Poisoned Dreams

by A. W. Gray

  It was Lynn, for example, who called on Nancy the morning after the mysterious wine and gelatin capsules turned up on the duplex’s front stoop. When no one answered Lynn’s knock on the door, she let herself in and went upstairs. The pills were in their plastic container on a low hallway table, and it frightened Lynn that capsules of origin and content unknown were in easy reach of the children. She placed the container with the pills up on a high shelf, and entered the bedroom.

  Nancy, pale as death, was huddled underneath the covers on top of the down mattress. She was retching uncontrollably and was barely able to move; Lynn had to help her former employer sit up in bed. Nancy told Lynn in a weak voice about the wine, and said she believed that it was the contents of the wine bottle that had made her sick. Later in the day, when Nancy felt better, and after she had talked matters over with Mary Henrich, Nancy asked Lynn to carry the wine and pills out and lock them in the trunk of the Zoomobile. She told her former nanny that if anything were to happen to her, she should turn the evidence over to the authorities.

  It was also Lynn who happened to stop by the Shenandoah duplex on the day that Nancy signed the rider on her life insurance policy, eliminating Richard as beneficiary and adding Allison and Anna in his place as recipients of the insurance proceeds. It was convenient for Nancy on that day that Lynn had come to visit; she had Lynn witness her signature on the rider. A conversation between Richard and Lynn within days after Nancy’s death, and the conversation’s admission into evidence at Richard’s trial, would be a devastating blow to the defense. Lynn says that she told Richard not to count on Nancy’s life insurance money because his dead wife had changed the beneficiary; Richard’s reply was, according to Lynn, “If she was going to do that, she would have told me about it.”

  There were several other suspicious incidents which occurred as Lynn came and went from the duplex—one that comes immediately to mind is the story about Richard giving Nancy a doctored Coke in a darkened movie theater, an event that Nancy related to Lynn in great detail—and her meticulous testimony at trial was one of the major prosecution tools which did Richard in. There was one occurrence, however, also witnessed by Lynn, the story of which the jury never heard.

  So much did hearsay testimony influence the outcome of Richard’s trial, it is important to point out the legal difference between the evidence that would have helped his case and testimony which drove the nails into his coffin. As previously outlined, neither the wine and pills nor the Coke in the movie could have been admissible had not the doctor testified that Nancy had told him those things on her deathbed. Once Dr. Bagheri had related the stories from the witness stand, then Lynn’s and Mary Henrich’s testimony also became admissible as corroborative backup. Not so with the tale about the flowers.

  A colorful and fragrant flower display appeared mysteriously on the dining table at the Shenandoah duplex during one of Richard’s visits. There was an envelope attached to the spray by a twist tie, bearing the return address of the flower shop, and the penned inscription on the envelope read merely, “To Nancy Lyon.” When Richard spotted the floral arrangement, both Nancy and Lynn Pease were in the room with him. Nancy told him that the flowers had come by delivery service the previous day, and that the arrangement was a gift from St. Phillip’s School.

  Naturally, Richard couldn’t resist opening the envelope and having a peek. The card inside was a sympathy note to Nancy, telling her how regretful it was that her husband had mistreated her so. Though he only had Nancy’s word as to the origin of the message, he had no reason to doubt her. St. Phillip’s School is an institution for problem children, and one of the “in” charities to which Park Citizens donate, and Richard was on the school’s board. He took pride in his position with the school, largely because it was one of the only things he’d accomplished on his own with no help from Big Daddy. That the St. Phillip’s staff would take it on themselves to side with Nancy in the marital rift was a severe blow to Richard’s ego, and understandably so.

  By the time Nancy died, the flowers and note had long since disappeared from the Shenandoah duplex, but the investigations conducted both by the police and Richard’s defense team turned up some startling things pertaining to the floral arrangement. While the staff at St. Phillip’s School disavowed all knowledge of the flowers or who had sent them, Nancy’s credit card records showed that she herself had purchased an identical floral arrangement, from the same shop, on the day before Richard spied the flowers on the dining table. If two plus two equals four, Nancy had sent the flowers to herself and then concocted the story that the school was responsible, her presumed goal being to have exactly the effect on Richard that it did.

