Chapter 3 #3
She nodded. “Then I must speak with you privately,” she declared, sending a glare to Bill, “since privacy and following instructions aren’t a priority around here.”
At that, Bill started bawling louder.
Several of the women rushed over to talk to him.
“Every person here,” she told the man in charge, before walking into his office, “will speak with me before I leave. In the meantime, all of you can gather in one room, and my associate will talk to you.” She turned to Rodney. “Don’t let anybody leave.”
He nodded and motioned for all of them to sit down in the empty conference room, so that he could talk with them.
She heard them all clamoring to get the additional scoop as soon as they got inside. They didn’t understand that Rodney would be asking the questions. Regardless, she was more focused on the boss.
“I can’t see that Bill had anything to do with what happened to John,” he noted. “Isn’t this a little harsh?”
“If we find out that you were shielding a criminal who killed John in a moment of a completely irrational and emotional outburst, and his family wants to sue you, how would you feel about it then?”
He paled as that liability set in. “Right, it’s not always about us, is it?”
“It’s not about you at all,” she snapped. “It is literally about John and his death. Everything I do from here on out is about getting justice for John.”
The boss man’s shoulders straightened.
“So, let’s start at the beginning.” She studied him closely. “What should I call you?”
“Killian Parker.”
“How long has John worked for you?”
He brought up John’s file on his computer and answered her every question.
She heard absolutely no red flags, which pissed her off even more. “What about his relationship with everybody in the company?”
“It’s been good,” Killian said. “We haven’t had any problems.”
“And what about his desire to continue working from home versus coming into the office to work?”
He frowned at her. “Wow, I didn’t think you’d even picked up on that one.”
She pointed out, “Whether you think they will or not, everybody talks. Case in point? Bill Simmons.”
Killian shook his head. “I don’t have anything to hide and had nothing to do with John’s death.
This is a horrible loss for all of us, but I am also grateful that he sent in the work we needed for our meeting this morning.
” He glanced down at the paperwork on his desk and winced.
“Oh, damn, you won’t let us have that meeting, will you? ”
“If you can reschedule the meeting, it would be better. Otherwise, we’ll take everybody one at a time into another room for our interviews.”
“Do you really suspect somebody here?” he asked, staring at her.
“I don’t suspect anybody. Therefore, I have to suspect everybody,” she shared. “Nobody is off the hook. I can tell you that a man is dead, and we have yet to find his family to formally contact them. That is why Bill Simmons was told to not tell anyone, yet defied that order anyway.”
“Right. The notifications to John’s family should be done first.” He glanced around the outer office. “Okay, I get that. I will pull out the people who I need for the meeting right now, and you can talk to the rest in the boardroom, which is where they’re all assembled.”
And, with that, he got up, led her to the boardroom, announcing, “Everybody will speak to the detectives and will answer every question.” Then Killian took a look around and pointed. “Miranda and Simmons, both of you come with me for the meeting. Afterward you guys can speak with the detectives.”
They both jumped up a little too quickly for Kate’s taste. She took note of both of their expressions. “And I will speak with you in a little bit,” she promised. They nodded and left. She glanced over at Rodney, who hid a smile. “Who have you spoken with so far?”
He pointed to the one gentleman, sitting off to the side. “I just spoke with him, and a couple people have corroborated his version of events.”
“Did you get names and contact information for everyone here?”
He held up his sheet. “I’ve got everybody here and a handful who aren’t in today.”
“And why are they not here?” she asked, turning to look at the staff.
“One only works four days a week,” explained the one gentleman who appeared to be calmer than the others. “She comes in to help with the clerical stuff, and today is her day off.”
She turned to Rodney, and he nodded. “Yeah, I’ve got her information as well.”
Another gentleman added, “A staff member called in sick too. Plus one is on holiday, and the other one comes in about an hour.” He glanced down at the folder in his hand. “I understand the one on holiday is off in Greece.”
“I’ll check on that,” Rodney told Kate, “and we will put a call into the one who’s sick.”
One of the men stared at the detectives, then asked, “Are we really, really suspected of having something to do with this? … Bill was really good friends with John, and I can’t imagine him or anybody else having done anything.”
