Price No Object

This story is part of an ongoing series.

The chronological order of my stories is listed in WifeWatchman's biography.

Feedback and

constructive

criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

This story contains graphic scenes, language and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racism, racial language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

***

Part 4 - Jeff Cawthorne's Story

10:00am, Tuesday, January 5th. I hurried up to the lobby of Police Headquarters. There were several Press reporters in the lobby, as well as the Duty Desk Sergeant.

"Commander, I put them in Interrogation-Alpha after these reporters came out of their designated Press area and began shouting questions in their faces." said the Duty Desk Sergeant.

"Good. Thanks." I said. When I turned to face the pieces of subhuman feces that called themselves 'journalists', they began shouting questions at me. I did not bother trying to hear what they were yelling, much less try to answer.

Instead I said loudly to the Duty Desk Sergeant "Get a team of heavily armored Officers up here. These pieces of shit can either go back into their designated Press Room area, or they can go out the front door. Those who don't should be given a full tour of our Booking facilities and our jail cells, charged with felony trespassing."

I then went through the door back into Headquarters. The reporters looked around, fury and hatred on their faces. The Duty Desk Sergeant said "You've got until I get back behind that desk to be out of this lobby." By the time he got there, the reporters had begrudgingly returned to the Press Room.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I texted Paulina that Cawthorne was at Police Headquarters. A couple of minutes later, i got a text back saying "

Miriam stopped me from going over there, and said not to go over there. Have fun without me.

" I grumbled at the iPhone, then put that into its compartment of the mind and went to the anteroom.

"Who's the girl?" I asked as I looked through the one-way glass into I-A, where a woman about Jeff Cawthorne's age was sitting next to him at the table. She was 5'10" in her high heels, meaning she was about 5'7" without them. She was very beautiful, with sparkling light brown eyes, a mane of lustrous raven black hair and an hourglass shape not unlike Teresa Croyle's magnificent body.

Claire Michaels said "She identified herself as Sheila Sullivan, and said she's Jeff Cawthorne's fiancée. Her drivers license says she's 27 years old and that she lives in Palmyra County, about five miles east of Cawthorne's address as the crow flies."

I nodded. "Okay, after some initial introductions, I'm going to have her brought to the Pastor's Room, where Joanne and------ oh, never mind, she went to interview that neighbor. That means that

you

, Captain, will be pressed into service to talk to her. Make her comfortable, just talk to her, get what you can without her realizing she's being interrogated. Take a female Detective in with you."

I then turned to Jerome and said "Who do you want to interview

him?

"

"You, sir." said Jerome. When I looked at him with a none-too-pleased glare, he said "Sir, I believe you already have ideas about this case that we don't, and you'll know what questions to ask him, and in the order you want. That would work better than trying to pass questions through earbuds or advance prep that won't be enough."

I said "Although you're right, I don't like it that you're using me as a crutch. But we'll worry about that later. Who do you want in there with me?"

"Rodriguez, sir." Jerome said. "Parker went with Warner to interview the neighbor, George Newman is not yet up to speed on this... and we can talk about Coleman later, sir." That caused me to glance at Davis again, but I said nothing.

"All right. Get Rodriguez in here." I said.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Detective Sergeant Julia Rodriguez entered Interrogation-A in plainclothes, followed by me, Your Iron Crowbar, in my standard uniform with light blue shirt and soft shoulderboards with one star on each epaulette.

"This is Detective Julia Rodriguez, and I am Commander Don Troy." I said in introduction, then we sat down opposite them. "You are Jeff Cawthorne and..." I pretended to read some notes, "...Sheila Sullivan, I believe?"

"Yes, Commander." said Cawthorne.

"You're the Iron Crowbar, aren't you?" asked Sheila Sullivan.

"Yes, I have that honor." I said. "So... what brought you to my Police Headquarters of your own volition?"

Sheila Sullivan spoke up: "We heard on the radio this morning that Dwayne and Julie Matheson were killed, and that there was an APB out for Jeff. We thought the best thing to do would be to drive up here and for him to turn himself in."

I said "Yes, that was absolutely the best thing to do. But I'm curious... you weren't stopped anywhere along the way?"

