by Grievous Sin
“I’m on the phone. Take a seat. I’ll be off in a minute.”
The nurse disappeared behind a closed door, and Decker walked around the generic apartment living room—shagged brown carpet and white walls. A six-foot sofa provided the seating for the area. It was upholstered in brown-and-white-striped fabric and had brown Naugahyde strips around the couch’s sides for decoration. Facing the sofa, against the wall, was a sixteen-inch color TV on a metal stand.
The back end of the living room bled into a dining area filled with a Formica-topped round table and four chairs. To the right was the kitchen stocked with a freestanding stove and fridge, but it did have a built-in dishwasher. A homemade installation job, judging from the carpentry that surrounded it. On the wall were samplers, one of which read Busy Hands Are Happy Hands in ornate embroidery scroll. He didn’t have time to read the others, because Darlene had returned. She sat down on the sofa and clutched her hands.
“Have a seat.”
“Thank you.” Decker sat down on the opposite end of the couch and pulled out his notebook. “I just finished speaking to Lily Booker’s mother. I’m not in a very good mood. Let’s both try to be as cooperative as possible.”
“Lily’s mother?” Darlene sounded hopeful. “So Lily is with her mother!”
“No, Darlene,” Decker said. “Lily is not with her mother. There’s a possibility that Lily might be the body we found in Marie’s burned-out Honda. I had to ask Mrs. Booker for her daughter’s dental X rays to see if they match the teeth of the body.” He shuddered, rehearing the woman’s sobs, then looked at Darlene. She seemed stunned, her eyes watering.
“I can’t believe…are you saying…are you sure?”
“I’m not sure of anything yet.” Decker’s eyes went to the blank page of his notebook. He wrote down Darlene’s name and the time and date. “When was Lily Booker supposed to show up for work?”
Darlene didn’t answer, her eyes moist and glazed. The mottled face had turned ashen. She looked ill.
“Darlene, do you need a drink of water?”
Slowly, Darlene shook her head. “What about the baby?”
“We’re still searching.”
Darlene gazed at the wall. “If what you say is true, then I’m responsible….”
“Responsible for what?”
Again Darlene was silent. Decker said, “Darlene, when was Lily supposed to show up for work? I’m trying to get a time frame. I need your help.”
Finally, Darlene whispered, “Lily showed up for work around eleven.”
Decker jerked his head upward. “Come again?”
“Lily’s shift started at eleven….”
“She showed up for work?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you tell me she called in sick?”
“Could you stop yelling?”
“Just answer the question, Darlene. On the phone this morning, you told me that Lily Booker called in sick.”
“I was protecting her….”
“From what?”
“I didn’t want her to get into trouble for leaving early. Especially since Marie told me she had been called away for a family crisis. I didn’t think it was fair to involve—”
“Wait, wait, wait!” Decker realized he was shouting and lowered his voice. “I’m confused. Start from the beginning.”
“Oh, Sergeant!” Darlene burst into tears. “I really messed up this time!” She buried her face in her hands and sobbed openly.
Decker leaned back on the sofa and ran his hand over his face. He waited until the weeping subsided, then said, “Darlene, when did Lily show up for work?”
Darlene dried her eyes with a tissue. “At the beginning of her shift. She showed up at eleven.”
“So Lily came to work.”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell anyone who questioned you about that, did you? Because you were protecting her.”
“Yes. I didn’t see the point of getting her involved if she wasn’t even there.”
“But she was there, Darlene. She may have been involved. Or she may have been a victim. Either way, you should have let us know everything. We could have been looking for her. We should have been looking for her!”
Darlene’s face crumpled. “Yes, I know.” The sobs came back. “I’m sorry I messed up! You maybe could have found her. And I didn’t tell you, so you didn’t even know. In my own way, I’m responsible for that girl’s death!”
Darlene rushed out of the living room and slammed the door to the bedroom. Decker followed, afraid of what the nurse might be contemplating. He found her on her bed, weeping into her eyelet-trimmed pillow. Chewing on his mustache, he wondered how Rina was doing. She seemed okay when he left this morning, but she was so fragile right now. Just like this sobbing woman. Decker’s focus fell upon Darlene. He felt her pain. She was trying to protect her trainee and she fucked up.
“Darlene, everyone makes mistakes. To equate your mistake with murder is absurd. Let’s work together. Let’s find the bastard or bastards who might have hurt Lily or the baby. I want to get them before they can hurt again. But I need your help.”
Darlene cried out, “I don’t deserve to be a nurse! Nurses help people, not put them in danger!”
“You help people. You’re going to help me. Now I want you to focus in on that horrible day. I need a time frame if I’m going to figure out what happened. Stop your crying and concentrate!”
Still sniffling, Darlene sat up, eyes crimson and swollen. “We should go back and talk in the living room.”
“Yes, that would be a good idea.”
The two returned to the living room. After Decker reorganized his thoughts, he asked, “When did Marie tell you that Lily had left the hospital due to a crisis in the family?”
“I’ve got to think about it.” After a long period of silence, Darlene said, “When I met her in the hall…the last time. She said she was going back to Nursery J ’cause Lily had to leave. Must have been ’bout an hour or so before we…we discovered the missing baby.”
