Savage Son. Corey Mitchell
told her everything that Bart had tried to get him to do. The couple was scared and not sure what to do.
“I didn’t talk to Bart again for, like, three or four weeks,” Hipp recalled. “I was scared he was gonna go after my girlfriend or my family or something. After that, I did everything in my power to separate myself from him. I ignored his phone calls. I avoided any contact with him. I just made sure to focus on my studies and to graduate from Wharton County Junior College. I never really spoke to him again.”
“So that was the last time you had any contact with Bart?”
“Yes, sir. And then I heard about his mom and brother getting killed. It just seemed too similar to what he had always talked about with me to be a coincidence. So I knew I had to talk to someone about it.”
“Did you drive down here?” Slot queried.
“No, sir. I drove down here for Patricia and Kevin’s funeral.”
“Did you see Bart while you were there?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you speak to him?”
“Yes, sir. I just told him how sorry I was to hear what had happened to his mom and brother.”
“Did you say anything about his previous plans to kill his family?”
“No, sir. I just acted like someone who would be at a funeral.”
After nearly two hours of conversation, Detective Slot decided to give the kid a break. They stood up from their chairs, stretched their legs, and got something from the soda machine. When they returned, however, Slot decided to bring up an unusual topic. “Are you aware that Crime Stoppers is offering up reward money for information leading to the arrest of the killer or killers in this case?”
“Yes, sir,” Hipp replied. “I heard that there was reward money for helping to catch the killer.”
“Do you know how much it is?” Slot asked.
“I thought I heard from someone that it was somewhere between twenty and twenty-five thousand dollars.”
“Are you interested in the reward money?”
“No, sir. I’m not interested in that. My grandmother helps me pay my rent,” Hipp responded. “She also helps me out by taking me out to eat a couple of times a week. My car is paid for, and my student loans are being taken care of.”
“Well, that doesn’t answer my question,” Slot said pointedly. “Do you want the reward money?”
“Well, sir, I spoke with my girlfriend earlier today about it. I told her that the reward money should be much greater.”
Slot was intrigued.
“I told her it should be more around one hundred thousand dollars,” Hipp continued. “I figured the life insurance company stood to lose a heck of a lot more money on this.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question, Mr. Hipp,” Slot countered. When he did not get a response back from Hipp, he added, “If you had this reward money, what would you do with it?”
“I don’t know. I guess I would pay off the rest of my school loans and get those all cleared up.”
Detective Slot made sure to soak up all of this additional information about Bart Whitaker. He stopped, looked up at Hipp, and asked point-blank, “Son, were you a part of Bart’s plan to kill his parents?”
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