Dead By Dawn

by Juliet Dillon Clark

  “Marty was such a tight-wad with his own money,” She said disgustedly.

  “What about with your sister’s money?” Lindsay asked.

  “Oh, he sure knew how to spend that,” Cammie said sarcastically. “Luckily, my sister didn’t give him much access after he cheated.”

  “Do you think that Marty could have murdered Letty and their baby?” Lindsay asked.

  Cammie paused to think about that. “I don’t think Marty would have gotten his hands dirty. But I wouldn’t put it past him to have someone else do it.”

  “Did Marty have the money to pay some one?” Lindsay inquired.

  “I don’t know,” Cammie answered.

  Lindsay decided to switch topics. “At the time your sister was killed, you thought Marty did it.”

  “My sister wanted a divorce,” Cammie said.

  “Did Marty know this?” Lindsay asked.

  “Yes. He had been told. He also wanted everything. He was pissed off,” Cammie said.

  “But, hadn’t they lived apart for years at that point?” Lindsay offered.

  “They had. But, Marty has an ego. He couldn’t believe that Darla would leave him for someone else.”

  “Your sister had an affair?” Lindsay was surprised after all of the things she had heard about Darla Van Buren.

  “Yes. She met a man at the bakery who was visiting for the weekend. He lived in Los Angeles,” Cammie said.

  “Was she moving back down here?” Lindsay questioned.

  “No, he was moving up there. He is a successful writer. He could have worked from anywhere. He was renting a house in that area and thinking about moving before he met Darla.”

  “What was his name?” Lindsay asked.

  “Vincent Morgan,” Cammie answered.

  Lindsay looked surprised. “The mystery writer?”

  “That’s him. He’s a wonderful man. We kept in touch after my sister died.”

  “I heard that Marty had been running around on your sister for years. Why was he mad about the divorce?” Lindsay asked.

  “Money; pure and simple,” Cammie said. “He felt he was entitled to everything she had.”

  “That’s unreasonable. This is California. Wouldn’t he get half?” Lindsay stated.

  “He felt that she was mentally cruel to him all those years she cut him off from her money and affection. It was pathetic to hear him use that as an excuse,” Cammie said in a tone that conveyed pity.

  “So, this divorce was going to be a drawn out process,” Lindsay offered.

  “It would have been drawn out and expensive. He didn’t have a lot of money.”

  “Did he inherit everything when your sister died?” Lindsay asked.

  Cammie chuckled. “At least Darla got the last laugh. Darla had changed her will after she told Marty she wanted a divorce. She left money to a foundation we started together.”

  “What did Marty inherit?” Lindsay asked.

  “He got the houses and a couple million in cash,” Cammie said.

  “How much was Darla’s entire estate?” Lindsay inquired.

  “With all of the interest in daddy’s company, about forty million,” Cammie answered.

  “So, I want to be clear here. You are saying that if Marty had something to do with her death, he was expecting to inherit about forty million dollars?” Lindsay said.

  “More like fifty million with the homes and her business. Darla had a home in Los Angeles and her business was worth quite a bit of money. Marty sold both of those and kept the house in Templeton,” Cammie stated.

  “Why do you think the police didn’t believe you about Marty?” Lindsay asked.

  “Marty can be so charming when he wants to be. He is also connected there. I think that the police thought I was just a relative who couldn’t handle my sister’s death.”

  “What does this organization you and your sister started do?” Lindsay asked curiously.

  “Both of us love cooking. I went to Italy after college and I have restaurants in Miami, New York, and Los Angeles. Darla went to France and fell in love with baking. We started a foundation that provides scholarships for cooking schools around the world,” Cammie said proudly.

  “Marty had no idea that Darla left her money to this foundation?” Lindsay confirmed.

  “Apparently not. He seemed genuinely blindsided by the contents of the will,” Cammie confirmed.

  “Marty was probably legitimately entitled to half of her money. Why did she fight it?”

  Cammie looked pensive. “My sister was a nice lady. She endured Marty’s humiliation for years and didn’t say much.”

