She Wanted It All - Kathryn Casey [137]
That day, Celeste checked Donna into the Red Lion Inn and left. As soon as she was out the door, Donna called a friend to join her. They watched pay-per-view movies, ordering champagne and dinner from room service.
She partied for a week, then called Celeste.
“I didn’t find them,” she said. “I’m going home.”
At the Farleys’ ranch, Jennifer and Justin watched Kristina, worried she might break down and call Celeste. When Justin played his voice mails with their mother ranting about missing them and wanting them home, Kristina cried. Sometimes Jennifer wondered how much more her sister could take before she picked up the telephone, dialed Celeste, and said, “Come get me.” They were so frightened that Justin took Kristina’s cell phone away from her.
“Kristina, this is it,” Jen said. “This is reality. Our mother is a murderer.”
The good days were the ones they spent working at the ranch. While there, they helped Peggy and her husband repair fences, lay down a floor, and remodel a bathroom. They’d never done such tasks before, but the work kept their minds off their mother and helped distract them from the very real possibility that at any moment Celeste could pull in the driveway and demand that they come home. Although legally adults, they were afraid she’d find a way to make them.
They called Bill Mange almost every day, hoping to hear that she’d been arrested. The news, however, was never good. After looking at the evidence, Mange feared that, despite everything the twins and their boyfriends had pulled together, the case he had against Celeste wouldn’t convince a jury. It was all circumstantial. What he needed was for Tracey Tarlton to implicate her. Then, he judged, he might have a case.
Tracey’s lawyer, Keith Hampton, hinted they had information to deal with. At one point he even asked for complete immunity for his client.
“What is this, Commit a Murder Free Week?” Mange scoffed. “Keith, that’s not on the table, and it never will be.”
After that, Hampton’s allusions to a deal stopped.
Despite everything, Tracey hadn’t had any second thoughts about standing by Celeste and taking the entire wrap for the killing. The innuendos about the possibility of a deal were her attorney’s idea, not hers. “I was determined to go down for this and not take Celeste with me,” she says. “I told him that wasn’t on the table.”
Still, although Celeste had never gone to California, Tracey rarely saw her. One day when they met outside BookPeople, Celeste railed at her, telling her that she’d lost the twins over the murder and that her life was in shambles. A few days later Celeste called, shrieking, “You’re just like everyone else! You don’t love me!”
Fearing Celeste was suicidal, Tracey drove to Toro Canyon and arrived just as Celeste pulled in. When she saw Tracey, Celeste slammed on the brakes. “Oh, my God, that’s the woman who murdered my husband,” she shouted to Dr. Dennison, who was supervising two yardmen nearby.
“Drive up to the house,” he said. “Nothing will happen with me here.”
Celeste pulled forward and Tracey followed. In front of the house, both cars stopped and the two women argued. “Get out of here. They’ll see you,” Celeste said. “And don’t come back. I don’t want to see you anymore.”
“Fine!” Tracey shouted.
“You can tell people whatever you want,” Celeste cried. “I can’t do this anymore.”
By then Bob Dennison was walking toward them. Angry and hurt, Tracey got back in her car and screeched out of the driveway. Without even thanking her neighbor, Celeste ran in the house.
After that day, it seemed to Tracey that the horror of what they had done was consuming them both. Yet, even with Celeste telling her she never wanted to see her again, Tracey didn’t question if what she’d done was right or why she’d done it. What happened next would change that.
The article in the Austin