Did She Do It?
Chapter 1
Alice, my wife of 9 years, and I were reading news off our respective tablets having finished Saturday morning breakfast when the doorbell rang. Alice jumped a little at the interrupting chime. I'd noticed that she'd been a bit nervous and clingy for the past week or so, her clinginess leading to some mighty good sex. Much better than the dull, uninspired sex we'd had during the previous 6 months.
"I'll get it," I said, setting my iPad on the table and heading for the door. Opening the door, I found two men flashing badges identifying them as police officers.
"Hello, can I help you?" I inquired.
"Mr. Brian Campbell?" the larger of the two asked, I nodded.
"We're officers Stevens and Peters from the Austin Police department.
Sir, we're here to execute a search warrant," he said handing me a set of papers.
"A search warrant?" I confusingly exclaimed. "For what?"
"Sir, its all explained in the warrant, we'll give you a few moments to read through it. You can also call your attorney if you feel the need. We would also like to speak to your wife, Alice Campbell, if she is available."
"She's in the kitchen," I said as I ushered the two officers into the foyer as I read through the warrant, finding that indeed the warrant was directed to my wife Alice; and specifically to any firearms that she might own or possess and any property that may have belonged to a Mr. Conrad O'Brien.
Walking with the officers back to the kitchen I asked, "Does this have to do with that rich guy that was found dead last week? My wife works for one of his companies, but we don't know him, I've never even met the guy." Saying that, I looked up and saw my wife's face blanch and her eyes open wide like saucers. If they wanted a picture of a "guilty face" they needn't look any further.
"Alice, do you know what this is about?" I said with an edge to my voice. "They have a warrant to search our home and the warrant implies that you have something to do with Conrad O'Brien's murder."
"Sir, please let us ask the questions. If you'd please take a seat somewhere outside the kitchen, we have a few questions we'd like to ask Mrs. Campbell."
"Is she under arrest?" I asked. "I really think she should have legal counsel present before you ask her a bunch of questions. Alice, do you want me to call my attorney and see if he can get someone to represent you?"
"Yes, please," Alice meekly said, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
"That is her right, of course" one of the officers said. "Why don't we set up an interview for next week, right now we're just collecting evidence, no one is under arrest. Actually, we'd like to interview you as well Mr. Campbell, we can do it down at the station at the same time that we interview your wife. Of course, you are entitled to legal representation during the interview if you so choose. One more thing, sir, do you have any firearms in the house that we should be aware of?"
"First, I'm happy to talk to you here rather than down at the station. I never met O'Brien and have nothing to hide. Second, yes, I own a few guns, all of them are locked in my gun safe except for one of my handguns that is in the drawer of my bedside table."
"Could Officer Peters accompany you to retrieve the gun in the bedside table and then could you open your gun safe so that we can have a look?"
Knowing I didn't have much of a choice and wanting to appear cooperative I responded, "Sure, follow me its right this way," leading Officer Peters to the master bedroom. Once there I pointed at my bedside table, "Its in the top drawer." With gloves on, Officer Peters opened the drawer and carefully removed my Taurus Judge using an evidentiary rod and placing the gun into an evidentiary bag.
"Thank you, sir. Could you please take me to your gun safe?"
"Sure, right this way," I said leading him to my office. Once there, I entered the combination and opened the large, heavy door of the gun safe.
"Sir, we are going to take all of the firearms to our lab for testing, we'll give you a receipt for the items we remove before we leave. Once the items have been cleared, they will be returned to you."
"Alright," I said knowing I didn't have a choice in the matter. Peters spoke into a small microphone, "Michaels, I need you and your team to come in here and start inventorying the owner's firearms."
"Alright, boss, be right there," I heard voiced through Peter's speaker. In moments, Michaels and his team were in my study with evidentiary containers and bags to inventory and remove the guns.
I looked at Peters and he nodded, then he cleared his voice. "Alright guys, we're here to search the premises for any items listed in the warrant. In particular, we're looking for any additional firearms. Michaels will assign each of you a search area. Let's get busy!"
For the next several hours, the team spread out and thoroughly searched our house and our two cars that were in the garage. While they weren't destructive, our house was certainly a mess when the search was called off. We waited about 10 minutes while the CSI team and the two officers conferred at their vehicles.
I kept looking at Alice, giving her my best "what the hell is going on" look. Officer Peters then knocked on the door. I answered and he handed me a receipt and thanked me for our cooperation with the search. As if I had a choice! I nodded, looking through the receipt noting that all they took were firearms, five long guns and four handguns.
He asked if he could speak to Mrs. Campbell for a moment, I again ushered him into our home. Alice was still at the kitchen table. Her head was down and it looked like she might have been crying. The officer gently said, "Mrs. Campbell?" to which she looked up. He handed her a copy of his business card and said to make sure she set up an interview at the station sometime this week when her attorney was available. She nodded and said "OK."
He then asked if he and his partner could interview me in my study and that I had a right to have a lawyer if I wanted. I said I didn't need an attorney as I'd never met O'Brien and I had nothing to hide. The interview was thorough but didn't last more than an hour since I'd never even met O'Brien. As the husband, they wanted to see if I might have an axe to grind with the asshole who was apparently banging my wife and check out any alibi that I offered. They asked about my whereabouts on the night O'Brien was murdered. I asked which night it happened and they told me the date, I opened my iPhone and looked at my calendar.
"I was visiting a friend of mine, Lee Rogers, out at his place. Alice told me that she was going to spend the night with her aunt in Fredericksburg, so I called Lee and he invited me over." When asked what we did, I said that we had dinner with Lee's wife Pat, we talked for a while after dinner, and then Lee took me up in his private plane as he is an avid pilot. I explained that his neighborhood, Breakaway Park Fly-in Community in Cedar Park, has a private runway and many of the residents, including Lee, have their own private planes and hangars. It appeared the officers knew of the neighborhood. I told him that we took off sometime around 8pm and returned about an hour or so later. They asked who flew the plane and I said that I was not a pilot, but Lee had been a pilot for years in the military so I was quite comfortable flying with him. They indicated that they might need to corroborate my story so I gave him Lee's full name, address and phone number. Later, I talked to Lee and found out that the officers interviewed Lee and Pat at their home who both corroborated my story. They also provided the officers with surveillance footage that they obtained from the HOA. The footage was captured by a camera pointed at the runway showing planes as they took off and landed at the airstrip. The footage confirmed that that Lee's plane took off at 8:05PM and returned at 9:15PM.