Chapter 3

After Joe was formally arrested and incarcerated, Sergeant Rawls and Eagleton sat on a bench in a hallway of the station.

“So, you sent someone to pick up the girl?” Eagleton inquired.
“Yessir. Should be here shortly. By the way, I knowed the guy.”
“The victim? Jimmy Hollowy? How?”
“Grew up ’round here with him. Jimmy was a real asshole. Picked him up a few times fer drunk and disorderly. He was livin’ out on River Road with the girl. Name’s Mary Gulder. She’s a waitresses at the Puddle. Beer joint on Third Avenue. That’s where I sent the boys to pick her up.”
“The Smith guy . . . He’s pretty new ’round here. Know anythin’ about him?”
“What he told us, we already knowned. He’s divorced as of last year. Moved here fer a fresh start. Works down at Withers Music store. Minds his own bizness. Seen him around the local bars hangin’ with the musicians, sittin’ in on a few songs, playin’ guitar.”
“I wonder if he’s been hangin’ with Mary at the Puddle.”
“Could be. When she gits here, how do you wanna handle it?”
“We need to know if she’s involved with our Mr. Smith. We’ll have her take a peek at him through the glass and git an answer or a reaction that’ll hopefully sort out this here mess.”
“We could just put’er in the room with him and see what happens. Be a helluva lot easier.”

The detective thought about this for a moment, then replied, “No, I don’t want no screw ups fer some defense attorney to make waves with. Remember last year? The as- yet-unsolved Wilson murder case? Make it a line up with our Mr. Smith in it. We won’t gain nothin’ by him seein’ her. If he’s been runnin’ around with her he wouldn’t admit to it anyhow. We need to find out if this here mess is self-defense like he claims or if he’s been playin’ the jealous boyfriend gettin’ rid of the competition.”

Rawls agreed and went to make the arrangements.

When James Hollowy’s girlfriend, Mary Gulder, arrived twenty minutes later Eagleton sat her down in a secluded corner of the station and told her that James was attacked and killed earlier that evening. He told her that he suspected this situation was somehow ‘on account of her cheatin’ ways’, so, the best thing for her to do was to come clean and help out the police. He wanted her to ID her non-Jimmy lover so the justice system could set things right. He was going to refuse telling her the where and how details of the ‘crime o’ passion’ for the time being, because he didn’t want a defense attorney claiming that she had been unduly influenced by shoddy police work. But, she didn’t ask for any details.

Instead, she started crying and wimpering, “Oh, Jimmy, Jimmy . . .”