“Do me a favor, Mom. Leave me alone,” Valerie said as she shut the door to her room.
56
As he drove to the Chapman home, Mike was still trying to process the ramifications of the meeting he had that morning with Tony Carter and his father. “Jamie Chapman said he went swimming with Kerry after her party.” Tony was absolutely certain about his recollection of what Jamie had told him. The impact on the investigation could not be underestimated.
Mike had tried to impress on Tony and his parents that they should not share Tony’s information about Jamie. But he was concerned. He got the impression that they were talkers.
Kerry’s body had been discovered by her family at 11:15 A.M. that Sunday morning. The forensic report from the medical examiner could provide only a rough estimate of how long she had been in the water. Kerry had sent a text at 11:10 P.M. telling Alan not to come over to her house. Assuming she was the one who sent the text, and Mike had no reason to believe otherwise, that was the latest time he could document that she was alive.
Alan’s three friends and the waitress at Nellie’s confirmed that Alan left Nellie’s at approximately 11:15. The 3.9-mile drive from Nellie’s to the Dowling home would have taken Alan about eleven minutes. Was it possible that Jamie went swimming with Kerry after 11:00, when the party ended, but before Alan returned to the house? Very unlikely.
He had brought fellow detective Andy Nerlino with him because he wanted to question Marge and Jamie out of each other’s presence. “I interviewed them the day the body was discovered,” Mike told him. “My last thought when I left the house was that their answers sounded rehearsed.”
“Understood.”
When they reached the Chapman home, Mike rang the front doorbell. There was no answer. They walked around the house to see if the Chapmans were in the backyard. When they were not there, Andy walked over to the back door and knocked on it. Then he said, “Mike, come over here and take a look at this.”
He was pointing at a small smudge stain on the white wooden door, just below the handle.
“Blood?” Mike asked as he leaned in closer for a look.
“It might be.” Andy said.
Mike took out his cell phone and snapped several pictures of the stain, then dialed his office. “I need an evidence tech right away,” he said crisply.
Twenty minutes later the tech arrived. He removed a portion of the stain and placed it in an evidence bag.
Mike and Andy agreed that it was just as well the Chapmans weren’t home. “We need to know if this stain is blood and whose it is before we talk to them,” Mike said. “We’ll ask for a rush at the lab, but even then it will take a few days to get the results. I’m going to call the Carters again and emphasize how absolutely important it is that they keep their mouths shut.”
57
The police had insisted Tony Carter say nothing about his statement to them. For a few days he managed to comply. But when word got back to the Carters that someone reported seeing police cars at Marge Chapman’s home, he couldn’t help himself. His mother and father were no better at staying silent.
Tony’s story—“I helped solve Kerry’s murder; Alan Crowley is innocent; Jamie Chapman was the last one to be with Kerry when she was alive”—spread through the town like wildfire.
Instead of being elated, Alan’s reaction surprised his parents. “The police have this all screwed up,” he said matter-of-factly. “I saw Kerry and Jamie together lots of times. There’s no way he killed her any more than I did.”
“I can’t believe you’re not excited and thrilled,” June snapped. “I think we should call Princeton right now.”
“Mom, don’t get too excited about the stuff on Jamie. I’m telling you they’re wrong. When they figure that out, guess who they’re going to come back to?” he said, while pointing at his chest.
Annoyed at her son’s reaction to the stunning news, June stormed out of the room and went upstairs. Her tone of voice exultant, she called Lester Parker and told him about Tony Carter.
Parker said, “June, I was just going to call you. I have just heard the rumor that a neighbor might have been in the pool with Kerry after the party. But let’s not go too fast on this one. My understanding is that the young man who claims he was in the pool with her has a substantial intellectual disability. The police might conclude that his story is a fantasy or a fabrication or just not something they can rely on.”
When June hung up the phone, she felt deflated, but at the same time more optimistic. Despite Lester Parker’s caution, Alan had to realize that the police were looking at another suspect. She was hoping this would lift his mood enough to keep at bay any more thoughts of harming himself.
58
It was lunchtime when several students came over to Aline and excitedly told her about Tony Carter going to the police. Her instinctive reaction was that Jamie would never hurt Kerry. She had started babysitting for him when he was eight years old. Kerry was six at the time. She would often bring Kerry along when she sat at Jamie’s house or, in swimming weather, would bring Jamie to her house.
He was always so gentle in every way, she thought. He loved Kerry so much.
She went directly home after school. The front door was unlocked. “Mom,” Aline called as she walked in.
“Out here” was her mother’s response from the patio in back.
Fran was sitting on one of the lounge chairs near where Steve had laid down Kerry’s lifeless body after he carried her out of the pool. Aline wondered how often her mother sat there
