Deadly Seduction (11 page)

Susan’s great friendship with Terri Mettica grew because she truly thought she had found a real soulmate in Terri, who openly admitted her motto in life was,
The obvious is least obvious.
Terri reckoned that if you wanted to flirt in front of your husband then you should go right ahead and do it because then he is more than likely to get the impression nothing is going on. Susan rapidly applied this motto to herself.

Susan became more and more blatant about her illicit sexual liaisons. In a perverse way, she firmly believed that if you wanted something hidden, then if you did the most obvious thing, no one would ever suspect you. It was a strange attitude to take because she was clearly implying it was better to rub your partner’s nose in it than bother to carry out affairs in secret.

Susan stunned one friend who was considering an affair herself by describing in detail how, if you want to cheat on your husband then you should invite your boyfriend over or call him when your husband is listening and then if you get caught your husband would never suspect anything. Susan’s track record in these matters was rather questionable.

Susan also got into the habit with her closest girlfriends of joking about killing Jim and easily getting away with it because “it would be so obvious it was me.” These proclamations would come completely out of the blue.

Susan really shocked one friend by bragging about the sordid details of a particularly passionate affair and saying she could easily break up her lover’s marriage, but he didn’t make enough money for her to bother doing it. Once again, money was the dominant theme in any relationship for Susan.

But, in her numerous sexual adventures throughout Indiana, there continued to be the occasional reassuring rejection that disproved most women’s beliefs that men cannot resist a promiscuous female. In other words, there were still some men who ran a mile when Susan made a pass at them.

One time, she got so obsessed with a doctor in Indianapolis that she went out for lunch with him wearing a sheer red silk teddy under her dress in the hope that they would end up in bed together that afternoon. The doctor turned down her advances over lunch, but Susan insisted to friends for months afterwards that they were having an affair and that she was going to fly somewhere exotic with him on a vacation. It was all a fantasy.

She created an entire sexual liaison that she retold in vivid, explicit detail to her closest friends. It was clear that Susan got almost as much sexual excitement out of the fantasy side of her life as the reality.

In the end, the doctor in Indianapolis had to refer Susan to a much more elderly doctor for her health problems because he felt so uncomfortable in her presence.

Susan openly talked about divorcing Jim because she was not happy with him, but underneath it all she realized that she wouldn’t get much of a financial settlement from Jim because they did not have their own children. In any case, he did not have much spare cash floating around. It was tied up in a plane, a half share in Shanty Malone’s bar, and a number of other smaller investments.

Susan also continued repeating to her friends a degrading story about Jim failing to get an erection when they were in bed together. It was as if she was trying to defend her reasons for finding sexual gratification elsewhere. But not once did she stop and think about what might have caused his sexual problems. Perhaps it was because he did not love her any more.

Gossip about Susan’s extramarital escapades continued to spread through Peru at a furious pace. One of their neighbors up at that secluded house on Summit Drive got the shock of her life when she spotted Susan French-kissing a man at the local fairgrounds.

That same neighbor’s daughter baby-sat for the Grunds and she reported to her mother that Susan was always going out dressed to the nines when her husband was away on fishing trips. Often, Susan would not return until the early hours of the morning.

But Susan firmly believed in one law for her and another for her husband if he ever dared be unfaithful to her.

Susan told her friend Zoyla Henderson that if she ever caught Jim with anyone she would kill him, although many years later she insisted the remark was said entirely in jest.

*   *   *

Jim and Susan were certainly on the “A” list when it came to parties in Peru. And some of those hog roasts and cook-outs tended to be pretty wild affairs.

Often there was skinny-dipping, pot smoking, and sometimes even some cocaine available at the adult get-togethers, although neither Jim nor Susan was ever seen taking any drugs at these events.

Susan was known to many local housewives as someone definitely not to leave alone with your husband. Women had a bad feeling about Susan. They felt she was always on the prowl, looking out for a man to seduce and then use and abuse and destroy. Many of the women suspected that Susan was having numerous affairs at any one time. At some of the more outrageous parties, Susan would proudly strip off her clothes and show off her great body before diving into a swimming pool as naturally as a duck into water.

