Читать книгу Limb from Limb - George Hunter - Страница 15

Darga decided she wanted two detectives on the Grant case full-time, so she appointed Sergeant Pam McLean as co-lead investigator. McLean, thirty-nine, was a seventeen-year veteran. The mother of three was working on several cases on February 14, including helping out with the Jennifer Kukla double filicide investigation.

Briefed by Hughes, Kozlowski and McLean made several phone calls that afternoon. Some of the calls were to Tara’s Washington Group colleagues, including Lou Troendle. Tara’s boss told police her itinerary called for her to leave Detroit Metropolitan Airport—about an hour’s drive south of the Grant home—on Monday, February 12.

Kozlowski took note that Troendle’s story called into question Stephen’s claim that he’d argued with his wife because she said she was flying back to Puerto Rico on Sunday. Troendle also told Kozlowski he’d worked with Tara for ten years, knew her family and work habits, and felt it was “extremely unbelievable” that she’d disappear of her own volition. The articulate civil engineer told the detective he was very concerned about Tara.

Kozlowski and McLean also got in touch with the missing woman’s family in Ohio, including her mother, Mary, and her only sibling, Alicia. As time wore on, Alicia—whose fair skin, high cheekbones, and wide smile resembled those of her missing sister—would emerge as the family spokeswoman and champion of her sister’s children.

Alicia told police that Stephen had called her the previous day to tell her Tara was missing. He left a message on her phone saying, “Can you call me when you get a minute? It’s no big deal.”

When Alicia talked to Stephen a few minutes later, he sounded strangely calm, given the circumstances, she told police. During their conversation, Stephen said something about his wife that floored Alicia.

“He said, ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if she was shacked up in a motel with some guy somewhere.’ I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. How could he say something like that? I told him, ‘My sister could be anywhere. She could be lying dead somewhere in the slums of Detroit, for all we know,’” Alicia recounted.

Tara’s mother and sister both confirmed to investigators they hadn’t heard from Tara since Friday, February 9.

Even more ominous: Washington Group security chief Joe Herrity came up empty when he tapped records for Tara’s corporate e-mail, her company cell phone, and her American Express charge card account. No activity was recorded on any of these since February 9, Kozlowski wrote in his report.

“We talked to coworkers, neighbors—nobody had seen or heard from her,” McLean said. “There’s no phone calls, no e-mails. We’re thinking, ‘That’s not good.’”

Already, the detectives were skeptical about Stephen’s veracity. Protests by family members and friends that Tara wouldn’t desert her children rang true. “I could not make [Stephen’s] story work,” Kozlowski said.

“A lot of red flags were going up,” McLean agreed. “He waited five days to report her missing. He has a scratch on his nose, and you have a businesswoman with two small children who hasn’t called home. Having small children myself, I know no matter what happens, you always call your kids.”

It was time to talk to the husband in his natural setting.