the new wing was his way of securing a legacy at the hospital. Several
months earlier,
Susan Kerr had offered to help, and Townsend had happily accepted. The
money came rolling in.
But then, on the Friday before Clarissa's death, he discovered the
deal's strings. Clarissa sat him down and told him that, in exchange
for Susan's generosity, she had rigged a decision in favor of a company
in which Susan had an interest. She said she'd done it to help the
hospital wing and out of loyalty to Susan, but now things had gone too
far. Susan was asking her to do even more, and Clarissa planned to say
no. The money would dry up.
Townsend told her to put her foot down. Screw Susan. They'd build the
wing without her.
But that's not what happened. Clarissa left the house to meet Susan on
Saturday for lunch. A couple of hours later, Townsend got a call.
Something was wrong with Clarissa, Susan said. He needed to come
over.
When he got there, Clarissa was dead, lying in a pool of blood in the
basement. Susan claimed that Clarissa had tried to destroy some
documents and attacked her when Susan put up a fight. According to
Susan, it was self-defense.
While Townsend was still reeling, Susan said she'd blame it all on him
if he told anyone Clarissa had been with her that day. The documents
detailed the connection between Clarissa's thrown case and the
donations to the hospital project. Townsend would lose everything.
Then she told him something he'd never even suspected Clarissa had been
cheating on him. Guilt over the affair was the reason she'd been
willing to fix Gunderson's case in the first place. Susan even had a
videotape to back the story up.
Because Clarissa had died shortly after lunch, all they needed to do
was make sure her body wasn't found for a day or so, and make it look
as if she'd eaten her Saturday meal on Sunday. As a doctor, Townsend
knew some of the rules about determining time of death 'garbage in,
garbage out,' as Dr. Sandier had put it.
Townsend ensured that the police found a fresh take-out container in
the house by using a short break between surgeries to dash to the
nearby Pasta Company. He'd also set up the initial call-out by leaving
Clarissa's loafer to be found in the gutter, and dropping Griffey, on
his leash, along Taylor's Ferry Drive. Susan had taken care of the
rest. She'd shown up at the house Saturday night with an empty
Nordstrom shopping bag to put in Clarissa's dressing room. She told
Townsend she'd make sure the body wasn't found until Monday. He
realized that the medical examiner would figure out her clothes had
been switched, but it didn't seem to bother investigators. And when
the evidence against Melvin Jackson came out, he assumed that Susan
must have set up the plan ahead of time. By then, he was too out of
his mind on OxyContin to figure a way out.
He'd been considering suicide for days, but Roger's call on Monday
night had sealed the deal. He took the pills, wrote his letter, placed
a plastic bag over his head, and let go of the situation. Whether we'd
get the note in at trial remained to be seen, but I knew in my heart it
held all the answers.
The services were modest, arranged as a courtesy by Dr. and Mrs.
Jonathon Fletcher. Townsend's death had made headlines, as had Susan's
arrest and Jackson's release, but so far the official explanation for
his suicide and its relationship to those other events was under
wraps.
Clarissas family chose not to attend. From what Tara had told me, she
and her parents were still coming to terms with the idea that Clarissa
had been killed by people they'd treated as family. The only eulogists
were Townsend's professional acquaintances. They remembered his
commitment to patients and his love for Clarissa, careful to keep their
comments general enough that they reflected a relationship that once
was.
Roger found me in the lobby of the funeral home. I told Chuck and Dad
I'd meet them in a second.
'I'm surprised you came,' he said.
I shrugged.
'I hope you realize that I didn't know,' he said. 'If I had '
'Don't worry about it. I know. I was fooled too, remember?'
'I should have sensed it, though. I could have talked him into coming
forward.'
'Really, Roger, you don't need to say anything. It's fine.'
We stood there awkwardly while he searched for something else to say.
'So Jackson's out, huh?'
'Released last Wednesday,' I said. 'Took a couple days, but he
couldn't be happier.' He hadn't been the only one. Mrs. Jackson was
waiting in the lobby with Melvin's kids. She burst into tears with the
