I woke at six thirty. Sleep hadn’t come easily last night, and I wondered if Hanna and Coby got any rest at all after I left them. I was also raring to get started with Tammy’s interrogation. She wasn’t going to get off easily anymore. It was obvious she was fully involved in the murders along with Marie, but we needed to find out what role she’d played in the events and why she did it.
After my shower, I filled a cup with coffee, buttered my English muffin, and took a seat at the breakfast bar. I needed to know how the night went for Hanna and the new addition to our family. I tapped her name, set my phone to Speaker, and set it down while I ate breakfast.
Hanna answered on the third ring. By the sound of her upbeat voice, I assumed the previous night went okay.
“How’d it go last night, honey?”
She chuckled. “Coby is a champ. We didn’t have a single issue. Well, actually, that isn’t true.”
My guilt meter kicked in. “Oh no, what happened?”
“Coby didn’t want anything to do with the dog cushion and insisted on sleeping on my side of the bed.”
Relief swept over me. “As long as that’s it, I think we can work out a plan of action.”
“Really? Pray tell.”
“Well, once you sell your house, we can move the queen bed into the guest room and get a king for the master. That way, there will be plenty of space for all four of us.”
I heard laughter on her end of the phone. “That’s a genius idea, Jesse, but right now, I have to take this dude outside, feed him, and get out the door.”
“Okay, and Bandit and I will be expecting you two for dinner tonight.”
“You sure?”
“Yep, may as well get them acquainted right away. I’ll invite Dean and Jackson over too. What can go wrong with three male dogs?”
“You’re braver than I realized, Jesse McCord. Okay, I have to go. We’ll catch up later in the day. Love you.”
“I love you too.”
I reached the precinct at seven forty-five, grabbed a freshly brewed cup of coffee, and took a seat at my desk. I had a busy day ahead and started filing the report on the chase that ended with Marie Booth’s death and two smashed vehicles. At least I didn’t have to file the paperwork and report to IA about the shooting itself. We also needed to track down the van’s owner and find out what happened to Brian Reynolds’s Encore.
After roll call and updates with Lutz, it was time to head downstairs. I called Bill and told him to put Tammy in the first box. Frank and I would be there in fifteen minutes.
With a half dozen questions written down so I wouldn’t forget them, I headed downstairs with Frank at nine o’clock. Tammy, dressed in an orange jumpsuit instead of her street clothes, sat at the steel table. She turned toward us as we entered then looked away when she realized who was coming in.
“Expecting someone else?” I asked to kick off the interview.
“You’re not even funny. Where’s Marie?”
Frank cut in. “Are we really going there again? We conduct the questioning, not you, remember?”
We took seats across from her, and I opened the folder I’d brought along.
“What’s that, and what happened to your face?”
I ignored her question. “What role did you play in the murder of seven people, Tammy? One being your very own husband.”
“Dwayne was a piece of shit. He deserved the justice he got.”
“That may be true, but it isn’t your right to play God with other people’s lives. So you think his murder was justified?”
She nodded.
“You’ve had how many opportunities to send him to jail, yet you never did.”
“That’s because he’d just get out and beat me again.”
“So it’s better just to kill him?”
“I didn’t kill anyone.”
I laughed. “You’re going to have to prove your innocence to us, a judge, and a jury, otherwise you’ll be locked up for the rest of your life.”
“Marie will vouch for me.”
“Marie? I doubt that. She’s not coming to your rescue anytime soon.”
“Yes she will.”
Frank took over. “There’s nobody who will defend your innocence since the only people who saw the killer or killers are dead now.”
“I wasn’t even there. Marie killed everyone on her own.”
I glanced at Frank. “So you’re putting all the blame on your partner in crime?” I shook my head. “Guess there’s no loyalty between criminals these days. What’s the connection between you and Marie?”
“Ask her.”
“Nope. I’m asking you.” I tapped my pen against the paper. Her eyes darted that way as if it annoyed her. “We aren’t going to charge Marie. The brunt of the charges is going to weigh on your shoulders and yours only.”
She slammed her fist on the table. “Why the hell me?”
“You’re younger, fitter, and angrier. Marie is middle-aged, and I doubt if she killed seven people without your help.”
“I swear it’s true.”
“Then let’s hear the story. Otherwise, you’ll be charged alone for all of it.”
