She brushes at her dress and Lou sees that she must have been a pretty woman when she was younger. “I can’t imagine the mess these men will leave when they’re finished.” She is wringing her hands, wrinkling a small white handkerchief she’s holding.
Lou tries to speak in a consoling voice as he begins his questions. “I know this is difficult for you, but I have to ask these questions. Have you spoken with Mr. Steadman recently?”
She looks directly at Lou. “No, I certainly have not. Not since he stopped here in April. He planned to go to Florida to play golf. He only spent a few days here, just long enough to take care of some business and pick up a few more things for his trip. If you want to know about his business affairs, you’ll have to ask Mr. Einsinger.”
“So, he was here in April, do you have the dates?” Lou is taking notes.
“He arrived home on the 7th and left on the 19th. I thought he seemed less agitated and more rested. I really think this vacation has been good for him. He’s a very complicated person. He’s so responsible, wants to have his hand in everything. He never took any time off before.”
She pauses thoughtfully, and then fidgets. “Would you like a cup of tea, Agent Schein?” Sarah starts to rise.
“Yes, I would.” He rises with her. “He was planning to go to Florida when he left here in April?”
“Yes, and then he thought he might go to the Caribbean.” She directs him toward the kitchen. “I’m rather surprised he has been able to stay away this long. David likes to be in control of everything. In that way, he is just like his father.”
“And he hasn’t contacted you since April?”
“That’s right. He called me before he arrived home from his trip to Arizona, but since he left on the 19th, I haven’t heard from him. I expect he’ll call me when he’s on his way home, just as before. When he is home, he tells me when and where to expect him, and I do my work based on that alone. I have worked for his family since before David was born. I am his housekeeper, and he expects nothing more.”
One of the agents is right behind them. “We’ve found a gun collection in what appears to be the game room. Agent Sullens thought you might want to take a look.”
“Those belonged to David Sr.,” Sarah interjects. “He collected them over many years. They never interested David; he hates guns. He is quiet and sensitive. I don’t think I ever saw him even touch them.”
Agent Schein shakes his head no to the agent and indicates he is busy. He doesn’t want to be disturbed at the moment.
“Why don’t you sit down over there?” Sarah points to a small table in a kitchen alcove. “David and I had dinner there often. The last time was the evening before he left for Florida.”
Schein seats himself and watches as Sarah lights the stove and places the kettle on the burner. It is an old kettle and an even older stove. The stove is huge in scale, black, and has some scratched chrome trim. It dwarfs her as she stands in front of it. There are six large burners and a large grill. A shelf at the back is full of herbs and spices.
When the kettle starts whistling, she goes to the cupboard for cups and tea. It is loose leaf, so she fusses with filling a tea ball which she drops into a porcelain teapot. She sets two cups and saucers on a tray, and cream and sugar. Finally she joins Lou at the table.
Lou asks, “Does Mr. Steadman go to the office every day?”
“Yes, of course. He leaves here every morning promptly at six forty-five. He is always interested in what is going on at the companies. He has run the companies ever since his father died four years ago. He likes to play golf in the afternoon, but his mornings are always devoted to work. I don’t remember him ever missing a day, until Dr. Jensen convinced him he should go on this vacation.”
“And Dr. Jensen is who?”
“She’s some sort of psychologist. David was seeing her for over a year. I don’t know what they talked about, but David went very regularly. It made him late for dinner some evenings. Before her, he talked to me.”
Sarah’s face reveals what she really thinks about seeing a psychologist; or then again, maybe it is just her dismay over the fact he had been late for dinner. Lou’s intuition tells him there is some resentment that David stopped confiding in Sarah.
She goes on. “I just never could imagine what they talked about. David always has everything under control. Nothing seems to bother him. In that way, he is just like his father. Maybe he talked to her about David Sr.’s death; he certainly hasn’t ever talked to me about it. David and his father were quite alike, except David isn’t cruel.”
“When did Mr. Steadman Sr. pass?”
“He died in the winter of 2009. He had been ill with the flu for about a week. He was bedridden and such an awful man to deal with when he wasn’t feeling well. He was demanding and hard to satisfy. The doctor said he thought his frustration and anger over being ill might have caused the stroke. He died here, upstairs, before the ambulance arrived.” Her expression hardens as she speaks of him.
“Is Mrs. Steadman still living?”
Sarah Waite pauses and Lou waits patiently.
Her voice softens. “Oh, poor Virginia. She died in her sleep in 2001, right here in the house. She had been in poor health for a long time; she was always frail. She had been unhappy for so many years. She was often ill. I think the poor thing was finally too exhausted to go on living. David was her only real joy, her sunshine. She wanted everything for him, but David often misunderstood her intentions.”
Lou Schein is silent for a moment. He makes a note to have copies of the death certificates sent to him. Perhaps it is merely a coincidence they both died at home, but knowing what he knows about David, he can’t shake the feeling that maybe one or both of them were murdered by their son.
Chapter 67
Sarah rises to prepare the tea. She fills the pot, places it on the tray and brings everything to the table on a tea tray. She sets a cup, saucer, and spoon and cloth napkin for each of them, and then seats herself again at the table.
