Sweetie's Diamonds (49 page)

“Can I get you anything, Mrs. Boston?” DA Tilton asked her after he had greeted them.
 

“Some water, please,” she said.
 
Feeling weak, she took a seat before looking around the room.
 
She recognized the chief of police and Judy Wilcox.
 

When he brought her the water, Tilton said, “You know Chief Grabowski and Mrs. Wilcox.”
 
Diane nodded at them and smiled faintly.
 
Mrs. Wilcox forced a smile back at her and Grabowski merely grunted.
 

Tilton took a seat and began by asking Diane about the day when she found Greg Boston dead in his house.
 
She related how she had met with Lewis at his office and then came home to learn that her son had been kidnapped.
 
Her sister Dana's producer of adult films, Aaron Valentine, had some kind of a grudge against her.
 
When the porn king found out about Diane's existence, he too mistakenly identified her as Dana.
 
He had David abducted and brought to LA in an effort to lure her there.
 
She quickly made plans to leave town and stopped at her ex-husband's house to tell him of those plans.
 
That's when she found his body.

The revelation of David's kidnapping was news to Tilton.
 
He sat forward and asked, “Why didn't you call the police?
 
The FBI?”

“Because my son's life was at stake,” she said.
 
“I couldn't.”
 

“And what happened when you got to LA?” Tilton asked.

“Nothing,” Diane answered.
 
“David got away from his captors during one of Valentine's wild parties.
 
He was able to call me on my cell phone and I found him.
 
We were very, very lucky.”

Tilton consulted his notes and then asked, “I understand that this Aaron Valentine was killed a few days ago in a fire.
 
Do you know anything about it?”

She shook her head.
 
“No.
 
I was in the city when it happened, though.
 
It was the same night that David escaped from Valentine's home in Woodland Hills.
 
There was some kind of big party going on.
 
David called me, like I said, and I picked him up in West Hollywood.
 
I brought David to Cedars-Sinai Hospital's emergency room because of his heart condition.
 
That's where I was when the fire at Valentine's warehouse occurred.
 
David was in the hospital for three days.
 
You're welcome to check.”

Tilton asked, “The police now suspect this man, Emo Tuff, to be the killer of your former husband.
 
Do you know him?”

“No.”

“Do you have any idea why he would kill your husband?”

Diane shrugged.
 
“He worked for Aaron Valentine.
 
Valentine wanted me.
 
Mister Tuff must have come looking for me and he found Greg instead.”
 
It was the best she could do.
 

Tilton continued.
 
“I'm sure that Mister Lewis told you that an informant supplied the information that linked your husband's case with two similar murders, one in Chicago and one in New York.
 
Are you aware of this?”

“I heard that, yes,” she said.

“Did you know the victims in these cases?”
 
Tilton looked at his notes.
 
“A Mister Moses Rabinowitz and a Mister Hiram Rabinowitz?”

“No.”

“Why do you think Tuff killed them and then your husband within the space of a week?”

“How should I know?” she asked.
 
“I just said I didn't know them.
 
Aaron Valentine and his people were criminals.
 
Perhaps what Mister Tuff did in New York and Chicago was his business, completely separate from his interest in me.”
 

Tilton nodded and wrote something down.
 
“Well,” he said, “that's not our concern.
 
The Chicago and New York police are handling those investigations.
 
Do you have any idea where Emo Tuff is now?”

She didn't want to say that he had perished in the fire with his boss.
 
How would she know that?

“No,” she answered.

Tilton seemed satisfied with that.
 
“Mrs. Boston, now I'd like to ask you some other things that have no bearing on your former husband's murder.
 
However, I'm asking these questions to satisfy my own curiosity about your case and I also think your answers will have relevancy to the school board case, which is why Mrs. Wilcox is here.”

Lewis spoke up.
 
“Is this necessary?
 
It was our understanding that Diane only had to answer questions relating to Mister Boston.”

Tilton said, “Again I stress that Mrs. Boston is under no obligation to answer these questions.
 
I'd like to ask them anyway.”

Lewis looked at Diane and she said to Tilton, “Go ahead.”

Tilton nodded and read his first question.
 
“Mrs. Boston, is your name really Diane Boston?”

“Yes, it is.”

“And your name was Diane Barnett before you were married?”

“Yes, but I was using a different name.
 
Diane Wilson.”

“Why were you using an assumed name?”

“Because I was ashamed of the name Barnett.
 
It meant too many painful things to me.
 
I spent many years trying to forget that name.
 
I thought I had until—”
 
She glared at Judy Wilcox and continued, “—all that porn star business came out.”

