04.Die.My.Love.2007 (25 page)

“Like I said, you’ve got my phone number,” Kelley said, drawing the interview to a close. “All right. Thanks.”

190 / Kathryn Casey

Finally, ninety minutes after it began, the interview ended, and Piper walked back toward McVey’s offi ce, while Kelley and the others drove the short distance to Tina’s house. During the heat of the discussion with Piper, Kelley had asked McVey where Tina was. The officers had not seen her leave his offices, but McVey maintained that she had, that she’d walked through the waiting room and out the door while they were all talking.

When Kelley knocked on Tina’s door, Mac, home from the Hill Country and a weekend with his parents, answered.

He’d learned about Fred’s death from Tina early that morning, before he drove in to report to the radio station where he was working. After they showed their badges and introduced themselves, the officers asked to talk to Tina.

“She’s not here,” he said. “She’s down the street, but I’ll call her.”

Mac picked up the phone, dialed a number and talked to someone, then said, “I’ll go pick her up. You’re welcome to stay. I’ll be right back.”

With that, he left. Later, Mac would tell Kelley that where he went that afternoon was right down the block, to McVey’s office, where he found Tina and Piper talking. Minutes later Mac returned with Tina, who was immediately on the offensive.

“Why aren’t the children here?” she demanded. “They should be with their mother.”

“We need to talk to you about your sister,” Kelley said.

“Did you see her this past Friday or Saturday?”

At first Tina was evasive, continually asking about the children, pushing for Kelley to say he would bring them to Piper or make arrangements for her to pick them up. But Tina wouldn’t commit herself as to when she saw Piper over that weekend. Finally, she said, “Yes, I know where my sister was this weekend. You bring the kids here and I’ll tell you.”

Back and forth they went, Kelley, Dorton, Ferguson, and DIE, MY LOVE / 191

McDaniel, all pushing Tina to tell them where Piper had been that weekend, but she wouldn’t comply. “You leave and come back with my sister’s children,” Tina ordered. “Then we’ll talk.”

She complained about the Virginia court system, saying she didn’t like the way the divorce case had been handled and that she didn’t trust anyone in Virginia in power. When Ferguson told her he was from Houston and had nothing to do with the Virginia police, that he’d be happy to take her statement, Tina didn’t mince words.

“I’m not answering your questions, either,” she said.

“Where were you on Friday night, and did you see Piper?”

Kelley asked again. “That’s all we’re asking.”

“I’m
not
answering your questions,” she said again.

Finally, as Tina became increasingly hostile, she ordered them to leave her house. At that point Kelley decided they might just as well go without a fight. It was obvious that Tina Rountree wasn’t going to make any kind of a statement. They left, walking outside toward their cars. Yet, Tina didn’t let them leave in silence. Instead, she followed them out the door and onto the street, shouting, “Bring my nieces and my nephew here. They need their mother.”

Kelley thought he could still hear her hollering at them as he drove away.

About one that afternoon, in Virginia, Steve Byrum’s phone rang, shortly before the meeting in McVey’s office. It was Piper, and she left a message: “I need your help. Call me.”

When he got the message later that afternoon, Byrum called Hanna.

“Would you be willing to record a phone call with Piper?”

Hanna asked.

“I’d rather not,” he said. “I don’t want to end up like Amber Frey in that Scott Peterson case, pulled in on something I had nothing to do with.” After they talked awhile, Byrum 192 / Kathryn Casey

relented and agreed. Hanna said he’d make the arrangements to make the call later in the week.

Finally, at four that Sunday, after a full day of circulating from hotel to hotel without finding anyone to identify Piper Rountree, a disappointed Hanna left work and headed to his ex-wife’s house to pick up his young daughter. It was Halloween, and they had plans. The youngster had a Barbie princess costume to wear, and the big, muscular offi cer had every intention of taking his little girl trick or treating. Yet, he couldn’t quite put the Jablin case behind him. Throughout the eve ning, he thought about Fred Jablin, about how he must have been looking forward to Halloween with his three children, putting on costumes, walking through the neighborhood, laughing with friends. Now that would never happen again.

At 3:55 that afternoon in Houston, shortly after Piper fi nished her first interview with the investigators, the phone rang at Charles Tooke’s house. Piper told him she’d been interviewed by the police and that she thought it had gone well. “Can you come over to night?” she asked.

“Sure,” Charles said.

Three minutes later she called a second time.

“You know that piggyback cell phone you have?” she asked.

“Sure,” he said.

“Can I use it? Would you bring it to night?”

“Of course,” he said.

The officers’ plans to meet with Piper that night evaporated with a 4:27 voice mail from her on Coby Kelley’s offi ce phone. When he called her back, she cried, saying she felt caught “between a rock and a hard place.”

“Do you feel like you’re being accused of something?”

Kelley asked.

Photographic Insert

'red Jablin came alive in the

classroom. He loved noth-

1hysically, Fred was a

slight man with an unas-

ing more than connecting

suming manner. Few would

with a bright student.

have guessed he ranked

among the top experts in

Photo courtesy of the University
of Richmond, Jepson School of

his field in the world.

Leadership Studies

Photo courtesy of the University
of Richmond, Jepson School of

Leadership Studies

)alloween had always been Fred’s and Piper’s favorite holiday, here at a party at Fred’s Austin house.

Photo courtesy of Leo and Linda Kuentz

"t first, Piper and Fred seemed happy, content to be together. Here watching football in Austin.

Photo courtesy of Leo and Linda Kuentz
5o her therapist, Piper
(far

left
) described her older

sister Tina (
left
) as her surrogate mother. Everyone who

knew them understood how

close the sisters were.

1iper, here with Paxton, con-

sidered herself the perfect

mother. She was beautiful, ar-

tistic, and brilliant.