  “That’s it?” Lindsay said.

  “No, she had something on Marty,” Cammie said. “Something that could ruin him. She was trying to blackmail him into walking away with nothing.”

  “Why didn’t she just ruin him?” Lindsay asked.

  “Because, she was married to him and worried that she would become collateral damage.”

  “Collateral damage?” Lindsay asked.

  “She knew something that involved a crime that she kept a secret. She was afraid she would go to jail,” Cammie said.

  “Do you know what she had on him?” Lindsay asked.

  “I don’t know specifically. But I know it was bad.” Cammie said.

  “Did Marty have Letty Carlson killed?” Lindsay asked.

  “I think so,” Cammie said.

  “Did your sister know she and her baby, Janell were buried on that property?” Lindsay asked.

  “I think so,” Cammie said. “I also think other people were killed because of it.”

  “Do you know who else?” Lindsay asked.

  “I don’t know any specifics. I just know that Bing Taylor was involved with all of the murders. That’s all I know.”

  Lindsay let that sink in. “Are you saying that Bing Taylor was the person Marty paid to kill Letty and the child?”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s what Darla meant when she told me about it,” Cammie said. “Marty paid Bing Taylor to kill some other people too.”

  “Do you know who the other people were?” Lindsay asked.

  “I don’t. I just know that they knew about Marty and Bing killing Letty Carlson. They approached Darla about it and showed her evidence. They ended up dead too,” Cammie said.

  “Do you know when this was brought to Darla’s attention?” Lindsay asked.

  “I don’t know exactly when. She told me this about six months before she died,” Cammie said. “Maybe Vincent knows something. She was seeing him then.”

  Chapter 35

  Ellen Collins turned out of the parking lot from Canyon High School, where she had just dropped her son, Tyler, off for football practice. Santa Clarita was hot during the summer, but it the heat felt good to Ellen. She and her husband, Gabe, had moved there twenty years ago. Gabe and Ellen met in Las Vegas. Gabe was going to dental school at UNLV and she was working as a bartender at Circus Circus. Gabe stopped by to gamble with friends and chatted with Ellen for hours. Soon, they were an item.

  Gabe was from Santa Clarita. He planned on going back after dental school to go into business with his dad, who was a prominent orthodontist. When he graduated, he asked Ellen to marry him, and they moved to the suburbs, outside of Los Angeles.

  Ellen was driving over to the College of the Canyons to pick up her daughter, Ally, from volleyball camp. Her oldest son, Austin, had his driver’s license, but Ellen and Gabe had insisted that he do volunteer work over the summer to enhance his college resume. That left Ellen to do the chauffeuring. That’s what she felt like these days; the chauffeur. Drive one kid to practice, pick the other one up, and back to get the first one. Somewhere in between all that, she got the cooking, cleaning, and shopping done. Ellen thought, not that I’m complaining. My life could be a lot worse. She seemed to have it all; a nice house in Sand Canyon, and her kids went to good schools. Her husband was a well-respected orthodontist with a thriving practice. Ellen didn’t have to
get a job, like so many of her friends had to do in this economy. Kids always needed their teeth straightened; bad economy or not.

  Ellen felt lucky to have found such a wonderful man to take care of her. She had dropped out of high school. She was a rebel back in those days. She hated her parents, her siblings, and her stupid life. Once she started rebelling, her parents sent her to a private Catholic school that felt like a prison. Finally she ran away.

  Running away was harder than she thought it would be. First she headed down to live with some older friends in Newport Beach. She got a job waitressing and was able to scrape by. She got tired of the beach at the end of the summer and hitchhiked up to San Luis. There, she met some people at a bar who offered a place to crash. She found a job waitressing there and stayed on for a while. The house she lived in on Monterey Street was a creaky old home next to a motel. The hardwood floors slanted and the whole house shook when someone walked upstairs, but the rent was cheap and it was close to Cal Poly, so there was always a party to go to.