“So that would make it what time?”
“Around midnight, twelve-thirty that morning,” Darlene mumbled. “I think. I remember Lily hadn’t been on shift all that long, maybe an hour. But I talked to her several times before she left. That’s why I didn’t…I saw no reason to penalize her for a family crisis. I was wrong, Sergeant! Not that it does Lily any good, but I was…”
The tears started coming. Decker broke in, “Did Marie seem upset when she told you about Lily’s crisis?”
Darlene nodded and wiped her eyes with a crumpled tissue. “But I just figured it was because without Lily, we were real short-staffed—working with a skeleton crew.”
An apt choice of words, Decker thought. His face must have registered cynicism.
“I know, Sergeant. Your wife and baby were there. You must be very upset to hear insider stuff like this. I wish I could say it was a freak thing, but it isn’t. We often have to do double or triple our load because some cheapskate administrator would rather have new office furniture than hire needed staff.” The nurse put her hand to her mouth. “I suppose you’re not interested in hospital politics.”
“I am, but not right now,” Decker said. “So tell me about Marie. She was upset?”
“Yes. She told me to float in nurseries A through F, and she’d take care of nurseries G through L. She told me to check in with her in about an hour.”
“And you didn’t see her after that?”
“No.”
“Did she have blood on her uniform?”
Darlene’s eyes widened. “No, I don’t think so.”
“Did she seem messy or disheveled?”
“I don’t remember real clearly. Just that she was in a hurry. She was walking fast, mumbling about Lily as she walked. I figured she was jogging ’cause of the workload.”
“If Marie was headed back to Nursery J, who’d been watching the babies in Nursery J?”
“Probably no on
e, with Lily gone.” Darlene looked down. “Dear Lord, what I’m telling you. Opening myself up to a dandy lawsuit…not to mention the hospital. I’ll probably never work in the city again.”
“I’m not going to sue anyone. Lourdes Rodriguez is another story. So the babies were left alone?”
“They may have been. Chris and a few temps were helping me. Marie had a few temps as well. Maybe one of the temps was watching the nursery.”
“Either way, that’s understaffed to me.”
“That’s true. If it’s any consolation, Sergeant, I assure you that’s not our standard procedure.”
Decker didn’t answer.
“I know. I must seem like a negligent person. I also should have told you about Lily. It just never dawned on me that Lily could be involved. You must think I’m the stupidest person on earth.” Her cheeks became wet. “Another road to hell paved with good intentions.”
“I’ve had a few of them myself, Darlene.”
Darlene wiped her face. “That was a nice thing to say.”
“We’re all too human.” Decker tapped his pencil on his notebook. “Do you know a nurse named Tandy Roberts?”
“Tandy? Is Tandy involved?”
“You know Tandy?”
“Not well, but I knew her. She used to be very close to Marie. They had some kind of falling out. Poor Marie. She felt very hurt, though she didn’t say much. But I could tell.”
“Did you happen to see Tandy at the hospital the night of the kidnapping?”
“No. Why?”
“I don’t know. I’m grasping at straws now. It’s hard for me to imagine Marie murdering Lily…if the body is Lily…and kidnapping a baby all by herself. I’m assuming she had help. And this Tandy Roberts was at one time a close friend of Marie’s.”
“I haven’t seen Tandy in a couple of years.”
“You’re sure she wasn’t at the hospital that night?”
“I’m not positive. But Tandy’d be a hard woman to miss.”
“Did she ever work at the hospital?”
“Marie got her a part-time job at Sun Valley, but Tandy only lasted a couple of months. I thought she was a dull girl, but Marie was wild about her. Like I said, Marie always took pity on the underdog. But she really took a shine to Tandy. Like she was her own kid or something.”
Her own kid—a weird choice of words. Decker did some quick calculations. Roberts was around twenty-five, and Marie was forty. He frowned. Marie’s friend Paula had said that Marie had been around twenty when she had “lost” her baby. But maybe Paula was wrong. Maybe Marie’d had a baby at fifteen and had given her up for adoption. Maybe Tandy was that baby—the “lost” baby.
A big leap with a few holes. Surely, Lita Bellson would have noticed Marie’s pregnancy. When Marie was fifteen, she was still living with Lita. And the old woman distinctly told Marge that Marie never had babies, only abortions.
But perhaps the old woman was senile.
Worry about that one later on.
Decker said, “When I asked administration about Tandy, they told me she wasn’t on the hospital’s work roster. Wouldn’t she have been on it if she worked for the hospital in the past?”
“She was pulled from the roster because she had some trouble with her license. Marie told me she got that fixed up, though.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“Marie told me it was some clerical error, but I think she was covering for her. I don’t think she was licensed as an RN.”
“Tandy wasn’t a nurse?”
“No, she was an LVN—a Licensed Vocational Nurse—but not an RN—a Registered Nurse.”
“What’s the practical difference?”
“RNs have more training, higher status, and make more money. I never got the feeling that money was Tandy’s thing. But she was real interested in status. Being that much over-weight, I bet she wanted to be important at something. But it doesn’t make it right—morally or legally.”
