Sara swallowed a mouthful. “I know depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder often go together. Maybe she was depressed, but couldn’t help herself. She had to keep cleaning. She was meticulous with her apartment, and herself.”
“I guess it’s not uncommon for women to want to look good when they die.”
“Don’t get me started.”
Sara and I were in the middle of a sweet, sappy movie when my work cell phone rang at twelve minutes after nine. It was Smoke. “You missed me, huh?”
“We got a hit on the cemetery camera.”
I jumped up from the couch. “When?”
“About fifteen minutes ago. I was on my way home from my brother’s house when I got the call, so I swung back to the office instead.”
“Any idea who it was?”
“Yup. I viewed the tape. Morgan Leder and another young woman. On a hunch, I looked her up. It’s Lea Regan.”
“Morgan and Lea, hmm. It’s dark out. A cemetery is about the last place I’d go after dark.”
“I don’t think they wanted to be seen. First they each poured the contents of little bottles on the grave. Then they spit on it, hugged each other, and left. I got deputies heading to both their houses. Hopefully, they’ll show up sooner rather than later.”
“What was in the bottles?”
“Booze? Water? I have no clue. But I’m going to head over to Lakeside and collect samples.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know, but I’m too curious not to. Are you going to go over and talk to the girls tonight?”
“I haven’t thought that far. It’s not a crime—technically—to spit on a grave.”
“No, but it’s the why that I want to know about.” We hung up and I patted Sara on the arm. “I’m sorry. Finish watching the movie, and if I’m not back in the next two hours, or whenever you’re ready to go to sleep, make yourself at home in the guest bedroom.” I smiled. “Your second bedroom, since you’re the only guest I ever have.”
Sara stood up. “Better yet, can I go with you? That beer is out of my system by now.”
I shrugged. “Why not? Let’s rock on.” I grabbed my badge, gun, identification, memo book, pen, gloves, and portable radio while Sara found her purse. We were backing out of the driveway in my GTO minutes later.
“I could hear part of what Smoke said,” Sara said. I filled her in on the rest.
I saw Smoke’s car lights when I turned into the cemetery. “I’ve never been here at night,” Sara said. “Why does it seem kind of scary?”
I smiled at her. “Because it is.” The branches and leaves moved in the breeze, and those in line with a streetlight cast large shadows on the graves and ground.
Smoke had parked his car so his headlights were directed at the mound of dirt that covered Gage Leder’s grave. I stopped and parked beside Smoke’s car. He was taking pictures and glanced our way between shots. “Sergeant Corky and her sidekick Sara.”
“Hi, Detective,” Sara said.
“My first time collecting saliva—and whatever other liquid we got here—from a grave.”
“You’re collecting the spit as evidence?” I pulled on latex gloves.
“More as leverage when we question the girls.” Smoke reached into his back pocket, pulled out plastic spoons and small evidence bags. He handed me a spoon and a bag. “Have at it,” he said and pointed at a round, wet spot on the right side of the grave, a couple of inches from where the bouquet still laid.
I knelt down and scooped the mixture of gravel and black dirt—bound together in a clump by the wet substance—into an evidence bag. I brought the bag close to my face and sniffed it. “It smells like the urine of someone who has eaten asparagus.”
“Get out of here,” Sara said.
Smoke held his hand out and I passed him the bag. He took a whiff. “Damn. Seal it up and mark it ‘A.’” He handed me a black Sharpie marker from his pocket then bent over and collected the sample from the right side of the grave. He took a cautious sniff. “Smells like plain urine to me.”
“Those girls were here for a specific reason,” Sara said.
“Pissing and spitting indicates extreme dislike, but enough to kill?” Smoke said, as he sealed the bag and handed it to me to mark it ‘B.’
“I can’t wait to hear what they have to say,” I said.
Smoke’s cell phone rang. “Yeah, Mason. . . . Okay, give them the option. Either they can drive to the station with you following them, or we can come over there and talk to ’em.” There was a long pause. “Sounds like a plan.” He shut his phone. “Todd Mason was sitting outside of Nora Leder’s house when the girls pulled in. When they got out of the car, he pulled into the driveway and asked them to hold up. That’s when Mason called me. He relayed my question to them and they decided to come into the office. They’re in for a little surprise.”
“Mason didn’t say why we want to talk to them?”
“No, just that someone observed them doing something suspicious. I’m guessing they’ll be talking fast and furiously to each other all the way to the office.”
Todd Mason was waiting with Morgan Leder and Lea Regan on the veranda by the south outside entrance of the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department. The overhead spotlights illuminated the three of them. Morgan’s single frown line was evident, and the corners of her mouth were turned down. Lea had her hands stuffed into the pockets of her form-fitting jeans and was biting the inside of her bottom lip. She was a slender redhead, and strongly resembled her mother. I heard Mason talking about the mild weather, but neither girl appeared to hear him. Their eyes fixed on the three of us as we approached.
Smoke nodded once at Leder. “Miss Morgan.” Her lips twitched. Smoke looked at Regan. “And you must be Miss Lea. I’m Detective Dawes.” He indicated his head toward Sara and me. “Sergeant Aleckson and Officer Speiss.”
