Dance of Death (19 page)

Above everything else, Bollow said, it was the nonchalant manner in which Renee was handling Brent's death that was eating him alive. “She walked over to my house on Thursday and handed me the keys to her house in case something happened while she was away. And when my wife told her again how sorry we were that Brent was dead, she said, ‘We'd been fighting like cats and dogs. You know he was a shit, but I kind of feel sorry for him.' ”

Bollow said that comment had made him so mad that he called Crimestoppers and told them, “Y'all don't know what she's done yet, but Renee Poole had her husband murdered.”

Channel 45 ABC-news in Winston-Salem aired an exclusive interview with Renee that hot and humid Thursday evening. It would become a big story; the kind that would send their ratings through the roof. A polite, handsome and broad-shouldered Troy Harbison interviewed Renee and the two of them quickly developed a good rapport. He made light conversation by asking how she and Brent had met, and then a disheveled Renee, dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved cotton shirt, looked away from the camera and started crying. She could barely get the words out that a man had robbed them at gunpoint and shot and killed her husband after he begged for his life.

“Do you know why anyone would want to kill your husband?” Harbison asked her.

Looking away from both the camera and the reporter, as if she were in shock, Renee shook her head, sniffed, then answered no. “He never did anything to anybody,” she said in a nervous and apprehensive voice. “He never did anything. He was so kind.”

Harbison wrapped up his part of the newscast and thanked Renee for her participation. Brent Poole's murder was definitely going to be a major news story that would demand their total attention until it was finally resolved. As he was putting the final touches on his lead story for the 4:30
P.M
. news, anchors from other television stations were also attempting to be the first to interview Renee. Harbison's crosstown rival, Channel 12, could see it was going to be a killer story the moment word was out. Newshound Adam Shapiro drove out to the Summeys' house in search of an interview.

Marie Summey spotted Shapiro that afternoon standing on her front porch, peeking in her front window. She opened the door and greeted him. When Shapiro mistakenly assumed Brandy, the girl standing behind her, was Renee, he got excited and shouted, “Is that Renee? Does she have an attorney?”

Marie was livid. She told him they had an attorney and that he needed to leave, then slammed the door in his face. Shapiro's crew parked their car in the cul-de-sac near her house and waited for something to happen. Marie called the sheriff's office and then phoned Shapiro's boss at the television station. There was a prickly distrust that lingered between Marie and the reporter. When told she and Shapiro needed to make up, she snapped back, “Well, you and Adam can make up. But the next time he sticks a microphone in my face, I'm going to whip his ass.”

Captain Sam Hendrick believed it was time to move their investigation to Mocksville, North Carolina. The Pooles lived in Mocksville, a part of Davie County in the western section of North Carolina. Centrally located between the bustling metropolitan areas of Charlotte and Greensboro on I-40, Davie County, at that time, had a comfortable population of around thirty thousand. Detective Altman called SBI agent Steve Gregory and advised him they would be coming to Mocksville on Friday.

Detectives Altman and King got off to a late start and didn't arrive at the Davie County Sheriff's Office until around 8:30
P.M
. Someone had already leaked the word to the press and reporters were crawling around the sheriff's office like ants at a Fourth of July picnic. As the detectives slipped in through the back door, they could see the media still crowded around the front of the police station, standing poised and ready to respond like a disassembled precision military unit. Once inside, Agent Gregory brought them up to speed on the information they had received relating to Frazier's background checks and his criminal history.

Detective Altman called Renee's parents' home and asked if Renee could come to the police station for an interview. Renee called back a short time later and told him they were coming, but needed to call their attorney first. At 9:00
P.M
., she and her parents arrived with attorney Victor M. Leckowitz in tow. The entourage managed to park the car and get out unnoticed, but just as soon as the press recognized Renee, they bombarded them.

Marie Summey had been taking chemotherapy treatments to combat breast cancer, but it didn't slow her as she bravely led the way through the army of reporters and a barrage of cameras and microphones. The reporters were competing furiously, as if they were in a race vying for some kind of news Emmy. Tension mounted immediately as her little group walked together a few feet toward the police station. James Brown, reporter with News Channel 12, ran forward and closed in on them. In his quest for a story, he asked Renee, “Did the Myrtle Beach police ask you to come here?”

There wasn't much room to navigate with the crews in front of Marie and Renee and Jack and their lawyer behind them. “No questions and there will be no questions answered,” Attorney Victor Leckowitz shouted from the rear. Marie looked like a raging bull, dragging her daughter behind her and changing directions when the reporters stood in her way. The camera didn't display her anxiety, but she struggled to maintain a cool, calm demeanor, while inside her heart was pounding away.

