DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters. They belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.
Chapter 3
"All right Clint, I want you to write everything you told us just now on this pad of paper, okay?" Andy told Clint as he and Sharon got up from the table. "We will be right back to check up on you" Sharon said as they left the room. 2 patrol officers were now in the room with Clint. Sharon held her head with her right hand and felt a headache coming on. "Dean Campbell is in interview room 3 now Captain, with 2 patrol officers" Provenza said to her as she stood outside electronics. "I want a background on this Dean Campbell guy. I want to know everything about him" Sharon said to Provenza as she walked towards her office and closed the door behind her.
"Are we just going to keep him waiting?" Provenza said to no one in particular. Provenza looked at Andy and Andy just shrugged his shoulders. "Well, you married her" Provenza said back to him and he went towards his desk. Andy walked over to where his desk was and peeked inside Sharon's office. He could see Sharon looking at her laptop and other papers on her desk. He decided to knock first and then enter her office. He sat in one of the chairs in front of her desk. Sharon watched him as he entered her office and took a seat.
"Is everything okay, Sharon?" Andy asked her. "Yes, Andy. Everything's fine, don't worry" Sharon said to him and went back to looking at her laptop. Andy took a look around outside her office and saw Provenza speaking to Mike about something. He then sat down across from her. "Are you okay?" Sharon asked Andy in a hushed voice. "I'm okay" he said smiling to her. After he told her about having a flashback to the night of his collapse, Sharon was worried about him. She was now looking at the papers that Chief Howard gave her.
Sharon looked up at Andy who was looking back at her. "Chief Howard wants us to fill out these papers, and he needs us to solve this crime ASAP, because I guess he has the Mayor and Chief Pope breathing down his neck" Sharon said to him in a huff. She leaned back in her chair and smiled at Andy. "Who would have thought our honeymoon night/morning would be interrupted by a murder?" Sharon said quietly to Andy. "Murphy's law" Andy said back to her. She gave him a questionable look. "Murphy's law, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong" Andy said to her as he shrugged.
"So have you thought about what Gavin said at our wedding?" Andy asked her in an effort to try to change the topic. "Hmm, once we are done with this, I promise we will discuss whether or not we are going to sue Peter Goldman" Sharon sighed. Andy could tell that Sharon was not in a mood to discuss this so he went back to discussing the current case.
"Are you going to speak with Dean Campbell soon?" Andy asked her. "Yes, I am just waiting on" Sharon started to say when there was a knock on her door. "Come in" she said. The door opened and Provenza walked in with some paperwork that Sharon requested. "Here you go Captain, all information we have on Dean Campbell" Provenza told her. "Interesting financials this guy has" Provenza added and pointed to the paper. Sharon looked at the paper. "Yes, very interesting" she said as she handed the paper to Andy to show him what they were talking about.
"I think we have made the Dean wait long enough" Sharon said to Provenza and Andy and walked out of her office. Provenza followed her out and Andy went towards the interview room that Clint was in. He opened the door and Clint was still writing. "Everything okay here, Clint?" Andy asked him as he walked over to the table. "Here, I'm done writing" Clint said and handed the paper to Andy. "Can I go now?" he asked him. "Um, I'm afraid not Clint, at least not yet as we are still checking on a few things" Andy said as he walked out of the room. Clint just sat back and placed his head on the table.
Andy walked over to where Sharon and Provenza were and they walked out in to the hallway. "Clint is all finished writing his side of the story" Andy said as he handed the paper to Sharon. Sharon read what Clint wrote down. "Good, now call Hobbs and see if she is available to come down here. We may need to strike a deal" Sharon said to Andy. Andy nodded and turned around and went back into the office. He called Hobbs and notified her of what was happening. Andy then went into electronics and observed Sharon and Provenza speaking with the Dean.
"Dean Campbell, thank you for coming down here to speak with us" Sharon stated to him. "Not a problem, I just want to help" Dean Campbell said.
"Yeah, sure you do!" Andy said back in electronics. He really didn't like this guy and had no reason to trust him. Andy wanted them to wrap up this case as quickly as possible so that he could take Sharon home and fall into bed with her. He looked on as Sharon started to speak to the Dean.
"Okay Dean Campbell, do you mind telling us where you were the night that Dean Bryant was murdered?" Sharon asked him. "Murdered?" Dean Campbell said as he shifted in his seat. "Yes, murdered. So where were you?" Provenza asked him. "Oh, I was home at the faculty housing" Dean Campbell said hesitantly. "Anybody vouch for you?" Provenza asked. "Um, I was there alone" Dean Campbell added. "You sure you weren't at the library Dean Campbell?" Sharon asked him. The Dean shifted in his seat again. "Because we have someone who says you were" Provenza said to him.
