Evidence of Murder (14 page)

“Yes, it has, Lieutenant, but I’m glad to hear from you.”

“Sheriff Eslinger asked me to give you a call. He said that you were interested in the warrant that was issued, arresting John Huggins in Maryland.”

“That’s right.”

“I have that information. The charge against Huggins is his failure to appear on stolen property charges,” Lieutenant Thorpe stated. “We’re drawing up extradition papers to return Huggins to Florida to our jurisdiction. I’ll be glad to send you a copy of that, along with John Huggins’s arrest record, if you would like.”

“I’d be very grateful. Thanks, Lieutenant, this is the best call I’ve had today.”

With a king-size smile, Weir turned to his partner and said simply, “We got it.”

“Well, men, how’s the case going?” Sheriff Kevin Beary paused as he was passing the desks of Weir and Linnert.

“Coming along, Sheriff,” Weir answered.

The two detectives discussed their progress and then brought up their plans to fly north that afternoon to interview Melanie Cramden and Nancy Parkinson. They also had a faint hope of interviewing John Huggins in jail.

“Fine, fine,” encouraged the sheriff. “Keep up the good work.”

The flight to Washington, D.C., was uneventful, and before long the two detectives arrived in their rental car at the home of Melanie Cramden in Greenwood, Delaware.

John Linnert rang the doorbell of the residence and waited. He looked at the setting sun. “It’s been a nice day,” he observed.

Weir asked impatiently, “What’s the delay here?”

“Maybe she’s not home,” Linnert replied.

“Do you think that she is deliberately not answering, wondering who we are and why we’re at her door?”

“Now, now, Cam, don’t be so suspicious.”

As he spoke, the door opened, revealing a small, pleasant-faced woman, probably in her late thirties or early forties. After introductions Melanie Cramden invited the officers inside.

Weir began sociably: “Did you have a nice trip to Florida?”

She smiled. “I’d say it was a nice trip overall, but it had a lot of unexpected things that we never figured on.”

“How’s that?” Linnert asked.

“My whole idea or desire was to make this trip with my neighbor Nancy Parkinson, to visit Walt Disney World.” She reached over to an end table and picked up a brochure of the entertainment complex, which she brought back with her, and held it up for the detectives to see. “I’d heard so much about this place for years that I wanted more than anything to see it, especially Cinderella’s Castle. And when Nancy asked me to go along with her and the kids as company on her trip to Melbourne, I just thought that was a gift from heaven.”

“That must have been an exciting experience for you.” Weir nodded.

“It was great. You know, the realization of a dream. I could have spent days there. But we didn’t have the time. And I was disappointed that we were constantly going around with no real plan or organization.

“We drove down in Nancy’s minivan. It’s a nice-size vehicle, but with Nancy, her three kids and me packed into it, we did not have a luxurious setup. It wasn’t bad, though.”

Continuing, Cramden said, “The first week we were in Melbourne, all of us stayed with her mother and her sister, Angel Huggins, at their home. On June twenty-first Nancy and I, with Nancy’s kids, went to Disney World. I didn’t know it but I was in for a big surprise. We met John Huggins there. He had his two children with him.”

Melanie Cramden squirmed in her chair, clearly uncomfortable at telling this. “I didn’t realize it at the time, but it became clear to me that the meeting of Nancy and John Huggins was not by chance. They, without a doubt, planned and arranged it.

“Anyway, after spending the day at Disney World, we all went to the Sheraton World Resort Hotel in the Orlando area.”

She looked at her Disney World brochure again. “Everything about this part of central Florida is wonderful, spectacular. First the weather is great, and then there are all those fabulous resorts beginning, of course, with Walt Disney World, all the marvelous hotels and motels and the great restaurants. It was a paradise on earth.”

Linnert smiled at her enthusiasm. “Maybe our chamber of commerce should hire you to promote tourism.”

“That sounds good to me, Detective Linnert. Then I could live in paradise all the time.”

They laughed; then John Linnert asked, “What did you do after your visit to Disney World?”

