Behind The Lies by Mark Beckner (the chimp paradox .txt) 📗

prior to the murder. But he is pleased to learn that some of the DNA belonged to the victim. All the pieces are coming together, he believes.

It is now mid-afternoon, and Aaron has been sitting in juvenile detention for almost a full two days. His anxiety level has never been so high. He knows he didn’t kill Wendy, or did he? Does he not remember what happened? Did he black out? If he didn’t do it, how did her shoe get in his car? He remembers Brad opening the back door. Could Brad have put it there in that brief moment? Regardless, Aaron does not believe he can survive in prison. Only his mom seems to believe him, and prison life is not something he is willing to adjust to. With his mild, shy manner, he believes he will be picked on unmercifully in prison. Aaron begins to contemplate ways to kill himself. He doesn’t know whether he can survive another night of jail. All I wanted was a girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Brad is sulking and spending most of his time in his bedroom. He believes the evidence against Aaron is strong enough to protect him, but he knows Aaron will continue to claim he was the murderer. Brad doesn’t believe anyone saw him with Aaron that night, so he is fairly confident his alibi will hold up. Brad did not intend to harm Wendy, all he wanted was for her to accept him and agree to go on one date. Why couldn’t she just say yes, reflects Brad. He also knows his concern over this situation affected his performance Saturday night in the biggest game of the year and blames himself for the loss. His parents, however, only believe Brad is upset over losing the game.

Back at the police department, Walker walks into the office and Baker informs him of the DNA results on the gloves. “That’s great,” says Walker. “Did they find Aaron’s DNA as well?”

“No, he said there was a mixture of DNA and he could only identify Wendy’s,” responds Baker.

Walker then says, “Strange he could not find Aaron’s DNA. You’d think his DNA would be all over those gloves. Did he take any samples from the inside of the gloves?”

“I don’t think so, at least he didn’t say he did.”

“Call him back and ask him to check the inside as well,” says Walker.

“What are you thinking Don?”

“I’m not sure, but Aaron’s story was so, I don’t know, incredible, that you wonder why would he make up such a story? Wouldn’t it have been better just to say, hey, I chickened out and never went to the school?” Walker suggests.

“It is an incredible story,” Baker agrees. “I’ll call the lab back and ask them to do some further testing. It’s better to cover any loopholes now rather than later.”

Walker continues, “Remember the part about picking Brad up at Johnson’s Café?”

“Sure, but he has a pretty solid alibi, unless you think mom was lying.”

“Probably not, but you never know. I’m going to go check at Johnson’s to see if they have any security cameras,” says Walker.

Walker responds to Johnson’s Café and walks around the building. He finds two outside cameras, one on the northwest corner of the building and one on the southwest corner. He then goes inside and asks the clerk if he can get the video from last Thursday evening.

“No, only the manager has access to those files,” says the clerk.

“Well call him right now and get him down here,” demands Walker. “We are conducting a homicide investigation and those videos could be important.”

A half-hour later, one of the managers shows up and agrees to give Walker a thumb drive copy of the video from all of last Thursday and Friday.

It is around 5:30 pm when Walker returns to the office with the video. “Did you talk to the lab tech?” asks Walker.

“Yep, he said he would get on it and have results in the morning,” replies Baker. He said he would also have the results from the DNA scrapings under her nails by then as well.”

“Great, I’m going to stick around for a while and review this video footage from Johnson’s and see if I find anything helpful,” advises Walker. “You go home, nothing else we can do tonight.”

At 6:00 pm, Livingston is served his dinner of two burritos, a small salad, chocolate pudding, and water. He picks at the food but is too upset to eat. He can’t stand the thought of another night in jail. And this is the best it will be, he believes, actual prison will be ten times worse. He continues to think of suicide, but doesn’t know how to carry it out while in jail. Even the dinnerware they give him is plastic.

At about 7:00 pm, Walker is still reviewing the video when he spots what appears to be a light-colored Toyota RAV4 cross the screen in front of the southwest camera at 5:10 pm last Thursday. He cannot see any license plate, but it looks similar to the car Aaron was driving. Four minutes later, he sees a person cross in front of the same camera, walking toward the south side of the building. He cannot tell for sure, but the subject matches the build and look of Brad McGivens. At the 5:17 mark, he sees what appears to be the same vehicle leaving the parking lot south from the SW corner of the building.

Walker continues to study the video. At the 5:50 mark, what appears to be the same light-colored Toyota RAV4 comes into view from the south and this time pulls up more in front of the building. A male subject gets out of the passenger side and starts walking in a northwest direction until he is out of view. The lighting is better from this angle and Walker believes the subject looks a lot like Brad McGivens. Damn, thinks Walker, Aaron may be telling the truth after all. Walker re-runs the video several more times trying to