  One of her housemates, Tim Herron, went to school at Cal Poly. He had a job doing office work for one of the local farmers in the area. Tim wanted to be a CPA and was majoring in accounting. His schooling was going slowly since he was working his way through. Tim was proud that he was the first person in his family to go to college. Tim also didn’t want to work so hard. He was the king of easy money, get-rich-quick schemes. Tim was an odd guy. He could be charming, but he was also devious and could be vindictive and violent when he didn’t get his way.

  Ellen, however, was troubled lately. Her 11 year old daughter had suddenly showed a passionate interest in volleyball over the last year. Ellen guessed it only made sense because Ally was so tall for her age. The pediatrician had told her and Gabe when Ally was small that she would top out somewhere in the 6’ range. Obviously, she got that from Gabe’s side of the family. Both of Gabe’s sisters were almost 6’ tall and Gabe was six-foot-five inches tall. Ellen was happy that Ally was showing such passion for a sport. She hoped that it would delay the inevitable girl drama that was so prevalent in the news. Ellen had already seen signs of it in her youngest child.

  Ellen marveled at the differences between her boys and her daughter. The boys were completely oblivious to all of the drama around them. Tyler lived for football and Austin was a gifted rugby player. The only drama with those two was the constant arguing about whether football was a real sport. Ally, on the other hand, was always deeply entrenched in the drama of her clique. It worried Ellen, especially since Ally was such a people-pleaser. She seemed to be in a constant tug of war for the attention of the clique’s reigning queen bee, Cindy Allen. Ellen thought the Allen girl was a menace. Most of the time, she was just plain mean to the other girls. Ellen also didn’t care for her obvious boy crazy streak. She thought the girls were too young for this sort of thing.

  No, what really worried Ellen about Ally’s new passion was Gabe’s offer to take the whole family to the AVP event down in Hermosa Beach. Gabe had gotten Ally excited about seeing volleyball great, Tracy McCarthy and her current partner, Amy Wright, on tour. Gabe had bought tickets for all of them a couple of weeks before. Ellen already had a sick-day planned. There was no way she could show up at that tournament and risk being recognized.

  Chapter 36

  Gabe Collins bought tickets to all three days of the AVP tournament. On the first day, his wife woke up with a sore throat. Gabe decided to take his daughter, Ally, even though her mother wasn’t coming. The drive south on the congested 405 Freeway took about an hour. When they arrived in Hermosa Beach, parking was an obstacle. The Hermosa Beach AVP was considered the crown jewel of the beach volleyball tour. Finally, Gabe found a parking spot about a quarter mile from the pier.

  Gabe and Ally walked down to the pier. When they got down to the sand, it was wall-to-wall people; men, women, and children dressed in beachwear. Some rode bikes and skateboards. Others walked with friends or with their dogs. There were a few roller-bladers along the cement pathway connecting the Southern California beach communities of Redondo, Hermosa, and Manhattan Beaches. They walked down to the sand through the entrance to the tournament. The walkway was surrounded by colorful booths. Some of the booths were selling souvenirs; mostly volleyballs, hats, and t-shirts. Other booths were occupied by sponsors, giving out samples of their latest products.

  Father and daughter made their way to the gate at center court. Once their tickets were cleared, they walked into the courtside ticket area and sat down in the bleachers that were right down on the sand; the best seats in the house.

  Dan McCarthy was sitting in the front row with his daughters. Shana and Savannah were down in front of the stands with their shovels and pails, building and burying toys in the sand. Dan’s wife Leann walked up to her family, juggling hot dogs and sodas.

  “Phew, that line was long,” Leann said as she sat down.

  The girls came and sat down next to their mother. “I want ketchup,” Savannah said.

  Leann got the girls to settle in next to her and she started handing out food. Dan got up to grab some mustard from the bag. That’s when he saw the little girl sitting next to Savannah. He tried not to stare, but he couldn’t help himself. Leann saw the look on Dan’s face. “Is something wrong, honey?” she asked.

  Dan realized that he was staring. “No, nothing,” he said and went to her side to sit down. Dan finished eating.

