Worth More Dead

Della. At first, Della believed him when he said her son Tim was the liar and had probably stolen their safe.
    As she lost her trust in Roland, it slowly dawned on Della that her son was the innocent one and that she had made his life worse by doubting him. Although she couldn’t prove it, she suspected that Roland was behind the disappearance of the safe.
    She also speculated that her husband was being unfaithful to her despite his protestations when she questioned him. Finally, Della asked Roland to move out of their home and filed for divorce. This time she meant it, and no amount of sweet talking from him changed her mind. His children remained with her; Della had adopted them, she loved them, and she feared for them if they were alone with Roland. By 1993, Della’s son Tim was 18, Bébé was 15, and André was 5. Although he had not lived with the family for a month, Roland came over often to visit his children, his eyes filling with tears as he tried to tell Della how lonesome he was without her.
    He made a big show of being a concerned father, particularly when Bébé began to date. Her boyfriend, Mike, was just an awkward, “cocky, pretending to be invulnerable” kid, and their dates were innocent. “I was close to Bébé from September 1992 through June 1995,” Mike recalled. “After Roland’s separation from Della, he invited Bébé and me over for dinner. He made a very good manicotti and he entertained us with stories from his Marine Corps drill instructor days as I was considering [enlisting], which I did after graduating. After dinner, Bébé excused herself to go to the bathroom. Roland stepped right up in my face, playing the role of the all-American father, saying, ‘If you ever hurt my daughter, I will kill you, and believe me, I know how.’
    “I just looked him back in the eye and told him I would never hurt her.”
    Mike remembered Roland as a man of contrasts, as one who desperately wanted the affection and loyalty of his family but was also quite willing to hurt them deeply. And, even though he had tried to intimidate Bébé’s young boyfriend, Roland came to his wrestling matches, taught him techniques, and cheered for him.
    In truth, Roland was not heartbroken over the end of his second marriage, and he wasn’t lonely. He had someone to talk to. Beth Bixler, who along with her husband had been among his most sympathetic church friends, was there for him. The two began to meet outside of the Bible study meetings, and Beth didn’t bring her husband along. They consummated their passion on Valentine’s Day 1993. Della Pitre’s suspicions were accurate.
    Not surprisingly, Beth’s marriage soon became shaky. By March 1993, she and Duane separated.
    She later admitted that she had become more and more attracted to Roland Pitre. They began to see each other regularly. Although he later denied they had a sexual relationship, Beth admitted that they did. Beyond her infatuation with him, Beth turned to Roland with her problems. She owned a large house, but as a single woman, her finances became a problem. She’d had no idea how much it cost to maintain a house: mortgage payments, taxes, utilities, general upkeep. Without her estranged husband’s help, Beth soon found herself wallowing in debt.
    She counted on Roland’s considerable wisdom to help her with her financial quandary. He promised her that everything would be all right. She didn’t even consider one of his suggestions, thinking that he could not be serious even though she was aware of at least part of his criminal past. After they discussed her marital problems, he suggested that he could arrange for her estranged husband to be killed.
    “How much insurance does he have?” Roland asked her bluntly.
    “I don’t know,” she answered, hesitantly. “Maybe $100,000 or $150,000.”
    “Well…”
    That conversational thread ended abruptly. Beth would never dream of having her husband hurt or killed. Besides, she figured Roland hadn’t really meant it. He must have been making a bad joke.
    Sometime later, Roland suggested that she consider renting out part of her house. That would bring in income, and she agreed it was a feasible possibility.
    He told Beth that he knew of “an individual” who was looking for what Roland called “a safe house” for about six weeks.
    “You can make $3,000 in rent in that short a time,” he promised her, and he calmed her fears that having a complete stranger with some kind of secret