  Lacking the physical evidence—the flowers themselves, the vase in which they sat, or the note and envelope—the defense at trial was unable to get the story of the flowers into the record. Lynn responded in cross-examination that she did see the flowers, but since any statements made by Nancy regarding the origin of the floral arrangement would have been hearsay, the fact that flowers were on the table was as far as the defense’s cross-examination was able to go. The jury never heard the allegation that the flowers came from St. Phillip’s School, and likewise never heard about the subsequent finding that Nancy had bought the arrangement herself. In other words, though her statements to Dr. Bagheri became admissible as an exception to the hearsay rule, her declaration to Richard regarding the origin of the flowers did not.

  Why is this important? Well, if Nancy had the flowers delivered, and then led others to believe that the arrangement came from St. Phillip’s School, why couldn’t the same hold true with the mysterious pills and wine? She was unarguably distraught during the period, and did many irrational things. Why isn’t it possible that she created the wine and capsule incident in order to garner sympathy? Furthermore, if the wine and pills were Nancy’s own doing, this provides a plausible explanation for her refusal to comply with her attorney’s request that she bring the wine and capsules to the lawyer’s office; if she had provided the wine and pills herself, Nancy would have feared discovery. If nothing else, the tale of the mysterious floral arrangement provides ample food for thought. The event certainly doesn’t prove that Richard didn’t poison Nancy—just as the circumstantial case presented by the state doesn’t prove without question that he did—but in the courtroom, reasonable doubt is the name of the game.

  22

  If Richard thought that the filing of his divorce petition would bring Denise Woods racing back into his arms, he had another think coming. Denise had become twice shy. Once the petition was filed, she did consent to see Richard on occasion—and to have intermittent sex with him—but she was seeing other men as well. She once might have been willing to have Richard as the only man in her life, but his increasingly erratic behavior after the divorce proceedings were filed gave her considerable pause.

  Once it became apparent that Richard was in for a court battle over money, his attitude toward his estranged wife did an about-face. He began to cater to Nancy’s every whim, all at Denise’s expense. He constantly showed up hours late for dates with Denise, or stood her up altogether, and his excuse was always that he was doing things for Nancy. He once left Denise’s side on learning that Nancy had taken the children to Massachusetts, and on that occasion he flew all the way to Martha’s Vineyard and begged Nancy to come home. Another time, Denise learned that Richard had taken Nancy on a skiing trip to Colorado; when he returned, he told Denise that he and Nancy hadn’t gotten along at all, and that he’d decided on the trip that he would file for divorce. (Richard’s story here simply isn’t true; the divorce proceedings had already begun, and Richard begged Nancy to go on the trip with him. While in Colorado, he tried once again to talk Nancy out of her decision to battle him in court over assets. According to what Nancy told friends, she became violently ill on the trip, vomiting continuously all night while Richard sat calmly by her bedside and read a book.)

  Richar
d’s attempts at appeasing Nancy were to no avail, particularly now that she was receiving guidance from Big Daddy. The preliminary hearing was a month after the divorce was filed, and Mary Henrich had Denise served with a subpoena to testify as a respondent. She tearfully complied, and Henrich reduced Denise to virtual mincemeat on the witness stand. Thereafter, Richard and Denise saw each other infrequently, and then only in secret. During the fall of 1990, Denise made up her mind that her relationship with Richard was never going to be permanent.

  What Denise believed was the final straw between her and Richard came in early November, when she had to go in for cervical surgery. Only days earlier Richard had told her that he wasn’t in love with her—which didn’t particularly shock her—and his actions during her surgery and recovery certainly drove home his point. He dropped her off at the hospital for her operation, but never visited her or called to see how she was feeling. Denise wasn’t to see Richard again, in fact, until Nancy had only weeks left to live.

