'If she noticed, she didn't care,' Tanya replied. 'Besides, my father was a sneak. Each month, he'd give me the new package. I had to take all the pills out of their little foil wrappers and put them in a vitamin bottle. He told me that I had to take a pill every day or I'd end up with a baby that would be blind and deformed. He said he'd have to drown it in the pond the way he did kittens whenever our cat had any.'
The story she told was so brutal and ugly I wanted to puke. Ralph rubbed his eyes and shook his head sadly. 'I'm really sorry to put you through all this, Tanya, but once Detective Fraymore finds out about what you've told us, he's going to be asking the exact same questions.'
Tanya nodded. 'I guess I knew he would,' she said. 'Amber and I went for a walk this afternoon while you all were at the hospital. I realized then I'd have to tell somebody. If it was only me, I wouldn't, but with Amber…' She paused and shrugged. 'Well, I guess I have to face it sometime. And in a way, it's easier than I thought. It's like I'm two different people-the girl all those awful things happened to and somebody else, the person I am now. It's like acting. If you live a role long enough, you start believing it, and none of what I told you ever happened. I shut it out of my mind, and it doesn't exist.'
'What about your parents?' I asked. 'Do they? Still exist, I mean?'
'I don't know. I don't care.'
'Jeremy and Kelly told me that your parents died in a house fire when you were small, that you ran away from your guardian.'
'No,' she replied quietly. 'That's a lie. I made it up because it was easier to pretend they were dead than to accept them for what they really were. Over in eastern Washington, in the town of Goldendale, there was a girl about my age whose parents did die that way-in a house fire. I remember reading about it in the newspaper and wishing it could have been my parents who died instead of hers. I wanted to be her so much that finally I was. I stole her story and turned it into mine.'
'You're not from Goldendale at all?'
'No. Walla Walla. My father was a guard at the prison. My mother cooked in the school cafeteria.'
'What are their names?'
Tanya's story had led her through a landscape teeming with emotional land mines, yet through it all she had maintained her composure. Now a note of genuine alarm crept into her voice.
'Do you have to bring them into this? I don't want anything to do with them-nothing. I don't even want them to know I'm still alive.'
'Someone will have to contact them,' I said. 'If we don't, Fraymore will. As soon as he tumbles to the Daphne Lewis/Martin Shore connection, he's going to be on your case. Believe me, his questions are going to be a hell of a lot tougher than Ralph's.'
Tanya seemed to consider my words before she answered. 'Roger and Willy,' she said finally. 'Their names are Roger and Willy Tompkins.'
'Would they still be in Walla Walla?'
'Probably.' Tanya nodded. 'I don't think they'd ever leave.'
'And your name?' I asked. 'The official one on your birth certificate?'
'Roseann Charlene Tompkins,' Tanya answered. 'I always hated it. My father chose the name, and I couldn't wait to get rid of it.'
We had been sitting on the picnic bench for far too long. Ralph Ames stood up and rubbed his back. 'How did that happen?' he asked. 'What was the chronology that took you from Roseann Tompkins to Tanya Dunseth?'
'Some kids run away to join the circus. I ran away to make movies. I stayed with Elise and Jacques for two years. It worked for me. Eventually, I did get to be an actress. Except when we were making a movie, they left me alone. I had a place to live, enough food to eat, books to read. Nobody bothered me.'
'You made more than one movie? How many?'
Tanya shook her head. 'I don't know. Ten maybe? But if Fraymore recognized Martin Shore, then he has the very first one.'
'Why? How do you know?'
'Because that's the only one where Jacques didn't wear a mask. I guess he was afraid someone might recognize him.'
'No wonder,' I put in. 'He was a cop.'
'A cop?' Tanya echoed, her eyes widening. 'Really?'
'He got drummed off the force in Yakima when they found out he was distributing pornography. I don't think anyone ever realized he was making the flicks and starring in them as well.'
Suddenly, surprisingly, Tanya Dunseth started to giggle. Within moments she dissolved into semi-hysterical laughter.
'What's the matter?' I asked when she was finally able to talk again. 'What's so funny?'
'You mean all that time he was really a cop?' she asked, wiping tears from her eyes and gasping for breath.
'Yes,' I answered. 'Why does that make you laugh?'
'Whenever we were doing it, I always pretended I was making it with the Lone Ranger,' Tanya answered. 'I don't know why that made me feel better. Maybe I was crazy. Maybe I am.'
'You were a survivor,' Ralph cut in. 'Playing games like that with your tormentor is a well known survival technique. Don't ever fault yourself for it. It's what they teach POWs to do in order to maintain their sanity. You stayed with them for two years?'
Tanya nodded. 'One day they gave me five thousand dollars and told me to leave town. I don't know why. Maybe they were about to be raided. I bought a bus ticket and came here.'
'To Ashland? Why?'
'I always read about Ashland, even when I was little. I knew they did plays here. It seemed like the place to go if I wanted to be an actress. I gave myself a brand-new name-Tanya O'Brien, came here, got my GED, and started taking drama classes at Southern Oregon State College. And I started trying to work my way into the Festival. I did everything-sold tickets, mopped floors, worked the concession stands, sewed costumes. It took a while, but finally I started getting parts.'
'That's when you met your former husband?'
'I didn't realize it at the time, but Bob was just like my father-mean. He had a bachelor of fine arts. I didn't. When I started getting parts, it made him crazy and meaner. When I got my first speaking part, he beat me up the night before the opening. I went onstage the next night wearing a pound of makeup. Then, when he found out I was pregnant, he beat me up again and left town. At first, I felt deserted, but when I had time to think about it, I was relieved he was gone. It was the best thing that could have happened for me or for Amber.'
Ralph stopped pacing. 'Have you ever told anyone else about this?' he asked quietly.
'No.'
'Not a roommate or a friend? Not even your ex-husband?'
'No. No one.'
'Do you have any enemies?'
'Other than my father and my ex-husband? No.'
'And you don't know of anyone else here in Ashland, maybe someone else here at the Festival, who might share your…' Ames stumbled. '…your, uh…unfortunate background…someone else who may have her own grudge against these two and who is systematically trying to shift the blame to you?'
Tanya shook her head. 'No. I get along great with everybody. Ask anyone. No one here ever gave me any trouble.'
It wasn't difficult to understand Ames' line of questioning. The idea of Shore having another victim inside the Festival had already crossed my mind. I added my own twist. 'By the way, where is your ex?' I asked.
'He jumped off the 1–5 route. He burned out and isn't doing West Coast theaters anymore. For a long time now, I haven't heard anything about him, and I don't want to know.'
'He doesn't pay child support?'
'Are you kidding?'
I'll admit, with someone like Robert Dunseth, asking about child support was strictly a rhetorical question.
Ralph shook his head. 'I don't think it would be him, anyway, Beau. It has to be someone with a grudge
