by Grievous Sin
“Who do you think did it?” Marge said.
Beltran said, “What he thinks is irrelevant.”
“I’ll repeat what you said, Counselor. This isn’t a trial, just an interview.”
“I said a fact-finding interview.”
McKay blurted out, “I don’t know if Marie would have the strength. But Tandy does. She’s a strong woman.”
Decker knew Leek meant Tandy was strong in more than one way. “How’d you get the body out to the car?”
“Marie and I loaded the body on a gurney and brought it to her car. No one really saw us. At that time of night, hospitals are empty, and no one pays much attention to anybody in an official uniform.”
Decker knew that to be true enough. “Where’d you load the body? Front seat? Backseat?”
“Actually, we tried the trunk at first. But…we couldn’t…the limbs weren’t pliable. So we put the body on the floor of the backseat.”
Consistent with the evidence found. Decker had located Marie’s I.D. ring in the backseat. She’d probably lost it while she was placing the body in her car. “When did all this take place?”
“I don’t know….” McKay closed his eyes and opened them. “Maybe one, two in the morning.”
Decker said, “Leek, how’d you know a hammer did the damage to the body?”
“Marie gave me the hammer. She said get rid of it.”
“Did you?”
“Yeah. I dumped it.”
“Where?”
“In the canyon somewhere.”
“Which canyon?” Marge asked.
“Somewhere in Angeles Crest.” He cleared his throat. “Near where I…I pushed and burned…the car.”
“Why’d you pick the spot you did?” Decker asked.
“It…” McKay let out a bitter laugh. “It was a private spot where Tandy and I used to go camping. We used to do that once in a while. She loved to camp.” He paused. “I didn’t mind. It was a lot less public than her spending the weekend in my place. I hated to be seen with her.”
Decker kept his expression flat. “What was Sondra Roberts doing while you and Marie Bellson were loading the body inside Marie’s car?”
McKay finished his water. “I told you Tandy had taken off. I never saw a baby. I never saw her. I didn’t know anything about the kidnapping until I heard it on the news the next morning. That day, I spoke to Tandy at the gym—to ask about what the hell was going on. I didn’t want to be involved in a kidnapping.”
Decker nodded encouragingly.
“Tandy told me she didn’t know anything about a baby. Why the hell was I bothering her?” McKay shook his head. “She acted like she never even phoned me. Like she wasn’t even there that night. I don’t know who took the baby. All I know is that night, Marie was driving my car, following me up the mountain to get rid of the body.”
“You drove Marie’s car?” Marge asked.
“Yes. Marie drove mine. She wanted it that way. She knew I wouldn’t crap out on her if I was driving the car with a body in it. She was right. She followed me to the dumping spot. I swear I don’t know what Tandy was doing. News said the baby was found with her parents. So logic would say that Tandy took the baby to her parents. But I don’t know that.”
Decker paused, thinking about what he actually had on Tandy. So far, he could probably get a charge of accessory and make it stick. But with Marie missing, he had no surefooted evidence to back up murder and kidnapping. Nothing to prove that Marie didn’t do it. And maybe she did. He said, “You and Marie drove up the mountains in separate cars?”
McKay nodded.
“Did you stop at all?”
“Stop with a body in the car?”
“Stop for gas?” Decker asked.
“Oh, I get it.” McKay clutched his hands tightly. “We did stop once. So I could steal a hose…from someone’s front lawn.”
“A hose?” Marge asked.
“You used it as a siphon,” Decker said. “Less suspicious than buying containers of gas in the wee hours of the morning and more convenient. Then you doused Marie’s car with gas from its own tank. Very good, Leek.”
“I thought a long time to come up with that,” McKay said. “I’m glad you’re impressed.”
The guy was serious. Decker gave him a weak smile.
McKay said, “I swear that nurse was dead.”
“Where was Tandy?” Decker asked.
“I don’t know! Why do you keep asking me that? She was gone when I got to the hospital.”
“Where was the baby?” Marge said.
