Cold Hearted

1. Call from Customer WI5223 to Qualicare Refrigerators Ltd, Des Moines Headquarters, June 23, 2019. Call transcribed December 1, 2019.

“This is the Qualicare Refrigerator Customer Service Line. My name is Natalie. How may I help you?”

“This is Eileen Mayers. Is this who I call when my fridge acts funny?”

“Absolutely, Eileen! Can you tell me the make and model of your refrigerator?”

“This panel says Qua…Qualicare Ultra 4200.”

“Do you have the instruction manual that came with the fridge?”

“There’s a manual? A nice man gave it to me—Mr. Penderman. Such glowing skin, that man! He carried it in on a dolly and set it all up.”

“Do you know the year your fridge was made?”

“Mr. Penderman said it was brand new.”

“Great! What’s the reason for your call?”

“It’s running hot. I bought plums three days ago, the juicy kind that make the best cobbler, but they’ve already gone bad. There was a good Stilton cheese in there, too, but now it smells terrible. Mr. Penderman said the fridge had a special warranty, so I wanted to find out more.”

“Let me look up the online manual. I appreciate your patience.”

[Pause.]

“You said the Ultra 4200?”

“Yes.”

“That model isn’t coming up. I’ll look again but keep you on the line in case I have questions.”

[Pause.]

“Sorry for the wait…where are you from, Eileen?”

“Appleton, Wisconsin. Not too many people around this time of year; everyone’s visiting grandchildren.”

“Do you have grandchildren?”

“No. I have a daughter, but she insisted no kids. Molly was always so willful, even after my husband Thomas passed. [Pause] She lives in Iowa, so I’m alone.”

“Say, you mentioned cobbler? I love baking, but my cobblers never turn out well. How do you keep yours from getting soupy?”

“Add cornstarch to the filling to coat the fruit. Works like a charm.”

“That’s so helpful!”

“I wanted to make a how-to video like the young folks do with the YouTube, but it’s confusing. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer a real camera to the phones.”

“Aha…here we go. The instruction manual doesn’t have an Ultra 4200 listed, but both the Ultra 4100 and the Excellence 4214 mention a gauge on the top shelf. Can you find that gauge?”

“Let me check. There’s a knob, but it’s on 10: EXTRA COLD. Could that be right? I don’t have old lady brain.”

“If it’s on extra cold and your food is spoiled, it definitely sounds broken. Let me get your number and call you back.”

“It’s (555) 921-1212.”

“I’ll check your warranty and talk to repairs. We’ll make sure you get your cobbler.”

2. June 15, 2019:

3.

4. NATALIE WINSTON

RECORDED INTERVIEW, SESSION 1

Date: December 1, 2019

Location: Appleton Police Department

STILLWELL: This is Sergeant Jeff Stillwell at the Appleton Police Department, Homicide Division. Also, present is Officer Wilma Patel. This interview is being recorded. What is your full name and current place of residence, ma’am?

NW: Natalie Winston from Des Moines, Iowa. When can I talk to her?

STILLWELL: Thank you for meeting us all the way out here, Ms. Winston. Do you know the woman in this photo?

NW: Yes, that’s Eileen Mayers. Have you spoken with her yet?

STILLWELL: What is your relationship to her?

NW: I was her customer service representative on a repair call for Qualicare Refrigerators. We regularly spoke over the phone.

STILLWELL: We noticed you subscribed to her YouTube account: Eileeneatss.

PATEL: Her only subscriber. For a two-second video.

NW: We became…close. She reminded me of my great-aunt Tilly, who recently passed away. Aunt Tilly and I used to bake together, and I missed her. Eileen occasionally texted me pictures.

STILLWELL: Pictures?

NW: Mostly baked goods, but sometimes Eileen wanted to show off her holiday decorations. Always smiling really big. I tried to get her to post them on her Eileen Eats account, but she couldn’t figure it out.

STILLWELL: That’s her house in this photo?

NW: Yes, I recognize the couch.

STILLWELL: Officer Patel, please log that Ms. Winston pointed to the couch in the far-left corner of the photograph of Eileen Mayer’s kitchen. Ms. Winston, can you describe what else you see in this photograph?

