Читать книгу Dead Center - Frank J. Daniels - Страница 13

= chapter 5 =

Simple Questions, Few Answers

Monday, the day after Bruce Dodson’s death, a new set of investigators became involved. Investigator Ron Roberts, a young, blond, innocent-looking officer with a stocky build, was newly assigned to investigations. Intelligent, unimposing and well-intended, Roberts was also just a bit green around the edges. This was his first murder investigation. His supervisor, Lieutenant Ron Finley, asked him to go to Saint Mary’s hospital to interview Janice to find out any possible information that might help clarify the scene on the plateau. Ron Finley, weathered and tall, western in dress, provincial in attitude, was a regular competitor in shooting matches and known as a fast and accurate shot with a pistol. He had been an investigator for twenty-seven years and not only had a lot of experience, but was extremely confident in his own abilities and insight which tended to make the younger, less experienced officers insecure. When the case was first assigned that morning, it looked like a possible accidental shooting. Still, Ron Roberts, who was eager to do the right thing and not make any mistakes, was nervous. Perhaps because he was young and concerned, Finley thought Janice might open up to Roberts with a large volume of information. So Finley sent him to talk to her.

Roberts arrived at Saint Mary’s Hospital at around 9:50 A.M. and met Janice Dodson in a small waiting room on the third floor of the east wing. Victim advocate Dawn Bray was with Janice along with a friend of hers, a woman introduced to Roberts as Sharon.

After a subdued greeting, Roberts offered his condolences then got down to business. “Mrs. Dodson, we’re trying to find out who shot your husband. If you can help us with some information, you’ll certainly improve our odds of doing so. Are you able to talk to me about what occurred yesterday on the Uncompahgre Plateau?”

Janice nodded. “I’ll try,” she said in a whispery voice.

To Investigator Roberts, the widow appeared to be both physically and emotionally drained. Her voice was weak and hard to understand and he felt that she was about to break into sobs at any moment.

“Why don’t you just start at the beginning and tell me what happened,” he said in a gentle, encouraging tone.

She nodded again, but then sat there staring at him as if unable to speak.

He tried again. “Tell me a bit more about yourself, Mrs. Dodson, and about your husband. What is your full name?”

“Janice Morgan Dodson,” she said in a low monotone.

“And where do you work?” Roberts hoped answering simple questions would get the woman talking. To him, she appeared somewhat dazed, as if she were still in shock.

“At Memorial Hospital,” she said. “I’m a registered nurse. I’ve been there about six years…in the Psychcare Dependency Center.”

Janice rose and walked to a nearby table where there was a box of tissues. She grabbed a handful and returned to her chair next to Roberts. He noticed that she appeared to be very stiff and sore and it seemed as though it was difficult for her to move. She stared into space as if he wasn’t there.

“Mrs. Dodson, have you taken any medications while you’ve been here at the hospital?”

She blew her nose and nodded. “Two Ativans last night to help me sleep. I’ve taken nothing today, though.”

Roberts began again. “And your husband, what did he do for a living?”

“Medical technician,” she said. “At County Hospital…for a little over five years.” She paused, staring intently down at the floor. After a minute of silence, she looked up at Roberts with a small, forlorn smile. “We only got married last July, on the fifteenth. We dated for four years, but we’re married only three months.”

Roberts nodded sympathetically. “I understand you were married before, Mrs. Dodson. Is that correct?”

“Yes, to Mark Gordon Morgan. We’re divorced.” She shook her head and looked at Roberts with a wry expression. “He ran off with our daughter’s best friend, Marcy. That girl used to call me Mom, that’s how close we were. I kind of lost it after that. Tried to kill myself and ended up in the hospital for eleven days.”

“Were there problems in your marriage to Morgan, Mrs. Dodson? I mean before he ran off?”

“Well, one time I had to pull a gun on him during an argument, but he took it away from me.”

“When did you last speak to Mark?” Roberts asked.

“About a week ago, I guess. I called to tell him about our children. We have a son and a daughter who are grown.”

“When did you last see your former husband?”

“My father died earlier this year and I had to go to Texas to make arrangements for his funeral. Mark came by my aunt’s house in Chirito, where I was staying. He offered his sympathy and we talked over coffee. That’s when I told him I was going to marry Bruce Dodson.”

“How did Mark respond to your news?” asked Roberts.

Janice shrugged. “He wished me the best of luck.” She leaned back in the chair and blew her nose again. “I had a long talk with Mark at that time and realized he was not the kind of guy I wanted to be married to. That’s when I decided marrying Bruce would be the best thing for me to do.”

