The Executioner's Song (80 page)

                Please try also not to greive for me—or resent Gary.

PART TWO

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Chapter 6

WAKE

Four months after the morning that Kathy Maynard found Nicole in bed with an overdose of Seconal, journalists were still coming around with tape recorders. Their interest in Nicole was great, and curiosity about Kathy herself was small, but it is a technique of some interviewers to begin by asking each witness, important or unimportant, many questions about their life.

INTERVIEWER   How old were you when you got married?

KATHY MAYNARD         Sixteen.

INTERVIEWER   Why did you get married at sixteen?

KATHY MAYNARD         'Cause my other friends did..

INTERVIEWER   And who did you marry?

KATHY MAYNARD         Tim Mair from Heber City.

INTERVIEWER   How old was he?

KATHY MAYNARD         (snickers) Seventeen.

INTERVIEWER   Seventeen, well what was he doing?

KATHY MAYNARD         He was working at a lumber mill.

INTERVIEWER   And where did you meet him?

KATHY MAYNARD         Out in front of the school. On a lawn.

INTERVIEWER   How long did you go with him before you married him?

KATHY MAYNARD         'Bout a month.

INTERVIEWER   Where did you get married?

KATHY MAYNARD         At his house in Heber..

INTERVIEWER   Why did you get married at his house and not yours?

KATHY MAYNARD         Because my mom was living in a motel.

INTERVIEWER   Was your mother happy about you getting married or what?

KATHY MAYNARD         No, she was pretty shook up—she didn't want me to.

INTERVIEWER   He's got the peanut butter jar, is that okay?

KATHY MAYNARD         Kevin, put the peanut butter up! Come on!

INTERVIEWER   How long were you married?

KATHY MAYNARD         Ohhhhh, let's see—three months.

INTERVIEWER   Had you slept with him before you got married?

KATHY MAYNARD         Oh yeah. (snickers)

INTERVIEWER   Right. And uh, what happened to that marriage?

KATHY MAYNARD         He killed hisself.

INTERVIEWER   He killed himself?

KATHY MAYNARD         Uh huh.

INTERVIEWER   While you were married?

KATHY MAYNARD         Uh huh.

INTERVIEWER   Why—I mean what happened—what's the story surrounding it?

KATHY MAYNARD         Well, he was drinking and we was going to Provo, we was Christmas shopping . . . and he stopped on the way out of PEDRO and bought a hunting knife, and I didn't think nothing of it . . .

INTERVIEWER   Right.

KATHY MAYNARD         And coming back we was arguing 'cause he kept rolling the window down and it was cold so when we got back to mom's . . . he started arguing with me again and my mom was asleep, she was working graveyard, and I just asked him if he would be quiet you know . . . if he'd keep his voice down so it wouldn't wake Mom up and he got mad and walked out the door. I was in bed.

                And then he turned around and come back and he flipped the light on, had his knife out and said, "Watch," and he stabbed hisself.

INTERVIEWER   Right in front of you?

KATHY MAYNARD         Uh huh. Kevin put the peanut butter up!

INTERVIEWER   Do you have any idea why he did it?

KATHY MAYNARD         I don't know—He shot hisself in the foot once.

INTERVIEWER   When you were married?

KATHY MAYNARD         Before we was married because I was with another guy.

INTERVIEWER   Right.

KATHY MAYNARD         Kevin, go play for a minute.

INTERVIEWER   Did you blame yourself?

KATHY MAYNARD         Ohh, I did for quite a while 'cause it kinda shook me up 'cause I thought well, if I hadn't been fighting with him . . .

INTERVIEWER   Uh huh.

KATHY MAYNARD         I don't know, after talking to quite a few people I realized he was sick and needed help.

INTERVIEWER   Where did he stab himself?

KATHY MAYNARD         Well, it was in the stomach. They couldn't get the bleeding stopped to tie his arteries so he got into shock and loss of blood . . .

INTERVIEWER   Did he die in the—in the apartment?

KATHY MAYNARD         Oh no, he died in the University of Utah . . . in Salt Lake . . . two days later.

INTERVIEWER   Two days later?

KATHY MAYNARD         Uh huh.

INTERVIEWER   And uh, you weren't pregnant at that time or anything?

KATHY MAYNARD         Well, I was pregnant—my twins were Tim's.

INTERVIEWER   And did you know you were pregnant at that time?

KATHY MAYNARD         No!

INTERVIEWER How long after he died did you know you were pregnant?

KATHY MAYNARD         Ohhh, Why don't you bring me the peanut butter and the lid, okay? Uhhh, let's see I had missed one period but I wasn't worried about it because I had messed up before so . . .

INTERVIEWER   So you found out about it two months later then?

KATHY MAYNARD         Yeah.

INTERVIEWER   You say that with a sigh—

KATHY MAYNARD         Ohhh, kind of messed me up. Like I say, l married Les Maynard two weeks after Tim died so . . .

INTERVIEWER   You mean you got married right after Tim died?

KATHY MAYNARD         I met Les at Tim's funeral.

INTERVIEWER   Did you know Les Maynard before or what?

KATHY MAYNARD         Didn't even know who he was.

INTERVIEWER   How come he was at the funeral?

KATHY MAYNARD         He was one of Tim's friends. He knew Tim.

INTERVIEWER   Right. So you met him at the funeral? What happened after that?

KATHY MAYNARD         Uh huh. (pause) Well, I was staying with my cousin and her husband and Les came down—I stayed drunk for two weeks after Tim died . . .

INTERVIEWER   Stayed drunk?

KATHY MAYNARD         I did. (snickers)

INTERVIEWER On beer, whiskey or what?

KATHY MAYNARD         Oh, you name it—we had it. I took all the money from Tim's funeral and just bought booze with it and Les stayed down there with me for two weeks and then we got married . . .