Renee was forced to keep moving forward, her focus intensely oblivious to everything and everybody. She looked worried. Never looking around at all the people pressing in on her, she thought about exactly what had happened to put her in this predicament, then glanced up at the police station and nearly broke into tears. They seemed to be moving in slow motion, barely inching their way through the crowd. She could hear her heart throbbing above everything. It seemed to take forever for them to get to the front door. They scampered through the crowd, and finally distanced themselves from the reporters and their television microphones.

Marie caught her breath, walked up to the front desk and stated, with a wry smile, “We're here to see Detective Altman.” For the first time in her life, she didn't have to explain to the police who she was and what she was doing at the police station.

Perspiration dampened Renee's body and her nerves jangled. Her mouth felt like she had left it open while asleep during a sandstorm.

Before the interview started, the detectives spoke with attorney Leckowitz alone and explained the reason they wanted to interview Renee again was that her story did not seem consistent. He advised them that he didn't know the specifics of Brent's murder because the family had just called him and asked if he could attend the interview.

Renee was read her Miranda rights and was told the interview would be recorded. The detectives didn't want to risk losing a word of it and, to ensure there would be no mistakes, they had even brought their own recorder. As in their other interviews with Renee, they recorded it all for posterity.

“Maybe you're thinking that you'd be spending tonight somewhere else than home,” Detective Altman began. “But let me tell you, you will be going home tonight.”

Renee breathed easier, then nodded. “Thank you.”

Altman had set the tone for the meeting. It was to be an interview, not an interrogation. They were in no way trying to bamboozle or pull a fast one over on her. Even though she had been read her rights, she was not going to be arrested. And for her protection, she had her attorney sitting beside her.

Altman began with an apology. “I'm sure you can tell by everything that's going on up here that people are taking your husband's murder very seriously. Things have been turned completely around and it's almost turned into a circus. Unfortunately, the news media takes things and they run with it.”

Renee nodded. She was beginning to feel that pressure. Suddenly her life had been thrust under a microscope. She told them they would not like it, had it been their life the media had been spotlighting.

“You might feel like you've already been tried and convicted in the news,” Altman sympathized. “But that is by no means true in our investigation. We're controlling this. It's just when the news media take things, they bend them way out of proportion.”

“Uh, we've seen that,” Renee said, rolling her eyes.

“This is probably the biggest thing that has happened around Mocksville in a long, long time. I just want you to know that we've been working twenty-four-hours per day on your husband's case.”

Renee thanked him.

Altman then pulled off the kid gloves and got down to business. Brent Poole's murder, he assured her, had much the same impact on the community in Myrtle Beach as it did in Mocksville. And there were some explanations related to this incident she had given that just didn't seem possible. He and King were there to ask her a few questions, then they could tie up those loose ends.

“You probably feel like you're in an ocean right now, treading water,” Altman began. It was a line the detective had used, over and over, in an attempt to sway her to tell the truth and take responsibility for what had happened. “And your life jacket is pretty much gone. I'm here tonight as if we're lifeguards in a rowboat and were throwing out a life preserver to you.”

Renee didn't take the bait this time. If the detectives were truthful, then that was reassuring. But she'd heard it all before and, at this point, she no longer trusted them.

Altman reassured her, “All I'm trying to do is create a scenario for you and I don't want to see you go down for something—”

“That somebody else did,” Renee mouthed in pursed lips.

“Yeah, it's not worth you going down just to help somebody,” the detective said, ignoring her antics. “To protect somebody. It's not worth it in the long run. Look, this is the most serious crime anyone could ever be involved in. And that's why this circus is going around here. Because it is a big deal.”

Altman had Renee go through the events of her husband's murder, over and over again. They covered much of the same ground—bit by bit and piece by piece—as they had the days before, but Renee was still adamant she had no idea how or why it had happened.

“Why were you dancing at the Silver Fox?” Altman asked, suddenly taking a nasty turn. “Wasn't Brent making enough money for you?”

“Well, we had a lot of bills,” Renee said, giving him a what's-that-got-to-do-with-you stare. “We just wanted to pay some bills off.”

Altman was not about to let her off the hook that easily. “What kind of lifestyle did the two of you live?”

“Uh, an occasional drink. He quit smoking. We didn't want to go out much. Just kinda so-so, you know.”

“I mean, you didn't live the lavish lifestyle of fancy clothes and going out all the time?”

