked through the door.

Terrell Donnell floated out to them. He walked with a fluidity that made him seem almost like an apparition. He was a very tall, thin black man with a clean-shaven face and shaved head. He touched his hand to his throat effeminately, "I'm Terrell Donnell. You may call me Terrell." He held out his hand to Harold like a woman who was expecting a man to kiss the back of her hand.

Harold gave it a quick squeeze and looked away from Terrell's direct dark brown eyes. He looked at Janice and smiled warmly at her. His gaydar must have picked up that she was a lesbian. "Hello, dear. You must be the police officers from Nashville," he said with a hefty southern accent.

"We are," Janice said, taking his hand and giving it a tight squeeze. The fact that whoever had this ring made chose an openly gay man to make it says a lot, especially knowing the love triangle that had been involved.

Harold fished the ring out of his coat pocket and handed it to Terrell. "Do you remember designing this ring?"

"Why yes. Oh my Lord," he said, touching his throat again. "Don't tell me something has happened to Damon."

"Damon," Janice and Harold said at the same time.

"Why, yes," Terrell said, "Such a sweet, sweet man." He gave Janice a wink.

She knew right away that he and Damon had been more than friends at some point. "So he had you make this?"

"Oh yes, actually, I've made three for him, and each one is just a little different," Terrell said. He led them over to a counter that had a magnifying glass on a stand. He flipped the mirror over and put the ring underneath it. "The diamonds are aligned just a little bit differently on each ring, partially because they are custom designed and partially because Damon wanted room for a microchip tracker to be put into the design, like this one." Terrell pointed to the tiny slit above the diamond settings. "Damon had one for himself too, but it didn't have a slot for a chip in it."

"What?" Janice and Harold said, both astonished.

Terrell laughed. "You'd be surprised how many people are putting tracers in their jewelry, especially something as expensive as this. Although, I don't think that was the reason why Damon wanted the tracers." He winked at Janice again.

"So he wanted to keep track of who he was giving a ring to," Janice said.

"I would say so," Terrell said. "Damon was very sweet, but he was also very jealous. It looks like whoever had this ring found the tracer because it's gone."

Harold stared in astonishment at the hairline-sized opening.

"So, he had you make this for his wife?" Janice asked, fishing to see what Terrell really knew about Damon.

"He had me make one similar to this, but smaller for his wife," Terrell let out a high-pitched laugh. "I couldn't believe it when he told me he was married. But, after he told me about his parents, I totally understood why he got married. His father sounds like a tyrant."

"Did you know Damon before he was married?" Harold asked.

"Oh yes," Terrell said. "He used to come down here to the drag shows almost every weekend." He smiled and winked at Harold. "I do a fabulous Whitney Houston." When Harold looked away, Terrell sighed and looked back to Janice. "Anyway, he hadn't come around for a while, and then he started showing up again. I had just started my business here, and he came in and had me design a ring for his wife. We talked about putting the chip in it, but it was too small, so he just gave her a phone with a tracer in it. And then, about two years ago, he came to me again and asked me to make one for a man. I knew it was coming because he had been to the club several times with a delicious blond man."

Janice took a picture of Kenton Jenkins out of her purse. "This blond man."

"Yes, Kenny. Delicious, but not very nice. I was surprised Damon dated him for as long as he did."

"Did he stop seeing Kenny?" Harold asked, putting extra emphasis on "Kenny."

"I don't know that he stopped seeing him completely, but he started coming with a younger man. I think his name was Junior, or that's what Damon called him," Terrell said.

"Really?" Janice shook her head in surprise. "So Damon dumped Kenny for Junior, who is a younger man?"

"Honey, you know how gay men are," Terrell said, gripping Janice's arm gently. "We never really break up with someone. We just explore other options."

Harold scratched his head thoughtfully. "Well, that doesn't make sense if Damon was the one who left Kenny to explore other options."

"Why is that?" Terrell asked.

"Kenny is the one who is dead," Janice said. "You would think it would be the other way around."