  Richard insists that he moved back into the duplex with Nancy in November, but Big Daddy and the rest of the Dillard family say that he lived apart from her until after New Year’s Day. The record is clear that Richard didn’t give up his Springbrook Lane condo until February, two weeks after Nancy died, but the conflicting accounts as to where he actually lived during November and December are probably Nancy’s fault. In mid-November she gave in to her inner feelings and agreed to take Richard back, but after the furor that Big Daddy had raised over the divorce proceedings—not to mention his retention of Mary Henrich as her attorney—she was likely reluctant to tell her father that there was to be no divorce after all. In fact, Nancy didn’t tell Big Daddy that the Lyon divorce petition was being withdrawn until just before Christmas.

  It was also mid-November when Nancy began to be constantly sick. In fact, she never seemed to be completely well again. She had violent nausea and vomited over and over. After Thanksgiving dinner at Big Daddy’s house, she went to bed and didn’t get up for three days. During this period Richard spent almost every night at the Shenandoah duplex.

  About a week before Christmas, the Lyons announced to one and all that they were reconciling. Those close to Nancy had mixed emotions; although most of them were fed up with Richard over his treatment of Nancy, they were happy for her that her marital breakup was at an end. Some decided that the separation had caused her ill health, and hoped now that things were better for her, they would once again see the Nancy they had always known.

  During Christmas week Stan Wetsel had a dinner party at his home for all Architectural Site Services employees and staff. Wetsel’s wife had seating placards, and when the first course was served all were present save Mr. and Mrs. Richard Lyon. There was no word from them until the party was over. Just as everyone was leaving for home, Richard appeared at the Wetsels’ door. He seemed nervous and upset, and offered apologies to the Wetsels that he had given them no notice that the Lyons wouldn’t be coming. Nancy Lyon, it seemed, had suddenly taken ill.

  It was also during Christmas week, December 20, to be exact, when Denise gave a party at her Richardson apartment. Richard came late, had a few drinks, and smoked a couple of joints. The festivities carried on until the wee hours, after which Denise spent the night with Richard at his Springbrook condo. He told her on this occasion that he hadn’t meant what he said in November, and that he was in love with her, and that once his divorce was final he could be with her always. Like Big Daddy, Denise wasn’t clued in that the Lyons had dropped their divorce proceedings. Also, Richard neglected to tell her that his decision to drop by her party was a last-minute thing, and that he and Nancy had originally scheduled something else. The reason Richard was free for the evening was that Nancy was once again sick.

  With Christmas only a few days away, Richard and Nancy decided to go to Connecticut and visit Allan and Rosemary Lyon. They decided to make the journey on December 26, and notified Richard’s folks as to when they were coming. While Allan and Rosemary expressed happiness, via long distance, that the couple had patched up their differences, Rosemary was actually disappointed. She’d felt all along that marriage into the Dillard family wasn’t the best thing for her son.

  On Christmas Eve, Richard and Nancy had Carol Poor over for lunch. Since Carol had acted as Richard’s faithful assistant during the final dark days of Hughes Industries, and also had acted as a go-between during the Lyons’ breakup, Richard and Nancy wanted her to know that the marriage was on once more. Nancy cooked the meal, and Carol enjoyed herself. She remembers Nancy being all smiles during the visit, and that the couple seemed happy together gave Carol a warm glow inside.

  But if Nancy was in high spirits at noon on Christmas Eve, by nightfall her condition had changed considerably. That evening she and Richard attended Christmas services at Trinity Episcopal Church in far North Dallas. In happier times they had been regularly attending members at Trinity Episcopal, and had once kept the small children in the nursery during Sunday school on a weekly basis. Bill Jr. and Mary Helen also claimed Trinity Episcopal as their church of choice, and at Christmas Eve services the two couples sat together. The other churchgoers were glad to see Richard and Nancy, wished them well, and expressed hope that the Lyons would once again become regular worshipers with them. Richard shook hands with all well-wishers and offered friendly greeting, but Nancy had very little to say. Later, Trinity Episcopal members would recall that on the final Christmas Eve of her life, Nancy Lyon was deathly pale and made numerous trips into the ladies’ rest room. Once inside, she would lock herself into a stall, and from within would come the unmistakable sound of loud and uncontrolled retching.

