Bringing Adam Home - Les Standiford [16]
Hoffman seemed about to go off at that, but he caught himself and mustered a conciliatory gaze. “Listen,” he said. “I’ll make a deal with you. You do a follow-up with Campbell, and if he passes, I’ll drop him as a suspect. You have my word.”
It was a waste of time, Matthews thought, but if it would put the matter to an end, he supposed he could do it. “Okay,” he told Hoffman. “I’ll call him back in.”
“You do that,” Hoffman said, satisfied. “Meantime, I’ll check out this so-called alibi of his.”
Thus, a weary Matthews reluctantly called Campbell, who agreed to appear at Hollywood PD at 10:00 a.m. on Monday for a follow-up exam. And later that Saturday, Hoffman took another detective with him to the Gold Strand Motel on Collins Avenue in far north Dade County, where Campbell had been running a boat rental concession for about seven months.
At the Gold Strand, Hoffman spoke with the hotel manager, Carroll Shannon, who confirmed that Campbell indeed worked there, but as to his whereabouts on the Monday that Adam Walsh disappeared, she had no idea. Maybe they should talk to Louis Munoz, her assistant pool manager. When Hoffman and his partner found Munoz, he remembered the day well. Munoz told them that Jimmy Campbell had arrived at about ten thirty that morning, excited about getting his sailboats cleaned up for a TV commercial that would be filmed at the hotel later in the afternoon. He noticed Jimmy puttering about throughout the day, Munoz said. When Joe Walsh, John’s brother, came by looking for Jimmy at around three thirty, he was out on the ocean on one of his boats.
From the Gold Strand, Hoffman and his partner went to Jimmy Campbell’s home, where they interviewed him regarding his association with the Walsh family and his whereabouts on July 27, the day Adam disappeared. As he had told Matthews, Campbell explained that he had known John Walsh for nine years and that he had lived with the family for about four years. He did various chores around the place, and sometimes babysat for Adam, whom he had come to love. He took the boy on outings to the beach, the zoo, and baseball games. He’d even served as Adam’s T-ball coach this past year.
He’d been at work the day of Adam’s disappearance, leaving only briefly to go to the nearby Thunderbird Motel boat concession to see if he could borrow two clean sails for his upcoming shoot, but the person in charge wasn’t around, so he returned to the Golden Strand. As to who might have been responsible for Adam’s disappearance, Campbell told the detectives that he had not the slightest idea. Hoffman took it all down in the form of notes, for some reason failing to record the interview as he had all the others he had conducted during his investigation. At the end of the interview, Hoffman noted that he asked the subject to voluntarily submit to a polygraph examination, as if Matthews hadn’t already conducted one. It would be a long time before the reason for that odd statement—and Hoffman’s failure to record his interview—came to light.
Hollywood, Florida—August 10, 1981
On Monday, Joe Matthews was back at Hollywood police headquarters bright and early, preparing to reexamine Jimmy Campbell. Matthews was convinced it was a waste of time, but if it might somehow put Hoffman’s suspicions concerning Campbell to rest, then he would do it.
When the appointed hour of 10:00 a.m. came and went without Jimmy Campbell’s appearance, however, Matthews became concerned. By 11:00, he decided to walk down to Hoffman’s desk and let the detective know that Campbell was a no-show. Maybe the kid was scared, he thought. Maybe he’d overslept. But he wasn’t involved in Adam’s disappearance. That much he was sure of.
Hoffman, however, was not at his desk. When Matthews asked the detective bureau’s secretary where Hoffman was, she told him Hoffman was in the interview room. He and his partner Ron Hickman had been grilling a suspect since seven that