NW: Her fridge, and a toaster, and a counter.

STILLWELL: Ms. Winston, this photograph was a screenshot taken from a video taken on July 3, 2019. Did Eileen Mayers contact you that day?

NW: I can’t remember that far back—actually, wait. She wouldn’t have called on July 3 because she was planning a 4^th of July bridge game. She mentioned being excited about American flag decorations, but then I stopped hearing from her. She didn’t return my calls about repair updates for weeks.

STILLWELL: You’re referring to the voicemails you left on June 28 and June 29, 2019?

NW: Yeah. I was trying to get her paperwork filed correctly. Is Eileen at the Station?

PATEL: You don’t think it’s strange a woman sent personal photos to a customer service representative at her private number, but didn’t put them on YouTube?

NW: I tried to walk her through how YouTube works, but she couldn’t do it and gave up. You have to understand, Eileen. She kept trying to throw parties so she wouldn’t be lonely anymore. Her husband died this year, and she desperately wanted—

STILLWELL: Officer Patel, please note that Ms. Winston confirmed she and Eileen Mayers were close enough to exchange private phone numbers and personal photos. Ms. Winston, at this time I’d like to remind you that you don’t have to say anything and may submit information to evidence at any time. However, it may harm your defense if you do not mention something now that you might be questioned on in court later. Do you understand?

NW: Oh my god. Is she gone?

5.

Order form emailed to amendez@qualicare.com from nwinston@qualicare.com, received June 24, 2019:

Customer Name: Eileen Mayers        Customer ID No: WI5223

Appliance: Qualicare Refrigerator                 Model: 4100

____ Pickup    _X_ Service    ____ Warranty____

Date Received: June 24, 2019

Date Scheduled: July 2, 2019

Assigned to: ___Alfonso Mendez____

Notes: Customer having trouble with temperature gauge. Said Ultra 4200, probably means 4100 (customer’s memory seems foggy – probably read label incorrectly). Send someone to customer’s home to check model #, in case 4100 parts need to be ordered. Rush order.

6. Call from Qualicare Refrigerators Ltd to Customer WI5223, July 18, 2019. Call transcribed December 1, 2009.

“Hi Eileen! This is Natalie at Qualicare Refrigerators. Just letting you know I revised your warranty so it’s effective one year to the date that Alfonso came to fix it. How is your fridge working now?”

“Nobody named Alfonso has been here, and nobody fixed anything. My fridge is worse. It smells like a hospital.”

“What? Alfonso never came?”

“Nobody’s come in weeks. The ladies I invited to play bridge canceled last minute. I had fifty American flag pinwheels and tea sandwiches ready to go, and now they’ve gone moldy!”

“I’m sorry to hear that. We’ll make sure to get it fixed right this time.”

“Everything on my bottom shelf looks like it’s covered in tadpoles.”

“Tadpoles?”

“Don’t question me like that, missy. I didn’t like when Thomas used to doubt me, and I don’t like it now.”

“Let me touch base with Alfonso and arrange a time for him to fix it.”

“You’re going to need to give me the exact time and date this Alfredo boy is coming. Half my so-called friends can’t even RSVP to a party. You think I trust those bastards to come to my aid when some kook comes to murder me?”

“I assure you, Alfonso has been with our company for twenty-two years and he’s perfectly safe. He’s one of our finest repairmen. Feel free to call me personally if he doesn’t check in with you. My number is 404-555-5044.”

“I hope he doesn’t ask for a soda because I can’t keep any in this heat missile of a fridge!”

[Phone is hung up.]

7.

8. NATALIE WINSTON

RECORDED INTERVIEW, SESSION 2

Date: December 19, 2019

Location: Appleton Police Department

STILLWELL: This is Sergeant Jeff Stillwell at the Appleton Police Department, interviewing Natalie Winston, December 19, 2019. With me is Officer Wilma Patel. Ms. Winston, thanks for returning for this interview.

NW: When will you tell me, what’s going on?

STILLWELL: We’re going to show you video footage and want you to tell us what you witness. [Pause.] This footage was captured from Eileen Mayers’s kitchen security camera. Can you identify the person in the kitchen?

NW: That’s Eileen. She looks like she’s making toast.

