CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Matt stopped outside the interview room at the county jail. “You’re in charge.”
Todd said, “Is the sheriff OK with that?”
“It was her idea. She has complete faith in you.”
The flu had knocked Bree flat. She wasn’t up to questioning Sandy.
A deputy admitted them to the interview room. Matt sat across from Sandy’s lawyer, letting Todd face Sandy.
Sandy claimed Eric had been in charge of the operation. She’d offered to turn on him in exchange for a lighter sentence. The DA was working out a deal with her attorney, the details of which would depend on the value of the information provided. No matter what, she would still serve significant time.
Todd began with Miranda rights and introductions for the audio recording. Then he settled into his questions. “How many women did you take?”
Sandy began ticking off names on her fingers. “Grace, Sabrina, Jana, Ally, Trish, Nadia, and Jen. Seven.”
“We found Grace and Sabrina. What happened to the others?” Todd asked.
Matt quelled the horror unfurling in his gut.
Sandy studied the dirt under her nails. “Jen was the first. I don’t remember her last name. Stoltz, maybe? Something like that. She was so desperate that her parents didn’t find out she was pregnant that she was easy to lure. She came to the center inquiring about abortions. When she found out it wasn’t that kind of center, she left. Eric found her and brought her to the silo.”
Todd didn’t rush her.
She continued on her own. “All of this was Eric’s idea. He didn’t want to lose the farm, and we weren’t going to be able to keep it on farming or the restaurant profits alone. Small-time farming is a money suck, and the restaurant’s profit margins are too thin. I’d been volunteering at the center for ages, seeing so many women who didn’t want their babies, and we knew several couples who paid tens of thousands in legal fees to adopt. Eric saw a supply-and-demand situation.”
“Did Jen have her baby?” Todd asked.
Sandy nodded. “A little girl. She went to a couple of lawyers in Florida. Eric thought it was best to put some miles between us and the babies.”
“Did the couples know where the babies came from?”
“No.” Sandy scoffed. “All they were told is that they were adopting a teenager’s unwanted baby.”
“Who handled the adoptions?”
Sandy sighed. “Eric’s cousin. He’s a lawyer.”
“You have his name?”
“Dave McGraw.” Sandy nodded. “His number is on Eric’s phone.”
“What about Jen? What happened to her?”
Sandy slid one nail under another to dislodge the dirt. “Eric sold her too. There’s a market for girls, you know. Jen was young—just sixteen—and pretty.”
“Who bought her?”
“I’m not sure. Dave arranged that too. Some guy came for her in a van. Supposedly, he was taking her to Vegas, but I have no confirmation of that.”
Matt wished he had a notepad, but since the interview was being recorded, he hadn’t bothered. It would have been helpful to keep his hands busy. It was hard to sit and listen.
“Do you remember anything about him?” Todd asked.
“Not really.” Sandy jerked a shoulder. She clearly didn’t care.
Matt wondered if Jen was still alive. The human-trafficking business was as nasty as the fake-adoption industry.
“What about Nadia?” Todd asked. “Do you know her last name?”
“No. She was homeless.” Sandy touched her temple. “There was something wrong with her. She couldn’t even talk in full sentences.”
They’d preyed on a mentally ill homeless woman. Matt couldn’t wait for Eric to be sentenced, and he hoped Sandy went to prison for a long time, despite her cooperation. The DA felt the families of the missing had a right to know what had happened to their loved ones. The legal system wasn’t perfect. Compromises had to be made.
Sandy’s hands dropped to the table, the fingers curling into fists. “She had her baby. Eric was getting ready to make arrangements for her.” She said this as if he were a travel agent. “But she came down with a fever a week or two after the birth. She went downhill for another week. Then she died.”
Matt had no words for a solid minute. Finally, he spit out a question. “When did this happen?”
“Last summer.”
The partial skeleton must belong to Nadia.
Sandy went back to studying her nails. “Trish had a miscarriage. She wasn’t that far along, maybe four months? But she bled and bled. It wouldn’t stop.”
“Did you ever consider getting her medical attention?”
Sandy turned her palms to the ceiling. “Under the circumstances, that wasn’t possible. Eric’s helped a ton of cows give birth. He thought he could handle it. Guess it’s more complicated with people.”
Matt wanted to scream at her, but that wouldn’t get them the information he needed for the victims’ next of kin.