DDA Hobbs walked in to the electronics room and saw the team gathered around the monitors. "Did I miss anything?" she asked them. "No, this is about to get really good now" Julio stated to her.
"Um, who said I was at the library?" Dean Campbell asked them. "We have, sort of, an eyewitness to Dean Bryant's murder" Provenza said to the Dean. "Who?" Dean Campbell asked. "Clint Douglas" Sharon stated to him. "Clint? You're really going to believe that guy?" Dean Campbell stated. "Why not? After all he's your nephew" Sharon said back to him as his jaw dropped and he started to look around the room.
"So, what we think happened is that somehow you and Dean Bryant get in to an argument, about let's say money, and next thing you know, you stab him repeatedly" Provenza starts to say. "You don't know what to do with his body now and you call up Clint Douglas, who happens to be your nephew. Clint was working at the library that night and he tells you to bring the body over there" Sharon continues the story. "You help him but the body can't look like it was murdered, so you tie a rope around his neck and hang him from the rafters in the basement. Clint then splatters the wall with fake blood to cover up any questions with the stab wounds and then waits a few hours and then calls 911" Provenza finishes.
"You think you got it all figured out" Dean Campbell started to say. "Well, your financials speak for themselves" Provenza said to him as he pointed at the large amount of money on the print out. "I want a lawyer" Dean Campbell stated to them as he sat back. "Ok, Dean Campbell, do you have a lawyer or do you need us to appoint one for you?" Sharon asked him. "No, I don't have one" Dean Campbell said quietly. "Ok, we will call legal services for you and they will send a lawyer down here" Provenza stated and then both he and Sharon stood up and walked out of the interview room. "While we are waiting for legal services to come here, I want us to start working on a search warrant for Dean Campbell's house because I think that is our crime scene" Sharon told Provenza.
As they were walking back to their office, Andrea walked out the door to meet them. "So, care to fill me in so I know what to prepare for when his lawyer gets here?" Andrea said to them. "Follow me" Sharon said to her as she turned around and headed to Sharon's office. Provenza walked back over to his desk and sat down to work on obtaining the search warrant. This case was about embezzlement that led to murder, which then led to a poorly planned cover up. Andy joined Sharon and Andrea in Sharon's office.
"Here are the Dean's financials clearly showing an influx of money over the time period of three months" Sharon said to Andrea as she showed her the papers. "He could have gotten this money from anywhere" Andrea said back to her. "Well, glad you said that because if you look at these financials here, you will see the College losing money from their student fund over the same three months" Sharon said as she handed another paper to Andrea. Sharon went to sit down behind her desk and Andrea took a seat on one of the empty chairs in her office.
"So he was embezzling money from the college?" Andrea asked. "Yes, and Dean Bryant must have figured it out and confronted Dean Campbell about it" Sharon said as she leaned back in her chair. "Did the college know where the money was going?" Andrea asked as she looked up at Sharon. "Yes, we found a letter written by Dean Bryant to the comptroller's office stating that he found out where the money was going, it mentions him handling it internally" Sharon said as she handed the letter they found to her.
"And where does this eyewitness Clint, come into the story?" Andrea asked. "He is Dean Campbell's nephew who attends the college and willingly participated in the staging of the body at the library" Andy said to Andrea as Sharon handed the written confession that Clint wrote to her. "Ok, so did the Dean intend on killing Dean Bryant that night or was it an accident?" Andrea stated out loud.
Sharon and Andy both looked at each other and they were trying to determine where Andrea was going with this. "It's clearly murder" Andy said to Andrea. "Yes Lieutenant, but his lawyer is going to argue the fact that his client didn't mean to murder Dean Bryant, and that may lead to involuntary manslaughter" Andrea pointed out to them. "Did he intend to kill the Dean when he was confronted by him?" Andrea stated. "On the case of the nephew, I can charge him as an accomplice to the crime but that's it" she continued.
"So, on a lighter topic, how's married life treating you two?" Andrea said with a smile. Sharon and Andy looked at each other and then back at Andrea. "Great" Andy and Sharon said at the same time as they stole glances at each other. Sharon blushed and then looked over at Andrea who smiled. "Well, I will leave you two love birds alone and wait for this guy's lawyer to show up" Andrea said as she turned around and headed out of Sharon's office.