STILLWELL: What is the date of this video?

NW: It says July 29, 2019.

STILLWELL: Can you explain the criteria you have used to confirm this is Eileen Mayers?

NW: What are you talking about? Blond hair, updo. It’s her face. I don’t understand. Where is Eileen right now?

STILLWELL: Keep watching. [Long pause.] Let’s stop…here. What did you observe Eileen doing in this video?

NW: She got butter out of the fridge, went to the counter, and buttered her toast.

PATEL: With a knife.

NW: That’s how you butter toast.

STILLWELL: And the fridge?

NW: I didn’t notice.

STILLWELL: We’ll replay it. Look again.

NW: [Pause.] Wait—That’s what the inside of her fridge looks like? Is that round thing some kind of cheese wheel?

STILLWELL: Would you say Eileen looks agitated at this point in the video?

NW: What’s going on underneath her top shelf? Is that…a spill? Is it moving?

PATEL: Answer the question.

NW: Maybe…what’s that?

STILLWELL: Ms. Winston, did Eileen ever mention anything to you about her husband, Thomas Mayers?

9. Petition for Examination, Response to Request for Involuntary Chapter 51 Commitment, March 29, 2019

10. Motion for Dismissal of Chapter 51 Proceeding, April 4, 2019

11. Order on Motion for Dismissal of a Chapter 51 Proceeding, April 4, 2019

12. Letter from Eileen Mayers to Molly Mayers, April 5, 2019:

Dearest Molly,

You think I don’t belong at home, but I don’t know any other way. Everyone knows how deeply I love you. I tell the grocery man and all my doctors. I even told a stranger yesterday when I was in a terrible mood. A nice man –Mr. Penderman. His skin was shiny as gold, and he glowed so bright, he almost made my eyes burn. I couldn’t stop talking about you and me and daddy being all together again. And honey! He promised it would happen. He said just wait, and the truth would be revealed! I know you can love me again. I promise we’ll be a happy family. Love you xoxoxo

13. Email from sduvayne@qualicare.com to nwinston@qualicare.com, August 1, 2019.

Re: Ultra 4100 repairs for Customer WI5223 in Appleton, Wisconsin

Ms. Winston,

This email confirms that Alfonso Mendez checked in with Eileen Mayers and returned to order parts for the Ultra 4100. Alfonso will return to Ms. Mayers’s house for repair service within fourteen days.

Sharon

P.S.(CONFIDENTIAL) I feel weird about including this, but Alfonso mentioned an odd conversation he wanted logged immediately. He said Eileen kept moaning and asking who put the white bubbles under the sink. She demanded he look under the sink several times. He said there was nothing there. Alfonso left in a hurry.

14. NATALIE WINSTON

RECORDED INTERVIEW, SESSION 3, PART 1

Date: December 27, 2019

Location: Appleton Police Department

STILLWELL: Ms. Winston, we brought you back to the station because we have additional video footage from last September we’d like you to look at. Were you still in contact with Eileen Mayers at that point?

NW: We were in regular contact up through, I’d say, October.

PATEL: Were these calls on a friend basis at that point? Or were you actually doing customer service?

NW: What are you insinuating? I’m good at my job. And Eileen was always friendly. But she was getting desperate, so she logged a lot of complaints. About the heat. The smell. None of the repairs were working.

STILLWELL: Take a look at this clip from September 12, 2019. [Pause] Can you tell us what is happening here?

NW: Is this a different tape? Why does everything look different?

STILLWELL: By September, Eileen had invested in a far better video camera. She’d be on the Lorex 4K Ultra System by this point. Did she ever mention she was buying more and more cameras?

NW: My god, look at all that cheese on the counter. There must be fifty different kinds. This was September? She was trying to host a bridge game again, but she didn’t know that many people. There’s enough food for an army!

PATEL: The video cameras, ma’am?

NW: She wanted to film cooking segments, but over time she stopped trusting her neighbors. She mentioned seeing them on her lawn. “These are not my friends!” she told me.

STILLWELL: Did she seem threatening in any way to you?

NW: Eileen? Absolutely not. The poor thing was miserable. You said this was September? Nobody showed up for bridge that time, either. She was distraught her friends kept deserting her. That’s why I always loved getting the chance to talk to her. It felt like someone was finally cheering her up.

