To Die For (20 page)

That's sick, Greco thought. She knows full well that she just killed this lady and she's acting like she hit the lottery. That was worse than just lacking remorse. It was as if she were celebrating the murder.

“I, I understand, I understand,” McElvain said. “Hear me out here. We've all seen financial situations. I don't know what I would do if I got my back up against the wall. And I'm sure Joe here doesn't know what he would do. We both have families, we have kids, we understand those financial difficulties. But, but if you flat-out deny doing this, it's, it's hard for me to understand.

“We've all made mistakes and that is understandable,” he told her. “But for you to flat-out and deny you're lying to my face … it's hard for us to understand and try to work with you.”

They waited. Dana looked down and sniffed into a tissue. Greco thought he'd keep up the momentum.

“I mean, I understand the position, too, for being depressed and, and, that you, you know, you just recently went through a divorce,” Greco said.

“It's much more than that,” Dana said.

“OK. Maybe you can explain to us, what happened with these, these other incidents?” Greco asked.

“I don't know. What incidents are you talking about?” Dana said, staring back at them. She was crying, but at the same time, her face hardened. She wasn't giving an inch. Bentley decided to confront her.

“Well, let's, let's go back and start with, uh, this is what's happening, OK? We have a police officer who 100 percent saw you at Provident Bank,” Bentley said.

“OK,” Dana said.

“OK,” Bentley said.

“I mean, they may have saw me, but I did admit that I took the book,” Dana said.

“OK,” Bentley said. “OK. Now these other things sound real similar.”

“But those are the credit cards,” Dana said.

“Well, they're very similar,” Bentley said. “The people are obviously not police officers, but they're positive, OK?”

“I've been, I've been in those places,” Dana said.

“But they're positive that you're the one,” Bentley said. “And I'll tell you what else we're going to do. He's gonna take that handwriting, he's gonna compare it…”

“Go ahead, I know that's why you have to do that,” Dana said.

“Let me put it this way,” McElvain said. “Purchases that were made at various locations are items that you have at your house. The exact items. We went and checked the, the codes, on the receipts, pulled the items from the shelf … the name brand, the style, the color. You have the exact same items in your house.

“It's, it's now beyond coincidental. Way beyond coincidental. And for you to continue to deny, it's like we don't have a relationship here.…

“I mean, you had these financial difficulties, you've been under a lot of stress, is it just that this came over you and it was an opportunity? That's understandable. But for you to deny and lie, that's not understandable,” he said.

Dana, crying again, paused.

“There are a lot of things in there that are not me,” she said.

“Well,” McElvain said. “I know right now it's hard for you to just come out and say that you have done something…”

“I did wrong things in my life before,” Dana said.

“And remember back to those things. Doesn't it feel like a, a weight's been lifted off your shoulders?” McElvain asked.

“Yes, about the bankbook, yes,” Dana said, pausing again.

“Well, OK. I want to get back to this,” Bentley said. “Is there some way you could have her credit card, that she let you use it, that something happened to her and you just took the cards? Is there something that could have happened that you're not telling us? That you visited her that day or…”

“I've visited her off and on because I told you, you know, she teaches me about vitamins and cooking…” Dana interrupted.

“OK, did you visit her in February, the beginning of February?”

“Somewhere in February. I don't remember the date. It was…”

“Your prints will be in her house, obviously,” Bentley said.

“Yes, my prints would be there…” Dana said cautiously.

“Now, prints don't last a long time,” Bentley said.

“Um-hum,” Dana said. “I saw her, um, shortly before the, that ac—ac—.”

“It wasn't an accident,” Bentley said.

“Yeah, I was just gonna say the right words.”

“Did you ever argue with her?”

“Never.”

“Did you ever try to borrow money from her?”

“Never.”

While Bentley was taking this line of questioning, James McElvain quietly excused himself and left the room. He wanted to call Wyatt and tell him to look in Dana's sock drawer for property belonging to Dora Beebe.