Ron Roberts leaned toward her. “Tell me more about Bruce, Mrs. Dodson. How old was he?”

“Forty-eight.”

“Was Bruce married previously?”

“No.”

“Did he have any enemies that you know of?”

She shook her head and wiped the tears that had begun rolling down her cheeks. “He didn’t. He was a good man, not involved in drugs, no debts and he was very self-sufficient.”

“What kind of financial condition was Bruce in, Mrs. Dodson?”

“Well, he had an investment portfolio, but I don’t know the value of it. Bruce tried to explain his investments to me every so often, but I just never paid much attention, because I really don’t understand that stuff and figured that was his responsibility. He had a rental home in Leadville and we just bought a hot tub, so I figured things were going well financially.” She stopped to wipe her eyes and dab at her nose. “My mother-in-law is a wealthy woman. And in extremely good health,” she added a moment later.

Investigator Roberts pondered her response for a moment, but decided he didn’t want to get sidetracked by probing the issue further. There were more questions he had to ask about her husband’s death. “Have you hunted before in the area where the accident occurred, Mrs. Dodson?”

She nodded. “Yes, just three or four weeks earlier. I was by myself, grouse-hunting. I bagged one grouse. I’m an experienced hunter; I’ve been hunting since I was about six years old.”

“Prior to your recent grouse hunt, when was the last time you hunted on the Uncompahgre?”

“Oh, a while ago. Before my divorce from Mark.”

Janice told Roberts that she did not want to go up there after the divorce, because she knew all of them—Mark, his brother, Terence, and her former sister-in-law, Carla, would be hunting in that area and, at that time, she didn’t want to risk seeing any of them.

“I understand Bruce was not an experienced hunter. Is that true, Mrs. Dodson?”

“Yes, but he was very excited about going hunting,” Janice said.

“Was this the first time Bruce had hunted with you in the four years you had dated?”

She began to weep quietly. “Bruce didn’t want to go, because he never liked the cold and there always seemed to be work schedule conflicts. This time I told him I was going whether he went or not, so he decided to go.”

“Tell me about the hunting trip, Mrs. Dodson,” Roberts said. “You hunted on Saturday, I believe.”

Janice nodded. “Yes. On Saturday morning we decided that I would go below where Bruce was sitting and make a drive toward him. You know, try to push some deer up to where he was so he could get a shot. He took a shot at a buck at around eight o’clock, but missed. I met up with him at his spot and we walked back to camp together, arriving in camp at nine-fifteen or nine-thirty. We agreed that on Sunday morning I would make the drive in the same way and he would be the stationary hunter in the same spot.”

Inspector Roberts shifted slightly in his chair. “And what did you do on Saturday afternoon?”

“Bruce went out and hunted alone. I stayed in camp and only went out to hunt when Bruce came back around four o’clock.” She dabbed at her eyes with the tissue and gave a small laugh. “He made it plain I had to be back by six-thirty for dinner. Bruce always cooked dinner and was very punctual about it.”

He knew where he was heading now. “Tell me about the day of the shooting, Mrs. Dodson,” Roberts requested in a gentle voice.

Janice told Roberts that her husband had planned to take a stationary position Sunday morning on a hillside while she made a drive just like they had done on Saturday. She was going to walk down through a draw and try to push some deer up his way so he could get a shot. She was going after elk and he was hunting deer. Bruce was carrying a .243-caliber rifle and she was carrying a .270-caliber rifle. She left their campsite before he did on Sunday morning at about 6:00 A.M., telling him that he had to be on the hillside at six-forty-five. She estimated his hunting position to be a half mile from their campsite. She went down and circled the pond then zigzagged the ridge, making the drive through the draw. On her way up the hill back to camp, she stepped into a bog. The bog was large, but she just didn’t see it. “I was afraid I was going to lose my boot in it. I got my shoes and pants muddy and the first thing I did when I got back to camp was to change out of my soiled clothes.”

Roberts interrupted. “How is it you didn’t meet up with Bruce after your drive and walk back to camp with him, like you did on Saturday morning?”

“It was out of the way, I suppose,” Janice said. “I wanted to get back to camp and have everything ready—breakfast and coffee—to surprise Bruce. That way, we quickly could go back out to hunt.”

“I see. Go on, please.”

