'Pete, you are not going to let him get away with embezzlement?'
'I'm just saying if he's sentenced, he'll undoubtedly lose his license. Which means the home'll lose a nurse the old folks are crazy about.'
'Decker, the sleaze can't break the law.'
'I'm not suggesting for a moment that we let old Leek get off scot-free. But not everything has to bollix up in the courts.'
'Pete—'
'McKay and I took a nice little drive over to the home after confession time was over. I set him up with one of the home's management and told him to spill out his dirty deeds. Then I left. I'm waiting to hear back from them. If they decide not to bring charges against him, what case do I have?' 'You can press them to charge McKay.'
'If it is Wednesday.'
'I don't believe I'm hearing this!'
'I also told McKay to place a call to the Board of Nurses' Examiners. Tell the board that he suspects Tandy Roberts of using his license number—'
'But he knew she was doing it.'
'So he suddenly got an attack of conscience. Let's concentrate on what we know. Leek gave Tandy his license number as a way to guarantee her silence. She knew about his embezzling... discovered it by talking to the old folks. At first, Tandy used the information to blackmail him into an affair. Eventually, he got her pregnant.'
'Ah-haP
'What's the ah-ha?' Decker asked.
'She lost the second baby, didn't she?'
'Lost it? Leek told me she had an abortion. Do you have information to the contrary?'
'No, I think she lost it.'
How'd you find that out?'
Not wanting to rat on Cindy, Marge smiled mysteriously. 'We all have our sources.'
'Margie...'
'It's not important how I found out. What is important is we now know this girl, Tandy Roberts, supposedly lost two babies in a relatively short period of time. And from what we heard, she was unstable to begin with. First
starving herself, then eating her way to obesity. And she used to talk to herself.'
'You interviewed her, Margie. Did she seem really crazy?'
Marge tapped her foot. 'Unfortunately, she seemed very sane. A typical self-obsessed California girl. But once a loon...'
'We have no evidence against her.'
'But we do have motive,' Marge said. 'Tandy doesn't have children and neither does Marie Bellson, who was going through menopause. They were once great friends. Maybe they became great friends again with a common goal. They both cracked at the same time, each one working up the other one until they both went nuts and did the ultimate grievous sin. Isn't there a psychological term for that - two nuts working each other up?'
'Yeah, two nuts working each other up.'
Marge gave Decker a sour look. 'I'm sure they're in cahoots together. I just feel it.'
'Their bond to each other being they both lost babies.'
'Yep,' Marge said. 'We've got to start looking into Tandy's background. She was born in Berkeley, moved to Manhattan when she was a kid, had a lot of connections in the fashion industry...' She paused, then said, 'I'll do a complete background on her. In the meantime, what are you going to do about Leek? You can't let this little piece of naval lint get away with stealing.'
'I'm going to let the home decide how they want to handle it. If they want to prosecute, I'll testify to back them up. But if they want to handle it more discreetly, I've got better things to do than come down on a nurse who changes bedpans for the elderly. It's in the home's hands.'
'I don't understand you!' Marge was frustrated.
'Drop it, Marge!'
They were both quiet for a moment. Then Decker said,
'Okay, so you'll do a thorough background check on Tandy. See if we can dig up more links between her and Marie. But we'd better move quickly. The feds were called in this morning.'
'You're kidding!'
'Wish I was. They just can't wait to play big shot.'
'Bastards!' Marge tossed the newspaper off her lap and began to pace. 'How about this for a link, Pete? What if Marie was Tandy's mom and gave her up for adoption?'
'The timing doesn't work, Marge. Marie was still living at home with her mother and Lita's sure her daughter never became pregnant as a teenager.'
'And you trust Lita's memory?'
'No, not entirely. But Lita seemed cogent.'
The front door opened. Ginger stood and wagged her tail, jumping on Cindy as she came through the door. With Cindy was a girl around the same age, both of them slightly sunburned with wet heads.
Cindy kissed her father's cheek. 'You remember Lisa Goldberg, don't you, Dad?'
'Hi, Lisa,' Decker said, 'How are you doing?'
'Not bad.' Lisa smiled and shrugged shyly.
'We went swimming,' Cindy explained. 'I just came back to change. We're having a one-year mini high school reunion. A bunch of us are going to dinner and the movies tonight. I should be home at one, maybe two at the latest.'
'Take the car phone,' Decker said.
'My lifeline to the outside world.'
'Don't be fresh.'
'I know it's because you care.' Cindy sneaked a look to Marge, who winked. 'See you all later.'
As Cindy left, she mouthed a thank you to Marge. Decker caught it. 'What's that all about?'
'I'll tell you later.'
'No, tell me now. What are you and Cindy planning
behind my—' Decker interrupted himself. 'I just thought of something. About a year ago, when Tandy was pregnant with Leek's baby, she was still very good friends with Marie, right?'
'I think so,' Marge said. 'Why?'