INTERVIEWER   Why did you marry Les?

KATHY MAYNARD         Lonely. I guess I was scared.

INTERVIEWER   And why did he marry you?

KATHY MAYNARD         I have no idea—maybe 'cause he felt sorry for me.

INTERVIEWER   You never discussed it with him?

KATHY MAYNARD         No.

INTERVIEWER   Arid how was your marriage with Les?

KATHY MAYNARD         Awful.

INTERVIEWER   From the very beginning?

KATHY MAYNARD         Well, after I sobered up and realized what I had done I couldn't stand him to touch me and I—I would sit up at the cemetery by Tim's grave all the time and I threw my wedding ring on Tim's grave. So, I was pretty messed up—for a while I took off for a couple of months, which caused a lot of problems, started jealousy and stuff like that . . .

INTERVIEWER   When you took off, did you start to make it with other guys?

KATHY MAYNARD         Oh no.

INTERVIEWER   You just took off to be by yourself?

KATHY MAYNARD         Yeah.

INTERVIEWER   So you were never in love with him.

KATHY MAYNARD         It wasn't love. It couldn't have been. But I think it kind of grew to that. After we had the kids.

INTERVIEWER   The first two?

KATHY MAYNARD         Hmmm, hmmm [yes].

INTERVIEWER   And how long did you live with him?

KATHY MAYNARD         Couple of weeks.

INTERVIEWER   You only lived with Les a couple of weeks, too. When was the last time you saw him?

KATHY MAYNARD         Les? Ha, ha, day before yesterday.

INTERVIEWER   So you see him periodically?

KATHY MAYNARD         Hmmm, hmmm, he's with my best girl friend.

INTERVIEWER   When he comes back, and sees you, does he make it with you or what?

KATHY MAYNARD         Oh no.

INTERVIEWER   Did you and Les ever get a divorce?

KATHY MAYNARD         We're going through it now.

INTERVIEWER   What does he do now?

KATHY MAYNARD         Works at a service station out in Spanish.

INTERVIEWER   Spanish Fork?

KATHY MAYNARD         That's it.

Kathy had been waking Nicole up every morning. In order to get out early to see Gary, it was necessary for Kathy to come by. Most days, Nicole just couldn't wake herself.

                On that special sunrise, Kathy took the coffeepot over, and knocked, and rang Nicole's bell, then looked through the window to see Nicole asleep. She was lying stomach down on the couch. You could see a little of her bare back. After Kathy had rung awhile, she tried the door. It was locked, which kind of bothered her. She returned the coffee to her own house, went back, and started calling Jeremy's name until he finally woke up and came out of the bedroom.

                He was still half asleep and just flopped down on the couch beside Nicole. He was wearing a little pair of green pajamas and all he wanted was to get back to sleep. Finally, after fifteen minutes, she got Jeremy to open the door, but when Kathy went in and shook Nicole and turned her over, she didn't respond.

Nicole had fallen asleep on top of a picture of Gary in a little gold frame, just a color photo in a blue jacket in prison, but he was looking good. Next to the picture was a letter, and Kathy saw at a glance that it was an old one, written early in August. She noticed the date because Nicole had often talked about how much his first long letter meant to her. Then Kathy tried to wake Nicole up again. All the while, Jeremy was looking at both of them.

                Finally, Kathy called on Sherry, another neighbor, and both women went over to shake Nicole, and stood around on the balcony in their Levi's and bare feet, looking worried. About the time they decided to ring the doctor, there came along that reporter, Jeff Newman, heading right toward Nicole's door, and Kathy hollered out, "She's asleep. Nicole's asleep."

                Jeff Newman stared at them kind of funny, and said, "Is she all right? I'm supposed to take her out to the prison this morning."

                Kathy said, "Yes, she's just tired." He said, "I'll be back in half an hour," and went away. Then they called Sherry's doctor. The moment he heard Nicole's name, he told them to call the hospital,

                The cops were running around the apartment trying to find pill bottles, and the ambulance men worked fast, checked her out and had Nicole on a stretcher, and Kathy went looking for Jeremy, who was now over at her apartment with her kids. They were all eating jello out of the fridge. Just then, Jeff Newman came back. Kathy said, "I don't know whether Nicole appreciates you being here."

                "Well, I'm not leaving," he told her.

                Kathy decided with people like Jeff poking around, she'd better get Nicole's letters. So she took a brown paper sack, stuffed them in, and carried it all back to her apartment. Then Les came by and Kathy went out to get milk for the kids, and, while she was gone, a couple of police showed, and told Les they wanted the letters. Maybe they had been watching the apartment. Told Les that Kathy could get in real trouble. Les said, "Okay, take 'em back." Later in the day, Kathy tried to visit Nicole at the hospital, but the authorities weren't letting anybody in, only family. In fact, Kathy never got to see Nicole again.

Conversations with Gary over the weekend had been full of literary and philosophical questions on the nature of prison, and this Tuesday morning, Dennis was looking forward to talking about the murders.

                Naturally, he had a lot of curiosity. It hit hard when the reporter phoned to ask what Mr. Boaz thought of Gary and Nicole's double suicide attempt. Dennis had completely forgotten "Don't Fear the Reaper." He said to himself, "I'm not in touch with anything." To the reporter, he said, "Are they alive?"

                "Hanging in," said the reporter.

Only yesterday, a friend had suggested to Dennis that he get an agreement in writing from Gary. He hadn't wanted to. In unusual circumstances like these, a contract would suffocate any possibility for decent human relations. He had had, however, to admit that Gary was getting businesslike. Yesterday, he had shown a little interest in Susskind, and was talking about Schiller, who had sent him a telegram. Dennis had heard a new interest coming into Gary's voice.