“My client wants to make a statement,” Leff announced as soon as we sat down.
I was thinking, This is it. He wants to make a deal. He’s seen how ridiculous it is to play this game.
But he came out with something unexpected.
“I’m being framed!” Jenks announced angrily.
It took about a half second for Jill’s glance to bump into mine.
“I have to hear this again,” she said. “What’s going on?” She looked at Jenks, then at Leff.
“We’ve got your client tied to all three crime scenes; we’ve got him in Cleveland at the time of the last murder; we’ve got him lying about a prior relationship with Kathy Kogut, one of the last victims; we’ve got his book detailing an astonishingly similar criminal pattern; we’ve got his facial hairs matched to one found in another victim’s vagina. And you’re claiming he’s being framed?”
“What I’m claiming,” Jenks said, ashen faced, “is that I’m being set up.”
“Listen, Mr. Jenks,” Jill said, still looking at Leff, “I’ve been doing this eight years. I’ve built cases on hundreds of criminals, put over fifty murderers behind bars myself. I’ve never seen such a preponderance of evidence implicating a suspect. Our case is so airtight it can’t breathe.”
“I realize that.” Jenks sighed. “And that I’ve given you every reason to find my plea implausible. I’ve lied about being in Cleveland, my relationship with Kathy. On the others, I can’t even account for my whereabouts. But I also know setups. I’ve mapped out more of them than anybody. I’m a master at this. And I assure you, someone is setting me up.”
I shook my head with disbelief. “Who, Mr. Jenks?”
Jenks sucked in a long breath. He actually looked scared. “I don’t know.”
“Someone hates you enough to set all this up?” Jill couldn’t hold back a snicker. “The little I know of you, I might buy that.” She turned to Leff. “You looking forward to presenting this case?”
“Just hear him out, Ms. Bernhardt,” the lawyer pleaded.
“Look,” Jenks said, “I know what you think of me. I’m guilty of many things. Selfishness, cruelty, adultery. I have a temper; sometimes I can’t hold it in. And with women…you can probably line up a dozen of them who would help put me away for these murders. But clear as that is, I did not kill these people. Any of them. Someone is trying to set me up. That’s the truth. Someone has done a brilliant job.”
Chapter 98
“YOU BUY ANY OF THAT SHIT?” Jill smirked at me as we waited for the elevator outside Jenks’s holding cell.
“I might buy that he somehow believes it,” I told her.
“Give me a break. He’d be better off going for insanity. If Nicholas Jenks wants to narrow down a list of people who might want to set him up, he might as well start with anyone he ever fucked.”
I laughed, agreeing that the list would be long. Then the elevator door opened and, to my surprise, out walked Chessy Jenks. She was dressed in a long, taupe summer dress. I immediately noticed how pretty she was.
Our eyes met in an awkward, silent moment. I had just arrested her husband. My crime-scene team had ripped apart her house. She would have every reason to look at me with complete disdain — but she didn’t.
“I’m here to see my husband,” she said in a shaky voice.
I stiffly introduced her to Jill, then I pointed her to the visiting area. At that moment, she seemed about as alone and confused as anyone I had ever seen.
“Sherman tells me there’s a lot of evidence,” she said.
I nodded politely. I don’t know why I felt something for her, other than she seemed a young, vulnerable woman whose fate had been to fall in love with a monster.
“Nick didn’t do this, Inspector,” Chessy Jenks said.
Her outburst surprised me. “It’s only natural for a wife to want to defend her husband,” I acknowledged. “If you have some concrete alibi…”
She shook her head. “No alibi. Only that I know my husband.”
The elevator door had closed, and Jill and I stood there waiting again. As in hospitals, it would take minutes for it to go down and come back up. Chessy Jenks didn’t make a move to walk away.
“My husband’s not a simple man. He can be very tough. I know he’s made enemies. I know how he came at you. From the outside, it must be very hard to believe this, but there are times when he’s also capable of tenderness, incredible generosity, and love.”