Decker smiled slyly. 'You and my daughter can keep secrets, so can I.' He picked up the phone and as soon as the line connected, asked for Dr Meecham, telling the receptionist his call was an emergency. Meecham picked up the call within minutes.
'What's up, Sergeant?'
'I'm about to ask you to compromise your ethics again.'
'Sergeant—'
'It's less painful if you remember a baby's life may be at stake. Listen, let's just play it theoretical—'
'Sergeant, I thought you said this was an emergency. C'mon! I'm a busy man!'
'A missing infant is an emergency.'
'Get on with it, Sergeant.'
Decker knew he was putting Meecham in a precarious position and felt bad about it. But not too bad.
'Suppose I assume that about maybe two years ago, your patient, Marie Bellson, brought you a young, distressed obese woman who had a problem.'
Meecham paused. 'Go on.'
'Let's just suppose that this young obese woman was in the family way and came to you for a possible termination of pregnancy.'
'I don't think that's a good supposition at all, Sergeant.'
Decker waited a beat. 'Okay, perhaps this girl may have had her pregnancy terminated by someone else. Maybe he even did a botched job, and Marie brought the girl in to you to fix up someone else's butchery.'
'Interesting theory. Unfortunately, it's fiction.'
Decker tried to organize his thoughts. 'Okay, suppose this obese woman miscarried—'
'I don't like that supposition, either.'
Decker thought: Tandy didn't miscarry; she didn't abort. That left just one more option. 'Perhaps you became this imaginary young woman's obstetrician and delivered her child at term.'
'Perhaps I didn't.'
'Maybe someone else did?'
'No.'
Confused, Decker was silent. Then he said, 'Thanks for your forbearance, Doc'
'I'm sorry I couldn't help you with your dilemma. Now I really must go.' Meechan paused a moment. 'On a conventional note, Sergeant, did I tell you I attended a very interesting lecture last month as part of my continuing education? It was on Pseudocyesis.'
'Pseudo what?' Decker took out his notebook. 'How do you spell that?'
'Look it up, Sergeant,' Meecham said.
And with Meechan's parting line, Decker was on the receiv
ing end of a dial tone.
'Pseudocarp, pseudocarpous, pseudoclassic, pseudo-morph, pseudonym...' Decker bit his lower lip. 'Pseudonymous, pseudopod, pshaw, psi... What is this bullshit Stan's giving me? How can I look it up if I can't find or spell it?' He picked up another dictionary and flung it open, flipping through the pages until he came to the Ps. 'Pseudocyesis... Do you think cyesis is with an S or a C?'
Cindy and her friend Lisa came into the living room. 'It's with a C, Dad.'
Decker looked up. 'You know what pseudocyesis means?'
'It's false pregnancy.'
Decker put down the dictionary. 'Where'd you learn about that?'
Cindy said, 'English history. Queen Mary Tudor, better known as Bloody Mary, had a false pregnancy. She was married to Philip the Second of Spain who was much younger than she was. A couple of months later the state announced that their queen was with child, to the cheers of the good countrymen. After a full ten months of so-called pregnancy, Mary gave birth to a lot of bloat and gas. Philip was not pleased. He left England for his beloved Spain and never returned.'
Decker shook his head. 'Just shows the difference between a high school and college education.'
'And here you were, wondering about the high price of my tuition,' Cindy said.
Decker thought about that: fifteen grand a year to learn about Bloody Mary's psychological problems.
Marge said, 'By false pregnancy, do you mean the woman fakes being pregnant? Or does she honestly think she's pregnant?'
Cindy shrugged. 'I don't know. I learned about it in history, not in psychology.' She turned to Lisa. 'You're pre-med.'
'I'm still mastering the Krebs cycle, Cin,' Lisa answered. 'You need a medical textbook. Or just call up any Ob/Gyn. They should have the information you're looking for.'
'Who had a false pregnancy?' Cindy's eyes brightened mischievously. 'Is it our friend?'
'Don't you just love how kids butt into conversations?' Decker said. 'Goodbye, Cindy. Have a pleasant evening.'
'I didn't butt in. You engaged me.'
'Cindy...' Marge said.
'Don't worry, Marge, I remember my promise.'
'What promise?' Decker asked.
'I promised Marge I wouldn't interfere with your investigation.'
'When was this?'
'Now who's butting into whose conversation?'
Lisa said, 'I'll wait outside for you, Cin.'
'Good idea.' After Lisa closed the front door, Cindy said, 'You know, Dad, you have a double standard—'
'Cut it, Cynthia. You and Marge are keeping something from me. I want to know what it is right now!'
Cindy ran her toe along the seam of the Navaho rug. 'I paid a visit to Silver's gym—'
'You what!' Decker honed in on Marge. 'And you let her?'
'I saw her coming out, not going in.' 'But you didn't tell me.'
Marge shrugged. 'No, I didn't, Pete.'