  Christmas Day was indeed merry for Allison and Anna. The two little girls were up at the crack of dawn, eyes bright and wide, and by sunup had Santa presents open and wadded wrapping paper scattered all over the Lyon living room.

  In early afternoon the family went to Big Daddy’s house; it was the final gathering of the Dillard clan Nancy was ever to attend. Mary Helen and Bill Jr. brought their kids over, and Susan and Billy Hendrickson drove down from Wichita Falls. Bill Jr. was sober and clear of eye, as he had been for over a year. There were more presents to open and more visiting to do; the Lyon girls made their second grand haul of the day. Big Daddy went out of his way to make Richard feel welcome; the senior Dillard knew by now that the divorce plans were off, and whatever turmoil he may have felt, he was ready to welcome his errant son-in-law back into the fold. After nightfall the entire group traveled the two blocks to Armstrong Parkway and gazed at the dazzling Christmas lights. Nancy had viewed the Highland Park Yuletide display every year since she’d been a little girl, and the sight of the lighted Santas and sparkling tree branches had always excited her. On this evening, though, she seemed withdrawn.

  Richard and Nancy spent a large part of the day after Christmas in packing for their evening flight to Connecticut. At least Nancy spent the day in preparation for the trip. Richard found some time to slip away.

  In mid-afternoon, he showed up on Denise Woods’ doorstep. He had a present for her. As opposed to the whimsical gifts he’d given her in the past—the $4,500 watch, the $1,000 necklace, various filmy underthings from Victoria’s Secret—this present was more practical. It was a warm leather coat, which he had charged on his Visa. The price was $1,000.

  Denise was thrilled. She snugged her hands deep into the coat pockets and modeled, doing a few pirouettes for Richard’s benefit as the coat’s hem swirled around shapely calves. Then Richard drew Denise down on the sofa beside him. He had some things to tell her.

  He began by saying that he was leaving town with Nancy that evening, then quickly continued before Denise could throw his gift back in his face. His trip with his wife, Richard said, had nothing to do with being intimate, had nothing to do with any plans for him and Nancy to get back together. A reconciliation, he said, was out of the question. He said he was only going to be a comfort to Nancy,
someone for her to lean on. She had been sick so often of late, Richard said, that the doctors had decided she had a rare and life-threatening blood disease. The reason for the trip back East was so that Nancy could get treatment at Mount Sinai Hospital. His burden off his chest, Richard kissed Denise and told her that he’d be back with her as soon as possible. He loved Denise, he said, and once this trip was over, Nancy would never stand between them again.

  The trip to Connecticut was uneventful for the most part. Rosemary Lyon fixed scrumptious Lebanese meals for the visiting couple, and twice Richard’s parents took Nancy and Richard on a tour of their son’s childhood haunts around Mansfield-Willimantic. For the most part, though, the Lyons, parents and son and daughter-in-law, relaxed and visited. Both Allan and Rosemary Lyon recall that during the visit, Nancy didn’t seem to feel really well.

  Allan and Rosemary bade goodbye to their son and daughter-in-law on New Year’s Eve. It was the last time they were to see Nancy alive; when they next saw Richard it would be to grieve alongside their son at Presbyterian Hospital.

  On the way to catch their return flight, Richard and Nancymspent the night in New York City. They did New Year’s Eve in Manhattan among the jostling crowds in Times Square, only blocks from the hotel where they’d stayed with Big Daddy and Sue while students at Harvard. To the couple from Texas the Big Apple seemed magic, and held memories for them. It was the same city where, not so long ago, they’d met at midnight, made love in secret, and had known feelings available only to the young. One can only hope that Nancy’s last New Year’s Eve on earth was a happy one. On January 2, as a jetliner bore the couple to DFW Airport, Nancy’s remaining time dwindled to seven precious days.

  It is sad that Nancy spent her last full day of consciousness worried about herpes. She’d developed genital lesions, and on January 7 visited the doctor. The physician ran tests and did a culture; then he prescribed Zovirax, one capsule every four hours. Nancy’s culture would turn out negative; in retrospect, the doctor feels that she must have had a yeast infection.