“Miss Taylor,” said Ben, “we have no desire to have you uncomfortable. If you need to visit the ladies’ room at any time, you only need to let us know and we’ll have that nice policewoman escort you.”
“Let’s just get this over with,” she said.
“Do you know why you’re here?” asked Ben.
“It has something to do with that stupid bitch who got hysterical over a tree falling on her car,” said Tammy.
“Close,” said Ben. “It’s about what was in the tree that fell on Dr. Fallon’s vehicle.”
“Our sheriff said it was some real old skeleton of a kid,” said Tammy. “We didn’t even know it was there. We thought it was our Halloween decorations she saw. You got no reason to drag me in here over that,” she said.
“We offered to allow you to call a lawyer,” said Ben.
“I don’t need to be paying no lawyer. They’re as crooked as you. You got nothing to hold me or Slick on,” she said.
“Actually, I misspoke,” said Ben. “It’s not about the skeleton in the tree; it’s about Norma Fuller.”
Diane saw Tammy’s eyes flicker for just a moment. “What about her?” said Tammy.
“You know her?” said Ben.
“Of course I know her. I was taking care of her. Good care too,” said Tammy. “I’m a nurse and I take care of people. Miss Norma had a real nice room, and her own bathroom. I had a program all worked out for her to get her health back.”
“You’re a nurse?” said Ben. “Where did you go to school?”
“Regency Tech,” she said. “Near Atlanta.”
“I don’t believe they have a nursing program,” said Ben. “Do they, Frank?”
“No,” Frank said.
“They have a medical program for nurses’ aides,” said Tammy, lifting her chin just a fraction. “I’m just as good as them that went to a full-blown nursing school.”
“Tell us about this program you had worked out for Norma Fuller,” said Frank.
“It was a good program. It had exercise-nothing hard. Light exercises that she could sit down in a chair and do. Nutritious meals. And lifestyle exercises.”
“Lifestyle exercises?” said Frank, raising his eyebrows.
“You know-laughter, being around baby animals, that kind of thing,” she said.
“She could have been allergic to animals,” said Frank.
“She wasn’t. I wouldn’t have let her handle the puppies if she was allergic. I’m a nurse,” she said.
“So you did make an effort to fashion specific programs for different patients?” said Frank.
“Yes,” she snapped. “I told you, I’m as good a nurse as those that went to other schools.”
“So, you had other patients,” said Frank.
“Yes. .” She stopped.
“Nice,” said Agent Mathews to no one in particular.
“Tell us about the other patients,” said Ben.
“They were just people like Miss Norma. I got them on their feet so they could go about their business,” she said.
“What were some of their names?” asked Ben.
Tammy squirmed in her seat. “I can’t recall their names right now.”
Diane noticed Tammy’s voice was different. Not as sure, not as feisty. She knew she’d made a mistake. Diane expected her to lawyer up, but she didn’t. Probably thought that would make her look guilty.
“Maybe we can help,” said Ben. “Frank, can you jog her memory?” Ben smiled at Tammy. “I have a bad memory for names too,” he said.
Frank reached in the briefcase and pulled out a file. Tammy stretched her neck toward Frank as if that might help her see what was in the file.
“Greta Mullsack,” said Frank. “Does that ring a bell?”
Tammy shrugged her shoulders.
“By shrugging your shoulders do you mean you don’t remember?” asked Ben.
“I don’t remember the name,” she said.
“How about Alicia Green, Linda Meyers, Johanna Evans, or Ruby Marshall?” Frank asked.
“I don’t know,” said Tammy.
“You know, Norma Fuller is very anxious about her money,” said Ben. “She told us you took her to a bank and had your name put on a joint account with hers and had her check automatically deposited into that account. Why would you put your name on the account?” he said.
“I had to buy her medicine,” said Tammy. “All Norma has to do is take my name off the account.”
“That’s the problem,” said Ben. “She doesn’t know which bank you took her to and she doesn’t know your real name.”