“I don’t know anything about a baby!”
Marge said, “Tell me about you and Marie in the mountains. What’d you do?”
McKay looked at his hands. “We drove up to the mountains, I doused Marie’s car with gasoline, then Marie and I pushed it off the cliff. It made a huge bang. Marie and I split as fast as we could.”
“You left in your car?” Marge stated.
McKay nodded.
Marge said, “Can you answer the question yes or no for the tape recorder. Did you leave in your car?”
“Yes, ma’am, Marie and I left in my car. I drove.”
“What’d you do with Marie?”
“Let her off in front of a building-supply place on Foothill. Her orders. That was the last I ever saw of her.”
“And Sondra Roberts?” Decker asked.
“I don’t know!”
“Something’s bothering me, Leek,” Decker said. “Lots is bothering me, but we’ll start with one thing at a time. You said you pushed the car over the mountain around two, three A.M. Trouble with that one is that the car didn’t burn until much later in the morning.”
“I know.”
“You know?” Decker said.
“I went back to the spot before I went to work at the home. You know…just to make sure.” McKay sighed. “The car was wrecked but in one piece. I panicked. I found the hose I’d used the first time and took gas from my own car. This time I made sure. I threw a burning rag….” He looked down. “Thing exploded like a nuclear bomb. I’ve never been so fucking scared in my life. The blast, the heat, the flames. I got out of there so fucking fast. I drove straight to work. Took a shower there.” He smiled at Marge again. “Then I met you a few hours later. Pretty good job of hiding my terror, huh?”
“Very good,” Marge said.
“I’ve done some acting. Actually, it was just playing volleyball on the beach for a beer commercial. But people in the business have told me I’m pretty good.” McKay rubbed his face. “Like that matters, huh? You guys got to believe me. That black girl was dead! And I didn’t know anything about the kidnapping until I heard the news. All I did was get rid of the body. Accessory. Like I promised you guys. That’s it! I swear!”
Decker didn’t speak for a long time. Finally, Beltran said, “Are we done?”
Decker looked at his watch. “Let’s take a break.”
“You’re not finished with your questions?” Beltran asked.
“No, Counselor, I’m not.”
“I don’t think my client has anything to add to his statement.”
“A few minutes?” Decker asked.
“Make it quick,” Beltran said. “We’ve been cooperative. But now I’m getting impatient.”
Decker nodded to Marge and Pomerantz. They followed him outside.
“What?” Marge said.
“We’re still not there as far as Tandy’s concerned,” Decker said.
“What are you talking about?” Marge said. “We found Marie’s lockbox in Tandy’s condo just as you predicted, Pete. We’ve got Tandy as an accessory based on Leek’s testimony—”
“But she wasn’t at the hospital when Leek came down. We certainly can’t pin her with murder and kidnapping.”
Marge said, “Leek said that Marie wasn’t strong enough to deliver those blows on Lily Booker’s head.”
“Since when is Leek an expert in forensics?” Decker said.
Marge turn
ed to the D.A. “What do you think?”
Pomerantz answered, “Tandy, for all her outbursts, never admitted to anything. Her parents said Marie dropped off the baby. We have Leek’s testimony and some circumstantial evidence, but without Marie, we can’t do much to Tandy. Too much reasonable doubt.”
Decker smashed his fist into a waiting palm. “I’m pissed. She’s going to walk with probation, I just know it. The girl is crazy. Probably homicidal crazy. She needs treatment! And she needs to be confined while she’s in treatment! We can’t let her out on the streets, and that’s what’s going to happen unless we have more dope on her. We can’t let her walk!”
“Think McKay has anything to do with Marie’s disappearance?” Pomerantz asked.
“You mean do I think McKay killed Marie?” Decker shrugged. “Who knows? I’ll tell you this much. I think McKay knows more than he’s letting on. I just feel it. The trick is how to get it out of him without Beltran pulling the plug.”
