Saving Cheryl

He smiled.

"I'd do anything for Cheryl and I wouldn't ever let anything happen to her."

Cheryl looked at me.

"Satisfied?"

"Yes. I believe you."

She smiled.

"I promised Jeremy ten dollars if he'd come talk to you. Since I don't have any money with me..."

Jeremy walked back down the alley with my ten dollar bill in his pocket. When he was out of sight, Cheryl turned to me.

"OK, now how do we get my butt out of this mess?"

"Well, first we need to figure out what I'm going to do with you. I should take you back to the station and let you talk to a detective, but I don't think that's a good idea. They'll start an investigation, but they'll take you back to Belle Venica until they figure out what's going on. That'll be hard for them to do because Belle Venica will probably figure out that you weren't taking the drugs they were giving you and try something else to keep you telling the detective anything else. It'll be your word against the manager of Belle Vinica, and when she tells them what she told me, they'll probably believe her."

Cheryl grinned.

"You got a spare bedroom?"

"Yes, but that would probably get me fired. What would you say to a hotel room?"

She grinned again.

"I was kinda hoping for the bedroom thing. A hotel would work if it's not one of the chains. Somebody might decide to look for my name on the register if it was."

I got Cheryl a room at The Imperial Gardens. It was a small motel on a highway that was a main thoroughfare before the interstate system. Most of the residents were elderly people who lived there permanently, so Cheryl fit right in. I rented the room for a week because I didn't know how long it was going to take me to get all the details of the case.

It was probably the wrong thing to do, but Cheryl's story made sense and I didn't think Jeremy was lying to me. He wouldn't be the most reliable witness in court, but his body language and his voice told me he was telling me the truth.

The Imperial Gardens had refrigerators and little stoves in each room, so after telling Cheryl not to open the door unless it was me, I went to the local Walmart and bought half a dozen frozen personal pizzas, some bread and cold cuts, and some frozen breakfasts. When I took them back to her room, Cheryl looked at me and grinned.

"It's a good thing I like pizza isn't it? You weren't very imaginative."

"Well, this is what I usually buy for home. If you want something else, I can go get it."

"No, this will do fine. Can I use your cell phone? They took mine away from me at Belle Venica."

"Who are you going to call?"

"My daughter. She's the only one of my kids with any sense. She probably doesn't know what's going on because Andrea would never tell her until it's over. Lacey will want to come help me. Is that all right?"

I said I supposed it was, but she shouldn't tell anybody where she was going or why.

"Lacey's not married and she works from home. Nobody will know."

The call took almost half an hour. When Cheryl handed my cell phone back to me, she smiled.

"Lacey will be here tomorrow. I hope she can find this place. It's so far out in the sticks I'm surprised you found it."

After cautioning her again not to open the door for anybody except me or Lacey, I left. Once I was back in the city, I called dispatch and said I'd been following a lead and didn't have time to call in, but that I was headed back to the station.

To get Cheryl out of Belle Venica permanently somebody was going to have to confess, and I was pretty sure neither Beverly nor Andrea would crack. So far, they really hadn't done anything they couldn't explain. All Beverly had done was try to calm a delusional woman with what she'd say was a drug commonly prescribed for that purpose.

I wasn't sure how she'd have gotten the prescription unless the staff doctor was in on the deal. The more I thought about it, the more likely that seemed and especially so if Cheryl had been drugged to get her to Belle Venica. Andrea would have to get the drug from a doctor. A doctor would know the right drug and the right dose for Cheryl's weight.

Andrea would just say she needed the money from the sale of Cheryl's house to pay for the care her mother-in-law needed. I'd heard a couple of the guys on the force say they'd had to do that when their parents got to an age they couldn't do things for themselves. There wasn't anything illegal about that unless they tried to do it without a power of attorney or Cheryl's signature on the sale paperwork. Andrea would just say they were getting the house ready to sell and would get Cheryl's consent before they listed it.

Cheryl had said her son, Randolph, was a wimp and the liquor store owner had told me basically the same thing. If that was true, he might confess. Somebody just had to ask him the right questions, and I wanted that person to be me. I just needed to convince the Captain it should be me instead of a detective.

