“Hi, Susan.” Mary Lisa quickly introduced Susan to Lou Lou and Elizabeth. “Do you think it’s possible for us to speak to Mrs. Hildebrand for a couple of minutes?”
“Well, I don’t know, Mary Lisa. I mean, the chief didn’t say anything about your coming-”
“She and my mom are so very close, Susan, you know that. I mean, my mom visited her last night, right? I wanted to check on her, you know, see how she’s feeling.”
Elizabeth gently and slowly pushed forward, making Deputy Randall back up. “I know it’s a huge favor, but Mary Lisa really is worried about her mother. She’s been going through all this with her, as you know.”
“Well, yeah, I guess it’d be all right. But not long, okay? She still might be asleep. She hasn’t come down yet.”
Mary Lisa realized she’d never before been in the Hildebrand house. Through all the years, Olivia had always been the one to visit her mother. They stopped in the middle of the large entryway with a skylight two stories overhead.
Mary Lisa supposed she was upstairs in the master bedroom. Without asking, they all headed for the main staircase and took them up two at a time.
She looked down at Deputy Randall, who was standing next to another female deputy Mary Lisa recognized but didn’t know. She smiled at both of them, gave a little wave. Then she knocked lightly on the door, and opened it.
She wished she hadn’t.
FIFTY-SIX
No one screamed. They stood in the doorway, staring at Olivia Hildebrand hanging from one of the beautifully painted oak ceiling beams, a vanity chair on its side beneath her.
Mary Lisa ran to her and lifted her by her thighs as best she could to relieve the awful pressure twisting her neck. She wasn’t going to let her die. She heaved the woman up, felt the taut rope ease. “Lou Lou, Elizabeth, quick, help me get her down. Hurry!”
Elizabeth turned over the chair Mrs. Hildebrand had stood on and then had kicked away, and climbed up on it. “No, I still can’t reach the knot.” She felt for a pulse in Mrs. Hildebrand’s throat, knowing there wouldn’t be one. Elizabeth hadn’t seen violent death since she’d covered a bank robbery in Venice Beach nearly a year before, but she knew that, now as then, this human being was dead and there was nothing to do for her except to help protect her dignity. Her throat felt dry and cool, too cool. She looked at Mary Lisa’s set face, her arms still around Mrs. Hildebrand’s legs, and back at Lou Lou, who seemed frozen, her eyes filled with horror. “I’m sorry, guys, she’s dead. Her skin’s chilled. She’s been dead a long time.” She climbed back down, laid her hand lightly on Mary Lisa’s shoulder, but Mary Lisa was shaking her head.
“No, she can’t be dead. Cut her down, Elizabeth, please cut her down. She’s hurt bad, I know she’s hurt real bad. Hurry, please, hurry, she’s heavy and I don’t know how much longer Lou Lou and I can hold her up. Lou Lou, help me.”
“No, Mary Lisa, Lou Lou,” Elizabeth said, her hand on their shoulders, “we can’t touch her. Even if I could cut her down, I know that it’s the wrong thing to do. This is a crime scene now and we don’t want to touch anything. I’m sorry, but you have to let her go. That’s right, Lou Lou, call Jack, then call 911. And get the deputies downstairs.”
Lou Lou raced out of the bedroom, her cell in her hand.
Mary Lisa still held Mrs. Hildebrand. Tears were streaming down her face. “I can’t let her go, Elizabeth. Don’t you see? The pain would be so bad if I let her loose. I can’t.”
They heard Lou Lou yelling for the deputies outside, and then they heard her on her cell phone.
“Please, Elizabeth, cut her down. She’s heavy. I don’t know how much longer I can hold her up. I can’t let go, Elizabeth, she’ll break her neck if I let go. Please, Elizabeth.”
“I’m sorry, sweetheart, but I can’t. The forensic team needs to study everything so they can figure out exactly what happened. If we move her, then they can’t figure things out. Do you understand?”
Mary Lisa nodded, her forehead against Mrs. Hildebrand’s leg. “But-”
“I know, Mary Lisa, I know. I’ll tell you what, we’ll both hold her up until help arrives.”
Jack got there incredibly fast, a bit ahead of the paramedics. They heard him running flat out up the stairs. When he hit the bedroom doorway, he saw Elizabeth and Mary Lisa holding Mrs. Hildebrand’s body up, Lou Lou and his two deputies standing beside them. Why were they holding her up? It was clear Mrs. Hildebrand’s neck was broken, she was dead. He started to say something, but Elizabeth caught his eye and shook her head. He took in what was happening, that it was Mary Lisa who couldn’t deal with the reality that Mrs. Hildebrand was violently, horribly dead, couldn’t accept that she was helpless to change it. Jack had seen perhaps half a dozen people hanged over the years, most of them suicides, and not all of them well done. It was a violent, ugly death-the bulging, reddened eyes, the tongue thick and swollen, thrust partially out of her half-open mouth. Dear God, and it was Mary Lisa holding up that body.
The paramedics crowded behind him. He shook his head at them and walked to Mary Lisa and Elizabeth. He said, “Mary Lisa, you and Elizabeth have done a very good job. Now it’s time for you to come away. It’s time for you to let me take care of Mrs. Hildebrand. All right?”
Mary Lisa stared up at him. “But Jack, I can’t let her down. If I do-”
Elizabeth closed her eyes a moment. “Jack’s here now, Mary Lisa, and the paramedics. They can cut her down. Come along now, sweetheart, we have to let them do their job.”
Jack nodded three paramedics over. “I want you to hold up Mrs. Hildebrand, all right?”
They realized what was happening and silently nodded. When the three of them had taken over, Jack took Mary Lisa’s hand and led her to the bedroom door. Lou Lou stood with them in the doorway, her eyes on Mary Lisa. He said to Elizabeth, “Please take Mary Lisa and Lou Lou downstairs to the living room. Wait there for me, all right? I’ll call John. He needs to get over here as well.”
His words gave Elizabeth the focus she needed. She nodded. “Yes, don’t worry about us, Jack. We’ll take care of Mary Lisa. We’ll wait for you.” She led Lou Lou and Mary Lisa down the wide staircase toward the open front door, where paramedics and policemen were still streaming in. Elizabeth kept Mary Lisa and Lou Lou headed directly for the living room. “That’s it, we’ll go in here. This isn’t the time to talk to these people. They’re here to take care of Mrs. Hildebrand.” They sat down on the sofa and huddled together, content to say nothing. Elizabeth hoped John would arrive soon.
Upstairs, Jack motioned Deputy Randall out of the bedroom. She didn’t look well and he couldn’t blame her.
“This can’t be happening, Chief. It can’t-” Her face grew pale, and she swallowed hard, turned, and raced down the hall toward the bathroom. Jack hoped she made it in time.
He and the forensic team went about their business. They started with dozens of photos. The M.E., Dr. Washington Hughes, arrived and spent about ten minutes examining the body in situ. He bagged Mrs. Hildebrand’s hands to preserve any traces of rope fibers on her palms or beneath her fingernails. Finally, they cut the body down. Soon after John arrived, the paramedics wheeled her out of the house to the morgue.
Dr. Hughes held up the rope. “Okay, Chief, as a preliminary, the body showed all the stigmata of hanging, you know that. Death occurred about six hours ago, give or take. It looks like a classic suicide. She got ahold of this rope, climbed up on this chair, flipped the rope over the beam, then tied it around her neck, and kicked away the chair.”
“Yes, that’s how it looks.”
“I’ll get started on the autopsy right away.”
Jack nodded. “It seems she got up sometime during the night, went out to the garage where she had this handy rope lying around, or she planned it and had the rope in here beforehand.”