“We only stayed at the Sheraton one night. The next day, June twenty-second, we helped John Huggins drop off his wife Angel’s car at a motel.” A sly look crossed her face as she said, “None of us was staying there.” She giggled. “It was just a place to abandon the vehicle, as John was going to spend time with us, with Nancy, that is.”

“What then?” Weir asked.

“We all drove together to the Royal Mansions in Cape Canaveral. Rental condos. We had two rooms.”

The detectives waited patiently as Melanie Cramden continued. “I was a little surprised but pleased to learn that John Huggins paid for the rooms. My curiosity got the best of me and I asked him how he made his money, but he didn’t answer me.” She had a puzzled expression on her face.

“I guess that you were having quite a time of it,” Weir encouraged her.

“Yes, indeed. For example, on—let me think—yes, it was June twenty-sixth, I was moving some things from the room into Nancy’s van, and while I was straightening it up, I found a gun under the driver’s seat.” She stopped and looked at the lawmen. “I wasn’t thrilled with that. I don’t like guns.”

Detective Weir asked, “Can you describe the gun?”

Cramden slowly recalled it. “I don’t know much about guns. This one was black, maybe it was silver—dark. It’s the kind that you push a clip of bullets into.”

“Do you know whose gun it was, who owned it?” Weir asked.

“When I first asked about that, no one answered me. Later, I was with Nancy alone, and I asked her about the gun. She admitted to me that it belonged to John Huggins.”

Linnert prompted, “Did anything else happen that day, the twenty-sixth?”

“Nancy, her kids, John and I went to Cocoa Beach to the pier, where we had lunch. And Nancy had several drinks, too many drinks. She got drunk. We returned to the hotel room, and Nancy passed out in the bedroom.”

Melanie Cramden closed her eyes, wondering if she should have disclosed Nancy’s excessive drinking. She paused and the detectives encouraged her to go on.

“Sometime in the evening—”

Linnert interrupted, “On the same day, the twenty-sixth?”

“Yes, the same day. It was about seven o’clock when John picked up the keys to Nancy’s van and he took off.”

“Do you know where John went?” Linnert asked.

“No, I don’t have any idea and I sure wouldn’t ask him, because you don’t ask John Huggins questions at any time.” She rubbed her hands together nervously.

“When did you see him again?”

“He was gone for about two hours. And he didn’t say anything to me when he got back. The kids were watching a TV show when he came in, and he just walked into Nancy’s room.”

“What happened after that?” Weir asked.

“Pretty soon Nancy came out of the bedroom and asked me to go with her to pick up some food for the kids, since they hadn’t eaten any dinner yet.”

“Is that what you did, went out to get some food?”

Cramden nodded and said, “I was ready to get out for a little fresh air and I was glad that Nancy asked me to go with her. As we were driving along in her van, that gun slid out from under the seat. I picked it up and handed it to Nancy. She smiled casually and put it into her bag. We drove around looking for a place to buy something for the kids, but most of the restaurants were closed. She finally stopped at a Dunkin’ Donuts and got some doughnuts. We also got some sandwiches at a 7-Eleven.”

Linnert asked, “What happened next?”

Cramden said, “The next day, the twenty-seventh, we checked out of the Royal Mansions. We all stood around for a while and then we went into the snack bar for coffee. At this time we talked about John and discussed the possibility of him riding back with us to Greenwood, Delaware. After that was decided, the talk centered on John again, and in that conversation it came out that he was wanted for DUI.”

Melanie stated that she didn’t really know what John and Nancy’s game plan was about the DUI. “But it seemed logical that he wanted to get out of the jurisdiction of that charge, and going to Delaware offered him an out.”

Also at this point, she said, it was decided that John’s kids would be dropped off with John’s mother. “While at his mother’s, Nancy pointed out a blue Taurus and said that it was John’s car.

“From there we drove back toward Melbourne and checked into a motel. Nancy and John left and came back after a while and he was beaming with pride, like he’d hit the jackpot. I guess he had. He had a stash of marijuana that he picked up somewhere.” Melanie seemed somewhat embarrassed to tell them that information, but she continued. “I stayed with some of the kids, while Nancy took her youngest and drove to her mother’s home to pick up Angel’s son for the trip back to Maryland, where he lived with his father.

