Dead Boyfriends (Mac McKenzie #4)

Dead Boyfriends (Mac McKenzie #4) Page 12

When I asked how Jefferson hurt his head, she indicated that a man broke into her house and fought with Jefferson. I asked her if she witnessed the fight and she indicated that she had. I asked Davies if she could identify the man and she said no. I asked if the man had blond hair and she said yes, then corrected herself and said she couldn’t remember . . .

I told her that a Softball bat had been found at the scene. Davies indicated that it was hers, that she played for Dimmer’s Bar softball team until late July when the season ended. I told her that blood was found on the bat. I told her that we suspect that someone hit Jefferson with the bat. Davies denied hitting Jefferson with the bat. She said she only hit him with the bottle. I asked Davies if the man Jefferson fought with hit him with the bat. After a long pause, Davies said she did not see the man hit Jefferson with the bat.

I told her that many of her statements were inconsistent and Davies said she was trying as hard as she could. I asked her if she would take a polygraph test and she agreed. See additional report for polygraph results.

“They gave her a polygraph?”

“Oh, it gets better,” G. K. assured me.

We had pulled off of 10 and were heading west on Main Street past the huge shopping center that Coon Rapids had built on Anoka’s doorstep when I read the results.

Office of

ANOKA COUNTY SHERIFF

CONFIDENTIAL

DO NOT RELEASE WITH OUT A RELEASE

OF INFORMATION FORM OR COURT ORDER

PURPOSE OF EXAMINATION: To determine if Davies, Merodie Anne was being truthful when she denied killing Eli Jefferson.

A computerized polygraph exam was administered to Davies, Merodie Anne on 8/14 at 2100 hrs. at the C.I.D. Offices. Following the approved and recommended procedures, the polygraph questions were carefully reviewed with the subject prior to the examination. The questions consisted of control, neutral, symptomatic, and relevant questions. The following relevant questions were asked: Question #1: Are you the one who caused those fatal injuries to Eli Jefferson?

Answer: No.

Question #2: Did you inflict those injuries which caused the death of Eli Jefferson?

Answer: No.

Results: In reference to the relevant questions, DECEPTION WAS INDICATED. The John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Computer Scoring Algorithm indicates that the probability of deception on the targeted issues is greater than 99%.

I closed the file and set it on my lap. I wanted to stick it to the Anoka cops, but I didn’t want to help a killer go free for the privilege. G. K. seemed to have read my mind.

“No way Merodie could have understood the questions she was being asked,” she said.

“You think?”

G. K. pulled off Main Street onto Fourth Avenue and into the parking ramp that served both the Anoka County Courthouse and the correctional facility.

“Talk to her yourself,” she said. “You decide.”

“They’ve revoked your probation on the disorderly conduct conviction from last May,” G. K. Bonalay said. “They’re going to make you serve the entire thirty days.”

“They can’t do that,” Merodie Davies insisted. Her sharp words produced a disconcerting echo off the gray cinder-block walls of the eight-by-eight interview room.

“Yes, they can.”

“Who’s going to clean my house?”

“Your house?’

“My house is a mess. The blood. Who’s going to clean up the blood?”

“Don’t worry about your house.”

“People are going to see it. After the funeral. After the funeral when, when . . .” Merodie dropped her chin against her chest. Her entire body began to tremble, and she gripped the small table so tightly that I was sure she would have overturned it if it hadn’t been bolted to the floor. She grunted and groaned and cried out in unbridled anguish; she painted the walls with her suffering. Eli Jefferson might have been dead for two weeks, but the pain of it was fresh in Merodie’s heart. G. K. patted her shoulder and said, “There, there.” She looked at me like she wanted me to do something about it. I looked at the door and wished I could wait outside.

It took a while for Merodie to come back to us. She chanted, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” as she wiped her tears with the sleeve of her olive-green jump suit.

“I know you’re upset,” G. K. told her, “but you must stop worrying about Eli and start worrying about yourself.”

“I can’t,” Merodie said. “He was everything to me. He was my last chance.”

“Last chance for what?”

Merodie didn’t answer. She sniffed and dried her eyes and took several deep breaths, all while studying G. K. as if she were a curiosity, a new exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo. Then she turned her attention on me.

“Do I know you?” It was the second time she had asked the question.

“I was at your home the other day, the day you were arrested.”

She nodded as if it were all coming back to her. I doubted that it was. Yet, while her mind couldn’t quite wrap itself around me, it was becoming abundantly clear to her that she was in jail, specifically the Anoka County Correctional Facility, and that she was in deep trouble.