When they got back to headquarters, they headed straight for the sector where the interview rooms were located and met up with Ralph Sokoto, who was standing outside the door to Interview Room A. Through the window on the door, they could see Vivian Zarafin perched on the edge of her chair at the table, nervously sipping at a cup of coffee.
With a jerk of his head at Vivian, Rafe asked, “She been read her rights?”
Sokoto shrugged his shoulders and replied, “Yeah – we Mirandized her already. Everything is on record. She refused a lawyer, and then she clammed up. And here's the really weird part: she says she isn't saying another word until she has a chance to explain everything to you, D.C.”
“She mentioned me by name? She give any reason for that?”
“Nope. Just seems to think that you're the only one who'll understand. Maybe she saw you on television after the Lewellen kidnapping case. There was a lot of press about that one. Especially after the two of you ended up getting married. Maybe it appealed to the romantic in her. Who knows? Anyway, she's all yours now. Meanwhile, I need to contact the lieutenant. She asked me to notify her when you got here so that she can come down and observe.”
“She actually told you in so many words that she kidnapped Lee?” Dawn asked.
“Yeah. We were trying to break it gently to her. Told her that we were afraid that we had some bad news for her, that it looked like her daughter may have been kidnapped, when she blurted it out.”
“Did she ask for any of the details about the circumstances surrounding Lee's disappearance?”
“No, like I said, she started shaking and sobbing hysterically as soon as we mentioned the word 'kidnapped'.” She's barely spoken a word since, except to say she wanted to talk to you. If you ask me, the woman's nuts.”
Vivian Zarafin glanced up sharply as Dawn entered the room with Rafe, a peculiar combination of expectancy and apprehension flitting across her face. Dawn took a seat in a chair opposite Vivian, who sat facing the one-way mirror behind which Lieutenant Westbrooke would be observing the interview. After updating the record with the information that she and Sergeant Melbourne had entered the interview room and noting the date and time, Dawn said, “Mrs. Zarafin, I understand that you have been notified of your rights and have declined representation by an attorney at this time. Is that correct?”
“Yes. I don't need a lawyer. I just need to talk to you. To explain...” her voice trailed off, and she glanced over at Rafe, who had remained standing by the door.
Seeing her look of hesitation, Dawn said, “This is my partner, Sergeant Melbourne. Would it be okay if he stays in here with us?”
“Why does he have to be here?”
“He doesn't. I'll ask him to leave if it would make you more comfortable. But we normally work as a team. That's why he's here.”
After taking a long look at Rafe, Vivian turned back to Dawn and said slowly, “I guess it's all right. As long as he doesn't interrupt. I've got something to say to you.”
“I understand. Thank you for allowing Sergeant Melbourne to remain. Now, I understand that you told Officers Eddleston and Garrone that you know something about the kidnapping of your daughter, Leanne."
Vivian replied, “I'm sorry. But she was already dead. You have to understand that she was already dead. There was nothing I could do to help her.”
Dawn allowed herself only a fleeting moment of sorrow before she responded, “So you're saying that Leanne is dead?”
Vivian shook her head impatiently. “No, no – not Leanne. The mother.”
“The mother?”
“Yes – the birth mother. She'd broken her neck in the fall. There was nothing I could do for her. So I picked Leanne up and took her away. You have to realize that I never thought of it as kidnapping. I just wanted to take care of her, that's all.”
Careful not to let any confusion show on her face and feeling her way carefully, Dawn said, “I see. What did you do next?”
Instead of answering the question, Vivian met Dawn's eyes and then looked away, saying with a touch of defiance, “You were only twelve years old, and Leanne was just a baby. There was no way that a twelve-year-old could have taken care of a baby. And she needed a mother. She needed me.”
A cold hand reached in and squeezed Dawn's heart. Her head was pounding and she had the sensation that she was suffocating; she couldn't breathe. But she knew. Despite the evidence, despite the nightmares - in her heart, she had always known.
Ignoring her physical symptoms, Dawn willed herself to go on, calling upon all her training to keep her voice steady. “You said that Leanne was just a baby. So this all happened a long time ago, correct?”
