“Your father and Marie?” Marge said. “Or your father and mother?”

“All of them,” Tandy said softly. “They’re all very evil people.”

“Including Marie,” Marge said.

“Including Marie,” Tandy said.

“How did you find out about Daddy and Marie?” Decker asked.

“I just did.”

“Did you recognize Marie when you saw her at the Golden Valley Home?” Marge said.

Tandy’s eyes became sharp and focused. “Are you asking me if I recognized someone I last saw when I was five?”

“Why are you using Leek McKay’s license, Tandy?” Decker said.

“Because it was convenient! I didn’t want to have to go back to school just to learn things I already knew! Marie said I was better trained than most RNs she worked with. Why should I waste my time?”

“Because it’s illegal to use someone else’s license.”

“So arrest me!”

Decker looked at the tape recorder. She had him. Yes, he could arrest her on the petty charge of impersonating a licensed professional. But the collar would make him look as if he were reaching. The woman was dancing around his traps. She was the sanest person he’d ever met.

“Look,” Tandy said, “you have nothing to connect me to this kidnapping. You don’t even have anything to connect me to Marie. The only thing you have is my parents with a baby that Marie kidnapped. Marie probably panicked and thought of old Geoffrey. Like you said, they used to be lovers till she dumped him. Maybe she thought she could play him for a sucker ’cause that’s what he was.”

“If you were only five years old, how’d you know Marie dumped your father?” Marge asked.

Kill her, the whore!

You’re a whore!

Again Tandy’s eyes blinked. “Mom told me.”

“So you knew Marie was your father’s lover when you met her at the home.”

“No.” Tandy shook her head. “No, I didn’t. My mother never mentioned Marie’s name. Just called her the whore. Mom always referred to her as the whore.”

Consistent with the way Hetty spoke. Decker said, “So how’d you find out that Marie was the whore?”

“I don’t remember.”

How did she find out? Decker wondered. Was Marie’s name buried in her unconscious? Did it pop up when she actually met Marie again? Or did Tandy come across some tangible evidence of the tryst? Maybe while she was staying in Marie’s apartment, she saw something. Yet Decker had combed Bellson’s apartment and hadn’t come up with a thing. He looked at Tandy. She smiled slowly.

Back in control!

“Look, even my parents aren’t saying I have anything to do with this. So you’ve got nothing on me.”

“How do you know what your parents are saying, Tandy?” Marge asked.

“If they implicated me, you wouldn’t be floundering. Either arrest me or let me go.”