Needle Work: Battery Acid, Heroin, and Double Murder(23)

Carol was bereft. She just didn’t know how she could take care of the house and the kids and have a job, all at the same time.

“I’m living with my mom right now,” said Nancy. “But maybe I could move in temporarily and help you out. Would you like that?”

Carol’s face lit up.

“Oh yes!”

And so, temporarily, Nancy Billiter, a woman who would do anything for a friend, moved in with Carol to help her through her time of grief. One other person moved in, too: Carol’s boyfriend, Tim Collier. Carol was the type of woman who needed a man to take care of her. And that’s what, she hoped, Tim would do. But Tim had little time for love, at least immediately.

Tim had long planned a California vacation, and shortly after he moved in, he left for the coast. But while he was gone, he called Carol every night. He missed her terribly, and after a week, he cut his vacation short and returned home to live with Carol, her children and Nancy.





Eight

“I think she likes you. I think she, you know, likes you. Romantically.”

“No, she doesn’t.”

“Yes, she does. You can see it in the way she looks at you sometimes. That’s it, that’s why you’re on her side.”

“I’m not—”

“You did it together, right?”

Where did Tim get such a crazy idea?

Carol denied she and Nancy were lovers. But Tim was convinced that when he wasn’t around, she and Nancy were making love to each other. Carol thought that was crazy.

But Tim had another agenda.

He thought they should do a threesome. He prodded Carol to do it and, finally, she agreed.

“Look, if that’ll prove to you that we’re straight, okay, I will do it,” Carol said.

A few days later, they asked Nancy if she’d be interested in swinging. Nancy wasn’t interested. On three different occasions when Tim was high, he tried talking Nancy into swinging with them but to no avail.

Tim was so insistent that Carol finally talked it over with Nancy. Alone. They decided to appease Tim by pretending to go along with his idea. The two women joked about it, calling it their “Chinese scheme.”

What they would do is get naked, all three together, and then the women would chicken out. That way, he would get his fantasy, sort of, and he would leave them alone. One night, with the kids sleeping, they decided to try it.

When Nancy and Carol pulled back according to their plan, Tim got really upset and angry. They all started screaming at each other. After Nancy went down to the basement, Carol had to calm him down.

“We don’t love each other,” Carol insisted.

“Somebody else mentioned that they thought Nancy liked you. Like she was your regular girlfriend,” Tim screamed.

“Tim, stop! It’s just not true. The closest we got to hugging and kissing each other was, you know, her consoling me at Jessie’s funeral. Tim, I love you.”

“And I love you.”

But he still thought they were having an affair.

They were driving in the car shortly after that when Carol told Tim that Nancy had taken some of her drugs, the stuff usually sold to Jessie’s clients, and sold it herself without Carol knowing about it. Carol had discovered the drugs missing and knew to whom the stuff had been sold.

Carol couldn’t believe that she did it. She had not said anything to Nancy yet.

“You know, when they steal something small, they are going to steal something big.”

“But, Tim, it was just a fifty-dollar rock [of crack]. I don’t care. If she had taken the whole thing, yeah, I would be upset, but at the same time, I don’t care. I mean, I don’t do drugs. It’s just, you know, the extra money. I don’t care.”

Tim cared enough to confront Nancy. She denied taking anything. And when he then confronted Carol and asked her if she was upset that Nancy stole from her, she answered meekly, “Yeah, a little.”

It wasn’t a strong enough rebuke. Here he was ready to beat the shit out of Nancy for what she’d done and Carol wasn’t backing him up. That made him even more furious. Reading his expression, Carol knew what she had done.

The last thing Tim could tolerate was being made to look stupid in front of others; it caused disrespect. This was the second time, the first being when Tim wanted to have sex with the both of them and Carol backed up Nancy about not doing it.

Carol still figured everything would be cool. Tim had moved in; Nancy was helping out. So they had a few problems together, so what? They’d work it out, and besides, her birthday was coming up.

Carol and Tim started talking about celebrating it with a trip to California. Maybe they could find a house or an apartment in Sacramento and move out there. That didn’t sound too bad to Carol. It might be real cool.

Catch some rays, go to some of Tim’s old haunts in Sacramento, and look for a place at the same time. A little business, a little pleasure, and maybe a new life at the end of the rainbow.

With the decision made to vacation in California, all that was left was to pack and make sure the kids had child-care. But Carol had one family obligation to take care of before they traveled west.

Carol had promised to visit her dad in Port Huron for Halloween. Jesseca and Jesse wanted to trick-or-treat with their cousin, Lilly, her brother Sam’s daughter. Along with her father, they would all be there.