Pogash - Seduced by Madness

THE TRUE STORY OF THE SUSAN POLK MURDER CASE

In memory of
not a Jim Wood
but The Jim Wood

IN OCTOBER, SOIL IN THE BAY AREA IS PARCHED FROM MONTHS OF NO RAIN. A snap fire could wipe out communities overnight. Wooden signs warn residents that the fire hazard is EXTREME. As the autumn air begins to cool, locals talk about earthquake weather, even though everyone knows cumulus clouds have nothing to do with the shifting of tectonic plates deep inside the earth. But theres this: the Loma Prieta earthquake, which registered 7.1 on the Richter scale, occurred on October 17, 1989. The Berkeley-Oakland firestorm, which killed twenty-five and destroyed 2,886 homes, occurred on October 20, 1991. Many Bay Area residents find the month of October unsettling.

Fifteen-year-old Gabriel Polk, the youngest of the three ruggedly handsome Polk boys, was not thinking about those historical markers on the afternoon of October 14, 2002. He was apprehensively waiting for his father, Dr. Felix Polk, a popular and respected psychotherapist, to drive up to their $1.8 million home in the upscale hamlet of Orinda, twenty minutes west of San Francisco. The home was more a compound really, with numerous buildings dotting the wooded hillside. Graceful old live oaks formed a canopy over the spacious pool, the pool house, the weight room, and the sprawling Arts and Crafts style main house.

With his wide face, pronounced cheekbones, and amiable smile, Gabe resembled his father. While the boy was still waiting for his adolescent growth spurt, he kept his hair like that of his brothersmarine short. Having missed months of classes, he was enrolled in a continuation school. His mother had encouraged his truancy, telling him that he was special, that the rules that applied to other kids didnt apply to him. Despite trouble at school, Gabe carried himself with confidence, possessing a vocabulary that more closely resembled an educated adults than a high school students.

Felix had told Gabe he would see clients in the morning and be home around three. His dad had promised to take him to a playoff between the Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals at the new Pac Bell Park in downtown San Francisco. It would be a good night for the Bay Area. The Giants would score a run in the ninth inning to clinch the playoff and head to the World Series, but Gabe and his father would not be there to see it.

Gabe had spent the warm morning at Del Oro High School in Walnut Creek, a public school designed for kids with problems. He left school at 12:30 PM , after which he and his mother lunched at Baja Fresh, an upscale Mexican chain in the neighboring town of Lafayette, and then ran to the drugstore to pick up some acne medication. Though other teenagers might shun being with their mother in public, Susans sons appreciated her company, enjoying her beauty, intelligence, and love. When things were going well, she was literate and charming; she lavished her sons with her attention.

As soon as they arrived home, Susan stood in their kitchen and announced, Im going to run some errands, a statement which Gabriel found odd. If she had other stops to make, he wondered, why hadnt she done them when they were together? Leaving Gabe at home, she drove back to Lafayette, where she stopped at Blockbuster to pick up the movie Scooby-Doo. While she was gone Gabriel and his dog, a sweet yellow Lab named Dusty, went for a quick swim in the pool before heading to the exercise room, a freestanding building next to the pool house, where he lifted weights and anticipated his fathers return from work.

As the autumn sky darkened, Gabriel looked at the lower driveway where Felix normally parked his black Saab. Considering the bitter fights he had recently witnessed between his parents, Gabriel took his fathers delay as an ominous sign.

To an outsider, the Polks made a handsome couple. Even at seventy, the charismatic Felix had an air of accomplishment about him. A sturdy, muscular man who maintained his physique, he had European bearing with a crown of dark, graying curls and an empathetic expression that made patients want to confide in him. His tanned face was rounded and carved in curves, whereas his wifes porcelain profile was angular. Susan Polk, twenty-five years younger than her husband, had the perfect features of a woman in a soap commercial, before Dove discovered average women. Her nose was small, her eyes the color of morning toast. She wore classic clothes that were too big for her thin frame, which was slender and coltish like a young Katharine Hepburn.

Before the difficult years, Gabriels parents had had a loving relationship. They shared a passion for news, politics, culture, and literature. His parents prized library contained over a thousand books, including numerous first editions. They were completely devoted to each other. When marriages fail, more often than not a third party is involved, a mistress, a yoga instructor, or someone from the high school reunion who drives a wedge in an already fragile relationship. But that was not what happened to the Polks. Felix and Susan were so entwined that there was no oxygen left for anyone else.

A few years ago, his parents fragile relationship began to splinter. His mother courted Gabes allegiance in her crusade against her husband. She told Gabriel that his father was their malevolent controller, whispering that she wasnt sure she could escape the marriageget out from Felixs controlby any other means than to kill him. He had heard her say it; he heard his mother threaten to blow his fathers head off with a shotgun. In fact, during the past few months his mother had talked to her youngest about killing his dad so often that her comments about drowning, drugging, or driving over him had lost much of their meaning.

Gabriel had come to believe the evil stories his mother told about his father. It had been his mother who had always been there for him, not his dad. While his father often seemed distant and unreachable, there was never any doubt that Susan loved him and his brothers. But recently he had started spending more time with his father, and his perception was changing. As the boy and his father enjoyed each others company, Gabe found his mothers portrait of his father eroding, revealing a man who, though flawed, loved his son and his family very much.

AFTER WRAPPING UP HIS HOUR-AND-A-HALF-LONG WORKOUT, GABRIEL LEFT the weight room and padded across the brick patio to his bedroom in the main house. Mindlessly, he watched TV and played video games to dilute his growing anxiety. He had called his fathers Berkeley office four or five times during the afternoon and early evening, yet all he heard was his fathers soothing voice on the answering machine. It failed to soothe Gabes fears. Resigning himself to his fathers absence, Gabriel had dinner with his mother, and shortly after, at 7:00

PM , with the baseball game in San Francisco getting under way, he again retreated to his room, where he called his fathers office once more, this time leaving a message.

The situation gave Gabe an uneasy feeling. Felix had never been the most attentive father, but when he made a plan with one of his sons, he came through. Because his fathers car wasnt home, Gabriel hadnt actually looked around the property for him. He wondered whether his father might be in the pool house, but he was afraid to check. He promised himself that in another hour he would call the cops to ask if they knew anything about his missing father.