“Like I said, I was a muddy mess, so when I got back to the campsite I changed my clothes right away. Then I put the ice chest in the Bronco, picked up the trash, put water in the Bronco, unloaded my gun and put it in the Bronco and got out some eggs and oatmeal for breakfast. I brushed my teeth and went over and talked to the hunter at the next campsite for a while. He had game that he was skinning and I wanted to talk to him about it. He was a Texas peace officer, I found out.”

“Your muddy boots were off at this time. What were you wearing on your feet?”

“Rubber sandals. You know, the kind you wear in the shower.”

“Okay. Then what?”

Once again Janice’s eyes began to well up with tears. “Around nine-thirty I started to worry about Bruce. He was very punctual. So I went out to look for him. As I started to walk down the hill I saw an orange vest on the ground. I called his name and ran over to him. He was lying on the ground. I picked up his rifle and tried to shoot, to get help, but it was empty. His orange vest and hat were lying on the ground beside him. I just…I just started screaming for help.”

She was sobbing now and Roberts gave her a few minutes to pull herself together before asking, “Did you see anything suspicious on either Saturday or Sunday prior to the accident?”

Sniffling and dabbing at her eyes, Janice said that on Saturday evening she had seen a guy wearing full camouflage clothing and no orange safety gear. She was off the trail in some oak brush and he did not see her when he passed. He was walking at a fast pace, unlike someone who was hunting and he did not have a weapon with him. Thinking it was odd, she talked to Bruce about it when she returned to camp. She told him how dangerous it was for someone to be out in the woods without any orange. On the way back to camp on Sunday morning, she had seen another man about 200 yards higher than where Bruce was supposed to be. At first, she had thought it was Bruce and waved at him, but he did not wave back.

“What time did you see this man?”

“Early—before the sun came up.”

Roberts nodded and wrote a few lines in his notebook. Then he said, “I just have a few more questions, Mrs. Dodson, then I’ll leave you to get some rest.” He smiled encouragingly at her. “Now when you went out looking for Bruce, you didn’t have your weapon with you. You had stowed it in the Bronco. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Why was that, Mrs. Dodson?”

“I was done hunting for the morning and I figured if Bruce was in trouble and had an animal down, I would need both hands to help him.”

Roberts was inexperienced but sharp. He realized immediately she had contradicted her earlier words. “Oh, I thought you planned on going out again with Bruce after breakfast,” he said quietly, not wanting her to think he was being argumentative.

“Yes, well, I wasn’t sure. Maybe I was going to go out again. And then I thought maybe I would go up higher on the hill and meet some friends who were hunting in the area, so I wanted the gun put away safely and...”

“What friends were these, Mrs. Dodson?” Roberts interrupted.

“My ex-brother-in-law and his wife, Terence and Carla Morgan. We’ve remained friends even though Mark and I divorced.”

“I thought you hadn’t hunted in that area because you didn’t want to run into them after the divorce.”

“That’s true, but years have gone by and I’ve gotten over feeling that way.”

“Was your ex-husband also going to be there?” Roberts asked

She shook her head, growing a bit more distracted. “I wasn’t sure. I knew he had been up there two weeks earlier to help his brother set up his camp, but I didn’t know if he was going to be there this hunting season.”

“What vehicle would Mark have been driving if he was there?” Roberts asked.

“Either a blue and white Chevy pickup or a Suburban, both with Texas plates.”

Roberts nodded and jotted something in his note pad. “Tell me, Mrs. Dodson, how did you expect to be able to find Mark’s brother and his wife up there? It’s a big area.”

“They’ve hunted up there for years and I know their camping sites. I talked on the phone with Carla last week—just to see how her children were doing and all. We talked briefly about hunting and she told me that she and Terence would be on the Uncompahgre, arriving on October seventh or eighth.”

It was the moment to try to pin down the facts. “What kind of weapons does your ex-husband generally use?” Roberts asked.

“Oh, he’s used all types, at one time or another, I suppose. I used to hunt with Mark all the time.”

“On the Uncompahgre?”

“Not in the exact spot where Bruce and I camped, but closer to where Terence and Carla camp on the other side of Snipe Mountain.” Janice looked out the window, a far away expression on her face. “As a matter of fact, I used to work with Mark as an outfitter. He would do guides and drop camps. I would cook in the camp. Sometimes Mark would make videos and show them to Texans to get their hunting trip business. But that was a long time ago,” she said with a heavy sigh.

Roberts realized the interview had been lengthy. He told Janice he appreciated her time, shook hands with her and the other women present and returned to his office to report to Lieutenant Finley. There, Roberts awaited the results of the autopsy.