Renee had no idea where he was going with this line of questioning, but she had nothing to be ashamed of. “We had bought an entertainment center, television and stereo when we lived with his parents. He had put it on his credit card and we were trying to pay that off. We did go out and buy a new car from my brother-in-law, but it was a used car. A Grand Prix. Then we bought a 1984 Dodge Daytona Truck. Something for Brent to drive back and forth to work. And a new 1998 Dodge Dakota truck for me.”

“Now tell me about Danny Shrewsbury,” Altman asked, thinking he had caught her off-balance.

Renee rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. She and Danny had once worked together at Home Depot. After talking at work, the two of them had developed a friendship. She would go to his house for lunch sometimes and they would just do things together, as she would with other associates there. She said she had seen him for only a few months. (The truth was that their relationship had lasted almost two years.) Renee explained that she was confused about Brent just getting out of diesel school and then her getting pregnant. And then they had to tell their parents about getting pregnant. She had also enrolled in Forsyth Technical College and was trying to get her GED. There was just a lot going on in her life at the time.

“But why were you with Danny?” Altman asked. “Didn't Brent treat you okay?”

“Yeah, Brent treated me great. Danny was kinda jealous that we were married, but he was married also.”

“Wasn't there another individual at the Home Depot, also named Shrewsbury, that you also had an affair with?”

“Yes, there was,” Renee said like it was no big deal. “He was a friend of mine from school. I saw him about a month. I had broken it off with Danny and started seeing John. I had no intention of seeing him, but we were friends. It just happened.”

“What happened with you and Danny?”

“Danny was the jealous type and he wanted me to leave Brent. But you see, I had just gotten married to him and I couldn't do that.”

Altman looked over at his partner and tried to keep a straight face. “Did you ever film sex acts with Danny and he sent those to Brent's house when he was mad at you?”

“Yes.”

“How did you feel about this?”

“It upset me. Brent was told about Danny after he found out about John. He didn't get upset. He was just disappointed.” Renee said she never had an affair with anybody else after Danny until John Frazier came along.

“What would Brent have done if he had found out you were having an affair with John?” Renee said Brent would have been disappointed if he knew she was having an affair with John. Disappointed and hurt. But Altman told her the way he had heard it, Brent would have been a little more than hurt. He would have been totally pissed.

“From all the friends we talked to on Brent's side,” he told her, “they say that's not true. That he was very angry that you'd been seeing John.”

“Okay.” Renee shrugged, as if to say
so what?

“His family said that he worshiped the ground you walked on. And his friends are saying that he worshiped the ground you walked on.”

Renee shook her head, then admitted, “He . . . he did.”

“And I think he wanted to be with you so much that he didn't want you to be with anybody else. I think that kinda tightened you up a little bit. Like I said, when you start dating somebody when you're fourteen years old and that's the only person you have been with, you're gonna experiment. And obviously, that's what you did.”

Renee didn't respond.

“But you were still with Brent. You still had a link with him.” Altman let it all sink in, then asked her, “Do you consider Brent to be the possessive type?”

“No . . . no,” she protested. “He'd let me do basically what I wanted to do—if I wanted to go out with my friends.”

“I understand going out with your friends, but seeing another guy is not part of what he wanted you to do.” Altman admonished her like a schoolgirl and got her to admit that she had hidden her relationship with Frazier from her husband.

Renee said although John hadn't completely talked her into leaving, he did have a lot of influence on her. “John would say, well, you know. If it's not going well, then maybe you need to get away from him.”

That was the door Altman had been looking for. He leaned in toward her and asked, “And what did you do about that?”

“Uh, I said, well, I don't have anywhere to go. My parents have enough people staying with them. And I didn't really want to burden them with it. And, uh, I told him I couldn't afford to leave. To move out. And he offered to let me stay with him.”

“You're saying you didn't move out just so you could be with him?”

“No, no. I had told him I would eventually leave. As soon as I could afford to move out. I would get my own place.”

Altman didn't believe her. “But you moved everything from your house out that belonged to you. Even though this was not going to be a permanent relationship with John?”

“Right.”

“Now, that seems a little strange. I want you to be honest with me. Were you leaving Brent for John?”

Renee leaned backward. “No. No,” she answered bluntly.

“You just decided to move in with him?”

“Right. I thought if I left anything at home, then I would not be allowed to go back in and get it.”

“How come?”

“If he were to get a divorce. If it would go to that, custody and things like that. I was afraid I would not be allowed to go back in and get my things.”

“How do you think Brent felt when he came home from work that night and all your stuff was gone?”