  An event coordinator came over to their section and walked over to the girl that Dan had been looking at. “Hi, I’m Michelle,” she said to the little girl and her father. “We are short a ball-shagger for the next match. Would you like to do it?”

  Ally Collins looked at Michelle with a confused expression. “What’s a ball shagger?”

  “Like a ball girl. You get the balls and give them to the players during the match,” Michelle responded.

  Gabe Collins asked, “Like a ball person in tennis?”

  “Yes, exactly like that. It would be fun,” Michelle said in a chipper voice. “You get a t-shirt the players will autograph and you’ll have the best seats in the house. You’re on the court.”

  Ally looked at her dad and asked excitedly, “Please? Can I do it dad?”

  “She’ll be right here in front of me?” Gabe asked skeptically.

  “Yes, you’ll have an eye on her the whole time,” Michelle assured him.

  “Okay, I guess you’re in,” he said to Ally.

  Ally jumped up from her seat. “Yeah, what do I do?”

  “Follow me and we will get you a t-shirt. Then, I will bring you back here and the referee will tell you what to do.”

  Twenty minutes later, Tracy McCarthy and her partner came in and started warming up. The game started, but Dan could hardly watch. He kept finding himself staring at Ally Collins. He turned to Gabe Collins. “Your daughter looks like she’s having fun.”

  Gabe smiled. “Tracy McCarthy is her idol. She’s probably having the time of her life. I’m going to have to frame that t-shirt after she signs it.”

  “Where are you guys from?” Dan asked casually.

  “Santa Clarita,” Gabe said. “I’m Gabe Collins.”

  “Dan McCarthy. I’m Tracy’s uncle.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Gabe said.

  Tracy McCarthy and her partner won easily in two games. Ally Collins got her shirt signed and ran over to her dad squealing with delight. “Dad, I actually met Tracy McCarthy. Look!” She was pointing at her shirt.

  Dan got up. “Gabe, maybe I could ask Tracy to send you an autographed ball?”

  “That would be great. I hope it wouldn’t be too much trouble,” Gabe said.

  “Not at all. Are you going to be around today?” Dan asked.

  “We will. I think we’re going to walk around and watch some of the qualifiers that aren’t in the stadium,” Gabe said.

  “Tell you what. I’ll meet you back here at three o’clock with the ball,” Dan said. “Do you have a card on you?”

 
Gabe pulled out his wallet. “Do you have a pen? I’ll write my cell number on here in case we get lost.”

  Leann pulled a pen out of her purse and handed it to Gabe. Gabe wrote his number and handed the card to Dan. “Thanks. I really appreciate this.”

  “I’ll see you at three.” Dan said.

  Gabe and Ally walked away. Leann was looking at her husband strangely. “What was that all about?” she questioned.

  Dan shrugged. “What?”

  “You never tell people that you’re related to Tracy. Let alone, offer to get an autographed ball,” Leann said sternly.

  Dan gave up the innocent act. “She looks like Shana did when she was that age.”

  “Your sister?” Leann said, surprised that he would think about her after all of these years. “It’s been a long time since you’ve seen your sister. Why would you think that?”

  Dan reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He opened it up and fished out an old tattered picture and handed it to Leann. “Do you see the resemblance or am I crazy?”

  Leann looked at the faded photograph for a moment. She sighed and looked back at him. “It does look like Shana,” she conceded. “What are you going to do now?”

  “I’m not sure. I’ll meet them back here at three with the ball. Maybe by then I will have a plan,” Dan said.

  “Make it a good one. If you go about this the wrong way you’re going to look like a major asshole,” Leann said.

  Dan smiled. “That’s what I love about you. You always tell me what you really think whether I want to hear it or not.”

  Chapter 37

  Ally Collins ran into the house when they got back home. “Mom!” she yelled.

  Ellen came into the kitchen. “Hey, Sweetie. Did you have a good time?”

  Ally held out the volleyball. “It was awesome. I got to be a ball shagger for Tracy McCarthy. She signed a volleyball for me.”

  Ellen took the ball and looked at the autograph. “What’s a ball shagger?” she asked with interest.