Dead Secret, page 38
part #3 of Diane Fallon Forensic Investigation Series
Diane remembered Robert Lamont when she saw him. He was the auburn-haired man who was at the funeral with his running-for-senator uncle, Steve Taggart, and his grandparents, Rosemary and Emmett Taggart. Lamont’s farm was larger than Diane had expected. It reminded her of Tara in Gone with the Wind—the run-down Tara, not Tara in her prime. Not that Lamont’s place was dilapidated. It was more shabby chic. The Greek Revival two-story columned house needed fresh paint, as did all the outbuildings. However, the yard was freshly mowed, the fields looked well-kept, and the black-and-white cows looked contented.
When their crime van pulled to a stop in the circular driveway, Garnett was already there. He informed them that the search warrant covered only the room in which Emmett had been shot.
“Damn,” said Diane. “Why?”
“The victim’s son, Steven Taggart, already had lawyers in the judge’s chambers when I went to get the warrant. They were very persuasive.”
“I think someone here helped Emmett Taggart orchestrate everything,” said Diane. “He couldn’t have done it by himself. I doubt he would have known how to find people like Valentine and MacRae.”
“That may be true. But the only crime scene we are working is the one in the study. That’s all we can do. No search of the rest of the house, no search of the grounds or outbuildings.” Garnett shook his head in disapproval.
“Jin, you wait in the van,” said Diane. “They pulled a fast one on us.”
He nodded. “Sure. We brought a computer. I’ll just entertain myself.”
“David and Neva, you two work the study,” Diane told them.
Emmett Taggart had not died but was in critical condition and had been removed from the scene by the time Diane entered the study where he had been shot. The room had a leather, wood and tobacco-stand ambience that said it was for men only.
Taggart had been sitting behind a mahogany desk when he was shot. There wasn’t much blood, just spots on the desk and chair and some high-velocity spatter almost invisible to the naked eye on the rug and desk.
Garnett ushered Diane into the parlor, where Mrs. Taggart was sitting on a love seat. She looked much the same as she had at the funeral, but wore a mauve pantsuit and a light pink silk scarf tucked around her throat, rather than mourning black. She was fidgeting with a piece of old yellowed lace, gathering it up with her fingers.
When Diane sat down across from her, she saw that the material in Mrs. Taggart’s hand was a lace collar. It was a moment before Diane realized that it was the same lace collar worn by the very young Mrs. Taggart in the snapshot found with Caver Doe.
Garnett seemed completely clueless as to the purpose of this meeting, but Diane thought she understood.
“Thank you for coming.” Mrs. Taggart’s voice was almost cordial.
Diane thought that odd. But she didn’t respond to her first impulse and say, That’s all right; I had to do the crime scene anyway. The woman was not as cold as she had been at the funeral. Diane dug deeper into herself to come up with more compassion. Sometimes sympathy fled her in the wake of everything she had to deal with.
“Why did you want to see me?” asked Diane.
“I want you to tell me what happened.”
“I don’t know for sure… .”
“All right, this stops right here,” a man in a dark, expensive-looking suit said as he walked into the room. The lawyer had arrived. He was followed by Robert Lamont. It was then that Diane noticed Lamont scratching, and the bandages on his arms. “Mrs. Taggart, you don’t have to say another word.”
“Get out,” said Rosemary Taggart, her mouth set and her eyes downcast.
“You heard the lady,” said the lawyer.
“I was talking to you, you sycophant.” She glared at him. “You aren’t my lawyer and I don’t want you here.”
The lawyer looked shocked, then sympathetic. “You don’t understand. I’m here to help.”
“You are here to do no such thing. And stop treating me like I’m senile. I have a lawyer and she’s on her way. Until she gets here, I’m talking privately to this woman. Now get out. I know enough about the law to know that when I say you aren’t my lawyer, you have to get out.”