Lea’s shoulders went up and she pulled her hands out of her pockets. She nodded slightly.
“Either one of you carrying a weapon? Jackknife, mace?” I asked.
“No,” Lea said, looking surprised by my question.
“Anything in your pockets?”
“My cell phone,” Lea said.
Morgan shook her head. “No knife, or anything. I have my car keys and my phone. We left our purses in the car.”
“Okay. I’ll do a quick pat down before we go in.” I instructed them on how to stand and searched each one.
“Are we like under arrest for something?” Morgan asked.
“We’ll go inside and talk. I want you to see something,” Smoke said.
We all trooped in and followed Smoke down the long corridor. He opened the door to Interview Room B. “You girls can wait in here.” Morgan and Lea stepped into the room and grabbed each other’s hands. Smoke closed the door and we moved out of earshot.
“You need me for anything else?” Mason said.
“No, thanks, we should be good,” Smoke said.
“Alrighty then, I’ll get back on the road. We’ve been missing you out there on evenings, Sergeant Corky.”
“And I miss you guys, too. This case can’t go on forever.”
Smoke raised his eyebrows. “You’re optimistic. Randy is bringing a copy of the cemetery clip to us. Should be here—”
Randy, one of the evening communications officers, joined us before Smoke finished. “Here you go, Detective.” He handed Smoke a disc.
“Appreciate it, Randy.” Randy nodded and headed back to communications. “Let’s take a quick look.” We went into Interview Room D, and Smoke turned on the television/DVD player, slipped in the disc, and hit play.
The video started with the view of Leder’s grave. Flickering lights appeared then grew larger and more steady before they died. Morgan and Lea walked into view. They held hands and stood at the foot of the grave for a moment. It appeared they were holding something in their opposite hands.
Morgan turned to Lea
and said something we couldn’t hear. Lea nodded. They let go of each other’s hands. They each lifted the hand that was, in fact, holding a small jar, now in view. They unscrewed the covers, walked to opposite sides of the grave, and poured the contents of the jars onto the dirt.
They looked at each other and smiled, then went back to where they were originally standing. Lea quietly spoke to Morgan, and Morgan nodded. They stood for a moment then each one spit a mouthful of saliva on the grave. They hugged each other then walked out of sight of the camera.
We all shook our heads, but reserved comment. Smoke ejected the disc. “I’ll go show this to the girls and you two can watch from the viewing window.”
Smoke left for B, and Sara and I slipped into the narrow room on the other side. I turned on the speaker button so we could hear what was said. Smoke walked directly to the television/DVD player and inserted the disc. “Seems you girls paid your respects to Morgan’s father’s grave tonight. Or not.”
Morgan’s mouth dropped open and she turned to Lea, whose face was turning paler by the second. Smoke pushed the play button, and the girls’ full attention was fixed on the screen. Morgan mouthed, “My god.” Lea reached over and squeezed Morgan’s hand. When the program ended, neither of them moved. Smoke ejected the disc. “Morgan, you come with me. Lea, you stay put.”
Morgan raised her eyebrows and braved a quick glance at Lea, got off her chair, and followed Smoke. Tears formed in Lea’s eyes, and she lowered her head into her hands. There was a knock on our door then Smoke stuck his head inside. “Cork, join us in A. Sara can stay here.”
We headed into A. I shut the door behind us and Smoke instructed Morgan to sit down, and he sat across from her. I stood at the end of the table. Smoke leaned in closer to Morgan. “Tell us the story behind all that.”
Morgan burst into tears. I left in search of a box of tissues and found one on a secretary’s desk. Morgan was sobbing when I returned. I slid the box in front of her. She pulled out a few tissues and dabbed at her eyes and nose.
“Was that your version of pissing on your father’s grave?”
Morgan’s eyes widened, releasing unshed tears. “How did you—” She stopped when she figured out what Smoke meant. “I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry for, Morgan?” Smoke said.
“Um, for like what we did, you know.”
“I’m not so much interested in the what as the why.” Smoke repeated what I had said earlier.
“We can’t do anything about the why anymore.” Morgan sniffed then wiped her nose.
“Except piss and spit on your father’s grave?”
She shrugged.
“We’re trying to get to the bottom of exactly what happened to your father, and the why is a major part of that.”
Morgan shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it. It’s over.”
Smoke picked up his memo book. “Okay. Wait here. We’ll be back.”
I stepped out of the room first, with Smoke right behind me. He pointed down the hall then opened the viewing room where Sara was keeping watch. “Anything?” he said. Sara shook her head and rubbed her cheeks to indicate Lea had been crying. “Will you go to viewing room A? Keep an eye on Morgan?” Smoke asked her.
“Sure,” Sara said.
When I opened the door to Room D, Lea jumped several inches. I sat down across from her and Smoke leaned against the wall in the corner. I pulled out my memo book. “Your full name and date of birth?”
She gave me the information.
“We know what was in the little jars that you poured on Gage Leder’s grave.”
Lea looked down at her hands. “Don’t blame Morgan. It was all my idea.”
“And what was that, exactly?”
“That we make a pact.”
“What kind of pact?”
