Thirty-five

Garza tried enlisting Jack’s sympathy for the investigators.

“Put yourself in our shoes,” Garza told Jack. “So that we can explain it. And understand it. You can understand what we’re trying to find out.”

“I loved my mother very much,” Jack said, and again made passing reference to Tim. Jack suggested to Garza that perhaps his mother had developed another relationship, one he did not know about.

“What you don’t understand is,” Garza said, ignoring the opening about Roberta’s possible other relationships, “we’re not trying to take anything away from you, in the sense that you loved your mom.

“I truly believe you did. I mean, you do. That’s not the issue here. I don’t want to debate that because I fully believe you. I’m not saying—we have not said that you don’t love your mom. That’s not the issue.”

It was just that, Garza said, the investigators believed Jack knew more about Roberta’s death than he was saying.

“No I don’t,” said Jack.

“Sure you do. You found her. How can we explain your mom’s death? How would you explain it to us?”

“I have no idea.”

“Can you give it a try? I mean, just try it.”

“Why don’t I tell you how it happened, or whatever you’re expecting? I went to work. I came home. I can’t tell you any more than that. I’m sorry. I was ill that week.”

“There are two theories,” Garza said, again ignoring Jack’s denial. “One from our captain here in the Benicia Police Department, okay, he seems to think, he has no doubt that you were responsible for your mother’s death, but what he believes happened, the captain, is you had planned this for a very, very long time. He’s saying that you premeditated this, and killed your mother for just her money. This is what our captain is telling us.”

But, said Garza, neither he nor Castillo agreed with the Benicia captain; they believed, they told Jack, that Jack killed Roberta because Roberta had done something bad to him.

“She had already wrongly accused you of something you did not do,” Castillo said, hearkening back to the days of Elmore and Roberta. “This is the way Investigator Garza and myself feel. What we feel now is that during that conflict, at the time, you just lost control. Lost control of yourself. And when you lose control, you hurt your mother. Which resulted in your mother dying, in that conflict. We don’t think you’re a premeditated killer. Not at all.”

Castillo again praised Jack for his intelligence.

“Which way is it, Mr. Barron?” Castillo persisted.

“I’m sorry,” Jack said, shaking his head to indicate that neither theory was true, because he hadn’t done it.

“What happened?” Garza persisted. “She made you so angry that you just couldn’t hold it in check anymore?”

“Nope,” Jack said.

“Something happened, okay?” Garza said. “Something did happen.”

Now Garza got up and moved closer to Jack, staring at him intensely.

“Something happened,” Garza said.

Jack said nothing.

“Something happened.”

Again Jack kept silent.

“Something happened,” Garza repeated, his eyes boring in on Jack’s. “She’s the one who made you angry. She did something to you.”

Jack finally appeared to get angry.

“How can I tell you what happened when I wasn’t there?” he said, raising his voice.

“After all this investigation, there’s no doubt in anybody’s mind, Mr. Barron, that you did it,” Garza said.

The interrogation ground on, with Garza and Castillo laboring to induce Jack to confess. Jack continued to insist that he had nothing to do with Roberta’s death.

“I didn’t kill my mother. I didn’t do this,” Jack said.

“Your mother didn’t suffer,” Castillo offered. “It wasn’t a brutal death. You just happened to lose control. Which resulted in the death of your mother. She didn’t suffer. She didn’t suffer at all. There’s no question in our minds at all, that you did not want you mother to suffer. So which one was it?”

Jack shook his head, but did not reply.

“Why should we believe you’re not responsible?” Garza demanded.

“I had a lot of respect and admiration for my mother.”

“I’m not knocking that,” Garza said. “I understand that. But I still believe that you did it. Mr. Barron, tell me why we shouldn’t believe you didn’t do it.”

“I didn’t do it.”

“But you did. We believe you did. We just want to understand the reason behind it. Why should we believe you didn’t do it?”

Jack sighed, but said nothing.

“We already know, Mr. Barron. We are not trying to convince you of anything,” Garza said. “We are already convinced.

“Mr. Barron,” Garza said, attempting to compel Jack to look at him directly. “We’re not trying to make you do anything. Okay? What we’d like is for you to convince me that you didn’t do it. That’s all I’m asking.”

“I didn’t do it.”

“We believe you did it.”

“You believe?”

“We believe.”

“No, there’s no question,” Castillo said. “We know you did it. We just have that question of why. On why, we want you to help us out.”

After almost an hour, the interrogation had degenerated into repetition, with the investigators confronting Jack over and over with their belief that he was a killer, and Jack doggedly persistent in his denials. The object now was to wear Jack down, engage his emotions, spark some incautious response on his part that could provide an opening wedge. If Jack decided to leave, the investigators had Plan ready to go.

By about 4:30 in the afternoon, Jack was visibly tired; so were Castillo and Garza. Yet Jack stuck steadfastly to his story, like a fighter on the ropes who wouldn’t go down.