"Just because Damon brought someone else to the club doesn't mean it wasn't the other way around. Kenny could have cheated on him first. But, if you think Damon is the killer, you were definitely sniffing down the wrong trail. Damon doesn't have a violent bone in his body. He might be jealous, but I think he would resort to blackmail before he would try to physically hurt someone, too much Baptist guilt for all that."

"Don't you mean Catholic?" Harold asked.

"Oh no, Damon is Baptist, and trust me, they are just as good at making you feel guilty about doing sinful things as the Catholics. The only difference is that you don't have a priest you can confess your sins to."

"You said you made three of these for Damon," Harold said. "One for his wife, one most likely for Kenny; do you have any idea who the other one was for?"

"I'd say it was for Junior. They had been clubbing together for six or seven months when Damon asked me to make the last one. That was about six months ago, I'd say," Terrell said. He looked at his watch. "I hope you don't have too many more questions," he tossed his head. "I have to go become Whitney. You all should come by Triangles for tonight's show." He smiled seductively at Harold, who promptly stepped back. Terrell laughed. "He's just too much fun to tease."

Janice laughed. "Yes, he is. I guess the only thing we can really ask now is if you might know anyone who would have wanted to kill Kenny?"

"Honestly, no. He was not the nicest man I've ever met, but he wasn't mean or violent, that I could tell. He would come to the shows with Damon. They would dance, make out and then leave," Terrell furrowed his brow thoughtfully. "Now, there was one time that Kenny showed up when Damon was there with Junior. They talked, but they didn't have a big fight or anything. Queens backstage thought for sure there would be some drama when we saw Kenny come in. But they just talked like normal, and then all three of them left together."

"Can you tell us what Junior looks like?"

Terrell shrugged. "Medium height and build, light brown hair, always dressed in black t-shirts and jeans. Other than that, I didn't see him up close enough to tell you much. He was always clean-shaven."

"Do you know if they were using drugs, meth, crack, coke?"

"Who knows, probably club drugs, Ecstasy, and coke most likely. The last time I saw them was about a month ago. Now that I think about it, that was the night they were all in at the club together. They didn't look strung out or anything, although Damon looked thinner, but not bad."

Janice sighed. "Thanks, Terrell, you've been a big help."

Harold nudged Janice and said, "Give him a card."

She almost laughed out loud when she realized that Harold didn't want to give Terrell his card. She got out her card and wrote her cell number on the back. "Please call us if you can think of anything else."

"I sure will." He gave Janice his hand, and she squeezed it. He smiled sweetly at Harold and offered him a real handshake instead of giving him the limp back of the hand that he'd offered before. "Later, Dude." He said in a deep voice and then let out a shrill laugh and flounced toward the back of the store.

"Not one word," Harold said as they left the store.

Janice laughed, "Of course not."

"Well," Janice said when they got back into the SUV. "Since we know there were only slight variations in the rings, we'll have to go back and look at the indentations more closely to make sure this ring is an exact match."

"Yeah," Harold said with a sigh. "But, I still like Damon Butler for Kenton's murder. We know now that he bought either this ring or one just like it for Kenton. If this was the one that Damon got for Kenton, Kenton obviously wasn't wearing it when he died. So what happened? Did he give it back to Damon when he found out about Junior?"

"I'm not sure. I'm going to get with Kim later and have her go over what she heard in the bar again. She said something about Junior telling Carol about Kenton and Damon having an affair. And he also told Damon about Kenton and Carol having an affair. Even if Damon did kill Kenton, I'm thinking this guy, Junior, is a troublemaker who may have caused this murder."

"We need to follow Damon for a little while. Hopefully, he and Junior are still seeing each other."

"You don't want to bring him in for questioning?"

"Not yet; we need to find out who Junior is; maybe he knows something."

Janice nodded. But, even if they could prove who was involved, they would still have to prove one of them was Kenton Jenkins' murderer. Right now, they still don't have any proof