Faye Kellerman - Decker 06 - Grievous Sin

by Grievous Sin(lit)

That you were imbalanced, girlie. Decker said, 'That she thought she was doing what was best!'

  'That's a laugh,' Tandy muttered.

  'A mother deceiving her own daughter like that,' Marge repeated. 'You must have felt such betrayal.'

  'To say the least.' Tandy flipped her hair off her shoulders again. 'I know what you're doing. You're trying to build rapport. Get me to confess something. If you're looking for suspects, arrest my parents. They were the ones with the kid.'

  'Your parents are being dealt with,' Decker said.

  'That's good. I hope a judge locks them up and throws away the key.' She was suddenly impatient. 'Look, Marie's missing, not me. If I was going to kidnap a kid, do you think I'd be stupid enough to drop it off with my parents, then stick around?'

  No one spoke.

  Crazy like a fox, Decker thought.

  Tandy said, 'I haven't talked to my parents in years. I didn't even know they were back together again.'

  'Bet you'd never thought that would happen,' Marge said.

  'You're right about that,' Tandy said. 'Life's full of surprises. Anyway my feelings about my parents have nothing to do with this kidnapping business. I'm still here, guys, in case you haven't noticed. I'm going about my daily life. Marie's gone. And talk about motivation for wanting a baby. Jeez, what can I say?'

  'What can you say?' Marge asked.

  'If you'd spent as much time on Marie as you did on me, you'd know that Marie's going through menopause. She's only forty years old. The whole thing was a real shock to her system. She probably flipped out.'

  Decker said, 'Marie began treatment for menopause less than a year ago. If you haven't seen Marie in over a year, how'd you know about her condition?'

  Again the twitch.

  'I never said Marie didn't call me. But we weren't close anymore. Not like we used to be.' Tandy smiled. 'My choice. Marie turned out to be overbearing, just like...'

  She stopped talking. Decker filled the blanks. 'Overbearing like your mother?'

  'You said it.'

  'Marie looks like your mom,' Decker said.

  Tandy twitched. 'So what?'

  'Ever met Marie before you worked at the Golden Valley Home?' Marge asked.

  Kill her

  Shut up

  Kill her

  Marge repeated the question.

  Kill her

  Shut up! Shut up, shut up—

  'Tandy?' Decker asked.

  'If you're asking do I know that Marie had an affair with my father twenty years ago, the answer is yes.' Her eyes were moist and shiny - like newly lacquered ebony. 'So what! My father had affairs with lots of women. He's a jerk... an evil jerk!'

  'He had affairs with lots of women but he fell in love with Marie,' Decker said. 'In fact, I do believe Marie was the reason your parents got divorced.'

  Tandy twitched. 'I don't remember much. I was five years old.'

  'What do you remember?'

  'Only that my life was falling apart... my mother's anger.' She stared at the wall, then refocused on Decker. 'It's history. And it has nothing to do with this baby. Either charge me or let me be.' Her eyes glazed over. 'Let me be in peace... please.'

  Once again, Decker and Marge exchanged glances.

  'How'd you find out about your father and Marie?' Marge asked.

  Tandy blinked rapidly. 'I just did.'

  'You just did?' Decker said.

  Tandy bolted up from her seat and began to pace. 'Look, I spoke to you guys without a lawyer because I didn't do anything wrong. But if you keep hammering away at my past, I'm going to walk out this door—'

  'Why were you using Lawrence McKay's nursing license, Tandy?' Marge asked.

  Kill her

  The high one.

  She hated the high one

  The high one was malevolent. Malevolence. The wicked queen in Snow White. Mirror mirror on the wall—

  'Tandy, why were—'

  'Stop!' Tandy whirled around and glared at Marge.

  'Just... oh now, I get it! It's dig-up-dirt-on-Tandy time.

  Maybe I should get a lawyer.' Decker pushed the phone across the table until it rested

  in front of Tandy. 'Be my guest.' Tandy stared at the machine. The room fell silent. Decker said, 'Your dad was evil, Tandy?' Tandy looked at him blankly. 'They both were.' 'Your father and Marie?' Marge said. 'Or your father

  and mother?'

  'All of them,' Tandy said softly. 'They're all very evil people.'

  'Including Marie,' Marge said.

  'Including Marie,' Tandy said.

  'How did you find out about Daddy and Marie?' Decker asked.

  'I just did.'

  'Did you recognize Marie when you saw her at the Golden Valley Home?' Marge said.

  Tandy's eyes became sharp and focused. 'Are you asking me if I recognized someone I last saw what I was five?'

  'Why are you using Leek McKay's license, Tandy?' Decker asked.

  'Because it was convenient. I didn't want to have to go back to school just to learn things I already knew! Marie said I was better trained than most RNs she worked with. Why should I waste my time?'