Tilton cleared his throat.
 
“And it is still your contention that it was your twin sister, Dana, who starred in Aaron Valentine's adult films?”

“That's right.”

“And your sister is missing, presumed dead?”

“Yes.”

“I
thought it went well,” Lewis told her on the way to his office.
 
“Although I wish you would come clean about your sister.”

Diane had a headache.
 
She rubbed her brow, closed her eyes, and said, “I just want to get all this over with.
 
Will this interview be long?”

“As long as you want it to be, Diane.”

Darren Marshall was already at Lewis' office when they entered.
 
Pleasantries were exchanged and the three of them went into Scotty's small conference room for the interview.
 

After providing everyone with glasses of water, Lewis began by saying, “Mister Marshall, I understand that you're writing a story about Mrs. Boston for your paper, is that correct?”

Marshall answered, “That's right.”

“How do you know Eric?” Diane asked.
 

“We met a few years ago and have been in contact every now and then,” Marshall replied.
 
“I saw him again last week, twice.
 
He was a great guy, it's a shame he's gone.”

Diane nodded.
 
“So.
 
Let's get started.”

Marshall went through some preliminary background questions that appeared to be completely above board and standard.
 
Then, out of the blue, he hit Diane with a stinger.

“Mrs. Boston, isn't it true that your name is really Dana and that your sister Diane died when you were both adolescents?”

Diane felt a sledgehammer hit her chest.
 
“What?” she managed to ask.

“Isn't it true that you and your twin sister lived for a time with Roy and Edna Barnett in Garden City, Texas, after your natural parents died?”

Lewis shifted in his seat.
 
“Uh, I think we can stop right here.
 
Diane, you don't—”

“Yes, it's true,” Diane interrupted.
 
She reached for the glass of water but her hand shook so badly that she spilled a little.
 

Lewis put a hand on her arm and said softly, “Diane you don't have to continue if you don't want to.”

“It's all right, Scotty,” she whispered.
 
She seemed to have lost her voice.

Marshall went on.
 
“And isn't it true, Mrs. Boston, that the circumstances surrounding your sister Diane's death were never fully, how shall I say—explained?
 
That you were accused of being instrumental in her death?”

Diane shut her eyes and softly said, “Sweetie…”

“I beg your pardon?” Marshall asked.

“It's not true,” she answered.
 
“I didn't do it…”

“But didn't your guardians, Roy and Edna Barnett, send you away to the Fulbright Center in Dallas, Texas, shortly after Diane died?
 
An institution for the mentally ill?”

Diane bowed her head and started to cry.
 
“Yes.”

“And you were there for four years?” Marshall asked gently.

Tears dropped onto the table at which she sat.
 
“Yes,” she said, barely audible.

Now Lewis was silent, staring at Diane.
 
He couldn't believe what he was hearing.
 

“And isn't it true, Mrs. Boston,” Marshall asked with as much compassion as he could muster, “that it was
you
who went to Los Angeles when you got out of the Fulbright Center?
 
Not your twin sister but rather
you
who went and starred in adult films, using your given name of Dana?”

Diane sobbed and finally nodded her head.
 
Marshall sat back in his chair, the interrogation complete.
 

The two men didn't move as they waited patiently for the broken woman in front of them to pull herself together.
 
Lewis finally broke the spell by offering her a tissue.
 
She took it, blew her nose, and wiped her face.
 

“It… it was an accident,” she said, her voice cracking.
 
“Sweetie and I were in the barn that day and she was angry with me.
 
I remember… we were up in the hayloft.
 
Uncle Roy had given me a present, a necklace.
 
It was probably some cheap thing from the dime store in town but I thought it was nice.
 
She was mad that we weren't close anymore and we got into an argument.
 
She tried to grab the necklace and I grabbed it back.
 
She reached for it again and it became a tug-of-war… and I let it go.
 
She went tumbling backwards off the hayloft and… landed on her head down below.”

She paused to take a sip of water.
 
“Uncle Roy thought I did it on purpose.
 
He sent me to Dallas and after I was there for a year, even
I
started to believe I had done it on purpose.
 
I… I don't remember too much about that period or the time after that in LA.
 
I just remember that I started using drugs and… I… lost myself…”

“Perhaps I can shed some light on what happened,” Marshall said.
 
“I was in Garden City, Mrs. Boston, and I spoke to Marisol Delgado.
 
Do you remember her?”

Diane nodded.

“She told me how your Uncle Roy abused you and your sister.”

Diane didn't deny it.

“Afterwards I went to Dallas and I spoke to Doctor Springfield at the Fulbright Center.
 
Do you remember him?”