Grant Fontaine interview #2

Wednesday, July 15, 2020 – 11:03 a.m.

Participants:

• Detective T. Armstrong
• Detective S. Murphy
• Grant Fontaine

Detective Murphy: If you remember, I'm Detective Murphy. This is Detective Armstrong.

Detective Armstrong: We've just got a few questions, and then you can get back to your day.

Detective Murphy: For the record, would you give us your name and address?

Grant Fontaine: My name is Grant Fontaine, and I live at 655 North Lamar.

Detective Armstrong: You checked since the last time we spoke.

Grant Fontaine: What?

Detective Armstrong: Last time, you couldn't remember your address.

Grant Fontaine: I'd just lost my father.

Detective Armstrong: Perhaps now you can remember where you were that night.

Grant Fontaine: I was with friends.

Detective Murphy: Your father was really a lucky man, Grant, to have fallen in love with a woman as beautiful as Ashley.

Grant Fontaine: With my father, love was never blind.

Detective Murphy: And Ashley, she's really close in age to you. Maybe she's more like an older sister than a mother. Maybe an older sister's friend?

Grant Fontaine: She's just Ashley.

Detective Armstrong: What were the names of the people you were out with that night?

Grant Fontaine: What people?

Detective Armstrong: The ones you were out with the night your father was killed. We need to speak with them.

Grant Fontaine: Why?

Detective Armstrong: Because your father was killed. According to you, the two of you didn't get along. Your blood type was found at the scene. Believe me. We need to speak with them.

Grant Fontaine: They aren't the type to be very cooperative with the police.

Detective Armstrong: It's either that or they visit you in prison.

Grant Fontaine: Prison? For what?

Detective Murphy: Did Ashley make a pass at you, and your father found out? Is that what happened? Are you just trying to protect her?

Grant Fontaine: No, she never made a pass at me.

Detective Murphy: Did you make a pass at her?

Grant Fontaine: No, of course not.

Detective Armstrong: So what were you and your father fighting about?

Grant Fontaine: When?

Detective Armstrong: The night he was killed.

Grant Fontaine: We were just fighting. There was nothing specific. We always fought when he was in that mood.

Detective Murphy: What mood?

Grant Fontaine: He was angry. Furious.

Detective Murphy: About what?

Grant Fontaine: He was mad at Ashley. She had made Raquel mad, and Raquel split.

Detective Armstrong: Your housekeeper. What for? Was your father after her too?

Grant Fontaine: No way. Look, Ashley had been riding Raquel's case for days, so Raquel finally got some backbone and told Ashley where to put it. If you want to see some cursing, you get a Latina mad. Whatever she was saying, she was on fire!

Detective Armstrong: So your father was angry with your mother, and you had to protect her.

Detective Murphy: So you fought.

Grant Fontaine: Yeah. He yelled at me, so I yelled back. Then I left.

Detective Armstrong: And you met up with your friends?

Grant Fontaine: That's right.

Detective Armstrong: We need their names.

Grant Fontaine: Again with the names.

Detective Armstrong: Would you rather be arrested for murder?

Grant Fontaine: Murder? Should I be talking to a lawyer?

Detective Murphy: Well, that would give us time to get a warrant for your arrest.

Grant Fontaine: Let's just slow down. I didn't kill anybody.

Detective Armstrong: So where were you that night?

Grant Fontaine: I don't remember. Look. Look, I'm leveling with you. I was at The Roadhouse.

Detective Murphy: Nobody remembers seeing you there that night.

Grant Fontaine: I've perfected being invisible. It's kind of a matter of survival.

Detective Armstrong: Why The Roadhouse? You're too young to be served.

Grant Fontaine: Yeah, legally, sure. Haven't you ever heard of anybody breaking the law?

Detective Murphy: Well, so were you sitting at the bar or at a table?

Grant Fontaine: Actually, I was in my car.

Detective Armstrong: How retro. Did the waitress roller-skate on by?

Grant Fontaine: No. I was there trying to score. Is that what you wanted to hear? I was there to buy coke. I'd hooked up with Benny there before, so I thought I'd go there and wait for him.

Detective Murphy: Benny?

Grant Fontaine: Yeah, you know. Benny. Benito. He used to work for my dad until Joey fired him.

Detective Armstrong: You know his last name?

Grant Fontaine: No.

Detective Murphy: So you were waiting for Benny, and then what happened?

Grant Fontaine: He never showed. I looked for him all night, and then when I couldn't find him, I was so plastered that I don't even know who I bought from.

Detective Murphy: What time was that?

Grant Fontaine: You're joking. All these unconnected images in my head, it's like trying to sort through half a dozen movie stills instead of watching the whole film.

Detective Armstrong: Did you black out that night?

Grant Fontaine: Probably. It happens.

Detective Murphy: So you might even have gone home earlier, and then left again, and came back when Ashley returned.

Grant Fontaine: Maybe, but why would I?

Detective Armstrong: Did you see your father?

Grant Fontaine: No. I didn't even say I went back. I said it was a slim possibility.

Detective Murphy: Do you normally use until you black out?

Grant Fontaine: You don't know what it's like living there. It's crazy-making. My father, he twists people.

Detective Murphy: Did he twist Ashley?

Grant Fontaine: You think he married her so he could worship the ground that she walked on?

Detective Armstrong: Why would we find your blood at the crime scene?

Grant Fontaine: I don't know. Maybe I cut myself trying to help him.

Detective Murphy: On what?

Grant Fontaine: I'm just guessing.

Detective Murphy: You had a bloody nose the last time we met.

Grant Fontaine: Yeah. Maybe that was it then.

Detective Murphy: How did you get the bloody nose?

Grant Fontaine: My father punched me.

Detective Armstrong: Was that before or after you stabbed him?

Grant Fontaine: Look, I didn't stab anybody. He was alive when I left the house.

Detective Murphy: Did you hit him?

Grant Fontaine: He hit me with that cane of his. Then I swung and missed. That's when he gave me the bloody nose.

Detective Armstrong: Before you left the house or when you went back?

Grant Fontaine: Before I left the house. I didn't go back. I just said it was a slim possibility. Should I be talking to a lawyer?

Detective Murphy: Well, that is your right.

Grant Fontaine: Look. I didn't kill him. Whatever else happened, I didn't kill him.

Detective Armstrong: You said yourself you didn't know if you went back or not. How do you know you didn't get in a fight with your father? He could have pulled a gun. You could have pulled a knife in self-defense.

Grant Fontaine: Because I didn't.

Detective Murphy: Is that what happened, Grant?

Grant Fontaine: I didn't kill anybody. No matter how messed up I was, don't you think I'd remember? I didn't kill him.

Detective Armstrong: How can you be sure?

Grant Fontaine: Because I am. If you want to ask me any more questions, then I want to talk to a lawyer. And if not, we're done here.

Detective Murphy: You can go, but I think you know we'll all be talking again.

Interview ended – 11:14 a.m.