She Wanted It All - Kathryn Casey [138]
At her house on Wilson that night, Tracey downed pills and drank the bottle of vodka Celeste had left behind. Later that night an ambulance pulled in front of the house on Wilson and Tracey was rushed to the hospital for yet another suicide attempt.
The twins’ secret tape recording was the talk of Austin. For months the city had speculated on Celeste’s involvement in her husband’s murder. Now Celeste, with her millions, was being accused by her own daughters of hiring a hit man. The twins were frantic with worry, knowing how vindictive their mother could be. They’d not only left her, but were working with the prosecutors.
The hearing for the restraining order was coming up, and they didn’t know if Celeste would be seated across from them as they testified, with the cold, hateful stare they both knew well. As Jennifer and Kristina took the stand that day, they were flanked by four uniformed, armed deputies. The twins scanned the courtroom. Their mother wasn’t there.
The twins’ testimony was riveting. Reporters jotted pages of notes as they recounted how Celeste had bought them caskets and been involved in the murder of their father. “We’re afraid of our mother,” Jennifer said. “Celeste drugged our father. She gave Steve sleeping pills and spiked his vodka.”
“When we were babies we had seizures,” Kristina testified. “I believe our mother not only used to poison our father but us.”
“Celeste loves her daughters,” her attorney argued. Yet, she did not contest the order.
That day was a victory for the girls. Judge John Hathaway granted the restraining order and ordered Celeste to pay $13,500 toward the twins’ legal fees. “You’re strong and courageous,” he told them. “Not only can she not come within two hundred yards of you, she can’t throw a spitball at you. She can’t use a gun or a knife; she can’t come anywhere near you or touch you in any way.”
Despite their victory in the courtroom and the judge’s assurances, the girls felt anything but safe.
Not even generating a headline was what happened at Donna Goodson’s house. One morning the police arrived with a search warrant. They took her computer, her zip drive, and pawn tickets. Although the audiotape had been played in open court, it wasn’t about involvement in a murder-for-hire. It was about four pieces of jewelry.
Months earlier, Celeste had reported the jewelry stolen, blaming the twins. Although the investigation had been dropped, an alert went out to pawnshops describing the pieces. A call came in regarding one of the pieces, a stunning diamond cocktail ring worth thousands. When deputies investigated, they found Donna had pawned it for a few hundred dollars. Pawn tickets found in the search turned up the remaining three pieces, including a pendant with the Dallas skyline encrusted with jewels, all in pawnshops on her way to Florida. Later, Donna argued that the jewelry was a gift, not stolen. “Celeste wanted me to take care of Tracey so bad, all I had to do was say I liked something and she gave it to me,” she says. “I didn’t have to steal anything.”
The day of the search, Donna was arrested and booked in the Travis County Jail on a probation violation. Since she’d pawned the items in Louisiana, they knew that she’d left Texas without permission. To her, the arrest was a relief. Ever since news of the audiotape had broken, she’d been looking over her back, watching faces, waiting for Celeste to strike. At times she thought