  'Because it's illegal to use someone else's license.'

  'So arrest me!'

  Decker looked at the tape recorder. She had him. Yes, be could arrest her on the petty charge of impersonating a licensed professional. But the collar would make him look stupid and petty. The woman was dancing around his traps. She was the sanest person he'd ever met.

  'Look,' Tandy said, 'you have nothing to connect me to this kidnapping. You don't even have anything to connect me to Marie. The only thing you have is my parents with a baby that Marie kidnapped. Marie probably panicked and thought of old Geoffrey. Like you said, they used to be lovers till she dumped him. Maybe she thought she could play him for a sucker. 'Cause that's what he was.'

  'If you were only five years old, how'd you know Marie dumped your father?' Marge asked.

  Kill her, the whore!

  You're a whorel

  Again, Tandy's eyes blinked. 'Mom told me.'

  'So you knew Marie was your father's lover when you met her at the Home.'

  'No.' Tandy shook her head. 'No, I didn't. My mother never mentioned Marie's name. Just called her the whore. Mom always referred to her as the whore.'

  Consistent with the way Hetty spoke. Decker said, 'So how'd you find out that Marie was the whore?'

  'I don't remember.'

  How did she find out? Decker wondered. Was Marie's name buried in her subconscious? Did it pop up when she actually met Marie again? Or did Tandy come across some tangible evidence of the liaison? Maybe while she was staying in Marie's apartment she saw something. Yet Decker had combed Bellson's apartment and hadn't come up with a thing. He looked at Tandy. She smiled slowly.

  Back in control.

  'Look, even my parents aren't saying I have anything to do with this. So you've got nothing on me.'

  'How do you know what your parents are saying, Tandy?' Marge asked.

  'If they'd implicated me, you wouldn't be floundering. Either arrest me or let me go.'

  'You falsified your credentials,' Marge said. 'That's illegal.'

  'So I won't work as a nurse anymore. Can I go now? Or are you going to charge me with impersonating a nurse?' Decker was quiet. She fit the profile of a baby kidnapper - an unbalanced person who longed for a child. To wit: the pseudocyesis. But he had nothing on her. On her parents, yes. On Marie, yes. But nothing on her!

  Maybe she didn't have anything to do with the kidnapping.

  It was a little thing that bugged him. That one unanswered question. How did Tandy find out about her father's affair with Marie?

  Surely Marie didn't tell her. Why would she do that?

  And she couldn't have come across something in Marie's apartment that clued her in. Decker had scoured the place. Nothing about Marie's past except some old books. No letters, no photographs in her desk—

  Her deskl

  The key under
it.

  The frigging lock box!

  He stood, gave a quick glance to Marge, then smoothed his mustache. 'You know your apartment is being searched. We pulled the warrant.'

  Tandy shrugged. 'Go ahead. You won't find anything.'

  Decker leaned against the back wall. 'Sure you don't want anything to eat?'

  Tandy twitched.

  Kill him

  Shut up! Just go away

  The voice receded.

  'No, I don't want anything to eat!'

  'No need for the hostility,' Decker said.

  'I'm not being hostile,' Tandy retorted. 'I think I'm

  being very friendly considering the circumstances.'

  'You ever been to Marie's apartment before, Tandy?'

  'Of course I have.'

  'When was the last time you were there... in Marie's apartment?'

  Tandy shrugged. 'Maybe a year ago.'

  'You weren't there... let's say... four days ago?'

  'No.'

  'What if I were to tell you I had witnesses who said they saw you there.'

  'I'd say they were lying.' Tandy's eyes were hot and angry. They met Decker's straight on. 'You have no witnesses. 'Cause I wasn't there.'

  'You haven't been in Marie's apartment lately?'

  'No!'

  'You didn't come in and maybe rewind her phone messages?'

  'No!'

  'Tandy, would you take a lie-detector test for me, then?'

  Kill! Kill!

  'Fuck you!' Tandy said out loud.

  Decker was surprised by her vehemence. The girl blushed.

  'Not you... never mind.' Tandy twitched. 'What do you want from me?'

  'Sure you haven't been in her apar—'

  'I already told you - noV

  'Which means if we search your condo, we're not going to find anything belonging to Marie. After all, last time you saw her was about a year ago, right?'

  That got her. Tandy turned pale.

  Kill him!

  The high one.

  Kill him, kill him!

  Evil!

  SHUT UP!

  'Tandy?' Decker said.

  She twitched and blinked. Her body became a series of small spasms. 'Marie gave me lots of stuff. She liked me... loved me.'

  'Gifts are one thing,' Decker said. 'I'm talking about personal belongings of Marie's. Things like maybe a lock box filled with letters and photographs—'

  'So Marie gave me the box for safekeeping. So what?'