“Virginia was my friend. I tried to support her, but it was difficult when David Sr. was here. He would keep us apart, and he was always reminding her that I am only a servant. Virginia didn’t have any real friends; David Sr. didn’t approve of anyone and rarely let her have people to the house. He was never satisfied with any of her choices, friends or otherwise, unless he had pre-approved them. He isolated her. He tried to control everything she did.”
“Did you get along with Mr. Steadman Sr. when he wasn’t ill?”
“Well, as long as I did my job and followed his orders exactly, everything was fine. Occasionally I made the mistake of taking either David or Virginia’s side in some argument and then he was very cruel and demeaning to me.”
She sips her tea.
“I learned very quickly to keep my opinions to myself and to stay out of family business. Mr. Steadman never wanted to acknowledge me as anything other than a servant. Virginia was the exception. Sometimes we sat and talked for hours. I would try to console her, to help her understand her husband. I regret now that I encouraged her to make the best of things. I don’t know why I did, I suppose for little David’s sake. If I were in similar circumstances, I would have left.”
“Well, it rather seems like you are in similar circumstances.” Lou regrets saying the words as soon as they leave his mouth. “So was there abuse? Did he hit her?” He rarely stops writing. He picked up several new notebooks before he left his hotel room, and now the first one is nearly full.
“I shouldn’t be telling this, but David Sr. had an awful temper. He did hit Virginia and he could be hurtful to David. I saw both of them with bruises. Virginia would never admit to it, but it was obvious. Those days she would stay in her rooms. I’d serve her there. She would be withdrawn and uncommunicative.
“Sometimes she and little David would spend the entire afternoon together. About six years before she died, she stopped having anything to do with David Sr. They had separate rooms, dined alone an
d only were seen together at social functions if he demanded that she attend with him. I would often serve dinner to little David and his mother in the dining room, but David Sr. rarely came home. He usually ate at his club or the golf course, or somewhere I wasn’t aware of.”
She fusses with her napkin and then touches it to her mouth.
“What about golf? Did Mr. Steadman Sr. teach his son to play?”
“I don’t think I can recall a time when the two of them actually golfed together. David Sr. would only allow little David to caddy for him, which he did almost anytime his father played, up until he was about fifteen or sixteen years old. I don’t know much about golf, except that David Sr. played very well and often played for a lot of money. He liked to gamble.”
She leans forward and looks directly at Lou Schein. “What they did at the golf course is beyond me. David often came home with his face swollen from crying, but he would never tell me what happened. His father would just drop him off in front of the house, sometimes later than a young boy should have been out, but we couldn’t tell David Sr. anything.
“His father’s car was so quiet; I couldn’t hear it on the street. It’s a Rolls Royce. It’s out in the garage and David never uses it. Albert drives it to the dealer every six months for service and starts it twice a week, but that’s all. Albert says David never goes near it. Sometimes, in the evening when I was working here in the kitchen, I would turn around and David would be standing there staring at me. I’d ask him if he wanted something and instead of answering, he would turn and run out of the kitchen.
“David usually went straight to his room. It was obvious David had been punished but I never knew for what.” She fidgets again with her napkin, then lays it on the table. “I think David was terrified of his father.”
Lou gives her a reassuring nod and a motion to go on while continuing to make notes.
“I did let David in my room sometimes, especially when he was younger. He would be so upset over something and Virginia just couldn’t cope, so he would come to me. Mr. Steadman would have been furious if he had known I was mothering the boy, but he never found out and David needed someone to love him.”
“Did he ever confide in you about his parents or his problems?” Lou knows he’s treading on dangerous ground.
“He has confided in me, but it’s just that, a confidence and I don’t feel comfortable breaking that bond. Maybe his doctor can tell you more.” She looks around the kitchen, comfortable in her familiar surroundings. “I’m certain you will discover that all this nonsense about these crimes isn’t true.”
“Well, the evidence is compelling, Ms. Waite.” Lou continues with his questioning, “Do you recall anything happening before David left on vacation that was unusual or out of the ordinary? Did he seem out of sorts?”
“David is always the same. He’s quiet and thoughtful and it isn’t worth disputing his decisions. When he makes up his mind, it’s final. And that’s just the way he was before he left. I prepared things as he requested. I wasn’t concerned about him. I knew he was going and that was that.”
She finishes her tea and sets the cup down a little too harshly. “He said Dr. Jensen thought it was a good idea, but he seemed like he was making a joke sometimes when he said it. Anyway, who am I to argue with a doctor? I thought it was a good idea too.”
“Did you know that Dr. Jensen is dead? I’m going to try to see a colleague of hers when we finish here.” Lou looks at his notes, waiting for a reaction.
Sarah looks quizzically at him but doesn’t say anything.
Agent Sullens enters and whispers something to Lou, then leaves.
“Sorry, Ms. Waite.” Lou writes something down, then, “Do you recall anything about David from any time in his life that you questioned or thought was odd. You know, didn’t make sense to you?”