"Did you hear back from your kids?" Andy asked her quietly. "Yes, they are all back at the condo hanging out" Sharon said as Andy touched her shoulder. Andy looked around the Murder Room to see if anyone was looking into Sharon's office at the moment. Everyone was busy at their desks. Andy pulled Sharon in for a hug and Sharon hugged him back. She relaxed in his arms. It was brief but welcomed. "When this is all over, I'm thinking a nice, relaxing, bubble bath, just the two of us" Sharon whispered to Andy. Andy had a grin a mile wide now on his face. "I like it" Andy whispered back to her. A knock on her door pulled them both away from one another. "The Dean's lawyer is here now" Provenza said to them.
"Okay, where are we on obtaining the search warrant?" Sharon asked Provenza as she led them out of her office. "It should be coming through the fax machine any second Captain" Provenza said to her as he made his way over to the fax/copier/printer. He pulled the paper from the machine and made his way over to where Sharon and Andy were standing. "Okay, I want you all to search his house and look for evidence of a crime, got it?" Sharon said back to Provenza. "Got it Captain" Provenza stated to her. "But I want Buzz to stay here and record our interview with the Dean and his lawyer" she said as she pointed at Mike. "Have Mike run the camera there" she continued to say. Provenza nodded and so did Mike.
Andy looked back at Sharon. "Andy, I would like for you to stay here and come with me in the interview room" Sharon stated to Andy. Andy wanted to go with the rest of the team and conduct the search on the house. "Yes, Captain" Andy said briefly to her and then looked at Provenza who just gave him a smirk. Andy knew that Sharon was worried about him ever since this morning when he said he had a brief flashback to the night of his collapse. Since this morning, he has been just fine. No other issues came up.
Andy and Sharon walked into the interview room and sat down across the table from the Dean and his lawyer. Buzz was in the electronics room with Andrea listening in. "Okay Dean Campbell, your lawyer is here now and I am hoping we can finish our conversation that we started" Sharon said to him. Dean Campbell looked over at his lawyer, who in turned looked back at him. "My client is ready to talk, but bear in mind that this was not premeditated" his lawyer said to them.
"Okay, Dean Campbell, we have information that shows you stealing money from the college you work at and placing that money in to your account" Sharon started to say as she showed the financial paperwork to both parties. "Now how can you explain that? Because it looks like it has been happening for 3 months" she continued as Andy leaned forward on to the table, his hands clasped together. "Alright, I'll admit that I was taking money from the college, they don't need that money, they are very well off and they didn't even miss it" Dean Campbell said. "Why did you need the money?" Andy asked him as he pointed at him.
"Because I fell on to some hard times and I owed people money" Dean Campbell said as he looked down. "So then you killed Dean Bryant because you owed people money?" Andy said as he started to get angry. Sharon touched his arm, she didn't want his blood pressure rising. Andy took a deep breath and then asked him again. "Care to explain that?" Andy asked him. "Somehow he had found out that I was taking the money, and he came to my house on campus and asked what was going on" Dean Campbell started to say. "I offered him a drink and slipped some pills into it for him to take" he continued. As the Dean closed his eyes and took a deep breath, both Andy and Sharon looked at each other and then at his lawyer. His lawyer leaned over to his client and asked if he was okay. The Dean nodded and continued to talk.
"He had asked me what was going on and I told him that I needed that money to pay off the people I owed debts to. He asked me why I just didn't come to him with the problem and he said that he could have helped me. He started to get a little dopey from the pills I had slipped him. He then said that he had to inform the rest of the college staff on what I was doing and that he would turn me in to the police. I didn't want that to happen so as he was in my kitchen, I took out a knife and stabbed him" Dean Campbell said in a shaky voice. He looked up at both Sharon and Andy. "I didn't realize that I had killed him" he continued. "You stabbed him over 5 times! You didn't realize that you killed him?" Andy said back to him. The Dean had a blank stare and it was directed right towards Andy. Andy had thought back to Stroh's attack and when he stabbed Stroh, Stroh had that same stare. Andy looked back at Sharon who leaned back in her chair. "What happened next" she asked him.
"I realized he wasn't moving so I called my nephew, Clint, and he told me to bring the body to the library. It was my idea to have it look like the Dean had committed suicide but we couldn't hide the stab wounds so I asked Clint to make it look like there was blood against the wall" Dean Campbell said as he clenched both of his hands into fists. Andy saw this and was trying to determine what the Dean was going to do. He was exhibiting signs of stress and duress. Andy had seen this type of behavior in an interview room before and it usually didn't end well.
"Well, I can't prove murder in the first, since he stated that he didn't realize he killed him, but it's definitely murder in the second" Andrea said to Buzz in electronics. "Oh my god!" Buzz said as he stared back at the screen.
TBC