“I can’t help it if she can’t remember,” said Tammy.
“You know she has health problems. Wasn’t that why you were taking care of her?”
Tammy didn’t say anything.
“Tell me about Terry Tate, Theresa Thomas, and Tracy Tanner,” said Frank.
Tammy looked from Frank to Ben and licked her dry lips. She was breathing a little heavier. She still didn’t ask for a lawyer.
“Shall I repeat the names?” asked Frank.
Tammy shook her head, but said nothing.
“She’s trying to think of a way out of this,” said Garnett.
“You know, Miss Taylor,” said Ben, “my partner, Frank, here is really good with computers and data.”
“So,” said Tammy.
“He loves cross-referencing, correlating”-Ben flourished his index finger in the air-“all those things you do with data.”
“I don’t understand anything you just said,” said Tammy.
“I don’t understand a lot of it, but bottom line. .” said Ben. “Well, you tell her, Frank.”
“It’s like this,” said Frank. He still sat comfortably in the chair as he spoke. “All those places where you volunteered keep records. Banks keep records. You see where I’m going with this?”
“No,” said Tammy.
“The shelters and clinics keep files on the people they see and their medical conditions-and any income they have. They also keep track of the referrals to specialists, and the volunteers who work with their clients-like nutrition or life-skills consultants. That would be you. They keep those records because they apply for grants and they have to show how their programs are serving the community.
“Pre-nine-eleven, we had a harder time getting information from banks. But much to the disapproval of people like Dr. Fallon, for example, we can now get a lot of data from banks that used to be private. So I plug names in the computer from the service agencies, like the clinics where you volunteered, and then ask the computer to find the same names on bank accounts. Then I do fancier things, like look for those names on bank accounts that have two people on the account. Then I look and see if one of the names is Tammy Taylor or Terry Tate. Then I do it in reverse-find who has an account with Tammy Taylor or Terry Tate. Sounds complicated, but it’s really very simple. It’s amazing the information I find.”
“I’m always amazed,” said Ben.
Frank pulled several pages from the file and put them in front of Tammy. Each had a small photo paper-clipped to it.
“The thing I like about Frank,” said Ben, “is he puts together a complete package when he’s working on a project. Aren’t those photographs neat, all clipped to those bank accounts? Prosecutors like that too. They like things tied up in a bow the way Frank does them.”
“Them’s not me,” said Tammy, nodding at the photographs. Her voice was sounding hoarse.
“That’s another post-nine-eleven thing,” said Frank. “Many more cameras in banks. And you notice how the banks don’t allow you to wear sunglasses inside? That’s so the cameras get a good picture that can be run through face-recognition software if we need to do that. Those wigs you wore didn’t really hide who you are, because the distance from the corner of your eyes to the margin of your nose, and so forth, is always the same.”
Diane saw Tammy’s lower lip tremble.
“Now tell us, Miss Taylor,” said Frank, “wh
ere did you put the other bodies? Surely you don’t have that many hollow trees on your property.”
Chapter 37
Tammy Taylor sat straight in her chair, her wide gaze darting from Ben to Frank to somewhere between them.
“I didn’t kill nobody,” she said. “And you can’t prove I did.”
“Prove?” said Ben. “We only have to build a sound circumstantial case. We’ve already done that. We did that before you got here. Poor Norma Fuller’s in the hospital, her blood pressure sky-high, malnourished. You giving her those energy drinks.”
“They’re from the drugstore. Off the shelf. They’re not drugs. You can’t say I gave her drugs,” she said.
“And you thought giving her energy drinks was okay?” said Ben.
“They’re vitamins. You can read on them. They’re vitamins is all,” she said.
“Not all,” said Ben. “They spike your blood pressure. Now, for a woman with high blood pressure already, well, it’s what they call-what’s the word, Frank?”
“Contraindicated,” said Frank.
