Roy Cook interview #2

Friday, January 29, 2021 - 5:02 p.m.

Roy Cook works as a park ranger at Wall Doxey State Park.

Detectives Armstrong and Beckwith re-interviewed him at the Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Department.

Participants:

• Detective P. Beckwith
• Detective T. Armstrong
• Roy Cook

Detective Beckwith: So, here we are again, Roy. Thanks for coming in. Just give us your name and address for the record once more.

Roy Cook: My name is Roy Cook, and I live at 587 Peques Road, here in Oxford. By the way, Detective Armstrong, my father said to say hello back to you. He said to drop by if you're ever in the neighborhood.

Detective Armstrong: Tell him I'll do that as soon as I get a chance.

Roy Cook: I'll be sure and do that when I see him.

Detective Beckwith: Okay, let's get down to business here.

Roy Cook: I don't understand why you made me come back here. I told you everything I know about DA Brooks.

Detective Beckwith: Do you know a man named Kyle Ferguson?

Roy Cook: Can't say as I do. Name doesn't sound familiar. Why do you ask?

Detective Armstrong: Why would he tell us we should be looking at you for the DA's murder?

Roy Cook: I don't know who this joker is, and I ain't got a clue why he would give you my name.

Detective Armstrong: Think hard, Roy. Are you sure you don't remember Kyle Ferguson?

Roy Cook: I already told you I don't know him.

Detective Armstrong: Maybe you two did some time together?

Roy Cook: Oh, I thought you meant do I know someone with that name now. Let me think. Umm, yeah, I think I might remember him. Were we in juvie together?

Detective Armstrong: You tell us.

Roy Cook: If it's who I'm thinking of, he was a smart-ass punk, and I didn't like him at all. He got out a couple days after I got there, I think.

Detective Beckwith: Was that the last time you saw him?

Roy Cook: I did run into him a while back, and he recognized me. I didn't know who he was until he told me.

Detective Beckwith: So, again … why do you think he gave us your name?

Roy Cook: Beats me. If he killed the DA, maybe he's trying to get you to back off him and go barking up another tree.

Detective Armstrong: Okay, then, why you? Why would he think you had a reason to kill Spenser Brooks?

Roy Cook: Man, how should I know? Maybe because he'd say anything to try and pin the murder on someone besides himself.

Detective Beckwith: Right. So you're not mixed up with him and his drug business?

Roy Cook: Hell, no! I'd never be involved in anything with that jerk.

Detective Armstrong: So your little trip to Mexico didn't have anything to do with drugs or Ferguson?

Roy Cook: No way, dude! Why would you say that? I went there for vacation. I needed a break, and I've always wanted to go to Mexico, so I went. How does that make me a drug mule?

Detective Armstrong: Who said anything about drug mules?

Roy Cook: You did!

Detective Armstrong: I sure hope you're no mule, Roy. The Feds don't take lightly to that kind of thing.

Roy Cook: Feds? Jeez! Look, I ain't up for no federal case. What are you trying to do to me?

Detective Armstrong: We're not trying to do anything to you, Roy. We just want to know why Kyle Ferguson is putting you in the middle of this murder.

Roy Cook: I wanna know that too! Did y'all have him in a corner, and he threw out my name to get you to back off? He knows I work out at Wall Doxey.

Detective Armstrong: How does he know that?

Roy Cook: Like I told you, we ran into each other a while back.

Detective Armstrong: So, out of all the people in the world he could've come up with to implicate in this murder, he just happened to pick you?

Roy Cook: Yeah!

Detective Armstrong: Why would he do that?

Roy Cook: How the hell should I know?

Detective Beckwith: What are you not telling us, Roy?

Roy Cook: Nothing! I don't have anything to tell.

Detective Beckwith: Mm. It doesn't sound like even you believe that. Do you want to tell us, or do you want us to keep digging?

Roy Cook: Okay, look. I might know where there's some pot plants in the woods.

Detective Beckwith: In the woods?

Roy Cook: Yeah, out at Wall Doxey.

Detective Beckwith: And how do you know about them?

Roy Cook: I just do, okay? There's a lot of isolated places out there where not many people go.

Detective Beckwith: But you do?

Roy Cook: Yeah. It's my job.

Detective Beckwith: Okay. And?

Roy Cook: And so maybe I found these plants one time.

Detective Armstrong: And immediately notified the authorities?

Roy Cook: No. I probably should have, but I didn't.

Detective Armstrong: Why not?

Roy Cook: It was just a couple of plants. I figured it was no big deal.

Detective Armstrong: Uh-huh. And you have no idea how those marijuana plants got there?

Roy Cook: Nope.

Detective Armstrong: It wasn't you who planted them?

Roy Cook: Why would you accuse me of something like that?

Detective Armstrong: Who else would know how to find this out-of-the-way spot where they are?

Roy Cook: Anybody could find a place like that out in the woods if they wanted to bad enough.

Detective Beckwith: Did you ever harvest any of the pot you found?

Roy Cook: No.

Detective Beckwith: Are you sure? Because you don't sound sure.

Roy Cook: Look, what do you want from me?

Detective Beckwith: Did you sell the pot you found?

Roy Cook: I don't know what you're talking about.

Detective Beckwith: And when the DA started coming out to the park regularly, did you get nervous? Did you think maybe he was on to you?

Roy Cook: There's nothing to be on to.

Detective Beckwith: Is that why you had to kill him?

Roy Cook: I didn't kill anybody!

Detective Beckwith: And then you fled the country.

Roy Cook: I didn't flee the country. I went on vacation!

Detective Beckwith: How did you afford an international vacation?

Roy Cook: I work.

Detective Beckwith: You work for the government, same as we do. You're not making the big bucks.

Roy Cook: I saved up.

Detective Beckwith: So if we look at your finances, we're going to see you pinching pennies to afford that Mexican vacation?

Roy Cook: Yes.

Detective Beckwith: You sure?

Roy Cook: What do you want from me? I didn't kill that DA. You can ask me ten ways from Sunday, and I'm gonna say the same thing every time.

Detective Armstrong: Do you think your father would approve of your dealing drugs?

Roy Cook: Don't try to bring my father into this. I could care less what he says. He's all high and mighty, preaching the sins of drugs and liquor and money. What does he know about how regular people live?

Detective Armstrong: Wow. It would break his heart to hear you say that.

Roy Cook: That's his problem. I didn't kill that DA, and you don't have anything saying I did—or that I did anything else. Just because I messed up some as a kid doesn't mean I'm involved in anything now.

Detective Armstrong: You know we're going to have to look into your involvement with that marijuana at Wall Doxey.

Roy Cook: Do what you have to do. You cops are all alike. If you want to talk any more, I want a lawyer.

Detective Beckwith: Okay, you can go, but stay where we can find you. No more trips out of the country for now. We'll be watching.

Roy Cook: Yeah, whatever.

Interview ended – 5:33 p.m.