Todd kept his cool with an impressively neutral expression. “What about Ally? How did she die?”
Sandy’s mouth puckered into a frown. “Ally wouldn’t give up. Every time we brought her food and water, or tried to make her exercise—we wanted those babies nice and healthy—she attacked us. The last time, well, Eric went too far with the discipline.”
“He strangled her?”
“Yeah.” Sandy nodded. “Jana fought too. Eric lost his temper and hit her hard in the head with his flashlight. He was worried someone in her apartment building would hear. She never woke up.”
“Why did he dump her on Sheriff Taggert’s vehicle?”
Anger snapped in Sandy’s eyes, the first sign of emotion she’d exhibited. “I told him that was stupid. He thought he’d throw you all off track, make you think the killer was a psychopath. We weren’t serial killers.”
But you are.
Todd spent the next two hours gleaning every possible detail from Sandy. They’d burned the girls’ clothing. Vehicles were pushed into Grey Lake, the license plates removed and buried separately. The bodies were hidden in the woods.
Sandy had copied the files from the counseling center. She’d listened in on the sessions too. Grace had talked about her job at the bar, so they’d known she was headed right to work. They’d purposely chosen blonde women because Eric thought blonde babies would bring in the highest fees. “It was all Eric. I didn’t kill anyone.”
Todd leveled a cool look at her. “But you didn’t stop him. You didn’t help them. You didn’t get them medical attention. In fact, you helped identify potential victims and kidnap them.”
Darkness lurked in Sandy’s eyes. “I tried to have children, but it didn’t happen. We didn’t have money for treatment.” She paused, looking away. “All these girls got pregnant without even trying, and they weren’t happy about it.” Something vicious bloomed in her expression. “I hated them for that.”
By the time they left the jail, Matt felt sick. Not flu sick, but sick to his soul. Had he ever encountered people this evil?
He and Todd walked across the parking lot.
“That went well,” Matt said. “You got Sandy to spill everything. I don’t care how much she cooperated. The DA and judge aren’t going to shave much off her sentence. She and Eric are both going to prison for fucking ever.”
“I hope so.”
“Seriously, nice work on the interview. It’s not easy to keep your emotions in check.”
“Thanks, but it doesn’t feel great,” Todd said.
“I understand,” Matt said. They continued in silence for a few steps.
“We got a hit on that motel vagrant, remember him?” Todd asked. “His fingerprints were in the system. He’s been missing for months. We called his sister, and she came down to the station. Her brother has a mix of mental illnesses. About six months ago, he decided he didn’t need his medication. It was all downhill from there.”
“I hope she gets him back on track.”
Todd shrugged. “She didn’t seem too hopeful, but at least she knows he’s alive. She cares about him and will try to get him help. Can’t force him, though.”
“No, you can’t.” Matt climbed into his Suburban. “But someone cares about him. I’m going to take that as a win.”
Todd agreed with a nod. “On days like this, you have to take what you can.” He studied his boots for a few seconds. “I hope you’re not mad about Cady.”
“Why would I be mad?”
“Because she’s pregnant.”
“It happens.” Matt thought about Bree’s test. He wouldn’t have minded if it had been positive. But she was right that they were already stretched as thin as cobwebs, and he’d prefer to get married first. Still ... “But you know about Cady’s experience.”
She’d had a late miscarriage, and her ex had blamed her for it. Matt still wanted to kill him for that. Maybe not kill him. But definitely beat him up a few more times.
“Yeah.” Todd propped his hands on his duty belt. “I want you to know that I intend to marry her.”
Matt held up a hand. “This is a discussion for you and Cady, not me. She’s my sister, and I’ll always be protective of her. But she’s also a very smart woman. She is capable of making her own decisions. This is between you and her.” Todd was a good man. Matt wasn’t worried about that.
Todd exhaled. “Just let me say this, OK?”
Matt shut his mouth.
“I don’t want her to think the only reason I would ask her to marry me is because she’s pregnant. I want her to know that it’s because I love her, and I want to spend the rest of my life with her.”
Matt waited, but it seemed Todd had gotten it all out. “Then tell her what you just told me.”
Todd smiled. “You think that’s enough?”
“I think it’s perfect.” Matt grinned and said what all protective big brothers said: “And you already know if you ever do hurt her, you will have to deal with me.”