Free Dead by Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? by Ann Rule Page A

poison him.   She supposed there could be people like that.   If Brad
    was scared, then she was scared.   Sara wondered if she might be next.
     
    And Brad.   And maybe even the little boys.
     
    Sergeant James Hinkley walked away from Brad's door, hut he came back
    and knocked again a few minutes later.   He was there to serve subpoenas
    summoning Jess and Michael Cunningham to appear before the grand
    jury.
     
    Senior Trooper Keith Mechlem and a Madison Tower security guard stood
    behind Hinkley.   After a long wait, Brad opened the door a crack.   He
    was holding a gun, which understandably gave Hinkley pause.   Hinkley
    was armed with a steel Smith & Wesson .357 revolver and he recognized
    the gun in Cunningham's hand as the same kind of weapon.   Reluctantly,
    Brad opened the door wide enough for ldinkley to step inside the
    apartment.
     
    "For the reasonableness of this situation, I think you can put your gun
    down," Hinkley said quietly.   "You can see we're police officers."
     
    Glancing around the apartment, he noticed that the doors were tied shut
    with white rope that extended from door to door.
     
    "I just wanted to make sure who was out there," Brad said.   "I'm
    afraid for my children's lives.   I rigged those ropes for their
    safetyþbut only the doors facing the walkway."
     
    "Could you put the gun away?" Hinkley asked again.
     
    Brad set it down on a low bookcase.   He called his sons from the master
    bedroom and Hinkley handed them the subpoenas and left.
     
    Now Sara was more puzzled than ever.   Why were the boys being asked to
    testify?   Was Brad suspected of Cheryl's murder?   She needed more
    answers, and Brad insisted that he had been in his apartment with his
    sons all of Sunday nightþexcept for two short errands.   "Michael and I
    checked the mail," he said.   "And then we went down to the garage to
    put my shoes in your car.   I was going to inspect that land this
    morningþ" "Why did you take Michael with you?"   Sara asked.
     
    "You know Michael," he said.   "He was horsing around and keeping Jess
    and Phillip from watching the movie."
     
    "But why did you put your shoes in my car?"   Sara persisted.
     
    "Weren't you coming over to the hospital to get the Suburban?"
     
    Brad looked at her, distracted.   He didn't need this aggravation.
     
    He had enough on his mind.   "I'd better not answer any more questions,"
    he said, putting an end to her worried queries.
     
    There hadn't been a subpoena for her yet, Sara thought, but there
    probably would be when the police found out how close she was to
    Brad.
     
    Brad's tension was contagious and Sara spent a restless night.   But she
    had to go to work the next morning, and so she called the Madison Tower
    security guard to escort her to her car.   The little hairs on the back
    of her neck stood up as she kept close to the guard in the underground
    garage.   She didn't ever want to go back to that apartment.
     
    Beyond the fear that someone was stalking him, Brad had other
    worries.
     
    He knew that the husband of a woman who dies under suspicious
    circumstances is always the prime suspect.   He hadn't liked the waySim
    Ayers and Jerry Finch stared at him when they questioned him on Sunday
    night, or the big state cop showing up with subpoenas for his boys.
     
    He had been involved in many civil litigation cases and always believed
    in hiring the best attorneys for the job.   Early Tuesday morning Brad
    called Sara at the hospital and told her he had retained Phil Margolin,
    a prominent criminal defense attorney in Portland.   Margolin paged Sara
    at Providence later that morning to ask her questions about the events
    of Sunday night.   "He told me that he'd talked to Brad, and that he was
    convinced of his innocence," she recalled.   "And that reassured me."
     
    Sara spoke only briefly to Margolin, explaining that she was needed in
    surgery.   But within an hour she was paged again and was shocked