Sex. Murder. Mystery(77)

“Now, people make mistakes, Sharon, and sometimes we make some really big ones, but when you’re a good person like you know you are, it always comes to light and you always do what you can to make it better. Okay? And this is the first step toward starting a new life, doing what you can do to just make things right. Did Gary ever report back to you, tell you what he did?”

Sharon nodded through her sobs.

“He said it was… ‘it's done’.”

“And never brought up the subject again?”

“I went through all the investigation of Perry's death. Gary said the only things that really covered tracks was fire and water.”

The investigators let the woman talk. She had things on her mind, and it seemed that she was going to follow her own instincts when it came to what she would or wouldn’t talk about. She told them Gary wouldn’t let go of her. Their on-and-off relationship had torn up her life. Even when she married Glen, she could not shake Gary Adams’ attentions. He was jealous. He hated seeing the two of them together.

He killed for love and money.

Elaine Tygart turned off the recorder at 3:52 P.M.

What to do next? The Pizza Hut was filling up with hungry diners and with quarters exhausted, Sharon's children were bored. Though she was not handcuffed, Sharon was reminded she had been arrested and was in custody of the Thornton Police Department. Rather than sit in the car and wait it out for the Thornton contingent to arrive, the two detectives decided to rent a room at the Best Western Motel next door.

Glen Trainor made arrangements for Danny and Misty, telling Sharon he’d drive them back to Rochelle's house in Trinidad.

The little boy and girl started crying. They didn’t want to leave their mother. They didn’t know what was happening. No one told them to what their mother had confessed while they were eating pizza and playing video games. No one told them that their mother had set up their father and stepfather. Sharon held her son and daughter and tearfully instructed them that the nice policeman would drive them back to big sister Rochelle's house in Trinidad. Sharon said she had some business to take care of and she wouldn’t be coming home that night.

Det. Trainor did his best to console the kids; and once on the road, away from their mother, their tears, in fact, did stop.

In the confines of the modest motel room, Sharon chatted about her fate, about her crimes.

“What is it going to be like in prison?” she asked.

Elaine Tygart was surprised at the question. In her mind, Sharon had moved herself from victim of a twisted lover to convicted killer ready to serve out a life sentence.

“You’ll probably go to Pueblo,” she answered. “It's newer. You’ll get fed and taken care of. It's clean and warm.”

Sharon nodded and made more small talk.

“We’ve got some time to kill,” the detective said. “It will be a few hours before the troops from Thornton get down here. If you want to rest or take a nap, be my guest.”

Sharon said she would.

Tygart had a hard time connecting the woman with the crimes. Sharon seemed so very ordinary. She was the next-door neighbor. She was the Avon lady. She was not particularly glamorous, nor was she rough.

Over the next few hours, as the police came from up north and discussions were held with a deputy district attorney from Adams County, plans were made to arrest Gary Adams. By that time, Sharon had told the police where they could find the wedding ring Gary took from Glen as proof of his deed. It was in the house back in Weston. She also told her captors that the note he wrote indicating when he left town after killing Glen was still in her mailbox.

She said Gary had several guns, a supply of ammunition and perhaps some explosives. Outside of a gun he kept in his truck, she did not know where he stored any of his arsenal.

Sharon explained how Gary had come to see her in the early morning hours after killing Glen. She said they had tried to make love, but he had been too tired and couldn’t do anything.

“She made it sound as though it was a seal of duty,” the detective later said.

Elaine Tygart knew it was true. She held no doubts about the underlying reason for the murders of Glen and Perry. Sharon Lynn Fuller Nelson Harrelson was in love with Gary Adams. It was an obsessive and a dangerous love. When she talked about him, it was clear that their hold on each other was deep.

He was everything she had dreamed about in her teenage years. He was the lover that she had wanted.

When Sharon ran down the list, it was lengthy.

“Ruggedness…a wild side. Totally outside of every boundary I’d ever known. Not religious. Black hair… blue eyes… ice blue eyes. Survivalist. Protector, I thought. Military. Macho. Guns… I’d never experienced this side of life before. I’d never been around anyone like this before. I didn’t know people like this existed. I thought, I wonder what this side of life is like?”