Dead by Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? (14 page)

freeway.
 
They happened to own an identical car, and the news coverage

caught their attention.
 
They had been driving in the West Slope area

at dusk on Sunday and recalled passing a dark, muscular man, who was

jogging near the freeway.
 
It had seemed an odd place to jog.
 
The man

had something tucked under his arm as if he was carrying a football.

For an instant, their headlights had picked up his face, and then they

swept on by, his image as blurred as their memory of the moment.

Human memory is a fascinating and imprecise faculty.
 
In this instance,

it didn't matter.
 
Finch could never locate the memo or the people who

had called about the man running in the West Slope area that Sunday

night.
 
If he had been Cheryl's killer, might he not have stopped

behind a bush or in the shadows, removed his outer clothing, rolled it

into a ball, and then run from the scene until he found a dumpster or

some other spot to throw away possibly bloodstained clothes?

It was a theory that seemed plausible.
 
Michael Cacy had seen only one

vehicle on S.W. 79th when he left home within a half hour of the

discovery of the homicide on the Sunset.
 
Unless there had been more

than one killer involved, whoever had beaten Cheryl to death would have

had no way to leave the area except on foot.

Joggers were everywhere, this one might have thought no one would

notice him.
 
But someone had.
 
It was one very small chip in a very

large mosaic.

The reason that investigators could not locate Brad Cunningham for

further questioning in the days following Cheryl Keeton's murder was,

of course, that he was on the move constantly, taking Sara and his sons

with him, running from whatever enemies and demons pursued him.

Thanks to Sara's friends and her relatives, they were welcome at a

number of residences.
 
Brad was adamant that it was far too dangerous

for them to return to either of their apartments in the Madison

Tower.

Brad had Phil Margolin representing him, but Margolin explained that he

couldn't represent the children too.
 
When Brad insisted that his sons

must have an attorney, Margolin suggested that he retain Susan Svetkey,

a lawyer with his firm.
 
Her practice was devoted to children's

interests þto making sure that the came before any other agendas.
 
Sara

wrote out another check, this one for Susan Svetkey.
 
Susan never

talked to Brad, nothing more than saying "hello."
 
She was not his

lawyer.

Brad wanted his sons protected, and he didn't want police playing with

their mindsþperhaps trying to force their memories into ,slawed

recollections.
 
He knew that the Washington County grand jury was about

to meet, and two of his small sons had been subpoenaed to testify.

He didn't want anyone talking with his sonsþnot the police, and

certainly not the grand jury.
 
They were little boys, they had lost

their mother, and, of course, they were in as much danger as he was.

Brad could not ignore the subpoenas but at least Jess and Michael would

have legal representation.
 
Susan Svetkey was a slender, attractive

woman a warm and earnest manner.
 
It didn't matter who hired her, her

allegiance was always to the children she represented.
 
She was very

concerned about Jess and Michael Cunningham.
 
As a separate matter she

wondered about their competency as witnesses.
 
They were so young

Served at the hospital, Sara responded to her own subpoena and also

delivered Jess, Michael, and Brent Cunningham to the Washington County

Courthouse on September 24.
 
And shortly before the grand jury hearing

into the death of Cheryl Keeton, Susan Svetkey and Jerry Finch talked

with Jess and Michael in a conference room in the D.A."s office.

They needed to determine what, if anything, the boys might be able to

testify to.
 
If neither child was competent to appear before the grand

jury, they needed to know that too.
 
Grand jury hearings are cloaked in

secrecy, and attorneys are not permitted to accompany their clients

into those sacrosanct chambers.

At six, Jess Keeton Cunningham was an extremely bright little boy.

So was Michael Keeton Cunningham, but he was only four and seemed

distracted and querulous.
 
Why wouldn't he be?
 
He had just lost his

mother.

Finch would ask questions, while Susan Svetkey took notes.
 
It had

never even occurred to her that Brad would want his children

sequestered from the detectives investigating Cheryl's murder.
 
As far

as she knew, he had been home with the youngsters the night their

mother was killed.

