Chapter Six
Neighbors
The Simpson house was just like the rest in suburban Cheviot Hills. A two story brick it resembled a Mexican villa. The driveway was wide and long but no cars were parked outside. Police had finished investigating a month ago and there was no tape barring entrance. To Regina’s knowledge Frank Simpson still lived here.
The drive ended in a fork, one path lead to the house and the other to the pool in the back, wooden fence separating it from the neighbor’s property. A lone beach tree stood sentinel over the pool where Frank Simpson had found Dakota Simpson, sipping on iced tea after he’d discovered the bodies of his children.
Regina rang the doorbell but got no response. She walked to the back, hoping to catch Frank through his living room or kitchen window trying to avoid her but the place looked empty. The pool was choked full of leaves and grit; a beach ball had deflated and sunk to the bottom. She was about to head back to her car when a woman called to her.
“Are you looking for Frank?” she was standing on the other side of the wooden fence; in her late forties, her auburn hair reaching her shoulders. She wore a black scoop necked shirt emblazoned with beads around the collar and polar bears drawn out with fake pearls on the front.
“Yes,” Regina said. “Do you have any idea where he is?”
“He must have made a run for the liquor store,” the woman said. She had lined brown eyes, and a kind face. “Can I ask who you are?”
“I’m Regina James,” she said, “Dakota Simpson’s attorney.”
“Oh,” the woman said her eyes going round, “Well, I hope you’re good because Dakota didn’t do it.”
Regina was taken aback.
“I’m sorry but who are you?” Regina asked stepping closer to the fence.
“India Lee,” she said. “I’ve been the Simpson’s neighbor since Caleb was six months old.”
“Have the police talked to you?” Regina asked looking through her notes. “Because they don’t mention you in their report. Oh wait, here. It says you said you didn’t see any suspicious activity, no one coming in or out.”
“I didn’t,” India nodded, “But I also told them I didn’t think Dakota did it. She’s too frail to do something as drastic as that. If she had any back bone she wouldn’t have let Frank bully her in to having three more kids after what happened to her with Caleb.”
“What happened to her?” Regina asked thinking she’d hit the jackpot. Neighbors were often unreliable witnesses to a crime, they knew a lot about the families but you had to take most of what they said with a pinch of salt.
“Why don’t you come on over and we’ll discuss it over some lemonade?”
Regina walked the few feet it took to go back to the drive and in to India’s yard. India’s house was practically the same as the Simpsons. Her living room was full of exotic souvenirs the kind people collected on trips abroad.
“My parents were travelers,” she said handing Regina a tall glass of lemonade. “They went all the way to Japan chasing the rabbit. In fact I was born there.”
“You have a beautiful home,” Regina commented and India shrugged.
“I try.”
“So you were saying about Dakota and something that happened to her when Caleb was born,” Regina prompted.
“Yes,” India said taking a sip of her lemonade and crunching ice between her teeth. “She was a mess after Caleb. She would cry all the time. Post partem depression still isn’t recognized across the board but it’s a real thing and when your GP and your husband won’t help you through it but call you a bad mother how do you expect to heal?”
“So she was suffering from PPD,” Regina said.
“Not only that she was afraid all the time,” India said. “Frank isn’t an easy person to live with. He was loving towards the children but he treated Dakota like dirt. He would bully her to do things she wasn’t comfortable with and those brats picked up on it. Caleb would shout her down if she tried to deny him anything,” India rolled her eyes heaven words, “It was pathetic to see her mumble apologetically while her seven year old told her what to do.”