'How could you do that!' He glared at Cindy. 'And how could you do that! Between the two of you, I don't know who I'm more pissed off at.'
'Why don't you save your anger for assholes like Leek McKay?' Marge said.
Decker remembered Rina was sleeping and lowered his voice. 'What exactly are you saying, Marge? You're keeping secrets about my daughter from me because you're pissed at the way I handled Leek McKay? That makes a lot of sense.'
'It's not that,' Marge retorted. 'You're frustrated and you're taking it out On the wrong people—'
'Hell, yeah, I'm frustrated. Especially when my partner colludes behind my back—'
'I wasn't colluding—'
'The hell—'
'I'll see you guys later,' Cindy said.
'Don't you move a muscle, young lady,' Decker said. 'I'm not done with you.'
'Daddy, Marge dressed me down enough for the both of you. Believe me, I'm very sorry I butted into your affairs. It was dumb but I did it because I cared. I cared about the baby, I cared about Lourdes Rodriguez, I cared because it could have been Hannah. I almost blew Marge's tail on Tandy and I feel very foolish about it. I didn't ask Marge to keep it a secret, but she did. And I appreciate that - her trust in me. I was going to tell you. I was just trying to find the right time.'
Cindy sunk into one of the buckskin chairs. 'Stop growling at me, Daddy. I'm just as worn out as you are.'
Decker folded his arms across his chest and tapped his foot. Finally, he blew out air. 'What did you possibly
hope to accomplish by going to Silver's?'
'In my naivete, I thought maybe I could get Tandy to talk to me. And she did talk to me. She talked a lot. Unfortunately, she didn't talk about Marie Bellson or Caitlin Rodriguez. But she did say she lost two babies. One when she was a teenager, the other one when she was an adult.'
With clenched teeth, Decker said to Marge, 'So that's where you picked up that point of info.'
'We all have our friendlies.' Marge's smile was tight. 'The second pregnancy might have been the false one Meecham was referring to.'
'Maybe both of them were false pregnancies,' Decker said. 'The woman has been described to us as a fruitcake. Who knows what the hell we're dealing with?' To Cindy, he said, 'What else did you and Tandy talk about?'
'Divorce - her parents' divorce,' Cindy corrected herself. 'She was really bitter over it, still grieving over the ordeal like it happened yesterday.'
'When did it happen?' Decker asked.
'When she was young. I think around five.'
Decker paused. 'Tandy's twenty-five... the divorce would have been around... what? About twenty years ago?'
'I guess.'
'Marie Bellson would have been around twenty back then,' Decker said. 'Cindy, did Tandy say where she was from?'
'Oh no!' Marge exclaimed. 'I must be the world's biggest moron] Marie Bellson went to school in Berkeley.' She faced Cindy. 'Didn't you tell me Tandy's father was a prof at Berkeley?'
'Yeah—'
'A prof who couldn't keep his pants on?'
'Yeah.'
'Pete, Rita Bellson said her daughter screwed everything in sight including professors. Betcha Professor Roberts was one of her past amours.'
'The connection between Tandy and Marie,' Cindy said.
'I told you the girl was a natural,' Marge said.
Decker tossed her a dirty look which Marge returned in kind. Cindy felt uncomfortable, knowing she was the reason behind the tension in the room.
She cleared her throat and said, 'Once Tandy started on her parents, it was hard to get her to stop. She hates them. Just puts them down mercilessly. She kept repeating how horrible her mother was to her, always screaming at her, telling her she was bad.'
'Telling her it was her fault that her first baby died?' Marge mentioned.
'Yeah,' Cindy said. 'The anonymous "they".'
'What anonymous "they"?' Decker asked.
'She said people were always blaming her for losing the first baby,' Cindy said. 'The people was probably her mother yelling at her.'
'Pete, we have Tandy and Marie living in the same neighborhood when traumatic things happened in both their lives,' Marge said.
'What's that?' Cindy put her hand over her mouth. 'Or aren't I allowed to ask?'
Decker felt a feeling of resignation wash over his body. 'Tandy's parents got divorced and Marie lost a baby around the same time. Not to change the subject, Cynthia, but I think your friend's waiting for you.'
'Omigod, I forgot about Lisa!' Cindy kissed her father. 'I'm very sorry, Daddy.'
'It's all right.' He gave his daughter a bear hug. 'It's only because I love you so damn much.'
'I know.'
'Are you going to keep your promise?'
'I swear.'
'Good,' Decker said. 'Now go have some fun.'
'Sure. Bye.'
'Cindy, I may have a couple of questions later on for you, okay?'
Cindy grinned. 'You call the shots, Father.' She bounced out the door but remembered to close it quietly.
Deck
er glared at Marge, who returned his angry stare. She said, 'If you want me to apologize for not telling you about Cindy, forget it. She's an adult, Pete. I treated her like an adult. It wasn't my place to fink on her.'
Faye Kellerman - Decker 06 - Grievous Sin Page 34