Looking Up, By Matt Brisby: GRAYWOLF Part Two

The baldness gene is carried through the mother’s side. That’s what I’ve always believed to be the scientific consensus. Apparently baldness is actually a recessive gene amongst the bald men of the world, their own bodies don’t want to pass it on. That’s not a fact that I would think that Sheriff Andrew McKinnon would agree with.

The walls of his office are peppered with photographs, some of other officers, some of different vehicles (aquatic and land based) the man had once owned, but most of the pictures seemed to be of the man’s family. The McKinnon Clan was smiling, waving, and in a few cases what looked like singing right at me out of their picture frames as I sat there. The man himself stood tall, about six-three from my estimation, wore large rectangular brown glasses, and like almost every pictured male figure in his office, he was completely bald.

“Well I’m glad you found the place at any rate.” He said in a pleasant tone. I had just finished telling him about how my phone’s navigation app sent me on a much longer journey than necessary after a wrong turn off on the highway.

He continued the conversation shaking his head,

“We could really use some help with this one.”

I pointed towards the Sheriff’s copy of the New Haven County Journal.

“Not to be too harsh here Sir, I hardly think you’re alone in that sentiment.”

He let out a long sigh and shook his head even more fervently than before.

“It’s just not something we’re really prepared to deal with here. The last death that was even treated as suspicious turned out to be a suicide, and!” He put some gusto behind the word and. “And, it was almost 20 years ago!”

“I understand that sir, that’s why my task force exists in the first place. So much of Canada is spread out in these small rural communities where crimes like this simply-” I corrected myself. “Statistically, don’t happen often enough to warrant every department having a homicide division at all. We simply exist to help pick up some of that slack.”

I really liked saying we like that. This was both my first case with the task force, and first time really getting to explain my new job to someone to whom it really mattered. I was considering delving into the various logistics and regulations behind my position, but The Sheriff moved the conversation along quickly. He was anxious. The stress of a high profile case and the pressure from his own community must be getting to him.

"Well, like I said we could sure use a little outside perspective." The man continued. "This community is where I've lived my entire life, you see, same for most of my officers, and I still find it hard believing that something like this could happen. I was there when this poor girl was first baptised."He stopped. And removed his glasses, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "It's a mess."

"So you know the family well then?" I asked.

"I'd say so yes, they're very involved in the community, always have been really. Her mother, Tanya organizes a lot of our fundraisers." He pointed over to one of the pictures near the entrance to his office of himself, standing in front of what looed to be some kind of bake sale with the entire Sweeton family beside him and a tall slender man in a grey polo shirt.

When I inquired about the man's identity the sheriff told me that his name was Peter Kennedy, and that he was the former senior minister at Graywolf Presbyterian Church.

"You know him as well?" I asked.

"Yes. I wouldn't say we were close, I'm not a religious man myself, but his Church always made it a priority to help out with all kinds of community fundraisers. He also was the one who started our meals on wheels program, which, Jessica there, and about a dozen young people are involved with. He was a good man, the community could really use him right about now."

"What happened to him?"

"Happened? Oh nothing, no the reverend, former reverend I should say, is fine and all. He's gone to live with his daughter's family in Digby, he's going on about 78 now. But anyway, I'm getting off topic."

I have a bit of a tendency to get bogged down in the details of a situation myself, so I couldn't begrudge McKinnon's shift in conversational topic. He was eager to get down to business, but as the conversation moved on I found myself glancing back over at the picture on the wall. The picture of the young girl, her family and the tall slender older man with his arm around her shoulder.

Our talk lasted for about an hour in total and the thing I took away from it most was the how the Sheriff was under the impression he had no real credible suspects. The girl’s boyfriend had been interrogated pretty thoroughly by the sounds of it, only to have several of his teammates vouch for his whereabouts during the time of the murder. The family had been interviewed as well. Mckinnon had not made much reference to their interviews though, directing me to speak with officer O’Brian who conducted the interview, if I needed more info. He seemed pretty dismissive of the family angle, and I made a mental note to check that out further. Beyond that, McKinnon’s men had questioned several of Jessica’s classmates, friends and co-workers, and while they hadn’t exposed many motives or opportunity, a rudimentary timeline had been established.

Attended church Sunday morning, multiple witnesses. 9:30am-11am
Followed by a lunch at home with parents. Left parent’s house at 12:30pm
Seems to have spent a majority of the afternoon with boyfriend, Derrick Williams, witnesses spotted them in greenfield park, nearby to Saint Andrew’s at 2:30pm, and the campus Library at 3:00pm.
Williams testifies that they then went to see a movie, the nearest theatre being the one in Yarmouth, an approximately 45 minute drive, stopping for gas on the way. Then the pair returned and went for a late dinner at 7:00pm at the local pub where Jessica worked during the week. Confirmed by credit card reports from both Williams and Jessica.
Williams contends that he dropped Jessica off at her dorm room at 9pm, because Jessica had a test Monday that she wanted to study for, this is confirmed by Jessica’s roommate.
She was last seen by her roommate, Angela Boyd, at about 11:00pm when miss Boyd believes she heard Jessica leave the room. Boyd told the officers she did not know why Jessica had left, only that she heard the door close, assumed Jessica had gone out for some fresh air. Must look into this further.
7.5hr gap between that moment and the discovery of the body at 6:30am, Monday November 20^th.
Mortician believes she was likely killed between 4am and 6am