Garza told Jack that the police believed Roberta had accused him of being like Elmore. That he was irresponsible. That he was fooling around with a married woman. It wasn’t his fault, Garza told Jack; Roberta had just pushed his button, and he’d lost control. It was Roberta’s fault, really, Garza told Jack.

Wearily, Jack said it wasn’t true.

Garza asked Jack if he’d blacked out during the murder. Jack said he hadn’t even been there. Garza confronted Jack with the statement from the witness, Jessica Vasquez, and said it proved Jack was lying.

“You lied,” Garza said. “There’s nobody else but you. Nobody else, Jack. Not Tim, not the union. There’s nobody else but Jack. Nope. Only Jack.”

Jack said nothing to this.

“Now we’ve got more,” Garza said. “Irene didn’t die of natural causes. Irene was smothered. She died of asphyxiation.”

“No, she didn’t,” Jack said. “The Coroner’s report said it was undetermined causes.”

Garza shook his head.

“That was then, this is now. Okay, Jack? This may take awhile to get to the truth, but she died of asphyxiation. Somebody smothered her. You know this, don’t you Jack?”

“No.”

“Yeah, you do.”

“No.”

“You do. You do.”

Jack shook his head. Garza appeared to lose his temper.

“God, I wish you would be honest with me!”

“I am.”

“No, you’re not, you’re not being honest with me. You’re being insulting. I’m being honest with you, but you’re not being honest with me.

“Irene died of asphyxiation. She was smothered in a way that her airway was obstructed. She died at the hands of another human being. Just like Roberta died at the hands of a human being. It was not a mysterious death, it was not the Lord coming down on anybody. She died at the hands of somebody else.

“They both hurt you,” Garza prompted.

“No.”

“They did. There’s no other explanation, Jack. I defy you to come up with one.”

“I can’t.”

“You can. How did it happen?”

“I don’t know.”

“You know, Jack.”

“I have no idea.”

“You know. You have an idea.”

“I don’t know.”

“You know, you’re lying.”

“There’s nothing to tell.”

“There’s a lot to tell.”

Garza said again that the evidence showed the only person who could possibly have killed Roberta was Jack, unless Jack could come up with someone else.

“Who would that be?” Garza prompted.

“I told you, I can’t,” Jack said.

“You can do better. You can do a lot better.”

“I know what happened at work,” Jack said. “I know what happened that day, and obviously, whatever I tell, it can’t make any difference. There isn’t anything I can say or do to change your mind, you’re already pretty much …”

Jack’s voice trailed off.

“You’re guilty because nobody else could have done it,” Garza said. “Who else got there? Who else had a key? With the house secured? By your own words, you opened up the house yourself, Jack.”

“Yeah, I had a key to the house. I walked in the door …”

“We’ve been over this,” Garza said. “You’re the only one with a key. That’s why we know it’s you. You don’t have any other options, with regard to giving us an idea of who could have done this. It’s time, Jack.

“It was just like all those other times. It was no different. It just built up. It built up. And you choked your mom. The reason for this was she hurt you.”

“I’ve had over my share of hurt,” said Jack, “but I would never take it out on anybody.”

“The hurt is over now,” Garza said. “She’s not going to hurt you again, is she? She’s not going to be able to tell you that you’re like your father. She’s not going to be able to tell you that you’re wasting money, that you’re living in her house without paying rent, that you’re messing around just like your dad with a married woman. She’s not going to be able to do that anymore, is she?”

The interrogation dragged on. Still Jack made no move to leave.

“We don’t think you’re a bad guy,” Garza said. “We just want to know why.” But, said Garza, once it got out that police suspected him of killing Roberta and Irene, everyone was going to think he was a bad guy.

“What other people?” Jack asked.

“Everybody, Jack,” Garza said. “Everybody. Everybody’s going to believe you’re a bad guy. Everybody’s going to believe you’re not that model kid that you said you were. Okay? Everybody. You name ’em. They. Will. Believe that. Don’t kid yourself. Don’t kid yourself with thinking that those people aren’t going to believe that. It’s not important what person, they’re going to believe that, the important part is that everybody’s going to believe that.”

“I didn’t kill them. I don’t know what happened, or what did happen. I am not responsible for that,” Jack said.

“You are, Jack, that’s a fact. You are responsible for everything.”

“Never.”

“I don’t care how many times you deny it, we’re never going to change that. The fact is you are responsible for it, you did it. You injured your mother, you injured Irene, it happened. Yes it did, Jack. It’s a fact. You cannot get away from it.

“You might as well face it, you know you did it. There’s nobody else responsible. It’s you Jack.”

Jack sighed, and said nothing.

“How are we going to do this?” Garza continued. “Are you going to continue to lie? You’re the only one with the opportunity to end it. So what do you think?”

Finally, after almost five hours, Jack had had enough.

“I think it’s stupid,” Jack said.

“I don’t think so,” Garza said.

“Yeah,” said Jack, standing up. “I’m going now.”

There was a knock on the door. Castillo opened it. Cranford and Verdouris entered the room.

Jack sat down again.