YOU HAVE NO reason to protect anyone,” said Decker.
He was sitting in an interrogation room at police headquarters with Lassiter on one side of him and Kemper and Jamison on the other.
Across from them was Alice Martin sitting very primly in her seat. She didn’t answer.
“We checked the big game freezer in your basement,” said Decker. “The one presumably your husband used to store his venison in. But you didn’t just keep deer meat in there. Whoever put Beatty and Smith in there wasn’t all that careful. Their DNA has been recovered by the DEA.” He glanced meaningfully at Kemper. “And that particular federal agency is out for blood. So, I say again, you have no reason to protect anyone.”
She lifted her gaze to his. “How can you possibly know that?”
“Convince me otherwise.”
She smoothed out her long skirt and rested her hands in her lap.
“I have children and grandchildren, and soon I’ll have great-grandchildren. I have to think of them.”
“How did you even get mixed up with something like this?” asked Lassiter.
“I outlived what little money I had a long time ago. I’m eighty-eight and in reasonably good health. Once you’ve reached this age, your odds of living another ten years or so are pretty good. I did not wish to do so in abject poverty. I’m tired of never going anywhere. Of never having anything.”
“Your kids couldn’t help?”
“My children are barely making ends meet themselves. I have Social Security and that’s it. And even here that does not go a long way.”
“Lots of people have only Social Security, and they don’t join a drug cartel to earn more money,” pointed out Kemper.
“I did not join a drug cartel!” she said sharply.
“Then why don’t you tell us what you did do,” said Lassiter.
“I merely looked the other way,” she said, her gaze perhaps symbolically averted from them. “When things began to happen on our street.”
“What sorts of things?” asked Decker.
“When certain equipment was brought into the house where those men were found and in the one next to it. When unsavory types started coming and going at all hours.”
“They were pill presses,” said Decker. “And they picked this street because it only had three people living on it and one of them was blind.”
“And one of them was also in on it,” added Lassiter. “Fred Ross. Was he the one who approached you and asked you to look the other way?”
Martin nodded. “That’s why they picked this street. Like you said, Dan was blind. Fred was just a horrible person. And I…” Her voice trailed off. “If I hadn’t gone along they would have just killed me. What was I supposed to do?”
“Call the cops?” said Jamison.
“The cops?” she scoffed. “Fred told me that half the force is in on it.”
“That’s bullshit!” exclaimed Lassiter. “You could have come to me, Alice. I would have done something about it.”
“What did they offer you?” Decker asked.
“Compensation.”
“How much?”
“Two thousand dollars a week. In cash. And I really had to do nothing. Just…look the other way.”
Jamison said, “No, you let them put bodies in your freezer.”
Martin shivered at this comment but said nothing in reply.
Decker said, “That’s a lot of money. What did you do with it?”
“I…bought things. I started eating food other than ramen noodles and mac and cheese. I fixed items in my house. I sent some money to my children. I bought my grandkids presents for the first time in years. I put the rest away in a trunk in my house to leave to them.”
“So you were outside the night the bodies were transported?” said Lassiter.
Martin nodded. “They…they took the bodies from my freezer and put them in Fred’s van. Then they drove it to the house and unloaded them there. They’d cleared out their equipment earlier. I went outside because…well, I didn’t want to be inside when they brought the bodies out. And I wanted to make sure that no one was around, even though they had this drone thing flying over to do that. They usually did that when they were moving people or things in and out of there, just to make sure the coast was clear. Fred told me they had wanted to wait until it was very late at night to do it, but they figured with the storm coming in that no one would be out and about, and they wanted to get it done sooner rather than later. Anyway, they pulled the van into the carport and brought the bodies in through the side door. Afterward, they drove the van back to Fred’s and left on foot. I walked back to my house before the rain started.”
“That’s when I heard your cane clunking and scraping against the pavement,” said Decker. “I’m glad I never really described the sounds I heard to you when we spoke before. You would have been tipped off. But Dan Bond heard it too. He confronted you about it, didn’t he?”
For the first time, tears glimmered in Martin’s eyes.
“He was out on his front porch the other day when I passed by. I called out to him and he said, ‘Good morning.’ But then he looked kind of funny-like. I went home. And later he called me and wanted to know why I was outside that night. He wasn’t accusing me, really. But he said that you had asked him about the sound, that you considered it important. And he was trying to remember where he’d heard it before. I never even thought about my cane making those noises. I just used it outside to walk without falling. I should have gotten it repaired.”
“So how did he end up dead?” asked Decker.
“I was afraid he would tell you it had been me out that night. So I phoned Fred and told him about it.”
“From the number on your phone wall,” said Decker.
Martin locked gazes with him. “Yes.”
“And what did Fred say he was going to do?” asked Lassiter.
“He said he would take care of it.” She started to tremble. “I never thought he was going to kill him! I never, ever wanted Dan to die. He was a good man. A good friend all these years.”
“What the hell did you think he was going to do?” said Decker. “A guy who’d stored the bodies of two federal agents in your freezer?”
Martin shook her head. “I…” She fell silent.
“And you called Fred again, after I met with you that night, didn’t you?”
She glanced at him but said nothing.
“And he or someone else called Brian Collins and told him to kill me. Did you know that was going to happen when you lied to me about seeing Beatty and Smith going into that house?”
“I…I just did as I was told if you showed up at my door. That was all.”
A long silence followed, during which all that could be heard was Martin’s rapid breathing.
“You know, you should thank us for bringing you in,” said Decker.
She looked up at him. “Why is that?”
“How long do you think they were going to let you live? I’m surprised they haven’t already killed you.”
“Maybe they took mercy on me.”
“I highly doubt these guys have any mercy inside them.”
“I have to look for the good in people,” she said.
“And I have to look for the bad. It’s not hard to find.”
Martin’s eyes fluttered. “It didn’t use to be this way here.”
“Back in the good old days?” said Decker.
“They were the good old days,” she snapped.
“To some people. To others, they were as bad as today is for you.”
“What will happen to me?” asked Martin, regaining her composure.
“Well, for starters, you won’t have to worry about housing for the rest of your life,” said Decker. “Or food. The government will be providing both.”
She held her chin high and stared pointedly at him. “I just wanted to live in peace and dignity. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. Doesn’t that matter?”
Decker eyed her back. “I’ve heard a lot of people say that over the years. Even the ones who put a gun against a guy’s head and pulled the trigger. So, no, it doesn’t matter at all.”
Lassiter said, “But if you testify against the others and help us build a case against them, that will help you. You might get some leniency.”
Martin looked at her. “Throwing a bone to your old Sunday school teacher, Donna?”
Lassiter shook her head. “You helped a drug ring pretty much slaughter this town, in exchange for money. So I just want to nail every one of these bastards. And if you can help us do that, great. If you can’t you can rot in prison for all I care.”
“I’ve really screwed everything up, haven’t I?”
Decker glanced at Jamison and then looked back at Martin.
“Well, maybe you can teach Bible classes in prison to redeem yourself.”
“Now you’re mocking me,” said Martin bitterly.
“No, I’m actually serious. And if you can help turn one life around?”
“Do you think that’s really possible?”
“After what I’ve seen in life, anything is possible.”