“Grandma,” said Robert, “he only wants to make sure you are okay and don’t say anything to incriminate yourself. ”
“Just last week I had a thorough annual physical that included mental acuity. I am certifiably fit in mind and body. If you don’t leave, then I will leave with this woman so I can talk in private. You don’t know what business I have with her, so don’t presume that you are competent to take care of my needs.”
“I think we need to do as she says,” said Garnett. He seemed to take a great deal of pleasure in ushering the two men out of the room.
Rosemary Taggart smiled grimly. “I always include a mental checkup when I get a physical, for just such an occasion. I don’t trust my family—God help me.”
She bowed her head for a moment. Diane didn’t know if she was praying, falling asleep, or just organizing her thoughts. She brought her head up sharply.
“Tell me about Dale. Tell me what you think happened to him. You’ve seen him, touched his bones.”
“Mrs. Taggart …”
“Call me Rosemary. I’m never going by the name Taggart again.”
“Okay, Rosemary. It’s a guess, but it is based on what we have discovered. Dale Wayne Russell and Emmett Taggart were caving together. Through a mishap—I believe it was an accident, but I don’t know for sure—the railroad spike that anchored his rope pulled out of the rocks. Dale fell into a cavern from a considerable height and broke several bones.” Diane hesitated.
“Don’t leave anything out on my account, please.”
“One break, his shinbone, was a compound fracture. It broke through the skin and caused bleeding and later became infected. He also broke his ankle and wrist and had some internal injuries. We know that because of … We know that he did.”
Rosemary put a hand to her face and whimpered. “Please don’t stop. I need to hear this.”
“There was no way for Dale to climb out, and no way for Emmett to carry him out without help. Emmett got him situated and left him with water and a couple of Moon Pies.”
Rosemary smiled. “Dale loved his Moon Pies.”
“It is my belief that sometime while making preparations to go for help, Emmett hatched a plan to abandon Dale. He took Dale’s wallet so Dale wouldn’t be identified if anyone found him. But he and Dale had stopped in that morning at Ray’s Diner on their way to the cave. Jewel Southwell, a waitress at Ray’s Diner, was the only person who could tie them together that day. In order for Emmett’s plan to work, he had to get rid of Jewel Southwell.”
“Jewel was the woman Emmett said Dale ran off with. At first I didn’t believe it. I didn’t think Dale would do it, and I didn’t think she would leave her child. But as more and more people believed it, I just fell in with them.”
“Emmett took Dale’s Plymouth.”
Rosemary looked at the lace she caressed with her fingers and nodded. “I remember that car like it was yesterday. He was always polishing that car and working on it. He was proud of it.”
“Emmett somehow got Jewel out of the diner and into the car. I don’t know if he hit her on the head then, or waited until he got to the quarry. But at some point he struck her, probably with a tire iron, and killed her. The quarry lake was deep, and he knew that whatever was at the bottom of it would likely never be found. He pushed the car with Jewel’s body inside into the lake. He was probably the one who then started the rumor that Dale and Jewel had run off together. Jewel had a reputation around town that made it easier for people to believe.
“What Emmett didn’t know at the time was that a little fourteen-year-old girl saw him push the car into the quarry. She also may have seen him kill Jewel. Her name, her married name, was Flora Martin. All these years later, when my caving partners and I went into the cave and found”—Diane almost said Caver Doe—“and found Dale Russell and it came out in the paper, it started a chain of events in motion.
“Emmett, of course, recognized whose body it was and tried to have the bones and other evidence stolen. At the same time, a much older Flora Martin remembered what she had seen as a little girl and tried to blackmail Emmett, and Emmett had her killed.
“But Flora had left a letter with information in it for her grandson, Donnie Martin. Donnie tried to find the sunken car with Jewel in it, but he and his partner, Jake Stanley, were murdered by Randy MacRae or Neil Valentine, who were hired for the job.” Diane explained who all the various people were as she mentioned them.
“My museum was burglarized and threatened with arson by MacRae and Valentine in an attempt to destroy the bones of Dale and Jewel and the evidence that went with them. When those attempts failed, Emmett called me on the phone and tried to buy me off. And here we are.”
