Dead By Dawn (15 page)

“He said that Marty’s name had come up in a murder investigation,” Cammie answered.

“Yes, that’s correct. Do you know if your sister knew a woman named Letty Carlson?”

Cammie’s face paled visibly. Her voice was a little more than a whisper. “Was that the person that was murdered?”

“Yes. Her body and that of a baby were found on a ranch owned by the Davenports,” Lindsay said.

“Charlie Davenport?” she asked.

“You know him?” Lindsay commented.

“Yes, he was the best man at their wedding. I didn’t like him much.”

“Did you know Letty?” Lindsay asked again.

“She was at the wedding too. I remember that Marty and Charlie were making fun of her and her date,” Cammie said.

“Do you remember who that was?”

“A guy named Bing. I remember that Darla got mad at Charlie and Marty over it. Darla was always sweet to people. I met Bing several times. He and Darla were good friends.”

“There was a rumor that Letty’s baby was fathered by the Judge,” Lindsay said.

Cammie looked down and picked an imaginary piece of lint from her skirt. Her expression was pained. Finally she said, “That’s what Darla told me.”

“That Letty’s baby was the Judge’s child?” Lindsay said in astonishment.

“Yes. Darla was so humiliated by his affair. They were married about nine years when she found out,” Cammie said.

“Ouch, I bet that hurt,” Lindsay said softly. “Did Darla confront Marty?”

“Yes, she didn’t want a divorce; it would be too costly for her because she hadn’t had him sign a prenuptial agreement. I remember our daddy was so mad about that.”

“So, what happened?” Lindsay asked.

“They looked married for appearances. Darla finished putting him through law school. She helped him get the position as judge. He had a little bit of money from his parents and she insisted that he use it to pay child support to Letty,” Cammie said.

“I talked to her brother. He told me that there was an envelope of cash that arrived at their house every month. It stopped when Letty disappeared,” Lindsay said.

“Marty was such a tight-wad with his own money,” She said disgustedly.

“What about with your sister’s money?” Lindsay asked.

“Oh, he sure knew how to spend that,” Cammie said sarcastically. “Luckily, my sister didn’t give him much access after he cheated.”

“Do you think that Marty could have murdered Letty and their baby?” Lindsay asked.

Cammie paused to think about that. “I don’t think Marty would have gotten his hands dirty. But I wouldn’t put it past him to have someone else do it.”

“Did Marty have the money to pay some one?” Lindsay inquired.

“I don’t know,” Cammie answered.

Lindsay decided to switch topics. “At the time your sister was killed, you thought Marty did it.”

“My sister wanted a divorce,” Cammie said.

“Did Marty know this?” Lindsay asked.

“Yes. He had been told. He also wanted everything. He was pissed off,” Cammie said.

“But, hadn’t they lived apart for years at that point?” Lindsay offered.

“They had. But, Marty has an ego. He couldn’t believe that Darla would leave him for someone else.”

“Your sister had an affair?” Lindsay was surprised after all of the things she had heard about Darla Van Buren.

“Yes. She met a man at the bakery who was visiting for the weekend. He lived in Los Angeles,” Cammie said.

“Was she moving back down here?” Lindsay questioned.

“No, he was moving up there. He is a successful writer. He could have worked from anywhere. He was renting a house in that area and thinking about moving before he met Darla.”

“What was his name?” Lindsay asked.

“Vincent Morgan,” Cammie answered.

Lindsay looked surprised. “The mystery writer?”

“That’s him. He’s a wonderful man. We kept in touch after my sister died.”

“I heard that Marty had been running around on your sister for years. Why was he mad about the divorce?” Lindsay asked.

“Money; pure and simple,” Cammie said. “He felt he was entitled to everything she had.”

“That’s unreasonable. This is California. Wouldn’t he get half?” Lindsay stated.

“He felt that she was mentally cruel to him all those years she cut him off from her money and affection. It was pathetic to hear him use that as an excuse,” Cammie said in a tone that conveyed pity.

“So, this divorce was going to be a drawn out process,” Lindsay offered.

“It would have been drawn out and expensive. He didn’t have a lot of money.”

“Did he inherit everything when your sister died?” Lindsay asked.

Cammie chuckled. “At least Darla got the last laugh. Darla had changed her will after she told Marty she wanted a divorce. She left money to a foundation we started together.”

“What did Marty inherit?” Lindsay asked.

“He got the houses and a couple million in cash,” Cammie said.

“How much was Darla’s entire estate?” Lindsay inquired.

“With all of the interest in daddy’s company, about forty million,” Cammie answered.

“So, I want to be clear here. You are saying that if Marty had something to do with her death, he was expecting to inherit about forty million dollars?” Lindsay said.

“More like fifty million with the homes and her business. Darla had a home in Los Angeles and her business was worth quite a bit of money. Marty sold both of those and kept the house in Templeton,” Cammie stated.

“Why do you think the police didn’t believe you about Marty?” Lindsay asked.

“Marty can be so charming when he wants to be. He is also connected there. I think that the police thought I was just a relative who couldn’t handle my sister’s death.”

“What does this organization you and your sister started do?” Lindsay asked curiously.

“Both of us love cooking. I went to Italy after college and I have restaurants in Miami, New York, and Los Angeles. Darla went to France and fell in love with baking. We started a foundation that provides scholarships for cooking schools around the world,” Cammie said proudly.

“Marty had no idea that Darla left her money to this foundation?” Lindsay confirmed.

“Apparently not. He seemed genuinely blindsided by the contents of the will,” Cammie confirmed.

“Marty was probably legitimately entitled to half of her money. Why did she fight it?”