“OK. Prints don't last a long time, so how close to the time that she was murdered were those prints there?” Bentley asked.

“I visited her within a day or two.”

“So you think you were there the day or two before?”

“It could have been. Yeah. Well, it coulda, 'cause I know the next week I heard about it, but it was days after so I wasn't sure when the day it happened,” Dana said.

“When you saw her, how was she doing?”

“Fine. Just, she's just, she's just gotten a little kind of reclus-ish, you know.”

“She grumpy?” Bentley asked. Greco hated seeing Dana portray June in a poor light. But it revealed what she was thinking.

“No, not grumpy, just kind of not as the way she used to be when her husband was alive. You know, just trying to keep busy.”

“Know why you were there that day?”

“To talk to her about vitamins because I have been trying to stop drinking and I wanted to know what kind of vitamins, like B vitamins, or what kind of things that I should take to help me,” Dana said.

“Then that would explain why your prints were there?”

“Were they there?”

“I think so,” Bentley said.

“Well, then, that would explain it.”

Another pause. Greco picked up from there.

“There's no way by accident that you came across June's credit card. Not if you … not like you did the purse,” Greco said.

“You know that I'm very scared,” Dana said.

“I understand that. I do understand that and I don't wanna, I don't wanna pressure you or force you, OK? But … it's like a weight that's lifted off your chest. And I understand that you felt at least somewhat better about telling us about the purse, right?”

“Yeah … I was at my bank and I saw a man throw a little coin purse thing in the trash where the, by the Ready Teller. And I looked in it, but I didn't think those were, it was her,” Dana said.

“OK.” She was lying again. Her story now was that she had found discarded credit cards belonging to one woman, and a bankbook, belonging to another, both within an hour of their owners' separate murders.
Just keep talking, Dana,
Greco said to himself.
Just keep talking.

“I had no idea. And, uh, I took a Mervyn's card and a
VISA
and that was it. I threw the rest in the trash.”

“So you did make those purchases?”

“I made some of the purchases, but not everything you have listed.”

“OK, what did this guy look like?”

“Medium build. Uh, kind of sandy, blonde hair with a kind of, the kind, like a construction worker, kind of grubby, kind of low-life–looking guy,” Dana said. “Faded T-shirt and jeans and stuff.”

Dana had finally admitted using June's credit cards. They got as far as Mervyn's and the Nike Factory Outlet before they got hung up on Murrieta Hot Springs. First she denied using the card for a massage. Then she admitted that she went and used the pool with her own pool card but insisted that she'd paid cash for it. The next story was that Jason's half-sister, a 10-year-old, had taken June's card out of Dana's purse before Dana disposed of it.

“You know, sometimes this little girl comes in the house, we let her…'cause she's Jason's uh, half-sister, and she, I forbade her to come anymore, because she steals stuff from Jason,” Dana said.

“Who is she?” Bentley asked.

“The little 9-, um, 10-year-old, uh, I'm sorry, I'm so freaked out. Taby. And she's stolen stuff and she was around then. So I used the pool one day, but I didn't get a massage.”

“Can you explain why we have a carbon copy of a VISA purchase?” James asked.

“Who knows? With this little girl, I don't know,” Dana said.

“How old is she?” Greco asked.

“She's 10 and she's slick,” Dana said.

James McElvain had returned from talking to Wyatt. He'd been on the phone when a deputy walked over to the sock drawer. Sure enough, there were ID cards and an auto club card of Dora's in Dana's drawer.

“Now that's you, you, you're going off the wrong way again,” James said. “It's, it's not the little girl. It's you.… What you keep doing here, you keep pointing here and pointing there and you're still not being totally honest with us … So far, you're giving us bits and pieces of that. We want the total truth.”

“Well, I'm scared,” Dana said, starting to cry again. She finally admitted using the credit card there for a massage.

“Why were you hiding that?” Bentley said. “That's like, stupid!”