There were also times when Jim Grund went off on his own, too. Sometimes he would hang out at the tiny bar at the Peru Airport on the edge of town. He kept his own plane there for many years and enjoyed sampling a few beers after arriving back from some trip or other.

There were usually a few women at the Peru Airport bar including Shirley Day, owner of the popular D and D lounge in Peru. One night some of the regulars were drinking way past licensing hours when a plane flew in with Jimmy Grund at the controls. After unloading a vast number of boxes, Grund rolled in and ordered himself a beer. He never did discuss what was in those boxes.

*   *   *

In 1989, Susan was delighted when Jim agreed to go into partnership with his brother-in-law Fred Allen in a car dealership business. She was particularly pleased because part of the deal was that she would be provided with a new model every month.

That year, Jim and Susan went on a vacation to Florida with his sister Jane and husband Fred to celebrate the new business venture. One day, everyone was out by the pool of the hotel when Jane noticed scars on Susan’s breasts that seemed to suggest she had implants. It was also fairly obvious because Susan’s breasts seemed to stand at attention the entire time.

In the end, Fred could not resist making a comment.

“How much did those things cost, Susan?”

Susan looked furious and snapped back, “How would I know, I’ve never had mine done.”

On that vacation, Jimmy’s sister Jane came to the conclusion that one of Susan’s biggest problems was her complete lack of a sense of humor. She just did not get it when other people told gags—especially if they were about her. She seemed to have no basic understanding of irony. She was only capable of seeing things in one narrow dimension. It was black or it was white, but there were definitely no gray areas in Susan’s mind, unlike her life.

That humor defect and the continuing stories about Susan’s sexual escapades were really beginning to concern Jim’s mother, Connie. So, a few weeks later, she even went as far as confronting her son about Susan and especially about her apparent propensity for men.

Jimmy Grund hesitated for a moment and then made a strange comment: “All I can say is that I have never found anything she has told me to be untrue.”

Connie Grund was puzzled by her son’s reply because she had not even been suggesting Susan was a liar, but somehow he had felt obligated to give that response.

*   *   *

Meanwhile, Susan’s numerous relatives from the wrong side of the tracks continued to enjoy all that Jimmy Grund could offer in the way of luxurious amenities.

On Thursday, January 18, 1990, Susan’s sister Rita married Robert Saylors at the Grund home on Summit Drive. Naturally, Jimmy Grund—who just happened to be judge pro-tem on that day—officiated at the ceremony.

Rita was given away in marriage by her son Paul, the same youth who had found Susan in bed with a man a few months earlier. The reception that followed at the house for more than fifty people probably put Jimmy Grund back to the tune of at least $2,000.

On April 23, 1990, an incident occurred that had a disastrous long-term effect on Susan Grund when she called the police to report a burglary that afternoon at the house up on Summit Drive.

At approximately 3:58
P.M.
State Trooper Michael Brown arrived at the Miami County Sheriff’s office to be greeted by then Sheriff Don Howard and Jimmy Grund. They had just received a call from Susan Grund stating that the residence had been burglarized and she was scared that someone might still be inside the house.

An anxious Jimmy Grund suggested to Brown that he get over there as quickly as possible.

At 4:02
P.M.
Brown and Dep. Jan Kendall screeched to a halt outside the house on Summit to find Susan Grund outside. They immediately entered the house and checked each room for a perpetrator. Kendall ventured carefully round the house, mindful of the dispatcher’s warning that a burglar might be still inside. Glancing in the rooms on the ground level and finding them empty, Kendall headed for the main bedroom where he found what appeared to be evidence of a break-in.

At 4:41
P.M.
State Trooper Investigator Robert Brinson arrived at the house to handle the investigation.

Bob Brinson was well aware that the house belonged to one time county prosecutor Jimmy Grund and his young, attractive second wife and he also realized that his superiors would be expecting an especially thorough job on this particular investigation because of the high society folk involved.