By putting Cheryl in a motel after I found her, I had my ass hanging out about a mile and a half. If the Captain found out from somebody else, I'd be in deep shit. I figured he might be a little more on my side if I told him what I was doing, so as soon as I got to the station, I knocked on his office door. He waved me in, and then gave me a questioning look when I closed the door behind me.

"So, Mike, what's so important that you closed my door?"

"I found Mrs. Tillerson."

"OK. She's back in Belle Venica, right."

"No, not exactly. She's in a motel over on Sunstrand."

"What!"

"Just let me tell you what else I know and you'll understand...I hope."

I told the Captain about my conversation with Cheryl, my conversation with her daughter-in-law, my conversation with the liquor store owner, and my conversation with Jeremy. He listened to everything before he said anything else. He didn't sound all that convinced.

"So, she says they've put her in Belle Venica so they can take her money. The manager of Belle Vinica and the daughter-in-law says she'd forgetful and she drinks, but the liquor store owner and the homeless guy say she's the salt of the earth. That about right?"

"Well, I wouldn't say the liquor store guy and Jeremy went quite that far, but they didn't say she was like the daughter-in-law said."

"It's pretty shaky, Mike. I'll turn it over to one of the detectives, but I don't know."

"Yeah, I know it's shaky but I'm positive she's telling me the truth. Mrs. Tillerson trusts me and she might not trust anybody else, so I think I should finish this up. I think I have a way to prove what's going on if you'll go along with me. I want to get a look at her finances and I want to talk to her son. A day should do it."

"Why do you need to see her finances?"

"Her house is worth maybe eighty thousand. If, like I suspect, there are three people who'll end up splitting that, it isn't much money for the risk they're taking. Once her son gets her to sign a power of attorney, he can take everything she has. I want to see how much that really is. The more money, the greater the incentive to take the risk.

"The son might be the key. Mrs. Tillerson said he's a wimp who does whatever his wife tells him to do. If I can talk to him alone, he might own up to everything."

The Captain frowned.

"I know you'd like to move on to a detective's job, and maybe this is a way for me to see how you'd do. I'll take you off patrol duty and give you one day, and I'll talk to the DA about a warrant for her finances. After that, you either prove your case or she goes back to Belle Venica and you go back to driving the streets."

The next morning, I called the phone number Cheryl had given me for Randolph Tillerson's office. When he answered, I gave him my name and explained that I needed to talk to him about his mother. When he asked if we'd found her and if she was all right, I just said I'd rather tell him that in person and asked him to come down to the station. It was my way of planting the seed that she might not be all right so he'd have that to think about while he was coming to the station.

When he got to the station, Andrea was with him. I'd sort of expected that. If he was as soft as Cheryl had said, Andrea wouldn't want to risk letting him talk to me by himself. I escorted them both to the interrogation room, and opened the door for Randolph. When Andrea started to follow him, I stepped in front of her.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Tillerson, but I have to talk to Randolph alone. He's Mrs. Tillerson's next of kin and the only one the law will allow to be present when I explain what we've found. You can wait out here or you can go to the break room, but you can't be in the same room with Randolph while we talk."

Andrea muttered something about calling a lawyer and stomped off on her high heels toward the lobby. I closed the door and sat down across the table from Randolph.

Randolph looked nervous as hell and I was glad. I intended to make him a lot more nervous before I was done.

"Mr. Tillerson, we need to have a serious conversation about your mother. Before we do that, by law I have to tell you that you can have an attorney present if you want."

Mr. Tillerson didn't say he wanted a lawyer. He just sat very upright in the chair and frowned.

"Did you find her?"

I wasn't about to answer that question, not yet.

"Mr. Tillerson, we suspect there might be foul play involved in your mother's disappearance. Do you know of anyone who might want to hurt your mother?"

He shook his head.

"No, everybody liked Mother."

"You haven't gotten any ransom demands you haven't told us about, have you?"

"No. Why would I? Has she been kidnapped?"

"I don't think so. I was just asking to be sure. I needed to ask those two questions to eliminate them as possible reasons for her disappearance. Since you said nobody would want to hurt your mother and you haven't gotten any ransom demands, that leaves one other possibility.