“That’s it. A woman who’s as good as a full-blown nurse would know that. See what we’re talking about?” he said.
Diane noticed that Tammy didn’t seem to be aware that she’d just admitted administering the drink to Norma Fuller. There was still a lot of uncertainty as to what part the drink played in Fuller’s condition, but until now it was only a guess what Tammy had been giving her.
“I want a lawyer,” she said.
“You can have one,” said Ben.
Frank stood up and scooped up the pages and began putting them in the briefcase.
“Oops,” he said, looking down at the pages, “I forgot to show you the account we found in Savannah-the one under the name Sarah Gleeson. That’s quite a bit of money you’ve been socking away. And these CDs, well, I’m impressed.”
Tammy glared at him. Her eyes suddenly took on a sheen, and tears rolled down her cheeks.
“If I were you, I’d ask your lawyer to make a deal,” said Frank. He and Ben left the room.
“Will you be arresting her?” asked Garnett.
“We have enough to hold her on fraud,” said Agent Mathews.
Frank and Ben walked through the door. Diane took another look at Tammy sitting at the table, silently crying.
“I think she’ll deal,” said Ben. “Frank pulled the rug out from under her there at the end. That money in Savannah and her CDs were her security. She thought she always had that to fall back on. That was a blow.”
He looked through the two-way window at Tammy sobbing.
“I’m sure she thought it was hidden,” added Ben. “She periodically took money out of one of her accounts as Tess Trueheart, or whatever name she was using, and went to Savannah and deposited it in person as Sarah Gleeson-a name with no ties to her other selves-no fancy name games.”
“How did you find it?” asked Garnett.
Ben pointed to Frank, who shrugged.
“It wasn’t hard. I found out where she took regular trips-from gas charges on her credit cards-and made a network map. Savannah was the hub. I sent her photograph to the banks in the area. She used Internet cafés to buy her CDs. Fortunately for us, she used a credit card there too.” He shrugged again.
No one asked any more questions. Diane wondered if Frank used David to help him. They both just loved a good algorithm. And David could do some scary stuff off the grid with computer searches and face recognition.
Frank smiled at Diane and winked.
“Let’s go talk with Slick Massey,” he said.
Slick was sitting in a room similar to the one Tammy was in. He was drinking an RC Cola. Diane noticed there was a second, empty bottle sitting on the table. Frank and Ben walked in and sat down.
“I have to go to the guy room,” he said.
“We won’t be long,” said Ben. “Miss Tammy has told us most everything.”
“Wha’chu mean?” said Slick.
“About the Social Security and retirement checks-the bank accounts.” Ben rattled off several of Tammy’s aliases.
“She wouldn’t have told you that stuff,” said Slick.
“How else would we know?” said Ben, looking completely innocent. “What we need from you is where you buried the bodies.”
“She wouldn’t have said we killed them, because we didn’t,” he said. “Sometimes people just die-’specially when they’re old. Their time just comes.”
“Is that what happened to all the elderly women Tammy brought to your house? Their time came?” asked Frank.
“They wasn’t healthy to begin with and they had no place to go. Tammy took real good care of them. She’d sit up at night working out a, uh, a medical plan for them. She was real good. Tammy’s smart. She told me it was good for them to pet my puppies. It was good for the puppies too. They need to be close to humans to get to be good hunting dogs. You know, some people think that keeping dogs by themselves and not feeding them much-keeping them hungry-makes them good hunters, but that’s not true. My dogs is the best around and it’s because I take good care of them. They like people and will hunt for them. They got good voices too. That’s important for Walker hounds. You want to recognize your own dog when it’s off in the woods.”
Frank and Ben glanced at each other and smiled.
“We’re glad to hear you take good care of your dogs,” said Ben.
“But, see, Tammy took good care of the old ladies too. Tammy gave them vitamins, showed them how to eat right, gave them funny movies to watch, and taught them good personal high jinks-she was good to them.”
