“That may be true. But the only crime scene we are working is the one in the study. That’s all we can do. No search of the rest of the house, no search of the grounds or outbuildings.” Garnett shook his head in disapproval.
“Jin, you wait in the van,” said Diane. “They pulled a fast one on us.”
He nodded. “Sure. We brought a computer. I’ll just entertain myself.”
“David and Neva, you two work the study,” Diane told them.
Emmett Taggart had not died but was in critical condition and had been removed from the scene by the time Diane entered the study where he had been shot. The room had a leather, wood and tobacco-stand ambience that said it was for men only.
Taggart had been sitting behind a mahogany desk when he was shot. There wasn’t much blood, just spots on the desk and chair and some high-velocity spatter almost invisible to the naked eye on the rug and desk.
Garnett ushered Diane into the parlor, where Mrs. Taggart was sitting on a love seat. She looked much the same as she had at the funeral, but wore a mauve pantsuit and a light pink silk scarf tucked around her throat, rather than mourning black. She was fidgeting with a piece of old yellowed lace, gathering it up with her fingers.
When Diane sat down across from her, she saw that the material in Mrs. Taggart’s hand was a lace collar. It was a moment before Diane realized that it was the same lace collar worn by the very young Mrs. Taggart in the snapshot found with Caver Doe.
Garnett seemed completely clueless as to the purpose of this meeting, but Diane thought she understood.
“Thank you for coming.” Mrs. Taggart’s voice was almost cordial.
Diane thought that odd. But she didn’t respond to her first impulse and say,
“Why did you want to see me?” asked Diane.
“I want you to tell me what happened.”
“I don’t know for sure. . ”
“All right, this stops right here,” a man in a dark, expensive-looking suit said as he walked into the room. The lawyer had arrived. He was followed by Robert Lamont. It was then that Diane noticed Lamont scratching, and the bandages on his arms. “Mrs. Taggart, you don’t have to say another word.”
“Get out,” said Rosemary Taggart, her mouth set and her eyes downcast.
“You heard the lady,” said the lawyer.
“I was talking to you, you sycophant.” She glared at him. “You aren’t my lawyer and I don’t want you here.”
The lawyer looked shocked, then sympathetic. “You don’t understand. I’m here to help.”
“You are here to do no such thing. And stop treating me like I’m senile. I have a lawyer and she’s on her way. Until she gets here, I’m talking privately to this woman. Now get out. I know enough about the law to know that when I say you aren’t my lawyer, you have to get out.”
“Grandma,” said Robert, “he only wants to make sure you are okay and don’t say anything to incriminate yourself. ”
“Just last week I had a thorough annual physical that included mental acuity. I am certifiably fit in mind and body. If you don’t leave, then I will leave with this woman so I can talk in private. You don’t know what business I have with her, so don’t presume that you are competent to take care of my needs.”
“I think we need to do as she says,” said Garnett. He seemed to take a great deal of pleasure in ushering the two men out of the room.
Rosemary Taggart smiled grimly. “I always include a mental checkup when I get a physical, for just such an occasion. I don’t trust my family-God help me.”
She bowed her head for a moment. Diane didn’t know if she was praying, falling asleep, or just organizing her thoughts. She brought her head up sharply.
“Tell me about Dale. Tell me what you think happened to him. You’ve seen him, touched his bones.”
“Mrs. Taggart. .”
“Call me Rosemary. I’m never going by the name Taggart again.”
“Okay, Rosemary. It’s a guess, but it is based on what we have discovered. Dale Wayne Russell and Emmett Taggart were caving together. Through a mishap-I believe it was an accident, but I don’t know for sure-the railroad spike that anchored his rope pulled out of the rocks. Dale fell into a cavern from a considerable height and broke several bones.” Diane hesitated.
“Don’t leave anything out on my account, please.”
“One break, his shinbone, was a compound fracture. It broke through the skin and caused bleeding and later became infected. He also broke his ankle and wrist and had some internal injuries. We know that because of. . We know that he did.”
Rosemary put a hand to her face and whimpered. “Please don’t stop. I need to hear this.”
“There was no way for Dale to climb out, and no way for Emmett to carry him out without help. Emmett got him situated and left him with water and a couple of Moon Pies.”
Rosemary smiled. “Dale loved his Moon Pies.”
“It is my belief that sometime while making preparations to go for help, Emmett hatched a plan to abandon Dale. He took Dale’s wallet so Dale wouldn’t be identified if anyone found him. But he and Dale had stopped in that morning at Ray’s Diner on their way to the cave. Jewel Southwell, a waitress at Ray’s Diner, was the only person who could tie them together that day. In order for Emmett’s plan to work, he had to get rid of Jewel Southwell.”
“Jewel was the woman Emmett said Dale ran off with. At first I didn’t believe it. I didn’t think Dale would do it, and I didn’t think she would leave her child. But as more and more people believed it, I just fell in with them.”
“Emmett took Dale’s Plymouth.”
Rosemary looked at the lace she caressed with her fingers and nodded. “I remember that car like it was yesterday. He was always polishing that car and working on it. He was proud of it.”
“Emmett somehow got Jewel out of the diner and into the car. I don’t know if he hit her on the head then, or waited until he got to the quarry. But at some point he struck her, probably with a tire iron, and killed her. The quarry lake was deep, and he knew that whatever was at the bottom of it would likely never be found. He pushed the car with Jewel’s body inside into the lake. He was probably the one who then started the rumor that Dale and Jewel had run off together. Jewel had a reputation around town that made it easier for people to believe.
“What Emmett didn’t know at the time was that a little fourteen-year-old girl saw him push the car into the quarry. She also may have seen him kill Jewel. Her name, her married name, was Flora Martin. All these years later, when my caving partners and I went into the cave and found”-Diane almost said Caver Doe-“and found Dale Russell and it came out in the paper, it started a chain of events in motion.
“Emmett, of course, recognized whose body it was and tried to have the bones and other evidence stolen. At the same time, a much older Flora Martin remembered what she had seen as a little girl and tried to blackmail Emmett, and Emmett had her killed.
“But Flora had left a letter with information in it for her grandson, Donnie Martin. Donnie tried to find the sunken car with Jewel in it, but he and his partner, Jake Stanley, were murdered by Randy MacRae or Neil Valentine, who were hired for the job.” Diane explained who all the various people were as she mentioned them.
“My museum was burglarized and threatened with arson by MacRae and Valentine in an attempt to destroy the bones of Dale and Jewel and the evidence that went with them. When those attempts failed, Emmett called me on the phone and tried to buy me off. And here we are.”
Rosemary nodded her head. “Dale and I were going to be married. I was pregnant. When Dale disappeared, Emmett offered to marry me and pass the baby off as his. Things are different now, but back then that was a godsend. But Emmett never let me forget what he did for me. Every argument we had, he threw it in my face that Dale left me pregnant and he had saved me. The swine, the lying, murdering swine.”
