Karin Slaughter - Faithless

“How’s that?” Lena asked.

“Only time you help yourself is when you hit rock bottom.” He gave her a meaningful look that made her want to slap him. “I can’t think of anything more rock bottom than taking off your clothes for a bunch of seedy-ass rednecks at the Pink Kitty.”

Jeffrey asked, “She didn’t happen to get mixed up with the farm over in Catoogah, did she?”

“Those Jesus freaks?” Buddy laughed. “I don’t think they’d have her.”

“But do you know?”

“You can ask her, but I doubt it. She’s not exactly the religious type. If she goes anywhere, it’s looking to score, seeing how she can work the system. They may be a bunch of Bible-thumping lunatics, but they’re not stupid. They’d see right through her in a New York minute. She knows her audience. She wouldn’t waste her time.”

“You know this guy Chip Donner?”

“Yeah. I represented him a couple of times as a favor to Patty.”

“He’s not on my files,” Jeffrey said, meaning Chip had never been busted by Grant County police.

“No, this was over in Catoogah.” Buddy shifted in his seat. “He’s not a bad guy, I have to say. Local boy, never been more than fifty miles from home. He’s just stupid. Most of ’em are just stupid. Mix that with boredom and-”

“What about Abigail Bennett?” Jeffrey interrupted.

“Never heard of her. She work at the club?”

“She’s the girl we found buried in the woods.”

Buddy shuddered, like someone had walked over his grave. “Jesus, that’s a horrible way to die. My daddy used to scare us when we’d go visit his mama at the cemetery. There was this preacher buried two plots over with a wire coming out of the dirt and going up to a telephone poll. Daddy told us they had a phone inside the coffin so he could call them in case he wasn’t really dead.” He chuckled. “One time, my mama brought a bell, one’a them bicycle bells, and we were all just standing around Granny’s plot, trying to look solemn. She rang that bell and I liked to shit in my pants.”

Jeffrey allowed a smile.

Buddy sighed. “You don’t have me in here to tell old stories. What do you want from Patty?”

“We want to know what her connection is to Chip.”

“I can tell you that,” he said. “She had a crush on him. He wouldn’t give her the time of day, but she was into him something horrible.”

“Chip knows Abigail Bennett.”

“How?”

“That’s what we’d like to know,” Jeffrey said. “We were hoping Patty could tell us.”

Buddy licked his lips. Lena could see where this was going. “I hate to say this, Chief, but I don’t hold any sway with her.”

“We could work a deal,” Jeffrey offered.

“No,” he said, holding up his hand. “I’m not playing you. She hates my guts. Blames me for taking her mama from her, blames me for kicking her out of the house. I’m the bad guy here.”

Lena suggested, “Maybe she doesn’t hate you as much as she hates being in jail.”

“Maybe.” Buddy shrugged.

“So,” Jeffrey said, obviously not pleased, “we let her sweat it out another day?”

“I think that’d be best,” Buddy agreed. “I hate to sound hard about this, but she needs something more than common sense to persuade her.” His lawyer side must have kicked in, because he quickly added, “And of course, we’ll expect the assault and obstruction charges to disappear in exchange for her statement.”

Lena couldn’t help but grunt in disgust. “This is why people hate lawyers.”

“Didn’t seem to bother you when my services were needed,” Buddy pointed out cheerfully. Then, to Jeffrey, “Chief?”

Jeffrey sat back in his chair, his fingers steepled together. “She talks tomorrow morning or all bets are off.”

“Deal,” Buddy said, shooting out his hand so they could shake on it. “Give me a few minutes alone with her now. I’ll try to paint the picture for her nice and pretty.”

Jeffrey picked up the phone. “Brad? I need you to take Buddy back to talk to Patty O’Ryan.” He slipped the receiver back in the cradle. “He’s waiting in lockup.”

“Thank you, sir,” Buddy said, using his cane to stand. He gave Lena a wink before making his exit.

“Asshole,” she said.

“He’s just doing his job,” Jeffrey told her, but she could see he felt the same. Jeffrey dealt with Buddy Conford on pretty much a weekly basis, and it usually worked to his benefit to cut deals, but Lena thought that O’Ryan would eventually talk on her own without any backdoor negotiations to save her ass from two years in prison. Not to mention Lena would’ve liked to have been consulted on whether or not to give the bitch a free pass, considering she was the officer who had been assaulted.

Jeffrey was looking out into the parking lot. He said, “I told Dale Stanley to send his wife here first thing.”

“You think she’ll come?”

“Who the fuck knows.” He sat back, breathing a sigh. “I want to talk to the family again.”

“They’re supposed to come tomorrow.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“You think Lev will let you hook him up to a lie detector?”

“It’d tell us a hell of a lot either way,” he said, looking out the window again. “There she is.”

Lena followed his gaze as he stood, catching a small woman getting out of a classic Dodge. She had one kid in tow and another on her hip. A tall man walked beside her as they headed toward the station.

“She looks familiar.”

“Police picnic,” Jeffrey said, slipping on his jacket. “You mind keeping Dale busy?”

“Uh,” Lena began, caught off guard by his suggestion. They usually did interviews together. “No,” she said. “No problem.”

“She might open up more without him around,” Jeffrey explained. “He likes to talk.”

“No problem,” Lena repeated.

At the front desk, Marla squealed at the sight of the children, and she leapt up as she buzzed open the door, going straight to the baby on the mother’s hip.

“Look at those adorable cheeks!” Marla screeched, her voice shrill enough to shatter glass. She pinched the baby’s cheeks, and instead of crying, the kid laughed. Marla took him in her arms like she was his long-lost grandmother, stepping back out of the way. Lena felt her stomach drop about six inches as she finally saw Terri Stanley.

“Oh,” Terri said, as if the breath had been knocked out of her.

“Thanks for coming in,” Jeffrey told them, shaking Dale’s hand. “This is Lena Adams…” His voice trailed off, and Lena forced herself to close her mouth, which had opened a couple of inches at the sight of Terri. Jeffrey looked at Lena, then Terri, saying, “Y’all remember each other from the picnic last year?”

Terri spoke-at least her mouth moved-but Lena could not hear what she said over the rush of blood pounding in her ears. Jeffrey need not have bothered with an introduction. Lena knew exactly who Terri Stanley was. The other woman was shorter than Lena and at least twenty pounds lighter. Her hair was pinned up into an old lady’s bun though she was barely out of her twenties. Her lips were pale, almost blue, and her eyes showed a flash of fear that seemed to mimic Lena ’s own. Lena had seen that fear before, a little over a week ago as she had waited for her name to be called so that she could leave the waiting room of the clinic.

Lena actually stuttered. “I-I…” She stopped, trying to calm herself.

Jeffrey was watching them both closely. Without warning, he changed his earlier strategy, saying, “Terri, do you mind if Lena asks you some questions?” Dale seemed about to protest, but Jeffrey asked, “Mind if I get another look at that Dart? She sure is sweet.”