Garnett and Agent Mathews snickered. Diane shook her head. Frank and Ben just smiled again.
“We’re prepared to believe that,” said Ben. “But we still need to know where they are,” he said.
“Can I talk to Tammy?” he asked.
“Not right now,” said Frank.
“Is she all right?” he said.
“She’s fine,” said Frank. “But this isn’t the most pleasant place to be. You know that.”
“You need to come clean,” said Ben. “It will be better for you and for Tammy. If you didn’t kill anyone, then there shouldn’t be a problem.”
“We didn’t kill nobody,” he said, then closed his mouth.
“Maybe you let them die,” urged Ben.
“How do you let somebody die? People don’t need my permission,” he said. “You get old, you die.” He brushed his hair from his face and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. “Am I going to have to get me a lawyer for you to let me go take a leak?” he said.
“Just a couple more questions,” said Ben. “Why did you chase Dr. Fallon?”
“I thought she might be hurt,” he said.
“Slick,” said Frank, “we are past that explanation. We know she saw the skeleton on her car. Even the sheriff admitted there were bones in the tree. Now. . why did you chase her? What were you going to do?”
Slick’s dark eyes darted back and forth. “I wasn’t going to hurt her. Just make her forget.”
“Make her forget?” asked Frank. “How?”
“Nothing bad. Just give her some medicine to make her forget,” he said. “Then take her to the hospital and say she wrecked. Which she did.”
“Medicine like Rohypnol, roofies?” said Frank.
“Maybe,” he said. “It don’t hurt you. Just makes you forget,” he said. “That’s all we wanted-for her to forget she saw the skeleton.” He stopped and looked at each of them. “You see,” he added, “we didn’t want to get blamed for it. We didn’t know how it got in the tree.”
“Just one more question,” said Frank. “Tell us about the fight with Roy Barre over your land.”
Chapter 38
Slick held up his hands, palms forward, and pushed the air in front of him.
“Whoa, now. You ain’t gonna mix me up in that. No way. I ain’t got nothing to do with what happened to the Barres or the Watsons.”
�
�Who do you think did it?” asked Frank.
“Been some talk about some crazy person running around in the woods. Maybe that woman-she was acting kind of crazy.”
Garnett looked over and smiled at Diane.
“You mean running away from someone who was going to drug her?” said Frank. “That kind of crazy?”
“She didn’t know I was gonna drug her. She didn’t know what I was gonna do,” said Slick.
“Exactly,” said Frank.
Slick looked confused.
“Just tell us about your disagreement with Barre,” said Frank. “What was that about?”
“It was mostly between Daddy and Roy. Roy’s land joins mine-what used to be Daddy’s before he died. The property line between us is a creek, which is dumb, if you ask me, ’cause creeks change. Hargus Creek has always been the property line. But there’s two creeks running side by side with about fifty acres between them. Roy said Hargus Creek is the one nearest us. That give him the fifty acres. Daddy said no, Hargus is the one closest to the Barres-which give the fifty acres to us. See? That was the feud-or, at least, part of it. They argued over it for years.
“Daddy needed some money, so he cut the timber on the fifty acres, and Roy caught him at it. There’s some law that says if you cut timber on somebody else’s land you gotta pay three times what you can get out of it. Well, if Daddy had three times what he could of got for the timber, he wouldn’t of needed to cut it.”
Slick brushed some of his stringy blond hair out of his eyes.
“Anyways, it got mixed up in court. Daddy always told me to stay out of court, ’cause it ain’t never fair, it costs a fortune, and the damn lawyers end up with all the money. Well, there Daddy was in court having to pay a lawyer to tell him he was wrong to cut the trees and he’d have to pay up. Weren’t fair. Fifty acres was nothing to Roy. He had thousands. We only had a couple hundred, on account of my granddaddy sold most of it off to the paper company years ago when the land belonged to him. And Roy was only winning ’cause he found some map that showed Hargus Creek where he claimed it was.”
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