STILLWELL: Eileen enters the kitchen at 1:02. Can you describe exactly what you see her doing?

NW: [Pause] She’s opening the refrigerator and taking out some berries. Oh, my god.

STILLWELL: Would you say Eileen looks disturbed in this footage?

NW: My god, I’d be disturbed too! Is everything covered with snow? That look on her face…oh god, is that mold?

PATEL: She sure looks angry.

NW: She’s not angry, she’s crying! And all that white fuzzy stuff on her fridge! Is that what’s covering her countertop too?

STILLWELL: Did Eileen ever strike you as unstable? The type to act against those she thought might have wronged her?

NW: Of course not! She wanted better friendships. She was sad when nothing worked out.

STILLWELL: How did she feel about strangers?

NW: I was a stranger, remember? We talked for hours!

PATEL: Ask her about Alfonso Mendez.

15. Call from Customer WI5223 to Qualicare Refrigerators Ltd, September 13, 2019. Call transcribed December 1, 2019.

“Hello! This is Natalie at Qualicare Refrigerators. How may I help you?”

“This is Eileen. I need help.”

“Eileen! I’m so glad to hear from you. Was Alfonso able to bring that part you needed? I’m sorry they were all sold out of the evaporator fan motors, and you had to wait a few weeks.”

“He’s not here anymore. Please, Natalie. It’s so cold in the house and the fridge, it’s so, so hot. It’s burning me.”

“Alfonso wasn’t able to fix the compressor?”

“It’s fixed! The constant humming was echoing in my brain.”

“I’m glad Alfonso came by and took care of it. Does that mean there’s a new problem? Something we haven’t logged before?”

“The warmth is turning my stomach into an oven. I’ve eaten too much cheese. I bought too much for my party and nobody came, so I had to eat it. I feel sick. My stomach burns.”

“You poor thing! You need something to soothe it. Can you take Milk of Magnesia?”

“There’s a man on my lawn. You’d think he would help me. Why won’t anyone help me?”

[Phone hangs up.]

16.

17. NATALIE WINSTON

RECORDED INTERVIEW, SESSION 3, PART 2 (continued)

Date: December 27, 2019

Location: Appleton Police Department

NW: I feel terrible for Eileen. I didn’t know things were this bad. Is there any way I get in contact with her? Talk to her?

STILLWELL: We’re wondering the same thing from you, Ms. Winston. Let’s go back to Eileen’s husband, Thomas Mayers. What did she ever mention about him?

NW: Just that he had died, and she was sad. She was doing everything by herself for the first time.

STILLWELL: Nothing else?

PATEL: Ms. Winston, what do you know about Alfonso Mendez?

NW: Alfonso? He was our best repair guy. He visited Eileen a few times to fix her fridge and eventually retired.

STILLWELL: Retired? Where did you hear that he retired?

NW: He was a loyal worker at our company for decades. He lived in Wisconsin, and we never met. He didn’t take any of my tickets after summer, so I assumed he retired. Maybe my manager told me that? I hope they threw him a great party.

18. Death Certificate, Alfonso Mendez

19 Letter from Eileen to Molly, April 6, 2019:

Dearest Molly, please don’t throw this letter away. Mr. Penderman promised you’d forgive me if I made him a deal and shook his hand. Such slippery, bright skin! A little slimy, too, but that’s okay. I’ve been praying for you and me ever since.

20. Appleton Gazette, Oct 12, 2019

Nurse Karlee Dodson, who went missing last Tuesday, shown here volunteering at Sunshine View Center, Memory Care Facility, on October 6, 2019.

21. NATALIE WINSTON

RECORDED INTERVIEW, SESSION 4, PART 1

Date: December 28, 2019

Location: Appleton Police Department

STILLWELL: Thanks for meeting with us again, Ms. Winston. You mentioned Eileen sent you a picture of her decorations for various parties. Wilma, can you cue up the footage of Ms. Mayers’ Halloween decorations? Right…there. She sent you a photo of these?

NW: Yeah. Crepe streamers. Same jack-o-lantern with the floppy mouth. And Eileen dressed up like a witch, just like in my photo. [Pause] She was really happy with her wig and her witch teeth.

