Karin Slaughter - Faithless

Lena glanced in her rearview mirror to make sure Brad Stephens was behind them. He was following in his cruiser, and for once, Lena was glad to have the junior patrolman around. Brad was goofy, but he had been working out lately and had the muscle to show for it. Jeffrey had told them about the loaded revolver Dale Stanley kept on top of one of the cabinets in the garage. She wasn’t looking forward to confronting Terri’s husband, but part of her was hoping he tried something so that Jeffrey and Brad had an excuse to show him what it felt like for someone larger and stronger than you to bring down a world of pain on your ass.

Jeffrey told Frank, “No, don’t put her in a cell. Give her some milk and cookies if you have to. Just keep her away from the phone and her brothers.” Lena knew he was talking about Mary Morgan. The woman had been startled when Jeffrey had told her she wasn’t to leave the police station but, like most law-abiding citizens, she was so scared of going to jail that she had just sat there, nodding, agreeing with everything he said.

“Good work, Frank.” Jeffrey told him, “Let me know what else you come up with,” and rang off. He started scribbling on his pad again, not speaking.

Lena didn’t have the patience to wait for him to finish with his notes. “What did he say?”

“They’ve found six policies so far,” he told her, still writing. “Lev and Terri are listed as beneficiaries for both Abby and Chip. Mary Morgan is on two, Esther Bennett is on two others.”

“What’d Mary say about that?”

“She said she had no idea what Frank was talking about. Paul handles all the accounts for the family.”

“Did Frank believe her?”

“He’s not sure,” Jeffrey said. “Hell, I’m not sure and I talked to her for half an hour.”

“I wouldn’t guess they’re living high on the hog.”

“Sara says they make their own clothes.”

“Paul doesn’t,” she pointed out. “How much were the policies worth?”

“Around fifty thousand each. They were greedy, but they weren’t stupid.”

Lena knew that anything exorbitant would have raised suspicion with the insurance agencies. As it was, the family had managed to collect a half-million dollars over the last two years, all of it tax free.

“What about the house?” Lena asked. The policies had listed each beneficiary as living at the same address in Savannah. A quick call to the Chatham County courthouse had revealed that the house on Sandon Square was purchased by a Stephanie Linder five years ago. Either there was another Ward sibling Jeffrey didn’t know about or someone was playing a nasty joke on the family.

Lena asked, “You think Dale is involved in this, too?”

“Frank ran a credit check,” he said. “Dale and Terri are both in debt up to their eyeballs- credit cards, mortgage, two car payments. They’ve got three medical collections against them. Sara says the kid’s been in the hospital a couple of times. They’re hurting for money.”

“You think Terri killed her?” Lena asked. Frank was right when he said poisoning was generally a woman’s crime.

“Why would she do it?”

“She knew what Cole did. She could’ve been following him.”

“But why kill Abby?”

“Maybe she didn’t,” Lena tried. “Maybe Cole killed Abby and Terri decided to give him some of his own medicine.”

He shook his head. “I don’t think Cole killed Abby. He was genuinely sad that she was dead.”

Lena let it go, but in her mind, she thought he was giving a large benefit of the doubt to one of the sickest fucks she’d ever run into.

Jeffrey opened his cell phone and dialed a number. Someone obviously answered on the other end, and he said, “Hey, Molly. Can you give a message to Sara for me?” He paused a beat. “Tell her we’re heading out to the Stanley place right now. Thanks.” He hung up, telling Lena, “Terri had an appointment with Sara around lunchtime.”

It was half past ten. Lena thought about the gun in Dale’s garage. “Why didn’t we just pick her up then?”

“Because Sara’s office is out of bounds.”

Lena thought this was a pretty lame excuse, but she knew better than to push him on it. Jeffrey was the best cop she had ever known, but he was like a whipped puppy as far as Sara Linton was concerned. The fact that she jerked him around so much would have been embarrassing to any other man, but he seemed to take pride in it.

Jeffrey must have sensed her thoughts- at least some of them- because he said, “I don’t know what Terri’s capable of. I sure as hell don’t want her going ballistic in an office full of little kids.”

He pointed to a black mailbox jutting up beside the road. “It’s up here on the right.”

Lena slowed, turning into the Stanley driveway, Brad right behind her. She saw Dale working in the garage and felt her breath catch. She had met him once, years ago, at another police picnic when his brother, Pat, had just joined the force. Lena had forgotten how large he was. Not just large, but strong.

Jeffrey got out of the car, but Lena found herself hesitating. She made her hand move to the handle on the door, made herself open it and get out. She heard Brad’s door shut behind her, but didn’t want to take her eyes off Dale for a second. He stood just inside the doorway of the garage, hefting a heavy-looking wrench in his meaty hands. The cabinet with the gun was a few feet away. Like Jeffrey, he had a dark bruise under his eye.

“Hey, Dale,” Jeffrey said. “How’d you get the shiner?”

“Ran into a door,” he quipped, and Lena wondered how he’d really gotten it. Terri would need to stand on a chair to reach his head. Dale weighed about a hundred pounds more than she did and was at least two feet taller. Lena looked at his hands, thinking one was large enough to wrap around her throat. He could strangle her without giving it a second thought. She hated that feeling, hated the sensation of her lungs shaking in her chest, her eyes rolling back, everything starting to disappear as she willed herself not to pass out.

Jeffrey stepped forward, Brad and Lena on either side of him. He told Dale, “I need you to come out of the garage.”

Dale tightened his hand around the wrench. “What’s going on?” His lips twitched in a quick smile. “Terri call you?”

“Why would she call us?”

“No reason.” He shrugged, but the wrench in his hand said he had something to worry about. Lena glanced at the house, trying to see Terri. If Dale had a bruised eye, Terri probably had something ten times worse.

Jeffrey was obviously thinking the same. Still, he told the man, “You’re not in trouble.”

Dale was smarter than he looked. “Don’t seem that way to me.”

“Come out of the garage, Dale.”

“Man’s home is his castle,” Dale said. “You got no right coming in here. I want you off my property right now.”

“We want to talk to Terri.”

“Nobody talks to Terri unless I say so, and I ain’t saying so, so…”

Jeffrey stopped about four feet from Dale, and Lena moved to his left, thinking she could get to the gun before Dale. She suppressed a curse when she realized that the cabinet was well out of her reach. Brad should have taken this side. He was at least a foot taller than she was. By the time Lena dragged over a stool to retrieve the gun, Dale would be on his way to Mexico.

Jeffrey said, “Put the wrench down.”

Dale’s eyes darted to Lena, then Brad. “Maybe ya’ll should back up a step or two.”

“You’re not in charge here, Dale,” Jeffrey told him. Lena wanted to put her hand on her gun, but knew that she should take her signals from Jeffrey. He had his arms at his sides, probably thinking he could talk Dale down. She wasn’t convinced.