Cammie looked pensive. “My sister was a nice lady. She endured Marty’s humiliation for years and didn’t say much.”

“That’s it?” Lindsay said.

“No, she had something on Marty,” Cammie said. “Something that could ruin him. She was trying to blackmail him into walking away with nothing.”

“Why didn’t she just ruin him?” Lindsay asked.

“Because, she was married to him and worried that she would become collateral damage.”

“Collateral damage?” Lindsay asked.

“She knew something that involved a crime that she kept a secret. She was afraid she would go to jail,” Cammie said.

“Do you know what she had on him?” Lindsay asked.

“I don’t know specifically. But I know it was bad.” Cammie said.

“Did Marty have Letty Carlson killed?” Lindsay asked.

“I think so,” Cammie said.

“Did your sister know she and her baby, Janell were buried on that property?” Lindsay asked.

“I think so,” Cammie said. “I also think other people were killed because of it.”

“Do you know who else?” Lindsay asked.

“I don’t know any specifics. I just know that Bing Taylor was involved with all of the murders. That’s all I know.”

Lindsay let that sink in. “Are you saying that Bing Taylor was the person Marty paid to kill Letty and the child?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s what Darla meant when she told me about it,” Cammie said. “Marty paid Bing Taylor to kill some other people too.”

“Do you know who the other people were?” Lindsay asked.

“I don’t. I just know that they knew about Marty and Bing killing Letty Carlson. They approached Darla about it and showed her evidence. They ended up dead too,” Cammie said.

“Do you know when this was brought to Darla’s attention?” Lindsay asked.

“I don’t know exactly when. She told me this about six months before she died,” Cammie said. “Maybe Vincent knows something. She was seeing him then.”

Ellen Collins turned out of the parking lot from Canyon High School, where she had just dropped her son, Tyler, off for football practice. Santa Clarita was hot during the summer, but it the heat felt good to Ellen. She and her husband, Gabe, had moved there twenty years ago. Gabe and Ellen met in Las Vegas. Gabe was going to dental school at UNLV and she was working as a bartender at Circus Circus. Gabe stopped by to gamble with friends and chatted with Ellen for hours. Soon, they were an item.

Gabe was from Santa Clarita. He planned on going back after dental school to go into business with his dad, who was a prominent orthodontist. When he graduated, he asked Ellen to marry him, and they moved to the suburbs, outside of Los Angeles.

Ellen was driving over to the College of the Canyons to pick up her daughter, Ally, from volleyball camp. Her oldest son, Austin, had his driver’s license, but Ellen and Gabe had insisted that he do volunteer work over the summer to enhance his college resume. That left Ellen to do the chauffeuring. That’s what she felt like these days; the chauffeur. Drive one kid to practice, pick the other one up, and back to get the first one. Somewhere in between all that, she got the cooking, cleaning, and shopping done. Ellen thought, not that I’m complaining. My life could be a lot worse. She seemed to have it all; a nice house in Sand Canyon, and her kids went to good schools. Her husband was a well-respected orthodontist with a thriving practice. Ellen didn’t have to get a job, like so many of her friends had to do in this economy. Kids always needed their teeth straightened; bad economy or not.

Ellen felt lucky to have found such a wonderful man to take care of her. She had dropped out of high school. She was a rebel back in those days. She hated her parents, her siblings, and her stupid life. Once she started rebelling, her parents sent her to a private Catholic school that felt like a prison. Finally she ran away.

Running away was harder than she thought it would be. First she headed down to live with some older friends in Newport Beach. She got a job waitressing and was able to scrape by. She got tired of the beach at the end of the summer and hitchhiked up to San Luis. There, she met some people at a bar who offered a place to crash. She found a job waitressing there and stayed on for a while. The house she lived in on Monterey Street was a creaky old home next to a motel. The hardwood floors slanted and the whole house shook when someone walked upstairs, but the rent was cheap and it was close to Cal Poly, so there was always a party to go to.

One of her housemates, Tim Herron, went to school at Cal Poly. He had a job doing office work for one of the local farmers in the area. Tim wanted to be a CPA and was majoring in accounting. His schooling was going slowly since he was working his way through. Tim was proud that he was the first person in his family to go to college. Tim also didn’t want to work so hard. He was the king of easy money, get-rich-quick schemes. Tim was an odd guy. He could be charming, but he was also devious and could be vindictive and violent when he didn’t get his way.

Ellen, however, was troubled lately. Her 11 year old daughter had suddenly showed a passionate interest in volleyball over the last year. Ellen guessed it only made sense because Ally was so tall for her age. The pediatrician had told her and Gabe when Ally was small that she would top out somewhere in the 6’ range. Obviously, she got that from Gabe’s side of the family. Both of Gabe’s sisters were almost 6’ tall and Gabe was six-foot-five inches tall. Ellen was happy that Ally was showing such passion for a sport. She hoped that it would delay the inevitable girl drama that was so prevalent in the news. Ellen had already seen signs of it in her youngest child.

Ellen marveled at the differences between her boys and her daughter. The boys were completely oblivious to all of the drama around them. Tyler lived for football and Austin was a gifted rugby player. The only drama with those two was the constant arguing about whether football was a real sport. Ally, on the other hand, was always deeply entrenched in the drama of her clique. It worried Ellen, especially since Ally was such a people-pleaser. She seemed to be in a constant tug of war for the attention of the clique’s reigning queen bee, Cindy Allen. Ellen thought the Allen girl was a menace. Most of the time, she was just plain mean to the other girls. Ellen also didn’t care for her obvious boy crazy streak. She thought the girls were too young for this sort of thing.