STILLWELL: Witch teeth?

NW: See? Those fake black teeth you buy in the Halloween aisle.

STILLWELL: What makes you sure they were fake teeth? Is it possible hers had rotted inside her mouth?

NW: It was a costume party!

STILLWELL: We both know she never threw that party. Roll footage, Wilma.

NW: I don’t get what you want me to…holy shit.

STILLWELL: Would you confirm that at 1:42, blood appears to be pouring from Ms. Mayers’ mouth?

NW: Is she okay? She didn’t send me this!

STILLWELL: Rewind a few seconds, Wilma. Ms. Winston, do you recognize the object Ms. Mayers is carrying at 1:12, when she answers the front door?

NW: I had nothing to do with this! Jesus, she was just an old lady!

STILLWELL: The object, please? Remember, you’re on record.

22.

23. NATALIE WINSTON

RECORDED INTERVIEW, SESSION 4, PART 2 (continued)

Date: December 28, 2024

Location: Appleton Police Department

NW: I don’t know what you want! Are you suggesting she hit herself in the mouth with a shovel?

STILLWELL: Who’s at the door, Ms. Winston? Who’s she going to meet while carrying that shovel? What did she text you?

NW: Nothing! She only sent me, like, three photos! Stupid streamers and a cake!

PATEL: WHAT WAS IN THE CAKE?

24. Death Certificate, Karlee Dodson

25. Text from Eileen Mayers to Natalie Winston, Oct 14, 2019

26. NATALIE WINSTON

RECORDED INTERVIEW, SESSION 4, PART 3 (Continued)

Date: December 28, 2019

Location: Appleton Police Department

STILLWELL: You have a 3-bedroom apartment in Salisbury Oaks. Prime real estate for someone who lives alone and runs a customer service hotline.

NW: How is that your business?

STILLWELL: It’s plenty our business if you’re harboring a fugitive. How long has Eileen been at your property?

NW: I’ve never met Eileen in person!

STILLWELL: Property searches don’t take long.

NW: Search all you want! There’s nobody there! [Pause] You don’t know where Eileen is.

STILLWELL: She’s a dangerous woman.

NW: She can barely take care of herself. You can’t figure out where she went? She’s got psychological issues. She needs help!

STILLWELL: Why didn’t you get her help, if you cared so much about her?

NW: She was a customer.

STILLWELL: So you’ve said. [Pause.] Every minute you keep her at large endangers the public. You’re at risk, too. You don’t know what she’s capable of.

NW: If she’s mentally ill, she needs a psychologist. She doesn’t need to rot in jail.

STILLWELL: This woman knows how to get people on her side.

NW: This woman thinks she saw a soap monster under the sink!

STILLWELL: She could, say, threaten to disclose some old photos of you.

NW: What?

PATEL: Shame.

NW: What are you⸺

PATEL: Those kinds of photos, well, a person could lose her job.

STILLWELL: We need to know where she is.

NW: Please!

STILLWELL: We need to know where she is.

NW: I’m a good person! There’s nothing…it wasn’t wrong! Leave me alone! [Pause] If Eileen’s in Des Moines, she’s probably with her daughter.

STILLWELL: Molly Mayers is dead.

NW: Stay out of my house!

27. Letter from Elaine Mayers to Molly Mayers, sent October 10, 2019, found unopened in Molly Mayers’s mailbox in Des Moines, IA

28. Photo sent to 404-555-5044, October 2019

29. Recorded Police Interview with Danielle Bayne, junior architect at Mayers and Croslow, regarding the death of Thomas Mayers. Conducted April 9, 2019.

Danielle: I never saw Tom leave that night because I had a four o’clock appointment. The other architects said he left around five.

Interviewing Officer: You weren’t concerned your boss would be upset if you left work early?

Danielle: Everyone always leaves early. He was good about not counting hours. He was a nice manager—really friendly.

IO: Friendly?

Danielle: Kind of a player, to be honest. First Meg, and then that nurse who kept coming by…Karlene. Karlee. Something dumb like that. There were no girls near the office that day, though, so I don’t know anything.

IO: Was anyone unusual at the office that day?