"They were looking for Jeff's car, but we drove up in mine." Sheila said. I nodded. Brains as well as beauty, this woman had, I noted to myself.

"Where were you last night, Jeff?" I asked. "We know you weren't at your apartment in Palmyra County, nor up here."

"I spent the night with Sheila at her apartment." Jeff said. "I've spent more than half my nights there since we began dating."

"Okay, here's what we need to do." I said. "Sheila, an Officer is going to take you to what we call the Pastor's Room. It's like a breakroom, and more comfortable than rooms like these. Mr. Cawthorne, if you'll stay here, we have some questions for you that we need to record on that camera up there." I pointed at the camera mounted high on the wall to my right and Cawthorne's left.

After a female Uniformed Officer led Sheila Sullivan through the anteroom and to the Pastor's Room, Lt. Rudistan took up the position of the Uniformed Presence. Curiosity killed the cat, I thought to myself.

I said "Mr. Cawthorne, for your protection and mine, I'm going to read you your rights." I did so from the card. "Do you understand the rights?"

"Yes." said Cawthorne. "Uh, do I need an attorney?"

"It's your right to have one, if you wish." I replied.

After a moment's though, Cawthorne said "Go ahead and ask your questions. I'll ask for a lawyer if I feel I need one."

"Good enough." I said agreeably. "Mr. Cawthorne, I am sorry to inform you that Dwayne and Julie Cawthorne were indeed found dead yesterday afternoon in their home."

Cawthorne bowed his head, in obvious emotional stress. After giving him moment, I said "I know it's a bad time, but there is no good time, so I need to ask some questions."

Cawthorne looked up and nodded, and I said "When was the last time you saw either of them?"

"I saw Dwayne yesterday." said Cawthorne. "We had a meeting promoting our software package in the City. We met there, as we drove in separate cars from separate locations. When we were done, he drove back here and I drove to Sheila's place in Palmyra County. As to Julie, I last saw her New Year's Eve, at their house. Sheila and I stayed at their house overnight, and we had breakfast with them the next morning before leaving for home."

"How did that business meeting go?" I asked. "Any reason for him to be upset? Angry?"

"No. Dwayne is... was... one of the most level-headed guys I know." Jeff said. "And the presentation went pretty well."

"Who were you making the presentation to?"

"The company is called Satco Engineering." said Jeff. "They make communication satellite parts and systems. They have a lot of CNC machines and other computerized systems, and they also have programming of the products they make. If any of that is hacked and messed with, it could cause untold billions in damage. We were meeting to discuss creating a new, more advanced software security system for them, both hardware and software. It would've been a huge get if we landed the contract."

I nodded. "So you got a contract from them?"

"No, it was just a first meeting." said Cawthorne. " We just showed what we had in terms of security software, and we gathered information on what they did so that we could make a more detailed proposal. I thought the meeting went well, but I'm the sales pitch guy and tend to be optimistic."

"And Dwayne was not optimistic?" I asked.

"Heeee... he's more of the 'cautiously optimistic' type." Jeff said. "Before we went our separate ways for home, he said he thought the guy we met was just playing us, and had no intention of giving us the contract. He didn't explain further, and I didn't ask. I did ask if he wanted to get a late lunch before driving back, and he said he wanted to get back home to Julie."

I said "How were things between Dwayne and Julie? Good? Or did they have arguments?"

"Like I said, Dwayne was always as cool as the other side of the pillow." said Jeff. "Julie was more of an initiative-taker than Dwayne, but she had a sweet personality. I've known both of them since we were all in college, and they never argued. They were very much in love."

"Never?" I asked, peering hard at Jeff. "We have reports that they were having arguments about this time a year ago."

That seemed to catch Jeff off-guard for a second, then he got his wits back. He said "Okay, I never saw or heard them argue in front of me. But I think I know what it must've been about. And let me make a short story long with some background."

"Please, go ahead." I said.

Cawthorne: "When we graduated from Eastern State, all three of us were offered jobs with BigCommunicationsCorp, which most people call 'BigCommo'. We all started in the Programming Department. Julie was later moved to the Systems Analyst group, even though she was a better programmer than I was, and I was more suited to the Business Analyst type of role."