She didn’t respond to that. Bill Simmons had gone into the meeting with his boss, so he wasn’t even here right now.
That gave her a chance to cool off about his telling everybody of John’s death, even after she had specifically and repeatedly told him not to.
She quickly sent a message off to Reese, to confirm notifications had been done.
Otherwise she would tear a bigger strip off Bill’s hide.
Then she asked the man who last spoke, “So, what was the relationship like between Bill and John?”
“They seemed to be great friends,” he replied. “They went to the gym together, and they hung out every once in a while. They were just friends.”
“It wasn’t even so much friends,” one of the women stated in exasperation, her tone hard. “Bill really admired John. He was doing everything that Bill liked to do and wanted to do. So, Bill looked up to John more than anything.”
The man frowned at her, then shrugged. “If that’s the case, then I don’t know very much about their relationship at all. Yet maybe I agree on the admiration part. That’s something you’ll have to talk to Bill about.”
“Oh, I will,” Kate vowed. “Don’t you worry.”
He gave her a small smile and shrugged. “He’s just a kid.” She tried to shut him down, but he held up a hand. “He should be a full-grown adult, but definitely some immaturity is in there,” he conceded. “So, when he found out, he just couldn’t keep the news to himself.”
She nodded. “And if John’s own family didn’t even know yet?” she asked. “How would that make you feel?”
He had the grace to look a bit ashamed. “Yeah, that’s not cool,” he stated.
“I lost my sister in a car accident years ago. We also weren’t informed first, and the neighbor came running over because she had been at the scene and told us all first. It was a god-awful mess.
” He took a moment to breathe. “So it’s very understandable why you’re so upset with Bill.
Not to mention, he doesn’t always follow orders very well. ”
“He follows orders,” one of the other women argued. “It’s just he’s still”—she shrugged—“I guess young is a good word for it.” She turned to the older man. “It really is a maturity thing, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “It shouldn’t be, but it feels like it.
So, it would be nice if it weren’t such an issue at work, but it seems we always have one in the room who is not quite there yet.
As to Bill’s age, don’t get me started. …
He’s old enough to be mature, but he lived at home far longer than most people and never really had to deal with the actual fundamentals of living alone.
I think, for that reason, John took him under his wing a little bit and gave him a hand getting adjusted. ”
The same woman noted, “Even with a supposed adjustment on Bill’s part, John became more of a mentor than anything to Bill. I’m not sure even workwise that it changed. John was very independent, very capable.”
“And Bill is not?” Kate supplied.
The man sighed. “He’s just … green. He doesn’t have the same get-up-and-go that John did, so, that will be a big loss for the company.”
“And how was your relationship with John?” Kate asked the man.
He raised his eyebrows, then shrugged. “It was fine. I think all of us felt it was fine. We worked with him. There weren’t any issues.
But again, maybe I’m not necessarily the one to talk to about that.
” He turned and looked over at the woman who had spoken up earlier. “How would you put it, Madrid?”
She smiled. “We all had a decent working relationship with John,” she replied.
“He wasn’t necessarily anybody we got close to because his working from home kept him more distant, more isolated.
He changed when he had a girlfriend. Since they broke up, he’s been friendlier again, talking about coming into the office a little more.
He came in for meetings, but he had been avoiding a lot of the social gatherings.
We often do barbecues and team-building events.
Because he was never here and wouldn’t come in for those social invites either, it kept John more distant. ”
Kate wrote notes as she listened, trying to get an idea of who John was. “And what about the girlfriend?” she asked Madrid.
“Don’t know a whole lot about her, but I will say John changed,” she noted. “And, when I say changed, when they broke up, he changed for the better.”
“And how long ago was that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe”—she turned to the others—“maybe six months or so. I mean, none of us—well, I don’t know about Bill—but none of us were close enough to really get those kinds of details, I don’t think.
But I could be wrong,” she added, with a shrug.
“Sometimes you never really know who knows who.”
Kate continued to ask questions of various people until finally the door opened, and Bill came back in.
He looked over at the older man and said, “The boss wants you.”