Читать книгу Limb from Limb - George Hunter - Страница 19

After Lindsey’s tour of the home, McLean went back downstairs to talk to Kozlowski and Stephen. The officer asked for permission to search through the bedroom more closely, and Stephen said it was OK.

“I went through the drawers, and I found envelopes full of cash, which I thought was kind of weird, but Stephen said they paid for everything with cash,” McLean said. “And there were envelopes with ‘phone bill’ and ‘electric bill’ on them.”

There were also several bags full of unsigned greeting cards. It turned out they were part of Tara’s stockpile of cheerful messages for her children—she always left cards behind for the kids when she went on her business trips.

The more time McLean spent with Stephen, the more he got on her nerves. “He was really jittery, like he’d just drunk eight cups of coffee,” she said. “He was just bouncing. I was like, ‘Stop! Sit still and focus!’ It was very hard to talk to him because he kept jumping from one subject to another.”

As the detectives prepared to leave, Stephen’s demeanor changed drastically, McLean noticed. “We asked if he would come down and talk to us some more,” she recalled. “Then he said, ‘Well, you don’t think I did something to my wife, do you?’”

Kozlowski said he told Stephen, “If we thought you were involved in the disappearance of your wife, we’d take you to jail right now.”

Then Stephen surprised the detectives by breaking into tears. “He just broke down, sobbing like crazy,” McLean said. “He wouldn’t stop.”