“I don’t think I know what you mean, Agent Schein. David was a normal boy. He did what all little boys do. He did get into trouble sometimes, as anyone would expect. When he did, I always thought David Sr. made way too much of it.”
She is looking at Lou in a curious way.
“Well, I mean something unusual. Like unexplained absences or something about him that didn’t seem to make sense in light of everything else you believed about him?” Lou is trying to be as tactful as possible.
“Oh, well, I never understood why he had so many bloody noses. I was always finding blood on his clothes, and he always said he’d had a bloody nose. I never saw that boy with a bloody nose except once, and that was when David Sr. slapped his face. His mother took him to the doctor several times to have it checked, but they didn’t find anything wrong. When he got older, they seemed to go away. At least I stopped finding blood on his clothes.”
Her face reveals that the subject continues to perplex her.
Schein is thinking of the crime scenes. He writes Was it David’s blood on his clothes? “Was David ever arrested when he was younger? Did he get into any trouble with the authorities?”
“No, he didn’t. He was a good boy. David knew if that ever happened, David Sr. would have gone on a tirade. Mr. Steadman was very concerned about appearances. I only recall one time that a policeman came to the door. He wanted to know if I was Mrs. Steadman; Virginia was ill, so I told him I was. He said he was checking to verify that David had returned my butcher knife.
“I was so surprised because I didn’t know what he was talking about, but coincidentally I had been having trouble finding certain knives when I wanted to use them. I thought I was losing my mind. You can imagine…”
Lou interrupts her. “And what did the policeman say?”
“He said he had stopped David on the street and that David had a large butcher knife in the basket of his bicycle. Well, I didn’t believe it. And when I went to look, all the knives were there, so of course I told the policeman he was mistaken. I remember, I asked David if he had been borrowing my knives and he said he hadn’t. The policeman never came back, but I did seem to keep misplacing my knives.”
“How old was David when this happened?”
“Oh, maybe ten or eleven. What would a boy that age want with a butcher knife anyway?” She smiles. “Do you think those other men are about finished? I can just imagine the mess they are making.”
“They try to be as careful as they can, so please don’t worry.” Lou is anxious to check on the agents as well. “Is there anything else unusual you can remember?”
“No, I don’t think so. David was just a normal boy. I do remember when he was a teenager, he was always upset when I went into his room. You know how teenage boys are?”
Lou nods and smiles.
“Actually he was upset a lot during his early teen years. It was an awful time between him and his father. Sometimes he took it out on me. Well, I had to do my work too. Sometimes I found Virginia’s clothes in his room, but I just picked them up and kept it to myself.”
Lou writes Sex with mother? Dressing in mother’s clothes?
Sarah keeps looking around, trying to peer around the corner to see what the agents are doing. She seems more nervous. It is apparent to Lou the interview is coming to a close. Sarah Waite is becoming more distracted with each question. She picks up the tea service and carries it to the sink and begins to clean up the kitchen.
Lou decides he will withdraw for a while and wait for her to relax before he does any more probing of her memory. He leaves her to her tasks and finds Agent Sullens in the master suite with two other agents.
Chapter 68
The notebook is a spiral ring type that looks to be quite old. Schein starts thumbing through the yellowed pages that contain drawings of animals. He wonders what it is Curtis Sullens thinks is so significant.
“Just keep going. It gets pretty weird,” Sullens replies.
Schein continues with the pages—none are dated or numbered—and as he gets further along the drawings become more anatomical. Skulls and skeletons of birds, and legs of cats and dogs are displayed. Anatomica
l parts of all kinds of animals have been drawn in the notebook, including drawings of humans.
It rather looks like a crude Leonardo notebook. There is nothing exceptional about the drawings until he reaches the middle section, when the drawings start appearing with “cut” lines at a particular joint or muscle. As he turns more pages, there are corrections and revisions to the drawings, as if experimentation occurred. Some of the drawings have eraser marks and then a note that says “not here.”
As he continues through the book, it becomes apparent what Sullens thinks the drawings imply. Lou considers the crimes they are investigating; if not for the age of the notebook, he would expect to find dissections of human females at the back.
Like so many before him, David Steadman Jr. started early.
One of the agents searching the master closet calls for Sullens and Schein to join him. While tapping on the back wall of the closet, he triggered a hidden door that opened into another closet.
Lou stands back, his mouth practically gaping open. The hidden closet appears to be a woman’s dressing room full of women’s clothes, expensive shoes, and undergarments. They are not outdated items; some are so new they still have store tags on them. The agents open built-in drawers and find jewelry and makeup. The closet walls are lined with mirrors.
Lou is almost shaking as he remembers the woman in the elevator with Shirley Scott, the third hole in Rancho Mirage, California. Was that David Steadman?’ Is that why we can’t find him?
Lou steps out of the closet and, at the window overlooking the back gardens, he speed dials Nancy Cochran. When she answers, he practically jumps into the phone.
“We’re at David Steadman’s house in Chicago; the local agents are processing a search warrant. We’ve found a hidden closet full of women’s clothes and shoes, jewelry and makeup. My first thought is the woman in the elevator with Shirley Scott in Rancho Mirage. Could that have been David dressed as a woman?”
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