Rosemary nodded her head. “Dale and I were going to be married. I was pregnant. When Dale disappeared, Emmett offered to marry me and pass the baby off as his. Things are different now, but back then that was a godsend. But Emmett never let me forget what he did for me. Every argument we had, he threw it in my face that Dale left me pregnant and he had saved me. The swine, the lying, murdering swine.”
She shook her head. “It wasn’t just for me that he killed Dale.” She cast a shrewd glance at Diane. “I was listening in on the telephone conversation with you. I heard everything. With Dale’s disgrace and disappearance, Emmett became his grandfather’s heir. That’s how he built all this fortune. You see, Dale was the favorite in his grandfather’s eyes. And there was my fortune. Emmett made out well.”
“Mrs … Rosemary, I have to tell you that I can’t hold anything you say in confidence.”
Rosemary looked into Diane’s eyes and smiled a smile that looked to be born more from deviousness than kindness.
“Dear, I want a trial. I want a very public trial. Your testimony is what I want. I don’t care what you repeat about our conversation. Dale Russell was the love of my life.” Her eyes filled with tears that spilled down her cheeks. “My life could have been so different. I want the world to know what happened to him and what Emmett Taggart really was, what he really is.”
“Grandma, you wouldn’t do that to Granddad.” Robert Lamont had come into the room carrying a tray with two cups of coffee and set it down on the coffee table. “Mom and Uncle Steve are on their way.”
“Robert, dear,” said Rosemary. She patted the seat beside her. He complied. He looked to Diane like he had spent years doing what he was told. “You should have been told a long time ago. Emmett isn’t your real grandfather. I was carrying your mother when I married Emmett. Your grandfather was Dale Wayne Russell, Emmett’s cousin. Emmett killed your real grandfather and tried to cover it up. I didn’t know when I married him that he had killed Dale. All I knew was that Dale had disappeared.”
“No, that’s not true.” Robert Lamont was visibly shaken.
“Yes, it is true, Robert. Emmett has confessed it. Why do you think he treated your uncle Steve and his children with such favoritism? Steve is his child. Your mother is not his child. Look at that auburn hair of yours. No one on Emmett’s side of the family has that hair.” She smiled. “That’s Dale’s hair. Dale would have loved you. You look so much like him.”
Diane hadn’t realized it, but Robert did favor the reconstruction of Dale Russell that Neva had drawn. Rosemary’s words so stunned Robert that Diane thought he was going to faint. He stared at his grandmother and scratched his arms. Diane wondered how Rosemary’s resolve for the truth would hold up when she discovered the depth of Robert’s involvement.
Diane was willing to bet that the rash on his arms was urticaria—caused by dermestid bites. Unfortunately, there was no evidence to prove it. But she’d bet the fingerprint found in the university dermestarium would be his. She believed he was the one who’d stolen the dermestid beetles and used them to try to throw off calculations of the time of death for Flora Martin. Was he the one who killed Flora? Sliced her open to speed the access of the beetles in order to hasten her decomposition? If Jin could find the knife with the missing tip, that would be a slam dunk, but she suspected that it was in a landfill somewhere.
Robert looked sick. “I … I just wanted to tell you that Mom and Uncle Steve are here, and your lawyer.”
Diane saw it clearly now. Robert had become the man Emmett used to be—the unfavored grandchild who would do anything to gain favor.
Diane and Rosemary stood and she walked with the elder woman to the entryway to meet her children. They were talking to the family lawyer, ignoring Rosemary’s lawyer, who had just arrived. Garnett came in, and all of them started talking to him at once.
“I don’t like the way this was handled,” said Steven Taggart. “You’ll be hearing from the commissioner.”
“Shut up, Steven,” Rosemary said. “They have behaved fine, and I don’t want you being a bully. Chief Garnett, do you think we could dispense with the handcuffs? I promise I won’t run or try to hurt myself. As my doctors can attest, I am perfectly sane.”
Rosemary picked up her purse on the hall table and smiled at her children. “You’ll have to excuse me. Ms. Talbot and I have to go and plan my defense.”
