kindly as possible.
—HI Jeff. My name is Gordon, and I am a Black Hawk County Sheriff’s office detective.
Simpson, a muscular introverted black man with somewhat sunken eyes was pouring with sweat. He had big beads of perspiration running down from his forehead to his jaw, and the blue shirt he had on was damp in the chest and armpits areas.
—I shouldn’t be here. You are making a big mistake. The reason is that I’m black and poor, and you want to shove off the murder of that girl so that you can quickly pin on a medal—mumbled the detainee while he was scouring every corner of the room.
—Things don’t work that way, Jeff. And I think that you know that well. You have already had problems with the law in the past.
—Teenagers pranks. If you had been raised in the neighborhood that I grew up in, in Detroit, I can’t imagine the things you might have done in my place.
—Well, it is true that your record seemed to be clean since you moved to Iowa. Yes. Anyone would have said that you had been making a great effort to start a new life. But Jeff, there is the rape attempt and kidnapping a few months ago. Have you forgotten what happened in Davenport so easily?—asked Gordon, as a sponsor or a good friend would talk. He knew that this was the right way to act and that it would work, but it was hard to hold back the nausea most of the time.
Simpson blurted out a loud snort, almost groaning. Later, he tried to calm down, and he began to talk more slowly.
—That was a senseless accusation. I have already asked my lawyer to have that taken off my record. However, since he is a public defender, he already has a thousand things to do and that crap is still there like a chain. I didn’t do anything. Absolutely anything. I was in the wrong place and a witness took me for someone else, and that is all. I have asked for DNA testing, or whatever you call it. I have passed the lie detector, and the judge has let me off without charges, but there we have that damn black mark on my record!
The detective felt confused. This guy seemed to be sincere, and really angry with the system. He could be a damn good actor, but it was true that he had passed the polygraph, but his being an impostor was not the impression he was getting from him at less than three feet distance.
—In that case, Jeff, why are you so nervous?
—Hell, man, hell! I’m scared to death. A few months ago I had to move to another city for something I hadn’t done. In spite of everything, I have been able to get a decent job here in Cedar Falls no less than at the university! I don´t have such a great salary but I can pay my rent and buy myself something I like, now and then. It seemed that life was finally looking up for me, and now this happens to me and you want to pin this on me with no evidence to support you! Whatever the result I’m going to be screwed.
Simpson couldn’t avoid beginning to sob. Naturally, Gordon didn’t feel sorry for any detainee, or any suspect, and much less for those suspected of murder. But this time it was different, and for some reason he felt moved.
—Alright Jeff. Tell me what the hell you were doing last Thursday starting in the morning until well into the evening.
—On Thursday?
—Yes, March 6th—answered Stevens, knowing that he would never be able to forget that day for the rest of his life.
The maintenance employee thought about it for a few seconds. He really seemed to be going back in time, trying to place himself for the previous week.
—Now I remember! I was at the McLeod Center all day. There was a water break and we had to work hard to solve it.
—We had to?—asked Gordon, noticing that his legs were trembling. It seemed that nobody had been worried about knowing where the suspect had been at the time the victim had been kidnapped.
—Yes, I was with Leonard, another maintenance employee. There was also a plumber that the insurance company sent, but I can’t remember his name.
—Jeff,