Mid-West Campaign
Session Eighty-One

Monday, 18 June 2001 [continued]

Continuing along the track, the cars arrive at a large wooden period house, surrounded by cotton bushes as far as the eye can see. The car was discovered by Christopher Roche's daughter, Louise, and the agents want to speak to both parties. The place seems deserted. The agents split up: Jane and McPike head around the house anticlockwise, while Benedict and Stone go the other way.

They meet at the back door, having noticed absolutely nothing. The screen door at the back is banging ominously in the wind. Jane and Clint go and check out the only out-building (a barn). It is large enough to contain a number of vehicles, but there are none present and no evidence that a car left here any time soon.

Meanwhile, the other agents have a burning desire to look inside the house. "Do you smell gas, Ben?" asks McPike and kicks in the door. The pair enter a rustic kitchen. The stove is warm (which is no surprise given it's a wood burner), and the milk in the fridge is still fresh. McPike calls out, but there is no reply. They head into the hallway. There is a hand sticking out from the stairs.

The hand is connected to a dead woman, lying face down on the stairs. Blood has soaked into the carpet beneath her. Jane confirms that she has been dead for about two days. Ben checks the house for photos and the agents come to the conclusion that this is almost certainly Louise Roche.

McPike shakes his head. This is a nightmare on the jurisdiction front. Technically the local police will have precedence on this case. They have to call it in. He notes that the body of Louise Roche would have been visible to anyone looking through the letterbox. He suggests they tell the police that they looked through the letter box first and then went around the back and kicked in the door. McPike calls the cops.

Jane hypothesises that Louise Roche was shot in the stomach while on the landing. She probably span around in mid-air and landed on her stomach. Small pellets of shot can be seen high up the wall. Louise must have been standing very close to her killer. Jane carefully climbs past the body so as not to disturb the scene and checks out the first floor.

In the master bedroom, Jane discovers an old man sitting in a wheelchair with a shot gun across his lap. He seems to be asleep, and Jane advances cautiously. However, it is soon apparent that this man (Christopher Roche) is also dead. But he has not been shot and neither is there any sign of a struggle. There are no obvious wounds and no obvious signs of drugs or other substance.

Meanwhile, Benedict, fearful for his safety (as he is both black and a Mexican) dresses up in as much "FBI" gear as he can find. He then searches the house. It is interesting that there seems to be no way to get any higher than the first floor, and there is also no obvious way for wheelchair bound Christopher Roche to get between the floors.

Sheriff Dodd and his agents arrive. McPike hands the investigation over to them, not wanting to make any trouble. He says that the FBI investigation is only tangentially related, but he would like to be kept informed of the progress of the murder investigation. He says that his agents could be in the area for a couple of weeks.

The agents head to a motel, where McPike's phone rings. It is Chris Rock from New York. Rock seems to remember his car more fondly than Peter Ellis Dean, but it was a long time ago. Rock says that Dean counted the local branch of the KKK among his enemies. He says that when he drove down to Louisiana to give Dean the keys to his car, things got a "little hairy" and he was glad when Peter told him to go back. Peter said he had an old sweetheart in the area - someone he had met in Mississippi. Rock cannot remember the name. She says that she was local money, and that Peter called her "LB". Rock says that Peter was only passing through the area. He was on his way to New Orleans, and Estelle is on the road.

Taking what Rock said on board Jane begins to concoct a theory about what is actually going on. McPike plays along. Their theory is this: the "LB" that Peter was going to meet is actually Louise Roche's mother. Christopher Roche found out about the affair and killed Dean. But Dean's spirit possessed Christopher Roche and has been in his body ever since. Louise Roche is technically Peter Ellis Dean's daughter, even though she was fathered with Christopher Roche's body. When the agents disassembled the skeleton in Wichita a few days ago, Dean was forced from the body. Christopher Roche woke up for the first time in forty years; he didn't recognise his daughter and so he killed her. Stuck in wheelchair, not knowing what medication his body was on and suffering from shock Christopher Roche then died of natural causes.

It is an amazing theory that seems to fit the facts. However, it can be proved or disproved by checking the register of births, deaths and marriages. McPike suggests, half-jokingly, that they conduct a séance with Dean's spirit. Within a few minutes Jane has a list of trusted local voodooists from Dominic Rocaan.

Tuesday, 19 June 2001

Jane heads out for her morning run at 6:00am. She doesn't notice the blatant ambulance parked outside the Sam's Garage, nor the body bag draped in a heavily blanket to conceal the heavily mutilated body within. It's not until all the agents pass the station on their way to breakfast that they see all this and decide to investigate.

Deputy Sheriff Phelps is surprised that the FBI are taking a "professional interest" on their way to breakfast, but he isn't overtly hostile. He tells the agents that local mechanic Sam Pickering (aged 38) was crushed by his own hydraulic press. Phelps says that the garage was a family business, and Sam took over from his father. Alarm bells start ringing for the agents. Did the spirit of Peter Ellis Dean do this? Is this a vengeance thing against the people who killed him? But surely if this is the case, Sam Pickering is too young.

Clint's phone rings. It is Reginald White, the current head of White's Law Firm. He purchased the firm Dean used to work for (McCollins, Gillette & Couvert) from federal circuit judge James McCollins twenty years ago. He doesn't know anything about Peter Ellis Dean. He can tell the agents that Gillette is dead, and that Couvert is still practicing law in Mississippi.

