Oblivious to them, Ann let out a wail and buried her head in her hands. She began rocking back and forth as if she were in excruciating pain. The alarms on her machines went off as she screamed, “No! No! Please don’t …”
“Jesus Christ,” John yelled, trying to calm her down. “Ann, what’s wrong?” She slid down in the bed and curled up in a ball, trying to cover her head. She continued to moan and cry out and began to hyperventilate.
“I’ll get someone,” Lark shouted as he ran out to the nurse’s station.
“Don’t hit me,” Ann gasped. “Please don’t hit me.”
“Who hit you?” John asked.
She leaned back against her pillow, gasping for air, her lips pale, her face white as the sheet she lay on. Tears ran down her cheeks. “Don’t hit me, don’t hit me,” she repeated over and over as Lark, Dr. Lane, and the nurse ran through the door.
“Everybody out,” the doctor ordered, waving his arms. “Now,” he yelled when John and Lark continued to stand by the bed.
Thirty minutes later, Dr. Lane came out to talk with them. “She’s calmed down. Sorry I yelled at you, but we needed to get her blood pressure down ASAP.”
“How is she?” John asked.
“Her blood pressure’s back to normal and her oxygen level’s under control. We didn’t have to intubate her, but we did have to give her some medication to calm her down. She’s having flashbacks of being beaten. This isn’t unusual in these situations. I’m glad this happened while she’s here so we can keep the complications to a minimum. The psychologist will see her as soon as she wakes up. We’ll let you know when you can go back in and talk with her. You,” he said, nodding at Lark, “are going to have to wait until she’s ready to talk.” His beeper went off and he headed down the hall. “Have the nurses page me if you have any more questions. I’m around all day.”
Lark went to the phone and called Joel, only to find that he had just left to pick up Lacey. He called Lacey and caught her still at home. He told her about Ann’s flashback. They spent the next ten minutes planning their afternoon interviews with Sara Waltner and Cathy Lowery. They all headed for Big Oak when they hung up. Lark got to the station at twelve-thirty, right behind Joel and Lacey. Joel had great news. They had finally hit pay dirt in Wausau. They settled into the interview room to discuss the new evidence.
Joel was so excited he could hardly contain himself “One of the clerks at the service station across the road from Lippert’s recognized a picture of Sara Waltner. He confirmed that she purchased gas late on Saturday the eighteenth.”
“Sara was supposed to be in Minneapolis shopping that weekend. She was checked into the Sofitel that night. Is he sure about the date?” Lark asked.
“The kid goes to college and works weekend-evening shifts. The night guy called in sick and he worked a double.” Joel checked his notes. “Sara tried to pay for gas with a credit card at the pump, but it wasn’t working so she came in and paid cash. He thought she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. She wasn’t very friendly. She bought a Diet Coke and was mad because they didn’t have caffeine-free.”
“You sure he can put her there on that date?” Lark repeated.
“Sounds that way. The night is very vivid to him—a double shift, quiet night, beautiful woman, a new gray Taurus,” Joel said, grinning at Lark.
“You’re shitting me.”
“He told us she was driving a new gray Taurus and wearing a black coat with a fur-lined hood. Sound familiar?”
“Will he give us a written statement?” Lark asked, unable to believe their luck.
“It’ll be faxed over as soon as it’s signed. We’ve got another team checking out this kid to make sure he’s on the level. The store has a videotape security system. We’re checking to see if there’s any tape on her.”
“Does Waltner Marina rent snowmobiles?” Lacey asked, pacing around the room.
“How the hell should I know?” Lark asked, not following this change of thought.
“Damn, I’ll bet they do,” Joel said.
“What’s that got to do with this?” Lark asked.
“The Taurus was left at Grezetski’s Market, across the road from Waltner Marina. The Taurus from a few years ago was left at the Big Oak Diner, down the block from the Marina.”
“Everything’s just down the block from everything else in this town,” Lark grumbled, his mind racing.
