WHO: Emilia Wolfe, Henry March & his lawyer. WHEN: This afternoon. Tuesday, July 3rd. WHERE: At the municipal building. SUMMARY: Henry Interview Part Two: Henry shares information with Emilia that just makes him look like a bigger suspect in her eyes. WARNINGS: N/A.
Henry held the door opened for Marina, only to be answered by the same stone face that she always seemed to have when on the job unless it was necessary to show emotion. Which to be fair was part of why he paid her. The lawyer was all business as she set her briefcase down on the desk for her and her client to take their seats across from Emilia.
“I would like to begin this interview by stating my client is coming in of his own free will to assist in your investigation into the death of Moira MacTeer.” her hands folded in front of her as she looked directly at Emilia. “I will immediately terminate this interview if I feel you have overstepped your bounds or if I feel that further questioning would require you to hold him. Let’s begin.”
Stone faced lawyers were a little bit harder to read but was nothing less than what she expected from someone who could afford the best kind of lawyer. “That’s understood Ms. Womack.” She turned to look at Henry when she asked her first question. “Mr. March, can you confirm that you were in attendance at the Bellowes Inn Party?”
“Yes.” Henry answered simply, folding his hands to match Marina’s.
If the mimicking amused Emilia, it wasn’t reflected on her face. She continued, making sure the questions to start were simple enough that it would seem unlikely Ms. Womack could object to them. “How did you hear about the party?”
“Elvera mentioned it first.” Henry seemed almost thoughtful. “I think. But I heard about it from various people.”
A nod. “Why did you attend the party?”
“It was an open invitation to the town.”
“Yes, it was,” Emilia agreed. “But I’m asking why you personally choose to attend the party.”
There is a brief expression of confusion. “It was a town event. And I felt there should be a March present, given the material.”
The excuse sounds flimsy to Emilia’s ears, though she supposes she could imagine a reason why he might support ‘the material’, as he referred to it. “Given the subject matter, it could be supposed that you shouldn’t want to have anything to do with it.”
“That sounds like an assumption, Deputy Sheriff.” Henry tilted his head slightly. He paused for a moment, leaning over to murmur something to Marina, who nodded just slightly.
“My client has a vested interest in the material.” Marina added.
Emilia looked to the lawyer before she asked the next question, “And what is your client’s vested interest, Ms. Womack?”
Henry leaned over to whisper something else to Marina. She nodded after a moment and they both faced Emilia.
“My client is a private financial backer of One Hundred Thousand Lightning Bugs.” Marina opened her briefcase and pulled out a few documents. “I have proof of such here.”
Emilia took the documents, to verify the information. She was surprised that both Mr. March and Ms. Womack were interested in sharing this information. She looked to Henry again. “Why are you financially supporting the film?”
An eyebrow was cocked up at the question. “Because your department botched the investigation. The book releasing didn’t reopen the investigation, hopefully the film and interest in it would.” Henry looked to Marina before looking back to Emilia, waiting for her to stop him if necessary. “Any investigation I funded could only act civilly.”
“As I remember it the deputy sheriff department at that time wasn’t allowed to be involved in the investigation after the fire department ruled it an accident,” Emilia pointed out. Though she didn’t feel any need to concentrate on defending a department she wasn’t even a part of at the time. “Your desire to reopen an investigation would probably yield better results if you were collecting signatures for a petition than quietly funding a film.”
Henry gave a tight smile at the Deputy Sheriff. “Nothing in twenty years has gotten that investigation reopened. And I don’t exactly have the best reputation in town to start gathering signatures.”
That was not something Emilia felt particularly sympathetic about - you reap what you sow and all of that. “How involved are you with the film outside of your finances. Do you have meetings with the producers or the cast?”
“I’ve been involved with the production company, not the film directly. Director Reyes has had no input from me and I haven’t seen the script.” He paused for a moment. “If I had more creative input certain decisions wouldn’t have been made. But my interest is in Alice and Cora’s story being told.”
It was interesting that Henry didn’t name his brother, since this was his family story too, which would be something that Emilia would note down. “Are you referring to what we might call Moira MacTeer’s ‘method acting’ or something else when you say certain decisions wouldn’t have been made, if you had input?”
“That is certainly an example.” he shrugged. “All I did was write a check and talk to other people who also wrote checks. I may get an invite to the red carpet. I haven’t decided if I’ll go.”