Cawthorne: "Dwayne was a really great programmer, and they had him and Julie get Top Secret clearances so that they could work on some of the company's more highly classified projects. I was assigned to legacy projects that were mostly maintaining old software that was being rewritten and phased out."

I asked "Did you all have to work a lot of hours?"

"Yes sir, that's where I'm going with this." said Cawthorne. "The environment at BigCommo was a lot like Microsoft, Apple, MegaTech Industries, and other big companies like BigAgraFoods... they put a lot of pressure on people to meet tight deadlines, under the adage that people do their best work and find the best solutions when under pressure to do so."

I nodded. "I've heard of that being implemented in places like Microsoft. So BigCommo did that?"

Cawthorne: "Yes. And they, BigCommo, took it to an abusive level. They fully expected people to put in long, long hours, and work weekends. I wasn't the one for that, and I'd leave at a reasonable hour of the evening, definitely by dinner time. That got me assigned to the legacy projects, and I was bluntly told that if I didn't spend more time at work, I had no future with them. When I didn't get a raise at the end of my second year there, I knew that there was no point in staying. So I quit and began doing contract work."

Cawthorne: "Julie and Dwayne stayed with BigCommo. They got decent raises, but they were working long days. Julie would be working 12 to 14 hour days, and it was worse for Dwayne... they had him working as much as 18 hours a day, six or even seven days a week... and on salary, not getting overtime."

Cawthorne: "Julie had finally had enough, and she put in her notice. They offered her a raise and bonus to stay, but she said no. But Dwayne stayed on. And that's where the arguments may have come from. Julie really wanted Dwayne to quit, and he was becoming burnt out. But he would keep saying 'just a little longer'. Julie did say they'd been promising him large bonuses, and he did get a couple that were about $2000 each, but that's chickenshit------ oh, sorry."

Cawthorne: "Anyway, the promised big bonuses never came. So Julie took the initiative and began laying the groundwork for us to have our own company, filing the paperwork and all that. I jumped at the chance to be part of it; I thought we had a chance to do really well with it."

"And you got Dwayne to quit and join your new company?" I asked.

"Yes." said Jeff. "Dwayne finally gave his notice, and then they insulted him by handing him a check for $50,000 to stay on. He told me he told them 'you'd been promising me that for years, and only

now,

when I'm walking out the door, you hand me the check?'. He tore it up and threw the pieces on the floor and walked out. So everyone was pissed, both him and them, and it was not an amicable departure. But Julie was ecstatic."

"What was Dwayne working on while at BigCommo?" I asked. "What projects?"

Cawthorne said "I'm not sure. He said what he was working on was highly classified, and wouldn't give me any details at all. I heard from other sources, including Julie, that it was a project for the Federal Government, but that's all. It was really hush-hush, and I never pressed Dwayne on it."

I said "Okay, then let's go in another direction. What were your roles with your new company?"

Cawthorne: "Dwayne did most of the programming work, and Julie and I both helped where and when he needed it. I began doing more of the business analyst role, and also being responsible for the sales pitches and generating new clients. And Julie was doing all the background work: invoices, accounts payable, accounts receivable. And it was working well for us."

Julia Rodriguez broke in and asked: "If I may ask, why was she listed as the President of your company, as opposed to you or especially Dwayne?"

Jeff replied: "Putting her as a woman as the company president technically made us a (air quotes) 'minority-owned' company when we were bidding for contracts with the State or Federal Governments, and gave us that advantage towards getting Government work."

"That's true." I said, more to Julia than to Jeff. "And as to your company, if you were to land that big Satco deal, you'd have to expand, wouldn't you?"

"Oh yes." said Jeff Cawthorne. "Sheila was going to be brought onto the Board of our company and be made an Officer in it when she and I got married, which is scheduled for May. And we would've ramped up and hired people if we were to land something big like that. There are a lot of people that would like to get out of the toxic BigCommo environment, and we had ideas about raiding them, BigWireless, and MegaTech Industries to get that manpower quickly."

"Thank you for that information." I said. "So let me ask this: where were you all working when you were with BigCommo? Here, in Town?"

"Yes, here. In Town." said Jeff. "At the time we were in an office park on the northeast side of Town, but since they developed that new area for technology parks where Standard Tools used to be before the building was blown up, BigCommo and BigWireless moved there, into their own building." (

Author's note: 'Women's Work', Ch. 03, for the Standard Tools explosion.

