Free Love, Lies, and Murder by Gary C. King Page B

me.”

Chapter 9
    As Perry March’s November 20, 1996, deposition continued, the questioning turned toward whether Perry was aware of anyone who might want to harm or kill Janet. Janet was known to have an unpleasant side to her personality, and it had surfaced regularly during the construction of her and Perry’s house. No less than seven subcontractors, who worked primarily on high-end-type projects, had said that she was difficult to work with and was never pleased until some of their work was redone, whether it was needed or not. Some of the subcontractors recalled that Perry often had to enter the picture to help smooth things out when Janet would become unreasonable in her demands. It didn’t seem likely that any of the subcontractors would want to harm Janet simply because of her occasional nasty disposition, but it did seem to be where Perry was trying to lead his inquisitor during questioning.
    “Do you know of anybody who might have any motive to kill Janet?” Jones asked.
    “Yes,” Perry responded.
    “Who?”
    “I believe there are a number of people involved with the construction of our house that carry extreme animosity and feelings of hate toward Janet.”
    “Have any of those people ever threatened to kill her or do her bodily harm?”
    “I have heard of intimations of such.”
    “All right. Let’s go down the list, if you would. Give me their names and what you’ve heard.”
    Perry responded that he believed the general contractor, as well as others, seemed to have extreme levels of “hate and animosity” toward Janet. Perry also mentioned a painter who did not particularly like Janet because he had not met Janet’s standards regarding the painting of their house. He said that the painter and Janet were battling constantly about what he should do and what he shouldn’t do. He said that Janet was often very demeaning to many of the workmen, and explained that he didn’t really remember all of them because of the enormous size of the job.
    “You have to remember, Mr. Jones, this is a large construction job,” Perry stated. “I was on the site two, sometimes three, times a day talking to various people who had contact with various other subs who had contact with my wife who had contact with numerous people. It was a project that lasted over a year. . . . I know for a fact that I warned Janet on a number of occasions to attempt to modify her behavior and to attempt to modify her statements and interactions with the various subcontractors and contractors working on our job because she was creating a great degree of animosity, and it was counterproductive to the job. It was also dangerous to her.”
    “How long has it been since you have seen the contractor. . . or the painter?” Jones asked.
    “Over a year. Year and a half maybe.”
    “During the year or year and a half, did they ever make any attempts to physically harm Janet or have any contact with her?”
    “Certainly not to my knowledge, Mr. Jones.”
    Perry said that Janet had apparently caught an employee of one of her subcontractors stealing chairs from their house, and she had apparently confronted him about it. She had also caught another employee stealing materials for his own personal use.
    “I know that Janet caught a trim carpenter on our job one afternoon on a beautiful day making a birdhouse out of our materials, on our time, and she took the birdhouse away from him,” Perry said. “So, again, this is a process that lasted over a year. There were a great number of people flowing in and out that my wife had personal contact with. . . . So, I guess, I’m just trying to be honest with you. . . . There must have been over a hundred people in some aspect of [the] work, flowing in and out of our project that Janet had day-to-day contact with. Sometimes one shot and sometimes over a protracted period of time.”
    “Do you think any of these people might have killed her?” Jones asked.
    “Mr. Jones, I play with theories