“If you’d stolen a car and didn’t want it near your house but needed to get home in the snow, what better way to do it than to borrow one of your own snowmobiles. Also use the rental snowmobile to take the body out to the marsh, so if anyone found out, it couldn’t be pinned on you. After all, anyone who used that snowmobile could have done it,” Lacey said, sitting down.
“Brilliant, and very hard to prove if that’s how it went down,” Joel said.
“I’ll find out if the marina rents snowmobiles.” Lark said, heading for the door.
“They either rent them or sell them,” Lacey commented, “because they have a bunch of them in their parking lot.”
Lark went out and asked Flo to call Waltner’s to see if they rented snowmobiles, noting that Sara would be in for her interview in ten minutes.
“’Course they do,” she said. “I don’t need to call unless you want to know the price.”
“No shit,” Lark said. “Get the DA on the phone. Tell him to get over here right now. Sara’s coming in at one-thirty.”
“We’ve got enough circumstantial evidence to read Sara her rights,” Lark said as he walked back in the door. “Flo’s calling Tom Jenkins, our DA. I want to make sure we do this right.”
“Did you find her husband yet?” Lacey asked.
“Not that I know of,” he replied, heading back out to ask if they’d tracked Steve down. Flo told him that Steve and his assistant weren’t back from their meeting in Atlanta. Deep in thought, Lark headed back to the interview room. His reverie was interrupted when he heard someone call his name.
He looked up to find Sara standing in the doorway with Tom Jenkins. Lark asked her to take a seat, telling her they’d be with her in a few minutes, and motioned Tom into the interview room. They outlined the case for him. He reluctantly agreed that they needed to read Sara her rights and offered to call her attorney since the evidence was so circumstantial.
Sara came into the interview room, looking drop-dead gorgeous in a red cashmere twin set, a short black skirt, and black boots. She carried her black coat with the fur-lined hood slung over her arm. She greeted Lacey warmly and flirted shamelessly with Joel, then asked Lark how Ann was, her face full of concern. Watching her, Lacey felt a twinge that they might have the wrong person. She had to remind herself of the photo identification they had from the convenience store in Wausau.
Lark sat down across from Sara and everyone got quiet. She surveyed their faces. “What’s wrong?”
“Do you know why you’re here?” Lark asked.
“I was told it was to answer some more questions about Gemma and Terry.” She looked back and forth between them.
“Would you like anything to drink before we get started?” Lacey asked, breaking some of the tension.
“Diet caffeine-free Coke would be great,” she said, settling her eyes on Lark.
“We need to ask you some more questions about Terry and Gemma’s murders, but this time we need to read you your rights and let you know that anything you say can be used against you in a court of law—”
“What the hell,” she yelled, standing up so fast she knocked her chair over. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m reading you your rights,” Lark said.
“I want my attorney,” she snarled, stalking towards the door, her eyes blazing. “Where the hell is Tom Jenkins?”
Jenkins met her at the door. He cajoled her back into the interview room by explaining that she could be arrested if she tried to leave. He told her he’d already called Brad Clapton, her attorney in Park F
alls. She reluctantly agreed to stay. Jenkins told her that he’d called the hardware store to round up Steve and had been told that his plane was due in the next hour. He guided her over to the table, giving her the Diet Coke Lacey had handed him on his way in.
She looked contemptuously at the can and threw it across the room into the trash can. “Goddammit, I said caffeine-free,” she yelled.
They left her stewing in the interview room until her lawyer appeared an hour later. Jenkins and Clapton listened as Lark laid out the evidence against Sara.
“This is all circumstantial,” Clapton said.
“It may be circumstantial, but it all fits,” Jenkins replied.
“I’m going to advise her not to talk to you. If you arrest her, we’ll have her bailed out this afternoon. I’ve got Judge Holten standing by. Old man Williams has given him so much trouble that I’m sure he isn’t going to want to hold Sara on circumstantial evidence. He’d be voted out of office for sure.”