Decker nodded in agreement.
“Marie said the rumors were garbage. That Tandy was an RN. But like I said, she was wild about Tandy. She was always attracted to the downtrodden.”
“Downtrodden?”
“Well, Tandy wasn’t exactly a basket case, but she was overly shy.” Darlene paused, then said, “Once I remember her crying in one of the supply closets. When I asked her what was wrong, she became flustered. Finally, I got her to tell me what was bothering her. She kept saying they were putting her down again.”
“Who was putting her down?”
Darlene seemed surprised by the question. “I don’t know if she ever said. I just assumed that she meant her parents. ’Cause of the way she was talking. ‘They always tell me I’m no good, I’m too fat, I’m a disappointment….’ Things like that.”
Decker was writing furiously. “What happened after you talked to her?”
“She stopped crying and went back to work.”
“So you knew her pretty well.”
“Not very well, but well enough to notice if Tandy had been in the hospital that night. Someone that heavy…the eye just can’t help but notice. I would have spotted her on a dime.”
“Darlene, suppose I were to tell you that Tandy is now around a hundred and twenty pounds—Vogue-model slim and beautiful to boot. What would you say?”
“I’d say you were pulling my leg. That girl was pathetic-looking.” She paused. “You are kidding me, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m not kidding you. My partner interviewed her. I’m telling you what she told me.”
“But the girl musta weighed over three hundred pounds! Her face looked like she was on steroids, she was so swollen up.”
Decker said, “Let’s suppose someone passed you in the hallway the night of the kidnapping. And all you caught was a glimpse of that person—someone weighing around a hundred twenty pounds. Think you would have recognized Tandy at a hundred and twenty pounds, Darlene?”
The nurse closed her eyes, then reopened them slowly. “I was very busy that night. Maybe I would have, but maybe I wouldn’t have.”
Hearing the RTO call out his unit number, Decker picked up the mike of the unmarked. Marge was put through a moment later.
“I got news.”
“So do I,” Decker said. “Should we meet at the station house, or do you want to grab a cup of coffee somewhere?”
“I can’t leave where I am. I’m watching Tandy’s Audi.”
“Okay, so I’ll come to you.”
“No, don’t do that!”
Decker was taken aback by Marge’s forceful tone of voice. “What’s cooking, Detective Dunn? Why don’t you want me crowding your space?”
Marge didn’t answer right away. Then she said, “I just don’t want the unmarked anywhere in sight. I think this gal is really clever.”
“Okay. So should we exchange info over the airwaves? Remember you’re on a cellular phone and that’s not private like a tactical line.”
“We’ll keep it short. You go first.”
“First just tell me if Tandy Roberts was working at Tujunga Memorial the night of the kidnapping.”
“She was, Pete, but she was off shift at eleven. So she could have taken a little drive over to Sun Valley Pres.”
“Great.” Decker recapped his conversation with Darlene Jamison. “It’s very possible that Tandy was there at Sun Valley Pres, and even people who knew her wouldn’t have recognized her. She could have been skulking through the halls, still dressed in her uniform, and even if Darlene had caught a glimpse of her, Tandy would have just looked like a thin, anonymous floater.”
“So the timing is on our side.”
“Now all we need is evidence linking her to the kidnapping or at least to Sun Valley.”
“We should go back to Sun Valley and pass around current pictures of Tandy,” Marge said. “See if anyone remembers seeing the slim version.”
“She hasn’t officially worked at Sun Valley for a couple of years. She was pulled from the w
ork roster because of licensing problems. Consistent with what Leek told you about her at Golden Valley Home. Seems the girl is passing herself off as an RN.”
Marge said, “You mean, ‘was passing herself off.’ Past tense. I asked about her license at Tujunga Memorial. They told me she was a licensed RN. Gave me her license number and everything.”
Decker thought a moment, then asked, “Is there a Board of Nurses’ Examiners in Sacramento?”
“I’m sure there must be,” Marge said. “They regulate just about everything except palm readers.”
“What about the tarot-card interpreters?”
“They have their own board,” Marge said.
Decker smiled. “Call up Sacramento. Find out about Tandy’s license from them. I’ll find out if Mike dug up any interesting gas purchases billed to Tandy.” He paused. “So, we have Marie and Lily at the scene, Tandy possibly at the scene. Where’s the thread?”
“Tandy and Marie both lost babies. Maybe one took the kid and the other is abetting. Maybe they were in it together.”
“Why would Tandy help Marie if Marie took the kid?”
Marge paused. “I don’t know.”
“So reverse it,” Decker said. “Why would Marie help Tandy if Tandy took the kid?”
Marge said, “Didn’t Darlene say that Marie treated Tandy like her kid? Maybe she was her kid.”
“You’ve seen both women,” Decker said. “Do they look alike?”
“No.”
Decker said, “Did Lita Bellson mention her daughter giving birth at fifteen? She certainly told you everything else about her daughter.”
“No, Lita never said anything like that. But Lita’s kind of out of it. Tell you what, Pete. Why don’t you pop over to Golden Valley and ask her?”
“I’ll do just that.”
“In the meantime, I’ll keep an eye on Tandy.”
“Right.”