"As I'm sure you know from all the police shows on TV, the first suspects in any disappearance are the spouse and immediate family members."

Randolph's eyes sort of bugged out.

"You think I had something to do with this?"

I shrugged.

"I went to Belle Venica. It's almost as secure as most jails. I don't know how she'd have gotten out without help, and I don't know of anybody she'd trust except you. I don't know what you did with her after you took her out, but I'm pretty sure you were the one who got her out the door. I just can't figure out why. Why don't you tell me what happened?"

Randolph's eyes looked as big as dinner plates. I had him scared shitless. I hoped that was enough to get him to tell me what was going on. He looked at me for a second, then said, "I haven't been to that place since Andrea had her put there. You can check their visitor logs if you don't believe me."

"I'll do that. You're telling me Andrea put her there? Why would Andrea have your mother put in a nursing home and how would she have done that? I always thought it was a son or daughter who did that. You would have had to sign something to get her in there. Your wife couldn't because she'd not next of kin."

"I did sign the paper Andrea's lawyer drew up. She said it was just to guarantee the nursing home would get paid every month."

I looked at him, frowned, and scratched my head.

"Funny, I don't remember Andrea saying anything like that. She said you had to sell your mother's house to pay for the nursing home."

Randolph kept adjusting his position in his chair. That was a sure sign Randolph was hiding something.

"I could have paid for it. It would have stretched our budget, but I could have paid for it. Andrea said it would be better to sell the house now instead of waiting until Mother passed away."

"OK, but why would she have you sign a paper saying you'd pay for the nursing home if she was going to use the money from the sale of the house?"

"I don't know."

I looked through the file folder I'd stuffed with papers so it would look like I had more information than I actually had.

"Ah...here it is. I checked with the city and Mrs. Tillerson owns that house free and clear. In order for you to sell it for her, you wouldn't have to contend with a bank or finance company, but wouldn't she have to agree to that?"

"Yes, I suppose so."

"Well, did she? It would have to be in writing to be legal, like if she gave you power of attorney or signed the house over to you. I didn't find any property transfer in city records. Did she sign a power of attorney giving you control of her property?"

"No, she said she wouldn't."

I closed the folder and looked Randolph square in the eyes.

"Mr. Tillerson, you have to realize how this looks. You're trying to sell her house, but you don't have legal authority to do that and she won't sign a power of attorney. Then, your mother disappears. If she's dead, that means you're her legal heir and you can do with the house whatever you want. To me, that sounds like you helped her get out of Belle Venica so you could kill her and get access to everything she owned. If that's not what happened, you need to tell me what's really going on."

Randolph was just sitting there. I figured he was thinking about his options. I wanted to narrow down those options to one and give Randolph a way out that made it not entirely his fault.

"Randolph, I don't think you started all this. I think your wife did, but you're involved and you'll be charged just like Andrea will be. If you tell me what's going on now, I can probably get the DA to go easy on you. If it comes out in your trial, he'll ask for the maximum jail time. Just something to think about. Prison can be rough on a man like you."

Randolph thought for at least two minutes. I could tell he was struggling. Finally he looked up at me and said, "It wasn't supposed to end up like this."

"What wasn't supposed to end up like this?"

"Mother has more than the house. She owns three other houses that she rents to other people and has a very large savings account and investment portfolio. Father was pretty good at investments and when he died, he left her over two hundred thousand dollars in bonds and CD's.

"Andrea knew when Mother passes away, I'd get half of that. I have a sister who lives in Utah, and she'd get the other half. I'm to be the executor of her estate and that's what Mother wrote in her will, that both of us would get half.. It wasn't enough for Andrea. She wanted it all, and she didn't want to wait for Mother to pass.

She went to college with the woman who manages Belle Venica, and they thought if they could get Mother there and she signed a power of attorney, I could transfer almost all the money to our account. When Mother did pass, we'd tell Lacey paying for the nursing home had used up most of Mother's money. Since I'd be the executor of the estate, Lacey would have to believe me. Lacey would get half of what's left so she'd be none the wiser.