“Yes. Sixteen years ago. That's when I found her. That's when she came to me. And I knew – she was meant to be mine. So I took her home and gave her a new name. Leanne. Leanne Zarafin.”
The room was starting to whirl around, and Rafe started toward her, but she waved him back.
“Vivian, for the record, this baby you found - what was her original name? Her name before you took her, I mean.”
Vivian's voice was so low that it was barely audible: “Marina. Marina Cimarron. But you already knew that, of course.” She looked up, met Dawn's eyes. “I was a really good mother to her. I promise you that.”
Dawn answered mechanically, “I'm sure you were, Vivian. Now that you've talked with me, would you mind filling in the details for Sergeant Melbourne? I need a little time by myself. Just to take things in, you know? It's been kind of a shock.”
Vivian reached out and took Dawn's hand. Even though her flesh crawled at the woman's touch, Dawn didn't snatch her hand away.
“Of course. I'm so glad you understand. I was afraid that you might not. Take all the time you need.”
Dawn nodded, rose from her chair, and walked out the door. Just as she expected, the Lieutenant was standing outside, about to enter.
Lieutenant Westbrooke took one look at her and said, “Sokoto - go back in and take Detective Cimarron's place in interview.” As Sokoto reentered the interview room, the lieutenant did not say a word; she just turned and led the way to her office. When they got there, she said, more gently than was customary for her, “Sit down, Detective.”
Dawn collapsed into a seat and waited while Lieutenant Westbrooke got her a glass of water.
“Drink.”
She obeyed like an automaton. The lieutenant, looking at her thoughtfully, said softly, “What's your husband's number, Dawn?”
Even the lieutenant's rare use of her first name hardly registered. She answered mechanically, and as if from a great distance, heard the lieutenant's side of her conversation with Ty. No, Detective Cimarron was not hurt. She'd just had some shocking news, and it would probably be better if her husband were by her side. She'd fill him in on the details when he got there.
As Lieutenant Westbrooke disconnected, Dawn roused herself to say, “DNA. Do you have a kit?”
“I can get one. Hold on.” The lieutenant made a quick call, then hung up and turned back to Dawn.
“We took her hair brush and toothbrush from the apartment, Lieutenant. They'll be able to get DNA from one or the other...”
“I'll take care of it, Detective.”
“They never found her body. The others, yes – but not my sister's. Not Marina's. Did you know that?”
“Yes. I made it a point to familiarize myself with the case when you came into the unit.” She paused as if to say something else when one of the patrol officers came in with a kit. She handed it to Dawn, who took out a swab and ran it over the inside of her cheek. Capping it and taking all the proper precautions to make sure there was no contamination, she handed it back to the lieutenant.
“I'll tell them to put a rush on it, Detective. With any luck, we should get the results back in a few days.”
“Thanks, LT.” She broke off as Ty entered the room. He came right to her, and she tried to rise, but he took one look at her and pushed her gently back into her chair. He
held onto her hand as Lieutenant Westbrooke quickly filled him in on what was going on.
When she had finished, Ty said, “I wonder if I might have a little private time with my wife, Lieutenant?”
As the lieutenant stood up and began to move toward the door, Dawn said, “LT? Marina's middle name – it's Lee. My mother always called her by both names – Marina Lee. Sometimes my sister had trouble saying the Marina part, so there were times she'd sort of slur over it and refer to herself simply as 'Lee'. I'd forgotten that until just now. I've never thought of her as anything but Marina in all these years.”
“I'll inform Sergeant Melbourne of that fact, Detective. Why don't you take some time and search your memory further? See if there's anything else you remember that could help.”
After the lieutenant had left, Ty knelt in front of her and ran his hands up and down Dawn's arms gently.
She said numbly, “I'm off the case. It's Marina – and I'm off the case.”
“Did the lieutenant say so?”
“She didn't have to. We both know the rules. Personal involvement compromises objectivity, and it creates loopholes for the defense to slide through when a case comes to trial. I can't be involved. And it's killing me.”
