J. Jance - Betrayal of Trust

“Come on,” Mel whispered in my ear. “Let’s check out of the hotel and go home.”

And we did.

“I asked Ross for next week off,” Mel said as we rode the elevator up at Belltown Terrace. “We need to go to Texas. We can fly commercial or we can bite the bullet and take the jet. Which is it?”

I thought about the money the jet would burn, flying cross-country like that. Then I thought about my limping through airport concourses, getting on and off car-rental shuttles, and sitting for hours with my knees jammed up against the seat in front of me, while the guy seated there flew in full-recline mode.

Based on that, it wasn’t a tough decision.

“We’ll take the jet,” I said.

We flew out of Boeing Field twenty-four hours later on a Citation X. On the flight Mel and I spent most of the time talking about what the rest of the state was just now learning-that a group of supposedly well-respected “good” kids, terminally bored “good” kids, had gone bad and transformed themselves into a bunch of hoodlums. Giselle Longmire and Ronald Darrington Miller weren’t the only ones who would be facing charges.

Owen Wetmore, one of the Janie’s House houseparents, had been a full partner in Ronald Miller’s filming venture, and they had used Owen’s keys and security code to come and go at will. According to Gizzy, as soon as Josh died, Ron realized that the subsequent investigation might lead back to him. He had decided on his own that Rachel had to go. And then, when Owen started freaking out afterward, Ron decided that both Owen and the Janie’s House computers had to go as well.

Gizzy hadn’t been present when Rachel died and she hadn’t lit the match that started the Janie’s House fire, but she had driven the getaway car. She had known about the planned fire in advance and had done nothing to stop it. I thought it was likely that she would face homicide charges of some kind in regard to Rachel Camber’s death as well as Owen Wetmore’s. She also had admitted stealing Josh’s original watch-the one from Gerry Willis-just to bug him, just because she could. That day after the Janie’s House fire, Ron had gone to the governor’s mansion intent on retrieving what they both thought of as their trophies. They had been shocked to find the watch missing. He’d had the bracelet in hand and was on his way to Gizzy’s father’s house to pick up the thumb drive when Mel and I took him into custody.

It seemed to me that Gizzy and Ron deserved each other in every sense of the word-a twisted match made in hell rather than heaven. So far the judge had denied requests for bail from both defense attorneys. That had to come as a huge surprise, to Ron especially. For the first time in his life his parents’ position in the community wasn’t working for him. A denial of bail was only the first step in the process. Mel and I both knew that legal proceedings against the pair would take months.

We had obtained Giselle Longmire’s confession without striking any kind of plea agreement. We had every reason to believe that her confession would withstand legal scrutiny and that they both would be going to prison for a very long time.

Between now and then, both families were living in an ongoing media nightmare. I wondered if Marsha and Gerry’s marriage would survive all the strife. Gizzy’s actions had torn holes in the fabric of their marriage that would probably never be mended.

As for Josh? The smoking gun had been found not in his cell phone records but in Sam Dysart’s. A call from his phone to the governor’s mansion landline had evidently summoned Josh on that out-of-character jog that had so puzzled his grandfather. Olympia police officers, executing a search warrant, had found the torn gift-wrapping paper and the box that had held the replacement watch we had found on Josh’s wrist. Dysart had gone to great lengths to track down that particular model. I like to think Josh went to his death expecting that his grandfather would believe the ruse that the watch on his arm was the one he had given him.

Was the watch a bribe on Dysart’s part in exchange for sex? Or was replacing Josh’s missing Seiko a thoughtful gift? So far there was no clear answer to those questions. Regardless, Dysart’s relationship with Josh had crossed the line. He had further victimized a kid who had already suffered far more than he should have. I was glad the man was dead. Dysart’s death spared Gerry Willis at least one painful legal proceeding. And it probably kept Chipper Lawson, the pimply-faced chess player at Josh’s funeral, from being Dysart’s next victim.

“All of this makes me incredibly thankful that I don’t have to be in high school anymore,” I told Mel.

She nodded. “And it makes me grateful I never had kids,” she said. “Kids today do stuff we never considered doing.”

“Not all of them,” I said, thinking about Greg Alexander, a kid who, despite a troubled home life, would one way or another make it where he was going.

A bell rang in the aircraft’s cabin. We were starting our descent into Beaumont. It was time to raise our seats to their full upright position and fasten our seat belts.

When I had called my cousin in Texas to let her know our plans, I originally told her that we would rent a car. She wouldn’t hear of it.

“Someone will be there to pick you up,” she had said firmly.

Three and a half hours after leaving Seattle, when we landed at Southeast Texas Regional Airport, a shiny black Suburban limo was waiting for us next to the Fixed Base Operation. The Suburban drove out onto the tarmac to meet our plane. When the driver stepped out of the car next to the plane, he was wearing a gray suit with a starched white shirt, a bright blue tie, a gray felt Stetson, and a pair of highly polished black cowboy boots.

The pilot opened the hatch, letting an ungodly combination of the heat and humidity roar into the cabin.

“Welcome to Texas,” he said.

I knew in that moment that I never wanted to live in Texas. If this was what Texas was like in June, I wasn’t interested in seeing July or August.

The driver and our copilot took care of transferring our luggage from plane to vehicle while Mel and I settled into the backseat of the Suburban and reveled in air-conditioned comfort.

“I hope you know where you’re going,” I said jokingly to the driver when he got behind the wheel. “I have no idea.”

“Yes, sir,” he said. “I’m glad your plane was on time. Miss Hannah usually don’t make it past seven o’clock or so. Sad to say, she’s doing poorly. It’s breaking Miss Sally’s heart.”

I had thought Sally would hire a local shuttle service to come to the airport to do the ferrying honors. Instead, she had sent someone who was clearly a longtime family retainer. When we pulled into the driveway on Shadow Bend Avenue, we saw that the house was huge. My first thought was that we were pulling up to a hotel rather than a private residence. The driver popped the back hatch and then hopped out onto the baking driveway.

Mel reached over and squeezed my hand. “Are you all right?” she asked.

“It’s a little bigger than I anticipated,” I said.

The driver opened the car door and helped us out. Once I was upright, I needed to stand still for a moment or two to let my knees straighten out. “Has Mrs. Mathers lived here long?” I asked.

“Long as I can remember, that’s for sure,” the driver said, handing Mel out of the vehicle as well.

While he was grappling with the luggage, a woman came flying out the door to greet us. She was blond with big hair and dressed like she was about to hit the roundup trail, complete with jeans and boots. This was someone who, like Julie Hatcher, knew her way around horses.

“You must be Sally,” I said.