“Soon as he realizes we’re fishing for something bigger than accessory, he’s going to pull the plug,” Pomerantz said.
Decker kept hitting his palm with his fist. “Why did Leek agree to help Tandy out? Surely, he had to realize that embezzlement is a far less serious charge than being an accessory to murder and kidnapping. How’d she talk him into coming down to the hospital at midnight and helping Marie dispose of a dead body?”
Marge said, “She obviously has a lot of power over this guy.”
“Lots and lots of power. I’ve got to believe she has something bigger on him than just embezzlement!”
“Like what?” Marge said.
“I don’t know!” Decker punched his palm again.
“Why don’t you ask him?” Marge said. “As if he’d tell?”
“Funnier things have happened,” Decker said. “Why don’t you ask him, Marge? He seems to like you.”
“Fine.” Marge led the men as they came back into the interview room.
“What now?” Beltran asked.
“Couple more questions,” Marge said. “Please just bear with me, and then we can call it quits.”
“I can get out of here?” McKay asked.
“You discuss that with your lawyer.”
“But you said no jail time,” McKay began to protest.
Beltran said, “Lawrence, let’s finish up this interview, and then I can work on the bail, all right?” To Marge, he said, “Can we get on with it, Detective?”
“Leek, something’s…it’s all right if I call you Leek?”
“It’s fine.”
“Leek, all of us here can’t really understand why you helped Tandy out.”
“I told you she had dope on me.”
“Leek, there’s a mighty big difference between embezzlement and accessory to a murder.”
“So what are you saying, Detective?” Beltran asked.
“I’m just trying to figure out why he’d give Tandy—a girl who’d been blackmailing him for two years—ammunition to use against him.”
“My client’s motivation for accessory is irrelevant.”
“Maybe I was trying to get on her good side,” McKay said. “You know…pick up where we’d left off now that she looked so good.”
Marge said, “You’d want to pick up with a person who’d been blackmailing you?”
Beltran said, “I fail to understand where this is leading.”
“Yeah, maybe I would!” McKay said. “She looks real good now.”
“As I recall, didn’t you say she was a little off?” Marge said. “You said it repulsed you to have sex with her.”
“She looked and acted different back then,” McKay insisted. “She was so fat, I couldn’t even tell she was pregnant.”
Decker threw out, “That’s because she wasn’t.”
“What?” McKay whispered. “What’d you just say?”
Beltran said, “I think we’ve had enough of this interview—”
“Wait a minute!” McKay shouted. “I want to know why you said that, Sergeant!”
Decker paused. It was an offhand comment. By McKay’s reaction, he knew he’d touched upon something big. “When did she tell you she was pregnant, Leek? Was it around two years ago…September, October?”
McKay opened and shut his mouth. “How do you…?”
Beltran said, “Sergeant, I’m putting a stop—”
“She wasn’t pregnant, Leek.” Decker turned to Marge. “That was when she went to the doctor with her pseudocyesis—her false pregnancy.”
“That’s right,” Marge concurred.
“False pregnancy?” Leek cried.
“Let’s go, Mr. McKay,” Beltran said.
“No, wait a minute!” Leek rose to his feet. “Just wait a fucking minute! What do you mean, Tandy wasn’t pregnant?”
“Mr. McKay, I strongly advise you—”
“Shut up!” Leek shouted. “Just shut up and let me talk to this guy for a second. Let me figure something out, okay?”
Beltran bit his lip and folded his hands.
McKay sat down and said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Beltran. But this is really, really important. What do you mean Tandy wasn’t pregnant?”
Decker said, “When did she tell you she was pregnant?”
“Around…” McKay exhaled into his hands. “Around two years ago. Halloween time—just before or just after. I remember because she told me at the home’s big Halloween party. I almost threw up on the spot.”
Marge said, “Leek, as of November, two years ago, Tandy Roberts was not pregnant. When she told you, she may have thought she was. But she wasn’t.”
“You can prove that?”
“We have proof.”
