There was a full pot waiting when Donnie and Elias showed up at eight the next morning with the two women. They walked toward the front door; he tapped on the window to catch Donnie's attention, gestured through the dining room window for them to come in the kitchen door, and added a fourth cup to the three sitting on the counter. As soon as they entered, he gestured toward the coffee pot.
They acknowledged one another with nods, but no one spoke. His uninvited guests looked nervous and a bit sheepish, while he maintained a neutral expression.
They took turns pouring and adding until each had the mix they wanted. He added a fifth chair to the kitchen table, took a seat, took a sip, and waited impassively.
"So you expected us?" Donnie asked after everyone was seated.
"I knew they would run to you, fill your head full of noise, and get you to intervene. I didn't expect the trooper, but I made fresh coffee because I figured you'd be here by eight. As usual, you're right on time."
"They did come see me after they left here yesterday, Jack. I called Elias, he came over, and they told us their stories. We believe you need to hear from them in person," Donnie said with conviction; Elias nodded firmly in agreement.
Jack picked up the briefcase beside his chair, opened it, and pulled out a large manila envelope. He unclasped it and laid a stack of 8x10 photos face down on the table. He turned the envelope upside down and two USB drives fell into his hand; he laid them on the table beside the photos.
Looking directly at Elias, then Donnie, he gestured toward the stack and said, "I have photos, video, and audio; I don't know how much more I care to know about their exploits."
"Don't you care WHY?" Donnie asked with feeling. "Okay, you know WHAT they did, but I would think the biggest question in your mind now would be, 'WHY did they do what they did?'
"In the law, motivation is a huge part of the evidence gathering and decision making process; it can damn the suspect or provide exculpatory evidence that exonerates, or partially exonerates, the suspect's actions!"
Jack looked around the table before settling his eyes back on Donnie. "Do you mean being drugged during the recruitment process, being blackmailed with the videos of the following debauchery, and having loved ones threatened with bodily harm if they didn't do as told? Yeah, I know about all that.
"The problem is, Donnie, from day one they've both shown a complete lack of respect for me. In spite of innumerable opportunities AFTER the initial events you reference, neither party bothered to tell me what was going on. They weren't drugged up, or being intimidated by someone every hour of every day from then until now, but not one call was made! Hell, not even one response to any of MY calls, emails, and texts!
"So, given their subsequent actions, how are the initial events exculpatory? If you drive a getaway car after a bank robbery while your child is being threatened with a gun in the back seat... sure, your motivation may be exculpatory. But when you willingly drive the same car for various and sundry bank robbers time after time, no child involved, and exclaim to the robbers that this is the most fun you've ever had, do you remain innocent?
"At what point does the initial coercion stop being exculpatory, Donny, if you willing keep committing the crime over and over again?"
April emotionally interjected, "We were trying to keep you safe! They showed us videos and described in detail what happened when other men tried to intervene! We only degraded ourselves to keep you safe! Those pictures are of us being selfless, not slutty!"
"Really? Let's insert this USB drive in the port on my laptop right here, and listen to you being selfless, shall we?"
"You don't understand!" his sister cried. "We were beaten at the slightest provocation, or sometimes just out of meanness, or for entertainment! We were given drugs, told what to say, how to act, what to do! They were very bad men - we were doing what we did to protect you!"
"Bad men, huh? Where are those 'bad men' today? Did you not believe I could and would protect the women in my life?"
"Okay, they were assassinated by terrorists, but that has nothing to do with what would have happened to you if we had told you..."
Janice's voice trailed off and puzzlement covered her face. She looked at Donnie, then Elias, and then at April, who was staring at her husband with wide-eyed disbelief.
"You?" she asked simply.
Jack looked at Donnie, then Elias, and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure what you're asking, but if you're asking if I killed those men - I've been questioned by local law enforcement, by state law enforcement, by the FBI, and by the Secret Service. My alibi has been checked and rechecked, it's airtight, and I've been eliminated as a suspect by every law enforcement agency involved."
A bit of a smile played around Donnie's mouth, and Elias turned his head away. April saw both, and a barely discernable hint of smugness on her husband's face. Janice continued staring at him, mouth open.
"Jack..." April began, "I... We... Well, fuck! How did you...?"
"What I know is what I heard on TV, and from local law enforcement, like this guy," he said, pointing to Elias. "The leaders of 'The Ring' were lured to deer blinds at The Reserve, down south of town. A woodsman stalked and killed them, and then disappeared into thin air, leaving no clues.
"As I said, I have an airtight alibi, substantiated by a half-dozen people, so don't try to pin their fate on me."
His words were spoken without undue emotion, but there was a smugness that the women who knew him best recognized. They stared at him in astonishment, and then turned to one another.
"We were fools," April said to Janice. "We should have known! We should have believed in him!"
"Brother, she's right! We were fools! Can you ever forgive us? I swear we were doing what we did to protect you! I don't care what you see and hear on the tape; we were only doing what we had to do!"
"Shall we cue it up, then? If that was all acting, April fakes cumming better than Meg Ryan in a restaurant," he replied without expression. "Makes me question whether I ever gave my own wife an orgasm."
Donnie quickly intervened. "Jack, can you give them thirty minutes each to tell their stories in their own ways, without asking questions or commenting? That's only an hour out of the rest of your life, and I don't believe that's too much to ask!"
"Tell you what, buddy. Let me play the tapes, we'll all watch and listen, and then we can decide among us just what them 'telling their stories' will accomplish. Sound fair?"
