WW-The Final Push

Good morning!  It’s another Wednesday, it’s the middle of the week, and I have tomorrow off from work.  So it’s a good day all around.  And!  We get to do our weekly check in on Winchester to see how he is doing with the case.  We will continue on this Adventure and then I will see you on Friday.  Enjoy!

The Final Push

“I told you man, I got nothing to hide.”

“Then why did you run if you have nothing to hide?  If you were innocent you would’ve answered my questions in the gas station.”

Winchester sat on a bar stool in the viewing room watching his father interrogate Marquis.  This was an odd one. He hadn’t pinned Marquis as the killer with his given testimony. It was entirely possible that Marquis had been at home but it also couldn’t be proven that he was there.  He was alone. But when Zara had told them that Marquis would show up unannounced at their place he immediately became a lot more suspicious. It was still slightly strange because Marquis wasn’t a big guy.  He reminded West of himself; tall and lanky with not much meat on his bones and could probably eat whatever food he wanted and not gain weight. Was this guy strong enough to lift his 300 pound brother off the ground to hang from the ceiling?

Marquis shifted in his chair.  “I just…I didn’t feel comfortable answer questions there.  Especially with you insinuating that I killed my brother.”

Anthony shrugged.  “I just have to explore every avenue.  I want to find out who killed your brother just as much as you do.  So I just wanted to ask you a couple more questions.” He flipped open the file to ask his questions.  “So…I’m going to ask you again. Where were you on the night of the murder?”

“I told you.  I was at home by myself.”

Winchester jumped as the door to the viewing room opened.  Lacey walked in a smiled. “Oh perfect! Just the person I wanted to see.  I had a thought about the murder and I wanted to run it by you to see what you think.”

West nodded.  “Yeah, go ahead.  We think we have the guy in there but he hasn’t confessed to anything.”

Lacey looked into the interrogation room and nodded.  “Okay…so I was looking more at the scar on his neck from the rope and it honestly looked like he was lifted by his neck.  Almost like he was sitting or laying down and person who hung him up there had to use like…a pulley system? Like they strung the rope through the loop of the eye hook and pulled him up off the ground and then tied the rope.  There was that weird rash thing on his neck that I kinda dismissed at first because I thought it was just a rash and the more I looked at it the more I thought it had to be something with the rope. So I tested it with a cinderblock and some paint and I got a result that was sorta the same as the victims neck.”  She shrugged. “It also goes to show that a weak person can lift something using a pulley system.”

“How much weight could you lift doing it?”

“Uh I think I got up to 250 pounds before it became extremely difficult, like to the point where I was starting to tear up my hands from the rope.  But this guy…” She gestured over to Marquis. “He should be able to lift 300 pounds in a pulley system.”

Winchester hugged her.  “You are a genius Lacey.  Thank you.” He quickly walked out of the room and opened the door to the interrogation room.  Anthony turned around to look at Winchester. “Hey. I need to talk to you for a moment. It’s important.”

Anthony stood up and walked out of the interrogation room, slowly closing the door behind him.  “I hope this opens up a whole new thing because this guy isn’t budging.”

Winchester nodded.  “Lacey looked at the body again and noticed a rash on Marcus’ neck.  She figured out that it was rope burn from being lifted up from sitting or lying down and the killer used a pulley system of sorts to get him off the ground.  Lacey experimented with it and figured out that Marquis would be the perfect size to lift Marcus off the ground.”

Anthony nodded and turned back into the interrogation room.  Winchester hurried into the viewing room so him and Lacey could watch the questioning.  Anthony sat down across from Marquis. “Do you go to the gym?”

Marquis shook his head.  “No. I mostly run. I do some weights at home but that’s it.  Why?”

Anthony shrugged.  “I was just curious.  Did you know that your brother was hanging from the ceiling of his house?”

Marquis nodded.  “Yes. That’s what the officer’s told me when they told me he died.”

“Did you know that he got pulled up from the floor by a pulley system?”

Winchester watched Marquis get a little more uncomfortable in the room.  “A…uh…pulley system sir?”

“Yes a pulley system.  Your brother was laying on the floor with a rope tied around his neck, after he had died mind you, and the killer led the rope through the eye hook that was on the ceiling, and pulled him up so it looked like he had hung himself.  And you know what else? You don’t have to go to the gym to do be able to lift the weight of your brother off of the floor. My son who is the same build as you would be able to do it. Now what I want to know is why you would kill your own brother?”

Marquis’ face immediately turned sour.  “He…he took Zara away from me. She was my girlfriend and then she left me for him.  I don’t know what she saw in him, obviously I was the superior brother. I wasn’t fat like he was and I was more fun.  He was boring. I took her to parties and we had a great time together, but no. She decided she wanted to leave me for him so I decided to take him away from her.  So I invited myself over and we had a couple drinks so I could soften him up. Then I punched him in the chest to knock him over and he would be out of breath. I grabbed a pillow and stood on his chest to cut off more air flow.  Then I grabbed his tie and tightened it while choking him to kill him. When he finally stopped moving I took off his tie and stuffed it in my pocket so it wouldn’t be found. But I had planned on making it look like a suicide to I wore some gloves and hung the eye hook from the ceiling and hung the rope.  But I couldn’t lift him so I had to use a pulley system to get him off the ground. I thought I did a good job of it but obviously I was wrong.”

Anthony stood up and handcuffed him.  “I hope you know you are going away for a long time.  If I had a brother who stole my girl, I would just talk to him.  Not kill him. But that’s just me.”