  'Ah, so you do know what I'm talking about,' Decker said. 'You know about the box because you discovered it while you were staying with Marie during your so-called pregnancy? Of course, we all know you weren't really pregnant. Not like the first and only time.'

  Kill him now

  Decker said, 'The second one was all in your imagination.'

  Kill him!

  No.

  Yes.

  No, you're not real!

  Kill him. KILL HIM!

  'Tandy, are you here?' Decker asked.

  A glow spread across the young woman's cheeks. 'Marie gave me the box and you can't prove any different!'

  'Why would she give you her lock box without the key?'

  'Who says I don't have the key?'

  'I have the key, Tandy.'

  'So she gave it to me without the key.' Tandy shrugged. 'She didn't want me looking inside.'

  'You're right about that, Tandy. I don't think Marie wanted you looking inside. Because the box held all her personal mementos, some of them very, very private—'

  'Shut up!'

  Decker leaned across the table. 'But you snooped anyway.'

  'Shut up!'

  'You found it while you were staying at Marie's, recovering from your shock at not being pregnant for a second time—'

  'I don't have to listen to this.' She closed her ears and began to hum. 'I can't hear you!'

  Decker yanked her hands from her head. 'Tandy, Marie didn't give you any box. You stole it from her apartment—'

  'Shut! Up!'

  'And we both know why Marie wouldn't have given you the box. It contained love letters and photographs of her and your father. Probably very graphic love letters—'

  'Shut! Up!'

  'Man, what betrayal you must have felt!' Decker added. 'You thought you'd found an angelic mother in Marie, and irony of ironies, she turned out to be the very bitch that broke up your parents' marriage!'

  Tandy jumped out of her seat and threw the tape recorder against the wall. 'SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!'

  Decker stopped talking. Tandy grabbed her hair.

  'SHUT! UP!'

  'I'm not talking,' Decker said.

  'NOT YOU!!' She sobbed gently. 'THEM!'

  Them? The voices! Decker realized. The panic seized him suddenly. The girl is unbalanced, you moron!

  Decker said to the mirror, 'Can I get Sergeant McKlintock in here?'

  'I'll get her,' Marge said.

  Tandy threw herself at Decker, hugged him as tight as she could. 'MAKE THEM STOP! PLEASE!'

  She started to hyperventilate. Decker's heart did triple time. He shouted, 'Get me Donna, damn it!'

  The mirror answered, 'She's coming!'

  'MAKE THEM...' She sobbed and gasped, her lips taking on a bluish tinge. 'MAKE THEM... STOP!'

  A moment later, Donna McKlintock rushed into the interview room. She had been with the department for twenty years, the last ten serving as the on-site consultant psychologist, having earned an MFC in nightschool. Over the years, she had counseled many victims of crime -both civilians and cops. Decker hoped she knew her stuff. Solidly built, she took her strong arms and peeled Tandy off Decker's body. The girl immediately leeched on to Donna.

  'Make them stop!' Tandy begged the doctor.

  Donna took a firm grip on the girl and began to walk her around the table. 'You're safe here, Tandy. You're safe!'

  'But they're here!'

  'You're safe now, Tandy!' Donna reiterated. 'While you're with me, I won't let anyone hurt you. And I won't let you hurt anyone, okay?'

  'Then promise me you'll make them stop!'

  Donna began to lead her out of the room. 'We'll talk. While you're with me, I won't let anyone hurt you. And I won't let you hurt anyone!'

  'Promise?'

  'Promise.' As they left the room, Decker looked at Marge, then ran his hand over his face. At times like these, practicing estate law looked downright tempting.

  Inside the interview room, Decker paced. 'I can't believe I was that stupid!'

  'Stop flogging yourself.' Marge took a deep breath. 'Need I remind you that someone was murdered?'

  Decker stopped trampling the ground. 'The body in the Honda was Lily Booker. Hennon made the ID this morning.'

  'So stop thinking about Tandy and start concentratng on the real victim!'

  Decker said, 'We still don't know that Tandy did it.'

  'We don't know she didn't do it. She certainly is crazy enough to do it!'

  'What freaked me out was how fast she turned!' Decker exclaimed. 'I thought she was being sly... clever.' He blew out air. 'Then all of a sudden...' He rubbed his hands together. His heart was still trotting.

  Marge said, 'For what it's worth, you put a whole new slant on the case with that lock box thing. I'd forgotten all about it.'

  'So that's how Tandy found out about her father's affair. She was snooping in Marie's apartment and came across some pictures or letters. So what! We've got nothing substantial to tie her to the kidnapping and murder.'

  Marge said, 'I think we got enough to book her. She has no real alibi as to where she was at the time of the kidnapping. She fits the profile of a baby stealer. Pete, the

  baby was found in her parents' place.'

  'It's all circumstantial. They've stated that Marie, not Tandy, gave them the baby.'