She believed she was with his sons solely to make this process as

untraumatic as possible for them.

Finch was a kind man and he began talking quietly to Jess, assuring him

that he was not in trouble, not at all.
 
Finch just needed to ask him

some questions.
 
When he asked Jess how old he was, Jess said he was

sixþand that his birthday was on October 25.
 
He,also said he liked

sports and that he played soccer.

"Did you have a soccer game last weekend?"
 
Finch asked.

"I don't know the days...."

Patiently, Finch drew parallel lines representing the days of the week

on a piece of paper and found that Jess was perfectly able to show him

which days were his school days and which were soccer days.
 
Jess

remembered that his father had picked him up from his mother's house on

Friday or Saturday (September 19 or 20) and that they had talked about

his soccer game.

"What day was your soccer game?"

Jess pointed to the sixth line (Saturday).
 
"My team was the Bridlemile

Buddies and we played the Bridlemile Blazers.
 
We won six to rwo!"

Jess remembered that his dad had taken him and his brothers to the

doughnut shop after the soccer game.
 
He touched the seventh line

(Sunday) as the day he was supposed to go back to his mom's house.

"Why didn't you go back, Jess?"
 
Finch asked.

"I don't know."

The day after the Saturday line, Jess said he and his dad and brothers

had gone to the hospital to have pizza with Sara, and he described the

pizza restaurant as being two streets away from the hospital.
 
After

they all ate together, Jess said his dad had switched cars with Sara

"from the Suburban to the short white car' because Dad's car wasn't

running right."

"Do you remember what you did next?"
 
Finch asked.

According to Jess's memory.
 
they had gone back to his father's

apartment in the Madison Tower, and they had a sandwich and some

popcorn while they watched a movie on the VCR.

"What was the movie?"
 
Finch asked.
 
"Do you remember?"

Jess nodded.
 
"It was The Sword in the Stone.
 
There was this boy and

this magicianþMerlinþand they tried to pull the sword from the stone,

and whoever pulled it out would become the king of England.
 
Arthur

did.

Once you did," Jess confided, "you always could."

"Where was your dad?"
 
Finch asked.

Jess said that his dad had gone jogging with Michael while he and

Phillip staved in the apartment and continued to watch the movie.

When Finch asked him if he remembered what part of the movie was

showing when Brad and Michael left, Jess nodded.
 
"Merlin and Arthur

turned into squirrels and climbed up a tree."

"When did your dad come home?"

"After it was over."

"How did you know it was after the movie was over?"

Jess said the screen had gotten all "fizzed up" and he didn't know how

to rewind the tape, so he had just turned the power off.
 
He thought

maybe his father had gotten home two or three minutes after the end,

but he wasn't sure.

Jess thought for a moment and then remembered that he had left his

father's room where he had been watching The Sword in the Stone and had

gone to his own room where he had a television set too.
 
Rambo was

playing on one of the local channels and he started watching that

movie.

"Your dad came home sometime after you started watching Rambo?"

Finch asked.

"Yeah.
 
When Rambo was captured by the bad guys and General War Hawk

took Rambo into a little cabin."

Jess had a remarkable memory.
 
He also remembered that when his dad

came back from "jogging" he was wearing an orange and yellow "hunter's

vest."

"Did you see your father coming through the door?"
 
Finch asked.

"No, he came through the elevator."

"What did your dad do after he got home?"

"It sounded like he was washing the dishes.
 
I heard water running in

the kitchen."

Jess remembered that Michael had left with his dad, but he couldn't

recall seeing Michael come back the first time Brad returned to the

apartment.
 
He thought his dad had left again and gone to his car to

get Michael.

He didn't know what his father had been wearing when he left to go

jogging that Sunday night: "I didn't see him when he left."
 
But he

remembered that he and both his brothers had slept on the floor of

their father's bedroom that night.

Susan Svetkey took twelve pages of notes on Jess's memories of the

night his mother was murdered.
 
She took only two on Michael's

recall.

Michael didn't want to talk about anything, especially the night his