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given them on the case was almost gone. In less than two weeks,
they had to file away their Downs follow-ups and go back into
uniform.
It was galling. They would do what they could on their own
time, but they knew it wouldn't be enough.
Diane continued to spend a great deal of her time on the
telephone: calling Lew, calling the TV stations, calling the print
media. And most unwise of all, she couldn't resist calling Kurt
Wuest. Diane was ambivalent about Kurt. He'd always attracted
her; he looked a good deal like Danny's father, Russ. Diane
phoned Kurt almost every day. She complained about the sheriff,
and Tracy, and Welch. She was flirtatious, suggesting that she
had things to say to him--if he would come to see her alone.
Diane dangled tantalizing carrots of information under Wuest's
nose. Little teasers about the case.
SMALL SACRIFICES 247
On July 19, the two-month anniversary of the shooting, Diane
asked Wuest to come over to her parents home. "I would like for
you to come over--and your buddy. You guys run around like
Mormons--there's always two of you."
"What do you have planned?" ,r;
"I want to talk to you guys ... I told you everything about
the case--except for one thing, and that was the true conversation
that I had with this joker . . . Please be very discreet or I will get
killed and I'd just as soon stay alive."
Wuest was ecstatic--until Diane called to cancel the meet.
She was frightened. She told Wuest that she had suddenly remembered
that the person with the gun had known her! Steve was
"making waves." Her own life didn't matter much to her, but she
was afraid for Christie and Danny. Diane thought perhaps she
might come down to the sheriff's office the next day. Wuest
reminded her that he would have to read her the Miranda rights
again. She was still technically a suspect. That was OK with her.
But Diane didn't show up. She called to say she needed time
to gather her courage to share her new information.
"Besides," she added. "Is it really important that he knew
me?"
"There's a big difference between a ... person that has
some association with you, or just some bum walking out of the
woods," Wuest replied through clenched teeth.
"Yes, I understand. I understand and I apologize--but like I
told you yesterday--if you were just a little girl with three kids--
cut down to two kids--I don't think that you'd be running to the
cops and telling them that--[not] if somebody said, 'Don't say
anything 'cause you're going to be killed!' "
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She sounded like that little girl, her voice all crumpled in with
fear. She said Jim Jagger had suggested that a counselor or a;
hypnotist might help her remember more. She told Kurt that
maybe she was so scared she didn't want to remember . . . to go
back to the blood and the pain.
"Give me a few days ... I swear to God I'll get back with
you because if I can tell you guys something that's going to help
clean this up, I'm damn sure going to do it--because I'm sick of
this whole thing too, and as scary as it is for me to have to relive
this whole thing, I'm willing to do it just to finish it."
Hell, they didn't have a few days, Wuest thought. He reminded
Diane of that.
Diane insisted she was petrified even to try to remember.
SMALL SACRIFICES 249
What eventually came to be known as the "hardball interview"
began. Diane wanted to discuss the "good" suspects in the
case.
"Steve Downs--my ex-husband. I divorced him two years
ago, and he hated me for that."
"OK. Let's go on to Number Two," Welch suggested. They
already knew that Steve had been in Arizona on the night of May
19.
"Stan Post is Steve's best friend ... If one can commit a
crime and get away with it, the other one will do it. They are like
a stepladder and they keep pulling each other up, and Stan hated
me while I was pregnant [with Danny]--"
Welch cut in, ending the flood of words. "OK. Let's talk
about Nora."
"Her main motive is the fact that Lew loves me ... We have
been together for a year and it was an affair. I was his mistress
and I'm not ashamed of that--it's just the way life is sometimes
... He left Nora several times . . . I'm here, and therefore Lew
would have to either move up here or bring me back there . . . but
her motive ... if she destroyed my kids, she would destroy
Lew's desire for me because Lew is a person that doesn't like
complications--he doesn't like hassles."
Diane's accusations were all a disappointing rehash of her [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]