“Don’t forget about Ann Ranson,” Lark said.
“I heard she had brain surgery yesterday. She’s not in any shape to give a statement.”
“She’s awake and starting to get her memory back.”
“You’re going to use a witness who’s lost her memory and had brain surgery?” Clapton asked.
“We’ll have a statement naming your client as the person who assaulted her and left her for dead in the same place as the other two victims.”
“When you get it, let me know,” Clapton said, standing up. “Let’s get this show on the road so we can get over to Park Falls and Judge Holten before dark.”
Clapton met briefly with Sara and then they all sat down in the interview room. They questioned her for an hour, but she stuck to her story that she was out of town at the time of both shootings and was home alone when Ann was beaten and dumped in the marsh. When she was asked about being identified by the kid at the convenience store, she denied that it could have happened, since she was in Minneapolis. When she was asked about her daughter’s affairs with Katey, Gemma, and Terry, she became belligerent, denying that her daughter was a lesbian. Clapton calmed her down.
After the interview, they conferred with Jenkins on whether to turn her loose or arrest her. Joel left the room to call and check on how they were doing in Wausau, and Lark called Marshfield to find out if they could get a statement from Ann. John told him that Ann was sedated and back on the ventilator. She had been having quite a bit of trouble with flashbacks and elevated blood pressure.
Joel faired a little bit better. They had gotten a signed statement from the convenience-store clerk who had checked out as a good kid without so much as a speeding ticket. The store had surveillance tape, but they had not yet found Sara on it.
After hearing their information, Jenkins decided not to arrest Sara until they had positive identification on the surveillance tape or a statement from Ann. When Lark and Joel protested, he informed them that the county could not afford the lawsuit they would get if they were wrong and that one more day wouldn’t hurt anything.
A disheveled Steve Waltner came flying through the door as they headed back to the interview room. After reassurance from Clapton, he went to see Sara. She glanced at him but did not acknowledge his presence. Jenkins informed Sara that she would not be arrested but was expected back at the station at three o’clock the next day for more questioning. Clapton agreed that she would be back and he and the Waltners left.
The police spent another half hour with Jenkins, planning their next steps. It was decided that Lark would drive back to Marshfield to be available to take Ann’s statement. Joel and Lacey would go to Wausau to complete the review of the surveillance tapes. They had a quick dinner at the Big Oak Diner and got on the road in the middle of yet another snowstorm.
SUNDAY MORNING
DECEMBER 3—THE RANSONS
Sunday morning dawned as usual in Marshfield, gray and cloudy with a new layer of snow. Lark and John met in the restaurant at the Super 8. While they ate, Lark updated John on the case.
“Why would Sara do such a thing?” John asked, shocked at what Lark told him. “She must have really hated those kids to do that to them and leave Ann out in the snow to die.” He stopped when he heard his voice quavering, and sipped his coffee.
“Jenkins doesn’t want to arrest her until we have better evidence. Joel and Lacey are in Wausau trying to identify Sara on the surveillance tapes, but the strongest evidence will be what Ann can tell us.”
“I don’t want her to talk about this if it will harm her in any way.”
“I don’t either,” Lark reassured him, “but if she’s ready to talk, I’d like to take her statement.”
Breakfast finished, they went to the hospital. They were surprised to find Ann sitting up in bed with her breathing tube out.
“Did you pull it out again?” John asked, kissing her forehead.
“They took it out about five.” She nudged the oxygen prongs back up to her nose. She still had two IVs and the heart and blood pressure monitors on.
“You look like you’re feeling better,” Lark said, not knowing what else to say.
Her brown eyes bored into him. “I remember.”
“Ann, you don’t have to talk about this right now,” John said, taking her hand.
“I’ve got to get it out. I want this past me so I can put all my energy into getting well.” Lark pulled a tape recorder and notebook out of his coat pocket and they began.