In fact, Brinson had called at the house a few months earlier when Susan’s dinky little Fiat sportscar was daubed in red paint by a vandal. There was talk of it being done by local kids, but in the end, the investigation ran out of steam although Bob Brinson could still remember it vividly.

Brinson immediately met with Jim Grund and Susan at the house that day and started a careful examination of the property. He discovered one of the windows in the master bedroom was open and it appeared to have been cut to allow entry. Jimmy Grund assured Brinson that the window was definitely locked earlier that day.

But Brinson noted that due to the construction of the casement-type window it would be nearly impossible for a burglar to gain entry through it if it had not been left open in the first place. Brinson also noticed there were no pry marks on the window frame and the screen wire on the bottom of the frame had not been disturbed. He found it very unlikely that a burglar could enter the house via the screen window and not disturb or cut the wire.

On examining the bedroom, the first thing that struck Brinson was the word
PRICK
emblazoned above the couple’s double bed in black spray paint. Brinson’s scene of the crime specialist colleague Sgt. Dean Marks carefully took a sample of the wallpaper for evidence. There was no sign of the paint spray can although the Grunds said they had used something similar in recent days to paint a child’s toy.

Jimmy Grund then went on to tell Brinson that he was missing an 8×10 size photograph of Susan modeling a swimsuit at a fashion show. The photo had been in a gold frame. Brinson was a bit mystified by the fact that nothing else appeared to have been disturbed in the bedroom.

Next, he headed for the Grund’s vast walk-in closet next to the master bathroom. Looking at obvious signs of disturbance, Susan Grund informed Brinson that about twenty sets of lingerie, mainly from Victoria’s Secret, were missing. Then she went on to mention gold necklaces, matching bracelets, rings, and earrings. Susan claimed the jewelry had been taken from a wooden jewelry box with mirror side doors. Jim Grund then chipped in that the burglar had also ransacked four drawers in his clothes chest. However, although the bottom two drawers were partially open, nothing had actually been disturbed. There were other things that had been moved around in the closet, but no other items appeared stolen.

Then Jim Grund announced that he was missing one hundred twenty-dollar bills from one drawer.

Brinson later noted in his scene-of-the-crime report that he was surprised none of Jim Grund’s jewelry had been taken. There had also been several silver dollars in the opened jewelry box, but they had not been taken either.

No other part of the house appeared to have been touched and nothing else was missing. Brinson then noted that the living room patio door was open and so it appeared the burglar had left through that exit.

Just as Bob Brinson was about to wrap up his inquiries for the day, Susan’s nephew Paul arrived at the house after finishing his shift at a local Wendy’s restaurant. Paul was living with the Grunds and attending high school in Kokomo for his senior year.

Paul told Brinson he had been home briefly at noon after finishing school before setting off for his job, returning at 2:00
P.M.
to get something to eat before heading back to work at 2:30
P.M.
Brinson later contacted the manager of Wendy’s who confirmed Paul’s movements.

Then Paul dropped a minor bombshell by admitting that he had spent part of that afternoon in the company of a man who was awaiting trial in Miami County for robbery and who had a lengthy past criminal record. Brinson was astounded to hear that the nephew of two such prominent Peru residents should be mixing with such a disreputable character. He decided he had to investigate Paul’s involvement.

Brinson then headed for Shanty Malone’s bar, which Jim Grund part-owned, and where Paul told them this other suspected criminal was enjoying a drink. On arrival, Brinson and his investigators talked to the man and then escorted him to his girlfriend’s trailer and interviewed her about his movements. Both of them insisted they knew nothing about the burglary at Summit Drive and Brinson tended to believe them. It was far too obvious a scenario, although he did get an assurance from the couple that they would be available for a polygraph test if required.

On April 27, 1990, Brinson persuaded Susan’s nephew Paul Sanders to agree to a polygraph to clear his name. The test took place at the Indiana State Police Post in Peru, and was carried out by Sgt. Mark James. Paul passed with flying colors.