The Secrets on Chicory Lane: A Novel(56)

“Would you say he was ‘disturbed’?”

“Absolutely.”

“Thank you. No further questions.”

We broke for lunch.





22


After lunch, Shamrock called Wade Jones to the stand. I realized he was the young man with the long red hair whom I had met in 1994 when Eddie had given me a tour of his home office. He was obviously over a decade older, but he still had his long locks. He, too, wore a goatee. Frankly, I thought he looked more sinister than Eddie.

Shamrock established that Jones was a member of The Temple and had known Eddie for seventeen years. His girlfriend of six years was Catherine Carter, who was also a member of the congregation.

“Were you paid by the defendant to work for him?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What were your duties?”

“I was good with computers and stuff, so I handled the website and social media.”

“Were you friends with the defendant?”

“Sure. We were friends.” Jones appeared uncomfortable answering that.

“Did you ever have any conversations with the defendant regarding his girlfriend, Dora Walton?”

“Lots. I mean, we talked about all kinds of stuff. We talked about his relationship, we talked about my relationship with Catherine.”

“And did the defendant ever say anything about Dora Walton that concerned you?”

“Yes. He had a hard time with her pregnancy. He didn’t want kids. He told me that he begged her to get an abortion, but she wouldn’t do it. As her belly grew bigger, his behavior became more erratic. He started doing drugs again.”

“What kinds of drugs?”

“Pot, mostly, but usually he just drank. A lot. And he got very belligerent when he drank alcohol. Sometimes he got very scary.”

“How so?”

“About a month before the, uh, crime, Dora came over to our house. I believe she was six months pregnant at the time. She had a black eye and a busted lip. She told us that Eddie—uh, the defendant—got drunk and became abusive. He threatened to ‘cut out her baby.’”

“Those were his exact words?”

“According to Dora, yes.”

I expected Crane to stand and object for hearsay reasons, but he didn’t. He seemed to be allowing this testimony to play out.

“Mr. Jones, what happened on Christmas Eve of last year?”

“Catherine and I went over to Eddie’s house for a party. It was just the four of us—me, Catherine, Eddie, and Dora. We had food, drank a lot of wine, and—well, Dora didn’t drink because of her pregnancy. The rest of us got pretty intoxicated. And then we … well, we had sex, sir.”

“All of you? Together.”

“Yes. We practiced alternative lifestyles.”

“By that, you mean you were swingers.”

Jones turned red and averted his eyes. “I guess you can say that.”

“Can you tell us what kind of mood the defendant was in?”

Jones shrugged. “Aside from being drunk, he was in a festive mood.”

“Did you have any idea of what he was planning to do?”

“None.”

“How did the evening end for you?”

“Around twelve thirty a.m., Catherine and I went home. We left Eddie and Dora in their living room.”

Shamrock looked at Crane and said, “Your witness.”

Eddie’s lawyer stood and said, “I have no questions at this time, but the defense will be calling Mr. Jones to the stand at a later time.”

Wade Jones walked out of the courtroom without looking at Eddie.

Next, Shamrock brought out the hard, physical evidence of the crime. Through his witnesses’ testimonies, he had already set up Eddie as a devil worshiper who performed scandalous and immoral acts in his home, despite the will of his neighbors to take his “sins” elsewhere. The nitty-gritty facts of the crime were as horrific as expected, and the police officers, medical examiners, and forensics experts laid it all out in excruciating detail. Crime scene photos were shown to the jury—not to the spectators—and many of them turned their heads away in revulsion. At one point, the judge ordered a recess when one juror thought she might throw up. I didn’t want to see the pictures. I’m pretty resilient, but that would have been too upsetting. Just the description of what went down that night was enough to put images in my head that would never go away.

Although no one can say for certain what the exact sequence of events was, investigators pieced together a scenario that made sense to them and acted as a frame for all the pieces of the puzzle. The lead detective in the case, Lieutenant Seabolt, provided most of the testimony and his opinion of what happened.

On Christmas Eve, Eddie, Dora, Wade Jones, and Catherine Carter were together in Eddie’s house. The place was decorated in Eddie’s devilish artwork and lit entirely with black candles. It was evident that food and drink had been consumed. Evidence of sexual activity was present in the living room—pillows, sheets, and blankets strewn around the floor and furniture contained traces of bodily fluids. Seabolt figured that the party was a night of debauchery for the participants. The two couples had eaten and drunk and had sex.

The most damaging evidence was found in the kitchen. Traces of the drug flunitrazepam, otherwise known as Rohypnol or “roofies”—the “date-rape drug”—was found in a bowl. Investigators found an empty bottle of the prescription drug, which is illegal to possess in the United States. The pills had come from Mexico. Eddie had apparently crushed all the pills into a powder and spiked a glass of orange juice. An abundance of the drug was found in Dora’s body.