Danielle: Just a work crew installing new lighting. Three big hairy guys. One was really wet and gross, with, like, bright, shiny skin. But I don’t know anyone who would want Tom dead. And to fall of a building that high… [muffled sounds] …just horrible. So sad.

30. Autopsy Form, April 22, 2019

31. NATALIE WINSTON

RECORDED INTERVIEW, SESSION 4, PART 4 (Continued)

Date: December 28, 2019

Location: Appleton Police Department

STILLWELL: Eileen was last seen in Appleton in November. After that, she appears to have traveled through Wisconsin⸺hitchhiking, we figure⸺right around the time two other nurses ended up dead. A week later, Molly Mayers left work and withdrew $3000 from her bank account. We found her remains in her car a few days later, burned up along with the car, about thirty miles from the bank. A discarded pie tin was found in a nearby bush. Rhubarb. [Pause] Sound familiar to what Eileen told you?

NW: No!

STILLWELL: Eileen really lost it around December, wouldn’t you agree? Removing the lips from that corpse... [Pause.] She’s got warrants in three states now.

NW: I never heard from Eileen after Halloween. The last thing she sent me was a stupid cobbler recipe.

STILLWELL: We have phone records that suggest otherwise.

NW: No, you fucking don’t because I never heard anything from her after she sent her Halloween costume and her damn recipe! I know her! She would never do the things you’re accusing her of!

PATEL: You’ve never heard of anyone pushed to do something they didn’t want to, under the right circumstances?

STILLWELL: You, of all people?

NW: She was a sad old lady. Desperate and lonely. She had problems.

STILLWELL: So you helped her.

NW: Not that way! Don’t you understand -- lonely people just need someone to listen to them!

STILLWELL: Where is she?

NW: Fine! Maybe she did those things. Maybe you’d act like that too if nobody paid YOU any attention your whole life. None of us can be perfect all the time, right? Sometimes we press down on that bad thing inside us, but it boils over and has to come out! Maybe Eileen’s smart! Hopefully, she’ll stay gone forever!

PATEL: Sir, we’ve recovered Ms. Winston’s phone from her car. There’s an issue.

[Recording stops.]

32. Text records sent from Eileen Mayers to 404-555-5045, November 2019.

33. Letter from Eileen to Molly, June 1, 2019. Recovered December 18, 2019.

You might not want to see me, but I’ve been dreaming of you every day. Remember that shiny man I told you about, Mr. Penderman? Today I did the second half of what he asked and took home his gift. “Take this home and all will be revealed,” he said. His words, not mine! I’m so excited. Has he talked to you and cleared everything up????????

34. NATALIE WINSTON

RECORDED INTERVIEW, SESSION 4, PART 5 (cont.)

Date: December 28, 2019

Location: Appleton Police Department

NW: These texts were sent to 404-555-5045. My number is 5044. You put me through all this and didn’t see your mistake until now?

STILLWELL: Give us a minute.

NW: Idiots!

[Recording ends.]

35. Video images saved to Eileen Mayers’ phone, sent from the camera inside the Qualicare Ultra 4200 (ISmartFridge function activated]

a. Image sent from Qualicare Ultra 4200 on September 10, 2019

b. Image sent from Qualicare Ultra 4200 on November 1, 2019

36. Transcript recorded on November 26, 2019, describing video footage captured on November 11, 2019 by Eileen Mayers’s Lorex Camera System.

[Eileen faces fridge. Her back is to camera for the entire 1:40 of the video.]

[Eileen]: I thought you were gone. I was sure you went splat.... WHY AREN’T YOU DEAD, THOMAS?

I’m sorry I told Mr. Penderman to push you, but you said I was crazy! That’s what happens when you hurt someone’s feelings -- you have to die. Fall like Humpty Dumpty.

It’s so cold. Please make it less cold in here, Thomas.

Stop waving that at me and trying to hurt me! Get out of my sink, my drawer, my trash can filled with bubbles…I only wanted to love you, but you left me and Molly all alone… [inaudible] leave and get Molly. They’re after me and it’s all your fault. You should be dead…[inaudible] Please go away.

[Between 1:00-1:15, Eileen Mayer’s back heaves from sobs. She pauses.]