)

"Okay." I said. "Is that why you own a condo here in Town?"

"Yes." said Cawthorne.

"Did you stay at the Mathesons very often?"

"Sometimes." said Cawthorne. "We'd work pretty late sometimes, but at least we were working at home. Sometimes I stayed in the apartment over their garage when we were on a roll with a project."

"Not in their spare bedroom?" I asked.

"No, the apartment was more self-sufficient, and we were out of each other's way." said Cawthorne. "And it gave them more privacy in their own home."

"Why own the condo, then?" Julia Rodriguez asked. "You never sold it?"

"No." Cawthorne said. "I had ideas of renting it out, or staying in it if I was up here for stretches of time. And all that was before we formed the new company together."

"I need to ask more about the Mathesons." I said. "Is there anyone you know that might've wanted to harm them?"

"Uhh... gosh, I can't think of anyone." said Jeff Cawthorne. "They didn't have a large circle of friends, but they didn't have any enemies, either... that I know of."

I said "What was the status of

your

relationship with them?"

"Good." said Cawthorne. "We've been friends for years."

"And more, perhaps?" I asked, studying him carefully.

"What do you mean?" Cawthorne said, his eyes narrowing a bit.

"Just friends?" I asked.

"Good friends." said Cawthorne. "What are insinuating, Commander?"

I looked at Detective Rodriguez, then over at Rudistan, who could not hide a grin as he knew what I was about to say. And I said it:

"

Let's watch some TV.

" I announced as I picked up the remote and turned on the television monitor. An instant later the video of Jeff Cawthorne and Julie Matheson hotly rutting as Dwayne watched and masturbated to it was playing on the monitor.

"Where in the world did you get

that?

" asked Cawthorne, not really shocked, just surprised that we were showing it to him.

"Off of Dwayne Matheson's computer." I replied. "And Mr. Cawthorne, it brings up a whole host of new questions about your relationship with the Mathesons, and them with each other. And I'll ask first: does your fiancée Sheila know about this?"

"Yes." said Cawthorne said. "She was the one filming that video there. And I'll just say now that I'm not ashamed of any of that."

I shut off the playback and the television monitor and said "I understand that, and I'm not judging you on it. But in light of what has happened, I'm going to need a good explanation of it all. Make me understand, Mr. Cawthorne."

"I'll start at the beginning." Cawthorne said as I made a quick text, which said '

Bring Sheila Sullivan to I-B and read her her rights.

'.

Cawthorne started: "I met Dwayne my Freshman year of college. We were on the same wing of the same floor of our dorm, and since we were majoring in the same things, we were in the same classes. Our roommates both graduated, so we signed up to be roommates our Sophomore year."

Cawthorne: "Dwayne had begun dating Julie, who was also in our classes. I dated a number of women. It didn't take long to find out that Dwayne liked to watch when I brought a girl to our room and fucked her. And then it evolved to Dwayne and Julie double dating with me and some girl, and we'd go back to our room and Dwayne would fuck Julie while I fucked my date. Dwayne and Julie both would be watching me as much as they would be fucking each other."

Cawthorne: "We never swapped at that time, and I never tried to fuck Julie. She and Dwayne got engaged. One night during our Senior year, we went to a big party and drank a lot. My girlfriend at the time chose that night to break up with me, and Dwayne was really drunk and fell asleep immediately. I would've gone to sleep, but Julie came over and got in bed with me, gave me a blowjob and then got on top of me and fucked my brains out. It was the best sex I'd ever had."

Cawthorne: "I didn't say anything, and I thought Dwayne had been asleep the whole time. We graduated, I was Dwayne's Best Man at his wedding, and we all got hired by BigCommo. Nothing went on in our personal lives; BigCommo was working us to the bone from the day we started there. And that was one reason I put less and less effort into my job at BigCommo... I wasn't getting to socialize and meet women."

Cawthorne: "About a year after being hired, we had a Sunday off. Julie and Dwayne invited me to lunch at their house. After lunch, they had me sit on the sofa and Julie curled up next to me, practically sitting on my lap. Dwayne sat in the chair opposite and told me they had a proposition for me."