“I felt so much better on Thursday, I decided I had to get out of the house,” she said, playing nervously with the end of her top sheet. “Melissa Marten called and said she’d finished a box for me and wanted to know what time she could bring it over. I told her I’d come and get it. I still had Steve Waltner’s Flow Blue and I decided I’d drop it off, pick up Melissa’s box, and then get us a pizza. I left you a note,” she said to John.
When he nodded she went on. “I got to the Waltner’s at five. Sara seemed surprised to see me and I apologized for not calling. We went into her kitchen and she got us Diet Cokes. I noticed that a glove on her counter matched the gray cashmere-and-fur glove the dogs tore up. I asked her if she’d lost the mate and she looked at me kind of nervously. She said she couldn’t find it and I told her I thought our dogs had destroyed it.” Ann reached for the foam cup on her bedside table and found that it was empty. She held it out to John. “Could you fill this up with ice?”
“Can’t we ring the bell and have them do it? I don’t want to leave you.”
“This will be much faster. You have no idea how dry my mouth is after having that tube in.” John left to get the ice.
“I hate having him in here when I’m telling this. It will upset him. Anyway, back to Thursday. Sara was chopping some vegetables at the island. I was sitting at the bar. She told me that she didn’t think she’d left the glove at our house.” She glanced over at Lark and shook her head. “Oh, how I wish I’d left right then. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I asked her how Sandi was dealing with the murders. She said Sandi was fine, but she was thinking about hiring a bodyguard for her. We talked about violence a few more minutes and then I asked her if she knew Katey Lowery was gay. She whirled around from the island with that big knife in her hand and asked me why I’d say a thing like that. Funny, she didn’t scare me,” Ann said, looking up as John walked in with her ice and a spoon.
She spooned some of the crushed ice into her mouth and went on. “I told her that a good friend of mine had seen Katey at lesbian-group meetings on campus and I was beginning to think that these might be gay hate crimes. She seemed angry and I asked her what was bothering her. She walked over to her pantry. It was off to my right and a little behind me. She said she didn’t understand why I was saying these things to her. I turned around to see what she was doing just as she walloped me with the baseball bat. The next thing I knew, I was on the floor.” Ann spooned more ice into her mouth.
“I had a few seconds before the pain took over. I rememb
er looking up at her and asking why she was doing this to me just before she hit me again. She called me a meddling bitch and told me that no one was going to hurt her daughter. She hit me twice in the leg and once in the arm. I remember curling up in a ball. I must have passed out. The next thing I remember was her dragging me out to the garage. I must have moaned or something because she got down in my face and yelled that Sandi had been raped by those dykes. I remember her shaking me and thinking that I was going to die from the pain. I don’t remember anything else until I woke up out in the snow. I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten there or what had happened. I remember trying to walk and falling down because of the pain in my leg.” She didn’t seem to notice the tears streaming down her face.
“I gave up on trying to walk out and burrowed down in the snow, like animals do to keep warm.” She bit her lip and reached for a tissue to wipe the tears away. “I prayed to God that I’d be rescued and I tried hard not to fall asleep. I yelled for help and sang, anything to let someone know I was out there. Then I didn’t feel cold anymore, just warm and drowsy and I finally just let go. The last thing I remember was the dogs. I thought they were wolves.”
She looked over at Lark, her eyes swimming in tears. “What will they do to Sara?”
“Life in prison’s too good for her,” he said, turning off the tape. “We’ll transcribe this and have someone run it back down for you to sign.”
He and John went out in the hall and conferred. It was decided that the guard would stay until Sara was in permanent custody.
Lark’s pager went off just as he headed out of town. He tried his cellular phone and realized he still hadn’t charged it. Swearing, he called Flo on the radio.
“Don’t you answer your phone anymore?”
“It’s not charged,” he snapped, letting her know he wasn’t in the mood for any attitude.
“Call Joel at the office in Wausau. He called twenty minutes ago and said it was urgent.”
“Guess you’ll have to patch me through since I can’t call.” She snorted her disdain as she made the transfer.
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