She took Garnett’s arm and they walked out the door. Her children gaped and scurried after her.
Diane spotted David from the hallway. He was peeking out the door of the study. He gave her a thumbs-up.
Chapter 47
Diane went to the study before Rosemary’s relatives could return and question her. Neva was taking photographs of the bloodstains. David was taking samples.
“How’s it going?” she asked.
“I’m not sure why they restricted the search,” he said in a low voice, “but we have everything we need here.”
Diane raised her eyebrows. “What have you found?” She laid a hand on his arm, shook her head after seeing a reflection in the ornate mirror on the wall. She turned toward the doorway. “Can we help you, Mr. Lamont?”
“We were wondering when you will be finished.”
“Sir,” said Diane, walking over to him, leading him out into the hallway, “I’m sorry, but you can’t be here while we are processing the scene. My team is working as quickly as they can.”
His eyes darted around the hallway. He appeared to her as if he was looking for an escape hatch.
“If my grandmother confessed … I mean, do you really have to continue?”
“We are required to collect the evidence from the scene of the crime, regardless. But she didn’t confess.”
“What? I thought that was what you were discussing,” Robert Lamont said.
“What were you talking about?” Steven Taggart came in, his brows knitted together, a polished look of concern on his face. “I know you are just doing your jobs, but my attorney tells me that anything my mother said to you is not admissible. She is an elderly woman… . This has been hard on her.”
“That’s true,” said Steven’s lawyer, coming in behind him. “You can’t use any of it in court.”
Rosemary’s daughter, Dahlia Lamont, appeared in the large hallway. She looked like her mother—same bone structure, same build. Diane knew she was sixty-three, based on what Rosemary had told her about being pregnant when Dale Russell disappeared, but she looked older, too old to have a son in his thirties. Being the bastard daughter hadn’t been easy on her, even if she hadn’t known that she wasn’t Emmett’s biological daughter. Emmett knew and Diane guessed he made her feel it, if not know it.
“What is this about?” asked Dahlia. “What did Mother—”
“Don’t say anything,” said Steven through his teeth. “Just shut up.”
“Uncle Steven,” said Robert. He could clench his teeth as well as his uncle.
“Of course, I’m just distraught,” Steven said. “I’m sorry, Dahlia. I’m sure you are distraught too. I just didn’t want you to say anything the police technicians might misunderstand. We can have a family meeting when they are out of here.” He looked at Diane as if she were a houseguest who couldn’t take a hint.
“Mr. Taggart, your mother said little to me. She isn’t a stupid woman. She knew exactly what she wanted: information. She may be elderly, but she is not frail, nor is her mind diminished in any way, so you needn’t worry about what she may have said. We’ll get out of your house as soon as we can.”
A young woman dressed in a suit and carrying a briefcase came in holding an official-looking document. Garnett came in with her. He shrugged at Diane.
Steven’s lawyer looked briefly at the document. “You’ll leave now,” he said. “I have a court order stopping this invasion of privacy. You have your photographs and the samples you need. Get out and leave the family alone.”
Diane read over the document. It said that once they had inspected the scene in the immediate vicinity around the desk where the victim was found, they had to leave in a reasonable time. She had never seen anything like this. She wasn’t even sure it was legal, but in the time it would take her to challenge it, the family would have a chance to get rid of anything incriminating. Her cheeks flushed with anger. Amazing, she thought, what money will buy. She looked at the judge’s name and noted it for future reference.
“Very well. David, Neva.” Diane motioned toward the door. They came walking out of the study with a camera and an evidence bag.
“I need to see that,” the lawyer said.
Neva pulled the evidence bag back away from the lawyer’s reach. “It’s a sample of blood spatter,” she said.
“That’s evidence of the crime, collected under legal authority,” said Diane. “It has to remain in the chain of custody. No one but members of the crime scene unit can touch it until it is processed. I’m sure you know that.”
“What about the case?” said the lawyer, indicating the forensic kit.