After breakfast the agents head to the local hall of records. They ask for Christopher Roche's marriage certificate, and the birth certificates of Louise Roche and Sam Pickering. It will take a while for the clerk to find these records, so the agents sit at some microfilm readers and plough through several years of the local papers: The Estelle Examiner and the Parish Preacher. They start in 1962.

There are very few civil rights stories in either paper. Considering the history of the area, that civil rights riots that began in 1961 and built to the Los Angels riots of 1965, this says a lot about the people writing the papers. In 1963 the Estelle Examiner notes the discovery of Peter Ellis Dean's car by Jonathan Davies. The matter was reported to the police and it is interesting that the body wasn't discovered then. Also interesting is the name of one of the reporters on the staff of the Parish Preacher. Her articles completely skirt around the civil rights issue. Her name is Lila-Bette Monet. LB?

Jane tracks down a number for Judge James McCollins in New Hampshire. The agents will be able to contact him tomorrow. Meanwhile, McPike contacts Sheriff Dodd. They haven't finished the autopsies or ballistics on the dead bodies, but it seems obvious to the sheriff that Christopher Roche shot his own daughter and then died of natural causes.

McPike asks if Christopher Roche had any friends in Estelle that are still alive. People of his own generation that are equally important in the community. The sheriff suggests Louis la Ville, the owner of the local bank, and Gerald de Tour. Both are bigwigs in the local chamber of commerce. Was there a link between Pickering and Roche? Sam Pickering was responsible for maintaining the vehicles on the Roche plantation.

Eventually the requested certificates are returned to the agents, which blows their otherwise flawless theory out of the water. Christopher Roche's wife was Marie. They were married in 1964 (after the death of Peter Ellis Dean), and Louise was born in 1966. Lila-Bette Money must be the "LB" Chris Rock mentioned.

McPike contacts Louis la Ville and speaks to his butler. He arranges to speak to la Ville after the Chamber of Commerce meeting tomorrow evening. He then phones de Tour, but instead of getting Gerald he gets Gerald's son: Roger. Roger was only nine years old when Peter Ellis Dean died (he is the same generation as Sam Pickering). Roger tells the agents that his father is currently at the Shady Acres retirement home. He seems somewhat cagey on the phone, and McPike thinks he could be hiding something.

Joe and Jane head to Shady Acres, leaving Benedict and Clint to track down Lila-Bette Monet. It is likely she is still alive (she would only be 62). The Parish Preacher is not being published anymore. After considering checking phone books and social security records, the pair succeed in finding her with a simple internet search. She is has been living in Seattle for the past twenty-years. She is still writing and works as a columnist for the Seattle Clarion. Stone calls the paper.

He gets through to secretary Elaine Scott, who smells a story and puts him through to the editor. Clint is characteristically tight-lipped. He says that the matter is about Peter Ellis Dean and he wants Lila-Bette Monet to phone him back.

At Shady Acres, Jane and Ugly Joe are introduced to Dr Delaquoire. He tells the agents that Gerald de Tour is suffering from mild dementia. He will grant an interview with the man, but he asks to be present during it. Gerald de Tour is an old man, sitting in a room surrounded by crucifixes. He doesn't like blacks and doesn't respect women, so McPike conducts the interview.

de Tour says that he has known Roche since they were boys. He says that Roche has a "child that cares" about him - implying that Roger de Tour doesn't see his father very much, and also that Louise Roche was close to her father. He then says "I always have a mint tulip on a Tuesday. Archibald will get it." Jane is sent from the room to fetch the drink. She waits in the hall and listens to the rest of what the insane old fool has to say.

McPike subtly questions him on his views of civil rights and civil rights. "Those uppity niggers didn't know what was right with them," de Tour says. He adds that all the civil rights activists were "race traitors" and has no time for any of them. McPike pushes the line of enquiry a little far. He is convinced that de Tour knows something about Peter Ellis Dean. De Tour calls McPike a "Yankee bastard" and the agents are asked to leave by the doctor.

McPike thinks that they need to speak to someone else from the 1960s. Someone who is willing to talk to them: someone black. Jane suggests the local gospel church. They will surely find someone there who would help.

Meanwhile Lila-Bette Monet telephones Stone. She says that she is tape-recording the conversation. She admits to being "LB". She says that Peter Ellis Dean was mixed up in that "silly civil rights nonsense", and that he was coming to see her when he vanished. At the time she was living above the printers in Estelle. She has heard of Christopher Roche, but doesn't know much more about him than his name. It has been forty years and she has done her best to forget about the whole thing. The only thing she adds is that Peter would have to had stopped for gas at some point during his journey. Could he have stopped at the Pickering place (Sam's Garage)?

Wednesday, 20 June 2001

After breakfast, the agents head to the local black gospel church, arriving just after the morning service. They speak to Reverend John Banks, or more accurately Benedict speaks to Banks as the reverend wants very little to do with the other agents. Jane wonders around the church and reads the local notices. A cat called Mr Wiggles has gone missing.

Banks says that Roche was a "horrible old man", and that he never showed any remorse for all that he had done. However his daughter, Louise, was a "lovely girl". She had a great sense of charity, even if she was more secular than spiritual. Louise helped raise money to rebuild the church roof after an arson four years ago.

As an upstanding member of the black community, who has obviously had a very successful life, Banks asks if Benedict will speak to the congregation at the 5:00pm service tomorrow. Benedict agrees.

Mid-West Campaign Index | Previous Session | Next Session