Page 156 of Girl Between (Dana Gray FBI Mystery Thriller #5)

The following is from a recorded interview with the District Attorney and Dr. Richard Landry:

DA: Please state your name for the record.

Landry: Dr. Richard Landry.

DA: When did you first meet Levi Monroe?

Landry: His sister was a patient of mine.

DA: There’s no evidence that Levi Monroe had a sister.

Landry: Technically, she was his foster sister. She was one of many fosters who came through the Monroe farm. His father wasn’t an empathetic man. He used them for free labor and didn’t keep records for obvious reasons.

DA: You were her physician?

Landry: Yes.

DA: What were you treating her for?

Landry: Her disorder was similar to my daughter’s.

Rebecca needed a kidney transplant, but she had rare complications that made finding her a match impossible.

Even if we did, I was confident her body wasn’t strong enough to survive the surgery.

I had to make the difficult decision to remove her from the transplant list.

DA: Are you aware that Monroe blames you for her death?

Landry: Yes. He made that painfully clear.

DA: Can you explain what you mean?

Landry: He refused to accept Rebecca’s diagnosis. Monroe was pre-med before he dropped out to care for Rebecca. He had just enough medical education to think he knew better. He was constantly showing up at my practice to berate me for not trying harder, citing far-fetched medical trials and such.

DA: Did you ever report his harassment?

Landry: No.

DA: Why not?

Landry: It happens a lot in my line of work. No one wants to hear there’s nothing more to be done for a loved one. I thought Monroe was harmless. Just another person needing help with their grief.

DA: But he wasn’t harmless?

Landry: No.

DA: When did you know Monroe was killing people and selling their organs?

Landry: Not soon enough.

DA: Why do you say that?

Landry: Because it’s my fault. I’m the one who showed him the way. Not on purpose, but I sent him to the donor support group. And that’s where it all started.

DA: Where what started?

Landry: Monroe’s madness. Instead of bonding with others in his situation, and finding ways to deal with his grief, Monroe saw a criminal opportunity. When he realized how many other people were waiting for organs that might never come, he took it upon himself to provide. For a fee, of course.

DA: This is when he began selling organs on the black market?

Landry: Yes. He’s too smart for his own good.

And he has a God complex. It’s a dangerous combination.

He’ll tell you he did it for the good of many.

That sacrificing one life could save dozens, but I think it was more than that.

He wanted to prove me wrong. Prove that he could succeed where I had failed. Like I failed with his sister.

DA: Did you fail Rebecca?

Landry: No. There was nothing I could’ve done to save Rebecca. But maybe if I tried harder, I could’ve prevented all of this.

DA: When did you go from being harassed by Monroe to working for him?

Landry: I didn’t work for him!

DA: Dr. Landry, we have your financial records. You’ve been funding your free clinic with blood money from black market organ trade for years.

Landry: I didn’t have a choice. He was blackmailing me.

DA: How?

Landry: He used my Amelia against me. She was my weakness, and he knew it.

I was desperate to find her a donor. It’s how he baited me.

I didn’t know it was Monroe I was talking to online.

His screen name was Vonnegut5. I should’ve known it was too good to be true, but I wanted to believe I’d found a match.

That I could save her. So, I took the bait.

DA: What happened?

Landry: I showed up with the cash in exchange for the organ. But there was no organ. There was a girl strapped to a table. And Monroe. He told me I needed to extract the organ.

DA: Did you?

Landry: You have to understand. If I didn’t do it, Monroe would’ve. At least I had medical training. With me, there was a chance the girl would survive.

DA: Did she?

Landry: No. None of them did.

DA: How many were there?

Landry: I’ve lost track.

DA: Why didn’t you stop, go to the police?

Landry: I couldn’t. He’d made sure I had as much blood on my hands as he did. I had Amelia to think of. I was all she had.

DA: When did Monroe abduct Amelia?

Landry: Four weeks ago.

DA: Why ?

Landry: Because I told him I was done. I wanted out.

DA: Why now, after helping him for so long?

Landry: I just couldn’t do it anymore. Not once he started dressing those girls up and leaving them in cemeteries.

DA: Why didn’t you go through with going to the police?

Landry: He had my daughter! I couldn’t. But I still did everything I could to lead the investigation in the right direction. I’m the one who called in the trespassing reports at the Plaza. I called three times.

DA: With all due respect, Dr. Landry. That’s too little, too late. Tell me about the Harvest Girls.

Landry: Can we take a break? Then I promise, I’ll tell you everything.

Dana pressed pause again. She didn’t want to hear any more. But she knew herself. She wouldn’t rest until she finished listening to the recordings. But that didn’t mean she needed to do it alone. She picked up her phone and placed a call.

Jake answered on the first ring.