"It was easy to get Mother into Belle Venica. The woman at Belle Venica gave Andrea something to put in the drink Mother had every night. Mother went to sleep, and then we carried her to the car and took her to Belle Venica.

"She was pretty mad when she woke up. Andrea had me tell Mother it was because she forgot things and because she drank. I asked her to sign the power of attorney papers that day. She just threw the paper back at me and said she'd never sign.

"I don't know what Andrea did after that because she won't tell me. I didn't know Mother had left Belle Venica until Andrea told me the day after. She's mad at me now because I couldn't get Mother to sign the paperwork, and she says it's my fault Mother got away.

"I don't know where Mother is, but I didn't help her get out and I couldn't ever kill my own mother. That's the honest truth."

I pushed a pad of paper in front of Randolph and then a pen.

"If you'll write all that down and sign it, I'll go have a talk with the DA."

After I'd read Randolph's confession and watched him sign it, I left him in the interrogation room and went to find Andrea. She was sitting in the waiting area and it was obvious she was pissed. She had her legs crossed and the leg on top was bobbing away like crazy. I stepped in front of her and said she could go talk to Randolph now.

I led her back to the interrogation rooms and opened the door to the room next to the one where I had Randolph. She walked in and almost ran me down trying to get back out.

"Where is Randolph?"

"Just have a seat, Mrs. Tillerson. I need to ask you a few questions."

I'd expected her to demand a lawyer before I told her she had that option, but she was an hour or so ahead of me. She'd called one as soon as I started talking to Randolph. Until her lawyer got there I couldn't ask her any questions, so I locked her in the interrogation room and went to see if the report on Cheryl's finances had come back.

It had, and between the bank account, some municipal bonds and CD's, Cheryl was worth a little less than two hundred thousand. If she owned her house and three others, I figured the scam would have given Andrea and her partners somewhere little over six hundred thousand. That was more than enough to prove motive in any court.

I had Randolph's confession implicating Andrea as the one who made the plan. Now I needed to find out how many other people were in on it. I thought Andrea might give me the names if I threatened her enough.

When her lawyer got there, I let him have half an hour with her before I walked in and sat down.

"Andrea, I'm going to lay all my cards on the table for you so you can see what you're up against. Your husband has signed a confession that you and he were trying to take his mother's money by putting her in a nursing home and getting her to sign a power of attorney turning over her assets to him.

"I know from his confession you somehow got a drug to put in her drink to put her to sleep. What I don't know is why Belle Venica let you bring a drugged woman there and where you got the drugs. No reputable nursing home would accept a patient who wasn't conscious unless there was a doctor with her who said it was necessary for her own safety. Would you care to explain that?"

Andrea whispered something to her lawyer and he whispered something back. Andrea then looked at me.

"What am I being charged with?"

"Right now, I'm going to charge you with intent to defraud, assault, and kidnapping. When we find your mother-in-law's body, I'll charge you with first degree murder."

"What do you mean when you find her body. She's not dead is she?"

"Well, she disappeared from Belle Venica, and from what Randolph told me about her financial situation, you had a lot of reasons to kill her. If she was dead, there wouldn't be any need for a power of attorney. Randolph would inherit half her assets. Since he was named as her executor, I'm sure you'd have figured out a way to get it all. That makes you a prime suspect."

Andrea and her lawyer had a whispered conversation for a couple minutes before she turned back to me.

"I'll admit to trying to take her money, but I won't admit to killing her because I didn't."

"Who got you the drugs?"

"The doctor at Belle Venica. He was supposed to get a quarter of her money. Beverly and I were going to split the rest."

"Beverly Rand, the manager of Belle Venica?"

"Yes. It was her idea in the first place. I was telling her about how much money Randolph's mother had and she said we should figure out a way to get it now instead of waiting until she died."

I pushed my pad of paper and a pen in front of Andrea.

"If you'll write all that down and sign it, I'll see what the DA has to say. If your confession turns out to be the truth, he might lower the charges a little. I'm not promising anything, but I know Dick. If you don't write it down and sign it, he'll go for the maximum prison time. You're probably looking at ten to twelve, maybe eight if you behave yourself."