What is that?

[At 1:15, there is a bright flash inside the fridge. Eileen gives a bloodcurdling scream.

Silence from 1:15-1:30.

At 1:30, Eileen breaks into maniacal, howling laughter.

Video cuts off after ten seconds.]

37. Video Footage of inside of Mayers Residence, Appleton, WI, captured by Lorex Camera System on January 2, 2020, 1:14 pm-1:20 pm CST

0:30-0:32: Natalie Winston enters Eileen Mayers’s house, door unlocked.

0:32-42: Winston closes door, calls out, enters kitchen.

0:42 – 5:42: Winston opens fridge, stares inside. Winston stands motionless for five minutes.

5:42-6:03: Winston exits Eileen Mayers’s house, smiling.

38. NATALIE WINSTON

RECORDED INTERVIEW, SESSION 5

Date: January 4, 2020

Location: Appleton Police Department

PATEL: Sergent Stillwell hasn’t arrived yet, Ms. Winston. He’ll be here shortly.

NW: [Sings] Bye, Stillwell.

PATEL: Let’s review. Last time you were here you ran out angry, due to a clerical error.

NW: Your error!

PATEL: Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Eileen is still considered missing and dangerous.

NW: The dead come to seek their vengeance. Do you have a comb? [Using both hands, Natalie Winston rakes her hair back and forth into a wild mess. Parts her hair. Smiles at Lt. Patel through the open part and giggles.] I need to find the spiders.

PATEL: Are you okay, Ms. Winston? You look a little⸺

NW: Never felt better.

PATEL: [Turns to video camera on the wall:] Is Stillwell here yet? May need some backup.

NW: [Sings again] Bye, Stillwell.

PATEL: Ms. Winston, did you receive any strange phone calls or unlabeled packages this month or last?

NW: [Pulls at the skin under her eyes] The body is a strange, unlabeled package.

[Stillwell enters]

PATEL: About time.

STILLWELL: Ms. Winston, we just received video footage of Ms. Mayers’ fridge. Look at this.

NW: I remember holy day. I am at peace now.

STILLWELL: We know you’re in contact with her. Did you clean her fridge?

NW: [Laughs] No.

STILLWELL: Really? Explain this photo. This was sent on January 3 from the camera inside Eileen’s fridge to her phone. Yesterday. What do you see?

NW: [Long pause] It’s so beautiful.

STILLWELL: Those shelves are pristine. The day AFTER you were there, and it’s 100% scoured clean. How do you explain that?

NW: Divine intervention.

STILLWELL: We know Eileen is back in Appleton. Where is she, Natalie?

NW: [Laughs] She’s not here.

[Winston takes her finger and pokes her nail into her eyeball. Stillwell and Patel shout. Winston pokes her finger into her other eyeball.]

NW: It was so bright in the white box of light. The vibrancy flowing over everyone. All God’s children touched by the power of its truth. Oh, delicious flowing unto me, cold and delicious. [Winston removes her hands from her face.] Threads of light pulsing.

PATEL: [Whispers] Why are her eyes yellow?

[Winston holds up her hands and peels her fingernails off their nail beds. Her fingers bleed. She throws her bloody nails at Stillwell.]

[Patel shouts for backup.]

39. Recovered from Natalie Winston’s wallet on January 5, 2020.

40. Newsletter, Appleton Police Department, January 10, 2020:

Honor Roll of Heroes

Sergeant Jeff Stillwell

Cause: Homicide

End of Watch: January 8, 2020

In a tragic incident, Sergeant Jeff Stillwell was killed in his home by an intruder. A parade will be held in his honor this Saturday. Stillwell was unmarried and had no children. His extended family wishes to focus on the positive. They request that in the interest of the public good, at no time during Saturday’s parade should any mention be made of Natalie Winston.

41.

42. Appleton Gazette, January 19, 2020:

About the Author

Wendy Maxon is a teacher in California who has published stories in Jersey Devil Press, Tales from the Moonlit Path, Kelp Journal, Dissections, Soul Scream Antholozine: Monstrous Hearts, Dark Horses, and Scifansat. In June 2020 she received her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside-Palm Desert. She loves satire, dancing, and visiting weird places whenever possible.