“John was in a hurry to check out. He explained that Angel found out that he was with Nancy at the Royal Mansions and he was afraid that she was going to show up here.”

The detectives were hard put to keep up with the activities of the group.

Cramden went on with her tale. “Later that same day, we left for Delaware. Our party now included Nancy and her children, me, John and Angel’s son. He was to be returned to his father in Easton, which is close to Greenwood, Delaware, our destination.”

“Your simple trip to Orlando to see Disney World certainly became a complicated travelogue,” Detective Weir commented.

“It certainly became involved,” she agreed. “But as I look back, I can tell you that seeing Walt Disney World made it worthwhile. We drove straight through, with no stops, other than for gas and the bathroom. We went to Salisbury first, rather than to Easton to drop off Austin Junior. We wanted to get John Huggins settled in a hotel room.”

She paused. “All the while we were together, Nancy and John Huggins were getting tighter.” She stopped and added, “And then there was Tom.”

Cramden quickly explained that Tom is Nancy’s live-in boyfriend.

“Somehow Tom learned that Nancy was back in town. Meanwhile, it was John and Nancy’s intention to hide John in Salisbury, so Tom wouldn’t find him.”

Melanie Cramden seemed to be enjoying the attention the detectives were giving her, as they were hanging on her every word.

She seemed a little embarrassed as she went on. “And after they got John his room, Nancy and he spent time together alone in that room, as they had on other occasions in Florida.” In a very quiet voice, Cramden told the detectives, “I just patiently waited for Nancy, reading in the lobby of the motel.”

Melanie said, “Nancy came back into the lobby in a happy mood and said, ‘Let’s go back to Greenwood.’ I just went along with her.”

She talked on and on more and more freely with Weir and Linnert and got to the point where she related a conversation that she had with a local police officer in Delaware, who was involved in the return of Angel’s son. While Nancy was sidetracked making arrangements for John Huggins’s accommodations, Austin Junior’s father became worried by the delay of his son’s return and reported that to the Delaware police.

“I’ve got to tell you this,” Cramden concluded, “along with the information that I gave to the officer about Austin Junior, I told him that John Huggins, who had traveled with us, was wanted in Florida.”

The detectives thanked Melanie Cramden for her information and cooperation and departed.

When they were outside, heading to their vehicle, Weir asked, “What did you think of her?”

“I felt like you can’t tell the players without a program.” Linnert laughed. “A lot of what she said we already heard, but there were a couple of points that were interesting, like Huggins disappearing for a couple of hours on the twenty-sixth. Could that be when he torched the Explorer?”

“Yeah, I thought about that, too. We’ll have to check everything.”

When they arrived at Nancy Parkinson’s door, she seemed open and friendly, willing to answer their questions and help them.

After the initial greetings Detective Weir asked about Nancy’s purpose for her trip to Florida.

“I drove down to Florida to pick up my nephew and bring him back to Maryland.” She explained that they made the trip in her Lumina minivan. “My neighbor Melanie Cramden made the trip with me. She came just to keep me company, but she also wanted to go to Walt Disney World while in Orlando.”

“Is that everyone who made the trip?” Linnert inquired.

“Oh, no. My three kids were with us. I wouldn’t leave them here while I took off for Florida. Besides, I knew they would have a great time on the trip, and they would get to visit their grandmother.

“We drove straight through, arriving at Mother’s house in Melbourne on June fifteenth. I was pleased to see my sister, Angel, there with her children.”

Parkinson rambled on, explaining that Angel’s husband, John Huggins, arrived on June 17. At this point, with the mention of John Huggins, her facial expression changed. She made a point of stating, “I didn’t know the status of things between Angel and John at this time. I mean, the status of their marriage.” She said, “I was aware that there was some kind of a situation between Angel and John, but I didn’t know if their problems were serious.”

In her careful account of their comings and goings, Parkinson stated, “The entire family took a trip to Wekiwa Springs and spent the night at a motel. While at the motel, John got alone with me for about fifteen minutes. He told me that he wanted to get to know me better.” Nancy smiled as she continued. “He said that he wanted to spend some time with me during the next week.”