He didn't know what else to do, so he kept rubbing his hands up and down her arms. He sucked wide at the comforting bit, and he knew it. Thanks to counseling, he'd improved some over the last year or so, but he still wasn't very good at it. He didn't know what she needed. His tendency in situations like this was to crack a joke in order to relieve some of the tension, but he knew his wife. She'd probably sock him.
“Dawn? Baby?” He was uncomfortable with endearments and therefore rarely used them, but it must have been the right thing to say, because some of the blankness went out of her gaze, and she actually looked at him. “Would it be okay if I called Mom and Dad, let them know what's going on? They'd want to be here for you.”
She blinked a little and responded, “Yeah – you probably should.”
He pulled out his cell to make the call just as Rafe entered the room. One look at Rafe's eyes and he said, “Uh – I'll just step out for a minute.”
Rafe pulled a chair up across from her so that his knees were almost touching hers. He said quietly, “We've finished the interview. She gave us permission to search her house, Dawn. She says she kept the clothes that the baby was wearing the day she found her.”
When Dawn didn't respond, he continued, “The lieutenant called Captain Penrose, asked him to take over as primary on this aspect of the case, take care of conducting the search. He's the one who worked the original case with Nick in the first place, remember? He may be riding a desk now, but he's still a damn good detective. He'll know exactly what to look for. And he still has pictures of Marina from the original case file. We'll do an age progression, compare the result with pictures of Lee. Fingerprints too. There were some lifted from the nursery during the original investigation that were tiny, obviously Marina's. We'll dust Lee's bedroom at the apartment, see if we get a match.”
Dawn's head felt like it weighed about a hundred pounds, but she managed to nod it. Then she said, “None of this is going to get us any closer to finding her, Rafe.”
“I know. That's why I didn't object when the lieutenant suggested that Captain Penrose take the lead on that aspect of the case instead of working it myself. We'll keep pounding away at it, D.C. Sooner or later, we're bound to get a break. And when the word starts spreading the missing girl is a relative of one of our own – the cops are going to start pouring in. We'll have all the help we need.”
“Dawn?”
She turned at the sound of Ty's voice. “Mom and Dad are on the way. They're going to meet us across the street at Fredo's.”
He held out a hand to her wordlessly, and she rose from her chair and took it. Holding on tightly, she said, “Rafe? Find her. Please find her.”
Rafe swallowed a lump in his throat as he replied, “We will, Dawn. We will.”
As Dawn walked out of the room with Ty, Rafe felt a growing sense of dread. His gut told him that they would eventually find the girl now known as Lee. But alive or dead? That was the question.
Chapter 10
She could have wept with relief when she finally snagged the tool again. It felt like she had been trying for hours, but it was probably only a few minutes. Slowly and carefully, Lee dragged it toward her. When she was finally able to grasp it, she felt a wave of exultation. It was her own personal Holy Grail, about to provide her salvation. Before she attempted to use it, however, she quickly unknotted her makeshift rope and remade the bed, just in case Michael decided to come down and pay her a visit. Then she grasped the chisel and took it over to the far side of the cot. With a grim tenaciousness she hadn't even known she possessed, she carefully began chipping away at the cinder block around the staple that secured the chain to the wall.
*****
When they entered the private dining room at Fredo's, Ty's parents were already there. Maeve said nothing, but just walked over, put her arms around Dawn, and held her tight. To Ty's astonishment, Dawn's shoulders started to shake, and he realized that she was crying. He shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably, wondering if he should stay put or go to her. But then Maeve raised her head and caught his eye, signaling him to leave the room. Relieved, he and Sloan walked out the door and stood uncertainly in the hallway outside.
Ty leaned against the wall and blew out a breath. “Dad? I've never seen Dawn cry before. I mean never, not once in all the time we've been together. I don't know what to do.”
Sloan considered for a minute, then said, “For right now, leave it up to your mother. When we go back in, take your cue from her. She understands how uncomfortable you are and what Dawn needs right now.”