“Well, I'm scared,” Dana said again.
Way to go, Bentley,
Greco thought.
How can you build trust like that?
He couldn't believe the prosecuting attorney, who was supposed to help establish a rapport with the serial killer, had just called her stupid. He wanted to be alone with Dana, but it was too late now. He winced as Bentley continued.

“OK, Dana,” Bentley said, “but you knew we had proof.”

“I was just scared and I've never done this before and I'm just scared,” she said, starting to cry again. When she calmed down, they went through the list of stores—West Dallas, Baily's Wine Country Café, the Esthetiques, Sav-On drug store, Perfumania, Famous Brands, the housewares store, Ferrari Bistro. They got hung up on the diamond earrings. Dana admitted going to the Jewelry Mart, but insisted she bought the earrings with a check. They let it go.

“OK, here's what I want to ask you then,” Bentley said. “'Cause here's what's really weird to me, OK? We know when June was killed.”

“Um-hum,” Dana said.

“And that darn credit card was used within an hour at Mervyn's. OK? Now I submit this…”

“Well, I can't say…” Dana interrupted.

But Bentley interrupted again. “Let me finish, let me finish. And I'm gonna tell you who I am. I'm a Deputy District Attorney, homicide. OK? And they asked me to come out here and I've probably been out to 150 murder scenes. And I've never seen a woman kill somebody like that. Men I've seen happen. OK? And then I'm sitting there looking at the timing that you finally, you finally came forward so close in timing. That timing is so close, OK, so close in time, plus you know the person, makes me think if you didn't do it, you were there and knew who did it.”

“No, I did not.”

“OK, that's what it makes me think.”

“Uh-uh,” Dana said.

“OK, now, then explain to me why I'm wrong,” Bentley said.

“Because I went to the bank, saw the guy throw those in there, took the cards and went shopping,” Dana said.

“Dana,” Greco said. “Dana, the only other, the only other, I guess really odd or unusual coincidence is that this person, this Beebe person that you used to cash her check. Do you realize that she was murdered today?”

“No,” Dana said. “No.”

“She was murdered pretty much the same way June was murdered,” James said.

“No, I don't know anything about that,” Dana said.

“How do you explain this coincidence?” McElvain said. “Two homicides. And you find a credit card from June and then the next thing you know, a couple of weeks later, another homicide and again, you find this person's purse.”

“I don't have an explanation.”

“Are you, are you extremely lucky?” James asked.

“I think it was purely coincidental. 'Cause there's no way…”

“OK, OK, let me ask you this,” Bentley interrupted. “You knew June 100 percent, right?”

“Yeah.”

“This person that you cashed the check on, you're 100 percent sure you did not know her?”

“I'm 100 percent sure,” Dana said.

“Did you happen to see her driver's license in there, in her purse?”

“It was mixed in with the other stuff,” Dana said.

“And what did she look like?”

Dana laughed. “Like an old lady,” she said with a soft laugh. “I didn't look at it very closely.”

That made Greco's skin crawl. She just killed this woman today. Now she's laughing about her looks. He wondered if she had something against old people.

“Do you realize that your opportunity is very suspicious? Your opportunity lies around two elderly females that were murdered,” McElvain said.

“If that's what you say, yes,” Dana said. “I mean that's from what you said, yes.”

“It's such a coincidence,” Greco said.

“I know, but I'm telling you, I didn't do anything but make some purchases.”

“But you, you would have to know something. You would have to know something!” Greco said, raising his voice.

“I don't know! Well, like what?”

“A person. Somebody you suspect.”

“Ah, the only…” Dana said, sighing. “I don't know. There's bad elements at Rhonda's house, but that's really the only…”

“That's the, see, that's the only problem with this whole case scenario, is that everything centers back to you,” Greco said. “See what I'm saying? Uh, as far as purchases and everything else that happened, my, my intention in this, in this investigation was to get to the bottom of this, to get to the truth.”