“Holy fucking shit!” McKay blanched. “I got screwed for nothing!”
Decker waited.
“I can’t believe…all this time.” McKay kept shaking his head. “Shit! That little…” He looked at Marge, then at Decker. “She told me she got an abortion. You mean to tell me she was never pregnant?”
Marge said, “As of November two years ago, Leek, she was not pregnant.”
Leek wiped saliva away from his mouth. “She told me she was pregnant. She swore…she wanted to have the baby. I told her no way I’d do anything with her ever again if she didn’t get rid of it. She was fat! She was crazy! I didn’t want to be connected to this girl for life!”
The room was silent.
“I told her if she ever wanted to see me again, she’d have to get rid of it.” McKay clutched his shaking hands. “She kept stalling and stalling. And then finally, around Christmastime, she announced to me that she was too far along to get rid of it. That it…” Again, he wiped his mouth. “That it would be considered murder. Because the fetus was viable on its own.” He lowered his chin against his chest. “She said she’d have to find a doctor who’d be willing…she’d have to do it illegally.”
Beltran said, “Lawrence, I don’t want you saying any more.”
“It doesn’t matter now,” McKay said. “’Cause if she wasn’t pregnant, her whole story was bullshit!” He looked up at Marge and Decker. “Unless you’re lying to me.”
Decker said, “We’re not lying, Leek. Go on. What happened after she said she’d have to do it illegally?”
“I told her…to do it illegally. And I gave her a lot of money to do it illegally.”
McKay looked at his empty paper cup and squashed it.
“She said it would make us both murderers because the baby was viable. I said do it anyway. She made me sign this piece of paper. I don’t remember exactly what she had typed out. Something that said I ordered her to do it…to get rid of it. In case she got caught. I was so desperate for her to do it, I signed the paper.” He wiped his mouth a third time. “She’s been making me pay ever since.”
Decker nodded. McKay looked up. “I’ve got some other information for you.”
Beltran said, “Lawrence—”
“Let me handle this, Mr. Beltran. I’m in control now. In control for
the first time in two years.”
“What kind of information?” Decker asked.
“If you want to hear it, I want you to drop everything against me,” McKay said. “And I mean everything! I want to be able to walk off the witness stand a free man. I’ve had enough shit hanging over my head.”
“Tell me what you have, and we’ll think about it,” Pomerantz said.
“Not good enough.”
“I can’t help you if you won’t help me.”
“Let me talk to him first,” Beltran said.
“No games, please,” McKay insisted. “Yes or no. You want to hear what I have to say. It’s good. I guarantee you.”
“Leek, I can’t make a deal on that basis,” Pomerantz said. “Help me out. Give me a hint.”
“It’s about Marie Bellson.”
Decker looked at Marge, then at Pomerantz, but said nothing.
Beltran said, “Lawrence, if you were involved in any way with Marie’s demise—”
“Marie’s not dead!” McKay said. “At least so far as I know. I certainly didn’t kill her. You want to hear what I have to say?”
“Give me more of a hint,” Pomerantz said.
“C’mon, Mr. Pomerantz!”
Marge said, “Leek, we’re trying to help—”
“Okay. I think I know where she might be.”
“Good Lord,” Decker said. “Where?”
“All charges dropped,” Leek said.
Decker looked at Pomerantz. Pomerantz said, “If it pans out—”
“Uh-uh,” McKay said. “She may have split from where I think she is. I can’t be sure of that.”
“How about this, Counselor?” Decker said. “How about…if it can be shown that Marie was where Mr. McKay thought she was, we’ll drop charges against him.”
Pomerantz was quiet. Decker kept a neutral expression, starved for information on Marie. They needed something! Tandy had to be locked up. She was dangerous!
Finally, Pomerantz said, “All right. If we can show that Marie Bellson was at any time at the location pinpointed by Mr. McKay, I’ll drop all charges pending against Mr. McKay.”
“Right on!” McKay clapped his hands. “Could you have done any better, Mr. Beltran?”
