WW-Interrogation Skills

Good morning!  It’s a Wednesday and we are halfway through the week.  Are we ready for more Winchester?  Are we ready to see what happens after this case?  Are you ready for me to stop asking rhetorical questions?  Let’s move on to this Adventure story and enjoy!

Interrogation Skills

Anthony and Winchester stood next to each other in the small viewing room, watching Mark sitting at the table.  Mark had been sitting there for a while which had given him plenty of time to think. Winchester shook his head.  “Do you think he will give us the information that we want?”

His father shrugged.  “I don’t know. It depends on your interrogation skills.”  He put his hand on Winchester’s shoulder and smiled. “I think you should try your hand at interrogating a suspect.  What do you think?”

West felt like he was going to explode.  “Really? You want me to talk to him? I have no formal training…what am I supposed to do?”

“Just take the information we know and ask him about it.  Double check the facts and if anything seems off, call him out on it.  If I see you struggling I’ll come in and save you.” He looked his son in the eyes.  “I believe in you Bug. I know you can do it. But you have to believe in yourself. Can you do that?”

Winchester nodded.  “Yeah…I can do it.  Thanks dad.” He gave him a quick hug before grabbing the file and making his way into the interrogation room.  Mark looked up from the table and seemed a little confused that a teenager walked into the room. West gave him a slight nod.  “Good afternoon. My name is Winchester West and I am a consultant with the Northridge Police Department.”

Mark let out a very loud sigh.  “I thought I was here to talk to an officer, not a consultant.”

Think Winchester think…  “I am an officer, just consulting with this department to help them out on this case.  So you would be correct in saying that you are talking to an officer.”

Mark leaned back in his chair, seeming satisfied with West’s answers.  “Fine…what can I do for you. Did you find out who killed Brad?”

West sat down in the chair opposite from Mark.  “Not yet. I just wanted to ask you a couple more questions.”  He cleared his throat. “So, is it true that you, Brad, and Stephen all had a small business together?”

Mark nodded.  “Yes. It wasn’t a big thing yet, we were still trying to get everything in order.”

“And…what was this business involving?  Like…what were you planning on doing?”

“Beer.  We wanted to start a brewery and sell our own beers.  Brad had made a couple of beers himself and we all decided to go into business together.  That was actually one of the reasons we had the party was to get some ideas for our business.  It was all going good until Brad was killed.”

Winchester leaned back in his chair.  “Beers huh. Interesting. Did you have any good flavors of beer that you were planning on making?”

Mark shrugged.  “Not really. Not yet at least.  But we were working on a coffee and caramel flavored beer.”

Ew…  “That sounds interesting.  Now, we did get some records showing the contract that all three of you had signed regarding this business.”  West opened the folder in front of him and pulled out the contract, sliding it in front of Mark. “It says here that Brad was getting more money out of the profits than you or Stephen.  That seems kinda strange don’t you think?”

Mark wrung his hands together.  “Uh…not really. Brad put more money into the business to get it started so he would obviously get more out.  I wasn’t upset by that or anything.”

West raised an eyebrow.  “Are you sure? It seems like a substantial amount more that he would be making.  He was making 40% and you and Stephen were each making 30%? That doesn’t seem fair.”

West could see Mark starting to become more nervous.  “But he put more money in, so he should get more out. Seems fair to me.”

“You know what I think?”  West leaned on the table, trying to get a little closer to Mark.  “I think that you all decided to have this party to celebrate your new company.  But you didn’t think it was fair that Brad was going to be making so much more than you.  So, you decided to kill him so that way you would be able to take over the company and run it how you want.  So you picked up one of the weapons and decided to bash in Brad’s head and leave him in the middle of the floor to bleed out.”

“No!”  Mark slammed his hands on the table and stood up.  “That’s not what happened!” He suddenly sat down and buried his head in his hands, knowing full well what he had just said.

Winchester looked over toward the one way glass knowing that his father was giving him the go ahead.  He looked back at Mark who was trying very hard to not lose it. “Why don’t you tell me what happened.”

“I never actually planned on murdering my friend.  I just planned on talking to him about making our percentages more even.  I was thinking something more of 35% for Brad and 32.5% for Stephen and I.  It was going to be more even since we were all putting a lot of work into it.  So I was planning on just talking to him after the murder mystery portion of the party.  But I then I walked out of the library to see him and my wife kissing in the ballroom. They were having an affair right in front of my own eyes and I hadn’t seen it before.  So I picked up the first weapon that I found and confronted Brad. Amy was gone but Brad was still in the ballroom. So when he wasn’t paying attention I rushed up behind him and bludgeoned him in the back of the head with the candlestick.”  Mark shook his head. “I was just…I was so angry. I didn’t know how long this affair had been going on but I was just so flabbergasted that I had missed this and I hadn’t paid attention to it.”

Winchester sat there in shock for a moment before regaining his composure.  “But this was your best friend. You didn’t think that just a confrontation would suffice?”

Mark looked at the table and glumly shrugged.  “I think my rage just took over and I couldn’t think clearly.  I wish that it hadn’t…I wish he was still alive.”

Wincester stood up getting ready to leave the room.  “I think you knew what you were doing during the act.  And now you are remorseful because you know you are going to jail.  But I’m sure you wish that your best friend was still alive.” He left the room to the sound of Mark crying in the interrogation room.