In one of the bedrooms, White found a cardboard moving box that still had a few items in it. It had been sealed with gray duct tape. White knelt and pulled off a piece. “I’m going to take this tape. See what the lab guys make of it.”
“Did you notice the duct tape in the living room?” English asked.
White glanced up and shook his head.
“It’s on the shelf.”
“No!”
English grinned. “Right out in plain sight.”
“Let’s take a look.” White got to his feet and the two men went back into the living room. English glanced at the bookshelf. The tape was no longer there. English gave Smith a steady, smoldering look. “We need that tape.”
“What tape? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Smith said.
“I saw some tape up there, on that shelf. It was lying flat, on the sticky side. You moved that tape. There’s nobody else here.”
Without a word, Smith walked over to the shelf, took some books from the shelf below the one where English had seen the roll of duct tape, pulled the tape out and handed it to English.
By this time English’s heart was almost pumping out of his chest. Staring at Tim Smith, English felt was involved in Scott Dunn’s murder. Why else would he have hidden the tape?
After marking the duct tape as evidence, English and White asked Tim Smith for permission to search his car. Smith signed the Consent-to-Search form for his car, but the detectives found nothing that connected the car to Scott. Nevertheless, English asked Tim to accompany the detectives to the police department for questioning and he agreed. They also took several items from the apartment—a few towels, a pair of boots that appeared to have a stain of some kind on the soles, some old rags and T-shirts. All were grimy and soiled. English harbored a small hope that these items might have been used the night Scott disappeared. The detectives were not too optimistic, however, because they were investigating an event that had happened more than three weeks earlier. There had been more than enough time to dispose of any bloodstained clothing or cloths that might have been used to clean up Scott Dunn’s blood.
After English read Tim Smith the Miranda warning, the interview went on for hours. Smith’s response to every question seemed to the detectives to take forever, as if he were deliberating, figuring out an acceptable answer. When he did respond, he was hesitant and evasive, failing to give a direct answer to any question.
Smith denied over and over again that he knew anything about Scott Dunn’s disappearance. He admitted, however, that he had been pursuing Leisha. He said they had been involved for several weeks, but now she was telling him their affair was over. He went on to say he couldn’t accept that.
“I love her and I want her back,” he insisted.
English asked Smith if he would be willing to take a polygraph examination and Smith agreed. At that point, without taking a formal statement, the detectives allowed Smith to leave, advising him that they would schedule a polygraph and let him know the date and time.
A weary English felt a faint whispering gnawing at the back of his mind as Smith left. He was all but certain this man walking the streets knew and probably had been part of what had happened to Scott Dunn.
Monday morning, when Jim Dunn called to see if the detectives had made any progress over the weekend, English told him the investigation was gaining momentum and that other detectives would be working with him. “George White will do the legwork necessary to trace Scott’s movements and his relationships during the last weeks before he disappeared. At the same time Detectives Walt Crimmins and Billy Hudgeons will re-canvass the neighborhood around the Regency Apartments and follow up on any leads they unearth.”
Missing person cases, English knew, grow colder with each passing day. English worried that too much time had passed already for detectives to find anyone who might remember a crucial detail. Nevertheless, the effort had to be made.
Leisha Hamilton came to police headquarters to take her polygraph examination that day. The examiner, Kenneth Ackors, explained that it was an evidentiary polygraph, given not because she was a suspect, but to determine if she had any knowledge that would help the police find out what had happened to Scott Dunn. An evidentiary polygraph examination differs from what the police call a specific issue polygraph in that the examiner asks more general questions of the witness. Leisha assured Ackors she understood. Ackors did not ask Leisha Hamilton point blank, “Did you kill Scott Dunn?” Instead, he asked questions such as “Do you know for sure the last time anyone saw Scott Dunn? Do you know for sure where Scott is now? Do you know for sure whether anyone has hurt Scott Dunn or caused him pain? Do you know for sure when the carpet was cut from under the couch?”
Thereafter Leisha always vowed that she passed the polygraph test, although she admitted to reporters later that her answer had appeared deceptive on one question: whether or not she knew where Scott Dunn was now.
After the examination, Leisha gave English some of the notes that Tim Smith had written her. After she left, he read the letters with a mixture of elation and sadness. Elation, because the letters strengthened Tim’s motive for harming Scott. Sadness, because they revealed an insecure, lonely man who was obsessively in love with a woman who obviously was playing cruel games with him. Leisha apparently wanted relationships with both men. The resulting triangle was constructed on explosive elements—Smith’s avowed love, a convenient living arrangement for Leisha and Scott and sexual control for Leisha Hamilton. Smith’s letters indicated he was willing to go to great lengths to make it possible to be with her. The letters showed Smith had a powerful motive for wanting Scott Dunn removed from the triangle.
Leisha had indicated to English that she had begun seeing Tim around the time of Scott’s disappearance, but the letters told another story. Some of the notes were undated, but one was a long letter dated almost three weeks before Scott’s disappearance. It implied that Tim and Leisha were involved in an ongoing affair. From Tim’s words, English formed an impression of a naive young man who had fallen in love with an experienced woman who knew how to manipulate men and enjoyed it.
“Dear Leisha,” the note began. “I’m sorry to have to say this, but I’m tired of being made to look like a dumbass fool!…You sleep with him,” the letter continued, “which makes me feel you are cheating on me, while I remain faithful to you. I am not going to cheat on you, but…
“You seem to think this is some kind of waiting game. Well, the waiting is over for me because I am fed up with being made out to look like some stupid idiot born yesterday. I love you, but if you turn your back on me, then I will do my best to stay away from you and leave you to do whatever in hell it is you want to do. I will walk out of your life and plan on staying out of it for good. My heart cannot take any more indecision from you.
“…It is either me or him, I hope you don’t make the wrong decision, but if you do, you do, and you most likely will. I will somehow have to deal with it in the best manner I know how. I love you more than you may ever know, but I will stay away if it kills me, if that is the decision you make. There are no more excuses. We can work things out.
“I have a lot of friends who can help me if I need them to because I have done a lot for them and you could say they owe me. A place for you and your daughter to stay is no problem. You don’t have to stay where you are! The time to change your life for the better is NOW! Please hear me! I love you very much and there is nothing I wouldn’t do to make your life better and more fulfilled. You are my Sunshine. You make me want to live life to the fullest. You are very beautiful to me. I don’t care if you don’t believe me, because it is true! This decision will change our lives for the better or the worse. Please make the right one! Love, Tim.
“P.S. I don’t mean to sound like an ass about this but it is just time to take our emotions off this