Supporting a story about your own family seemed unwise, but Henry wasn’t here to hear all of her opinions on his choices. She moved on the the next question, “Did you have any personal interactions with Moira MacTeer prior to the party?”
“I witnessed the incident at the school.” he motioned vaguely. “It’s possible I had met her previously at a function in LA over the years, but not enough that she made an impression.”
“What did you think of the incident at the school?”
There was a moment of silence. Henry’s voice went calm, but serious. “It hurt. It seemed an exercise Director Reyes should have kept to the set.”
Emilia nodded her head. She agreed, though she didn’t say so. “Did you ever bring up how you felt about that particular incident with Ms. Reyes?”
“No, it didn’t seem to be my place.” Henry shrugged. “I’m retired, being involved with the film outside of investing seems like it would require work.”
“Did you interact with Moira MacTeer when you were at the party?”
“No. Surprisingly some people seemed to avoid me there. They seemed uncomfortable at the reminder.”
“Did you interact with anyone at the party?”
“I spoke with a few people. I think Hugh Christian was the only one of the cast I really interacted with. Danced with Elvera.”
Emilia nodded her head, writing down notes for later. “Do you recall when you arrived and when you left the party?”
“I arrived a little after it started.” Henry mused. “And then I left after it ended, Elvera came over after.”
She was certain that Henry was smarter than to think she was okay with those vague answers. “Do you not recall the time at which you arrived or when you left? Where did you and Elvera go after you left?”
“Surprisingly I didn’t think looking at the time was important as no one had been murdered yet.” Henry answered blandly, the slightest motion under the table giving hint to the fact that Marina had just stepped rather purposefully on his foot. “We went to my home and spent the night.”
Emilia looks pretty unimpressed but notices the movement. “And never once did you look at the time the whole night,” she responded blandly. It was easier to believe that story with people who didn’t act as suspicious as Henry did, or kids who didn’t seem to have a car about what time they went to bed. “Do you happen to recall when Elvera left your house?”
He shrugged. “It was sometime after Landslide? That was one of the last songs of the night.” he offered. Time was mostly sunrise and sunset now that the animals were usually the only ones who had any interest in his days. “After breakfast. I made omelets. I’ve been debating getting chickens, so that I don’t have to buy the eggs.”
It was possible that knowing the song would help if someone had actually kept a playlist of that night, but Emilia still found his answers suspect. When you knew that much of the town distrusted you for one reason or another, Emilia thought it’d be important to be careful about knowing where you are in case anything untoward happened.
“After Elvera left, did you stay on your property for the remainder of the day?” Emilia wasn’t certain how much time she wanted to spend on what his next twenty-four hours were like but if she was going to work with the information the autopsy had listed, she needed to ask. Her gut said that wasn’t the answer though. If Henry were the murderer she imagined he would have refused to do the dirty work, hiring someone else to do it instead.
“Yes.” He smiled slightly. “I can go through my list of chores with the animals if you’d like.”
Marina internally rolled her eyes but kept her expression trained on the Deputy Sheriff. “Is that all you need, Deputy Sheriff?”
“Not quite,” Emilia answered Marina. Though at this point she had all the basic information she needed in terms of information gathering to compare to other interviews. Now she felt like she could dig deeper, running the risk that the lawyer would refuse a question or end the interview at any time. “We’ve already interviewed Elvera Maclaver and she was incredibly nervous during her interview. Do you think that it might have anything to do with you?”
“Elveras often nervous.” Henry sighed, shaking his head momentarily. “But I'm not sure if her children are aware of her spending as much time with me as she does. She gets sensitive about it.”
“And you think her concerns are only that she is ashamed of being with you or weary of introducing new partners to her children?” Emilia asked. “Not because she suspects she may be being used as a well-timed alibi?”
“Deputy Sheriff, are you making an accusation?” Marina cut in. “Because I would anticipate seeing the evidence as well as you acting to place my client into custody. However if you are not placing my client under arrest, please refrain from speculation.”
That was the problem with good lawyers - they didn’t let you get anything in that was beyond the basic facts. “Not yet.” Emilia answered Marina, then continued, “However, I would highly recommend that your client does not leave town.”
“Your recommendation is taken under advisement.” Marina began to get up, Henry joining her. “I believe that’s enough for today’s interview. If you have further questions, you can schedule another interview by contacting me.”
She pulled out a business card, holding it out to Emilia.
Emilia stood, then took the card. “I will be in touch,” she promised.