Дэвид Балдаччи - The Guilty

“If it came out that way, I apologize.”

“I love your father.”

“I’m sure you do.”

“And I’m not a slut. I never cheated on him. I know what people said about me and Clancy, but I never slept with that man.”

“But you also never explained why you were with him that night. You said you had business with him. You never said what.”

She stared over at the water, her brow creasing.

“He was blackmailing me.”

Robie flinched. “Blackmailing you? How?”

“Before I met your father I had some issues.”

“What kind of issues?”

“Specifically, I had a drug problem. I was hooked on painkillers from an accident I was in. Then I got hooked on stronger stuff. Then I had to steal to support my habit. I sought help, went into rehab, kicked my problem, and started my life over.”

“But Clancy found out about that? How?”

“He never said. Apparently, he makes a business out of doing stuff like that.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Things he let slip.” She looked at him. “You believe me, don’t you?”

“Yes. We’ve actually uncovered other instances where Clancy was blackmailing people. So what did you do at the meeting?”

“Paid him off. He insisted I do it in person.”

“But you stayed with him a long time. If it was just a payoff, why drink with the guy for hours? Why not just drop off the payment and go?”

“Because that was another condition of his, Will. He wanted me to stay and drink with him. And he also wanted me to sleep with him. I refused and told him to go to Hell. After that he stopped asking. But I had to stay and drink with him. He wanted it that way, because I think he was planning on blabbing about it to everyone to rub Dan’s nose in it. Let them think we had slept together. But at that point I didn’t care. I didn’t want Dan to find out about what I had done. That was more critical to my thinking. The stuff with Clancy far less so. I knew Dan would never really believe I had slept with that jerk.”

“But maybe he did believe it,” said Robie. “He threatened Clancy about it in public.”

“That was just him being a man, protecting his territory. I told him I didn’t sleep with Clancy, and I really think he believed me. I didn’t tell him about the blackmail stuff. I just said we’d run into each other and had a few drinks. No harm, no foul. On the other hand, Clancy had details about my past that would prove far more compelling. And he threatened to show them to Dan. I couldn’t let that happen. Your father wouldn’t have understood.”

“How much was the payoff?”

“Fifty thousand dollars.”

“In cash?”

“That’s how he wanted it. And that’s really how I wanted it. I didn’t want any trail of money going to him from me.”

“Where’d you get fifty thousand in cash?”

“I had a life before Dan,” she said in a defensive tone. “My convention-planning business did very well. I had saved most of it, since I worked too hard to enjoy any time off. I dipped into that.”

“You could have gone to the police.”

“I could have, yes, but I didn’t.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

“This is all so screwed up,” she said in a hushed voice.

“Yeah, probably in more ways than you know.”

She looked back at the house. “This Laura Barksdale?”

“What about her?”

“You never saw her again?”

“Never.”

“But you thought about her?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“She must have been important to you.”

“She was.”

“Like your father is important to me.”

“I guess. But you have him. I don’t have Laura.”

“If he goes to prison I won’t have him.” She shot him a glance. “And neither will you.”

Dinner was tense, awkward, and uncomfortable for everyone.

Only little Tyler seemed to be able to rise above the somber mood. Every few minutes he would reach out and touch his father’s cheek.

Robie could never remember his father smiling like that when he’d been a kid. But he couldn’t begrudge Tyler his positive effect on his old man. He felt his own mouth tugging upward in a smile when Dan Robie reached over and tousled Tyler’s hair.

He caught Victoria looking at him once, but when he caught her eye she busily passed more food around the table.

Reel sat there taking it all in, registering every move, every word, and she seemed profoundly unsatisfied with the results.

Dan Robie took a drink of tea, set his glass down, wiped his mouth, and said, “Toni filled me in on everythin’ before I left jail.” He glanced first at Reel and then at his older son.

“I appreciate all the work, and the risks you two have undertaken. I probably would’ve been set bail regardless. But I don’t think my case would look as good as it does right now without your efforts. Actually, I know it wouldn’t.”

“Reasonable doubt,” remarked Reel.

Dan pointed a finger at her. “Exactly. Alternative explanations and motives.”

“I thought you wanted a slam dunk to wipe away all doubt, not just from the jurors but from everyone in Cantrell,” interjected Robie.

“I do want that. But right now I’ll take what I can get.” He glanced at Tyler and then Victoria.

“For two reasons.”

Tyler reached out both arms and his father gently lifted him up and set the boy on his lap. He kissed Tyler on top of the head and looked at Victoria.

“You seem tired. You been sleepin’ badly?”

Victoria coughed. “Not too good, actually. For obvious reasons.”

“I hope you’ll sleep better tonight.”

“I’m sure I will. With you back next to me.”

“You want to take Ty on out and see if Priscilla has some ice cream for him in the kitchen, hon?” Dan said to his wife. “I need a few minutes with Will and Jessica.” In a lower voice he added, “Not for Ty’s ears.”

Victoria swept Tyler up in her arms and carried him into the kitchen.

As soon as the door had closed behind them Dan pulled his chair in closer. “Bobby Wendell is in a lot of trouble.”

Robie said, “If he hired those people to do what they did, he is. But it still has to be proven.”

“But you don’t think he had anyone killed? Clancy? The Chisums?”

“No, we don’t,” said Robie.

“Aubrey Davis is still goin’ to try the case against me, unless we can deliver him definitive proof that someone else was responsible.”

“I would have expected nothing less from him.”

“Talk to me more about this serial killer.”

Robie and Reel took turns filling him in on what Wurtzburger had told them.

Dan rubbed his jaw. “You know it seems a little convenient that a serial killer would just happen along and kill three people who had, by their actions, given other people motivation to murder them.”

“Sort of what we’d been thinking, too,” said Reel.

“How do you explain away the forensic evidence against you at the crime scene?” asked Robie.

“Planted.”

“Then I doubt it was our roaming serial killer who’s responsible. Why would he want to frame you?”

“He wouldn’t,” said Dan. “No reason to. Which is why I think your FBI buddy is barkin’ up the wrong tree here.”

“Which gets us back to question one. Who killed them?”

“If it’s just one person,” said Reel. “Clancy and Janet Chisum, maybe the same person. But it might be that a second party killed Sara Chisum.”

“It could be,” agreed Dan slowly. “But then it gets really complicated. Maybe too complicated. In my legal experience most murders are pretty straightforward and the person responsible readily apparent.”