“Fine! It started thirty-some years ago. Marie’s husband, Tom, was violent and abused her all the time, even when she was pregnant. He wanted her to miscarry, but she didn’t, so he demanded she give up the baby, and she did. The abuse continued for years until she’d had enough. Marie never got over the fact that her only child was put in the system and she never saw her again.”
I raised my brows. “Her?”
“Or should I say… me.” She looked at both of us. “Tom was my father, and from what Marie told me, everyone thought he just walked out of her life and was never heard from again. The truth is, she killed him and dumped his body in the north woods somewhere.”
I raked my hair. “She told you that?”
Tammy nodded. “Apparently, she’s been searching for me ever since she killed him, but it took more than thirty years to finally track me down. She started the shelter years ago, and that gave her more resources to work with. When she finally found me and realized I was experiencing the same kind of abuse from Dwayne, all of that rage came back. She came to my house when Dwayne was at work, told me who she was, and convinced me to live at the shelter, where I’d be safe. She introduced me to Sydney Jobs and Lenore Price, who were instrumental in helping her locate me. They work in the foster care system, and they met me at the shelter on a number of occasions. I had been with nine foster families until I aged out. Marie and I had a lot of discussions about how my life turned out, and I guess she felt guilty, so a week ago, she set the wheels in motion.”
I shook my head. “To kill? Why not just stop at Dwayne? He was the one abusing you.”
Tammy groaned. “Because she wanted everyone who’d enabled him to pay too. He went to the Lucky Strike Casino all the time, and he frequented the corner liquor store, which was owned by Teddy Hunt. He bought drugs from Trey Botty, and of course, he had sex with that skank, Fay Carlson, more times than I care to count. They all had to die. Guilty by association, you know, at least from Marie’s perspective.”
I wrote as Tammy talked, even though the interview was recorded.
“Why kill Ken and Brian?”
Tammy shrugged. “They were in the way.”
Frank snickered at that comment. “You’re a real piece of work, you know that?”
She flipped him the middle finger.
I took over. “Did you believe Marie when she told you she was your mother?”
“Honestly, I didn’t even care. It isn’t like she raised me. I can’t say we had a mother-and-daughter bond.”
“Was it you and Marie who went to the house Friday night?”
“Yeah. We planned to leave the state, and I had the DNA results proving I was her daughter stashed there. I didn’t want you to find them in case you did shine around with a warrant to search the house. Turns out my gut feelings were right, weren’t they, Detective McCord?”
“Gut feelings are usually something you can count on.”
She stared at her ragged cuticles. “Yesterday, we went back before we left town and picked up Dwayne’s guns.”
That explained why Marie came at me with a shotgun.
Frank took another turn at her. “So even if everything you say is true, we still can’t charge Marie.”
“Why not? Give me a polygraph test. You’ll see I’m telling the truth. Ask Marie yourself. Where is she, anyway?”
“Right down the hall in the morgue.”
“She’s dead?”
“That’s correct,” Frank said. “Our officers killed her after she shot at Detective McCord numerous times.”
A tear slid down Tammy’s cheek. It was the only one I’d seen since her first interview with us nearly a week ago.
“We’re sorry for your loss—considering.”
“Don’t be. I’m not crying for her. I’m crying because for the first time in my life, I would have been able to call my own shots, but instead, she sucked me into her hate and revenge. Now I’ll lose my freedom all over again.”
For a split second, I felt bad, but Tammy could have stopped the murders at any time, and she chose not to. She had plenty of opportunities to tell us the truth. I had one more question for Tammy. “Do you know where the nine millimeter is?”
“It’s at the bottom of a ravine just west of Crystal Lakes. You’ll find the guard’s Encore there too.”
I pushed back my chair and stood. “We’ll need that location.”
She said she’d write down what she could remember. “Detective McCord?”
I turned around and looked at her before we walked out. “Yeah?”
“How did you know I’d come back for Coby?”
“Because you actually cared about him. I have a dog, too, and know how strong that bond can be. You don’t have to worry about Coby. He’s in good hands.” I patted the doorframe, and we walked out.
Since Tammy was the only participant left in the killings, even if she wasn’t physically at the scene, I was sure she’d be charged to the full extent of the law for seven counts of capital murder. As tragic as it was for all involved, it would be up to a judge and jury to make that determination.