“Okay, okay. Man, I never thought that anything would ever upset Dawn enough for her to cry about it. I've seen her scared after having a nightmare, but she generally handles it just fine, calms down pretty quickly. All she needs from me is a little comforting, a little soothing. And she usually handles any other kind of stress by exploding, letting off some steam. I know how to handle that. But tears? This is a first for me.”
Sloan didn't reply, but just leaned against the wall with him companionably.
A few minutes later, Maeve came to the door. “Ty? She's doing better now. Go and order some tea for us.”
As Maeve disappeared back into the room, Ty breathed a sigh of relief. Concrete action – something he could actually do. Now, that he could handle.
When the servers appeared with the tea service, he and Sloan reentered the room with them. Dawn was sitting on the sofa. Her eyes were red and swollen, but she seemed to have recovered some of her usual composure. He sat down next to her and took her hand, gave it a squeeze.
Dawn returned the pressure and said, “I'm okay now. I need to call Aunt Mattie and Uncle Pete, let them know what's happening.”
“I could take care of that for you. If you want me to.”
At Dawn's nod of assent, he pulled his cell phone out, got up, and went back into the hallway once more.
Maeve, meanwhile, had poured out a cup of tea and offered it to her daughter-in-law. Dawn sipped the hot, fragrant tea and let its calming influence relax her jangled nerves. The crying jag had shocked her almost as much as it had Ty.
Maeve studied Dawn carefully as she sipped her own tea. The color had come back into Dawn's cheeks, and her hands were steady as she lifted the tea cup to her lips. Good.
Ty eased back into the room and sat down again next to Dawn. “I told Pete and Mattie what's going on. Mattie wants to know if you want her to be here. I told her I'd have you call her back, let her know.” He absently accepted the cup of tea that Maeve proffered to him. “Mattie's pretty shocked. She asked me how you were doing, how you were handling everything. I told her you had a rough time with it at first, but Mom was with you, and you seemed to be handling it better now.” He took a sip of tea, then asked, “What's next
, Dawn? What else can I do for you?”
“I'm not sure. I'm not even thinking straight. After all these years, finally news of Marina. But still, I'm not sure whether she's alive or dead.”
“Actually, I'm a little confused by how that's possible,” Maeve confessed. “You see, I thought that your sister died years ago, along with the rest of your family.” She reached over and put a hand over one of Dawn's. “You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. But sometimes, talking it out helps.”
Dawn put her teacup down slowly and nodded. “Maybe you're right.” She collected her thoughts, and then said, “You know that my mother was holding Marina when it all happened, don't you?”
“To tell you the truth, I'm a little fuzzy about the details. It was sixteen years ago, wasn't it? At the time, my mother was ill, in the hospital. She was still living in New Orleans then, and I'd flown out to be with her. So I have only the vaguest memories of the news stories.”
Dawn hesitated briefly before responding, “I need to go over it all anyway, get it fresh in my mind. If it's all true, I'll have to be interviewed again, as a witness. So I'll start from the beginning...
“We lived in Denver for the first few years after I was born. My mother worked as a legal secretary in a law office. My dad was a financial manager for some big company there – I don't remember which one. Then, when I was about four, my dad's cousin died and left him his entire estate, including the ranch. It wasn't a working ranch any longer – Dad's cousin had sold off all but thirty acres of the land and most of the stock. He’d kept only some chickens and a few horses. But that still left the main house, the bunkhouse, a couple of barns, and some other outbuildings.
“My dad was fed up with the business world. His job paid well, but the high stress, the long hours, the politics – he'd decided that it wasn't for him any longer. He wanted a simpler lifestyle, and so did my mother. She wanted to stop working and spend more time at home with my brother, Josiah, and me. With the money that Dad had inherited from his cousin and with what he and my mother had saved up, they had enough to quit their jobs and move out to the ranch house. My dad was a woodworker, and he could make marvelous hand-crafted furniture. He set up a workshop in one of the barns and started his own business. After a couple of years, it really started to pay off. Mom was able to stay at home, and she decided to home-school Josiah and me, since the ranch was so far away from the nearest school.
When the Tiger Kills: A Cimarron/Melbourne Thriller: Book One Page 19