She rubbed her hands together. “Well ah, it ah, is embarrassing to say it out loud, to like, you sheriffs.”
I leaned forward slightly. “I can sympathize. I’ve had to confess to many embarrassing things in my life.”
She stared at me for a while. “Well, it’s a long story, but a few years ago, when Morgan had had enough of her father, I told her after he died we’d go pee on his grave. And she agreed.”
“She must have been very upset with him to agree to that.”
Lea nodded. “We both were.”
“What exactly happened to make you both so upset, to make you do what you did?”
“Ah, I can’t say. I mean, we took an oath to keep it secret. We swore to it. Then Morgan drank some wine one night and told someone else, so the secret was kind of out. But not really. It’s just that three people know instead of just the two of us.” Lea looked at her hands when she spoke.
“Lea, it sounds like you’re keeping a secret about something bad.”
She shrugged.
“Something Mr. Leder did?”
She nodded.
“He’s dead. Buried. If you’re trying to protect him, there’s no point. We’re asking for the truth here. We need the truth.” I lightly touched her hand with my fingers.
Her eyes met mine. “It’s not really to protect him. It’s to protect us.”
“So you and Morgan got involved in something bad? Is that right?”
She fixed her eyes back on her folded hands and nodded.
“How old were you?”
“Um, like thirteen, fourteen.”
“Just kids. It was something Mr. Leder did to you, wasn’t it?”
Lea’s eyes filled with tears. “I can’t say. Like, Morgan should tell you if she wants to.”
“Lea, I think you want to tell me what happened. What Mr. Leder did to you. It’s not up to Morgan to speak for you.”
Lea lifted her tear-streaked face and hit the table. “He molested me. Okay?”
I’d suspected as much, but her words sent a chill down my spine. “How many times? One time? Twenty times?”
She shrugged. “I lost count. Probably more than twenty.”
I reached over and captured her hands in mine. “Thank you for telling me.” There was no point in saying she should have reported it when it happened. Too many people kept similar secrets. “Lea, did you have anything to do with Gage Leder’s death?”
Her jaw dropped and her eyebrows came together. “No.”
“Okay, hang tight for a while. We’ll be back.”
Smoke and I stepped into the hallway and walked a ways down. “Nice job. See what you can do with Morgan,” Smoke said.
“The best and worst part of the job. Getting people to disclose ugly secrets.”
We headed in for round two with Morgan. Her tears had dried, but her face and arms had red blotches on them. “Hey, Morgan. Are you having an allergic reaction to something?” I asked.
She studied her arms. “Um, sort of. It’s like an emotional thing when I get really upset.”
Concerning. “Any trouble breathing?”
“No, nothing like that. Um, are we going to jail?”
I lifted my hands, palms up. “I could charge you with disturbing a grave, but I don’t think what you did rises to that offense level. Urine and saliva is a pretty mild statement of disgust, given the level of crime your father committed against you.”
Morgan’s frown deepened. “Did Lea tell you that?”
“No, she told me what happened to her. You tell me what happened to you.”
She clamped her teeth together and her jaw muscles moved in a biting action.
“Did your father threaten you? Is that why you’ve remained silent all these years? Morgan, he’s dead. He can’t touch you, or hurt you ever again.”
Her shoulder hitched up like she wasn’t convinced.
“Morgan, you need to say it out loud, to someone besides Lea.” I paused. “And your stepmother, Rennie. You told her, didn’t you?”
Her eyes grew larger, then she nodded. “But I swore her to secrecy. Mom can never know. Rennie promised never to bring it up again, as long as I w
ent to a psychologist to help me heal. She paid for me—and for Lea—to go.” New tears spilled out of her eyes.
Waves of anger rolled though me. Why would Rennie keep such a promise? “I know it’s difficult, but tell me when your father started hurting you, what he did.”
It took her a minute. “I was thirteen. It was like just touching at first. Then it got to be more and more.”
“Intercourse?”
She looked at her busy hands and nodded. I sucked in a breath. “How long did it go on?”
“About two years.”
“How did it stop?”
“We got old enough, I guess. Lea and I finally figured out that people really might believe us, since there were two of us with the same story. We told him we wouldn’t tell on him if he left us alone. And he did. He never touched us after that.”
“Morgan, Rennie’s a nurse. A mandatory reporter.”
Her frown deepened. “Rennie loves me. Lea and I didn’t want anyone to know. To point at us and talk about us. It was over with. Done. We just wanted to move on with our lives. And we have.”
“About your father’s death—”
“What about it?”
“Do you have any suspicions about who was involved?”
“I honestly don’t know who did it.”
I laid my hand on hers. “Okay. I have to tell you how much I appreciate your talking to me about what happened with your father. But you really do need to tell your mother.”
“I will.”
I stood up. “That’s all we have for tonight. I’ll go get Lea.”
Smoke waited with Morgan in the hallway. I opened the door to A. “All done for the night. You and Morgan are free to go.” Lea jumped off her chair and we found Smoke and Morgan. Lea and Morgan each reached for the other’s hand and I escorted them to the door. “Try to get some rest.” They nodded and went off into the night.
The Noding Field Mystery Page 20