I wanted to know what Erin had said. I wanted to hear her story from her lips. I wanted to ask the questions and interpret her answers from my own perspective, with my own knowledge of the case and the people involved.
An ambulance came screaming toward the hospital, screeching to a halt in the bay as hospital staff ran out to meet it. A huge woman screaming blue murder came out of the vehicle on the gurney, calling for Jesus as arterial blood sprayed in a geyser from what looked like a compound fracture of her left leg. Someone shouted something about a victim from the second car coming in.
I slipped back into the hospital behind the mob as they rushed the woman toward a trauma room. Staff were running everywhere in the chaos of the moment. I went directly to the room where Erin had been and slipped inside.
The bed was empty. Erin had already been taken to a regular room. The exam room had not yet otherwise been cleared. A steel tray sat with suture equipment and bloody cotton balls. A speculum lay in the small sink, discarded after the rape exam.
I felt like the party was over and no one had invited me in the first place. Landry had Erin's clothes and the rape kit. There was nothing here for me to find.
I sighed and stepped back from the table, my absent gaze dropping to the floor. A small silver bracelet lay half-hidden under the table. I bent to pick it up. Made of silver, the links were fashioned in the shape of stirrups, one interlocking with the next. A couple of tiny charms hung from it-one a horse's head, one the letter E for Erin.
Just the thing for a horse-crazy teenager. I wondered if it had been a gift. I wondered if the gift-giver was a man, and if that man had betrayed her in the most terrible way.
The door swung open and I turned around to face a deputy.
"Where did they take my niece?" I asked. "Erin Seabright?"
"Fourth floor, ma'am."
"Will she have a guard?" I asked. "I mean, what if one of the men who took her comes here-"
"We've posted someone outside her room. You won't have to worry, ma'am. She's safe now."
"What a relief," I said without enthusiasm. "Thank you."
He held the door for me as I left the room. I walked away, disappointed. I couldn't get to Erin. I couldn't get to Jade. I didn't know where Van Zandt was lurking. It was three in the morning and I was locked out of the case again.
I slipped the bracelet in my pocket and headed home to sleep.
The calm before the storm.
43
What do you have to say about this, Mr. Jade?"
Landry placed the photographs on the table in front of Don Jade, side by side by side. Jade astride a horse, smiling at the camera. Jade standing beside a colorful fence in a showring, in breeches and boots, profile to the camera as he pointed to something. Jade on another horse, going over a fence. Jade with his arm around Erin, her face scribbled over in ink by a jealous Jill Morone.
"I don't have anything to say about them."
Landry reached out and turned the last picture over like a blackjack dealer flipping an ace.
"Until someone drew a line through it, the inscription on this was: To Erin. Love, Don. Do you have something to say now?"
"I didn't write it."
"We can have an expert compare handwriting samples."
"Don't even start the battle of the experts with me, Detective," Bert Shapiro said, sounding like he might die of boredom. Landry wished he would. "I've got bigger clubs in my bag than you do."
Bert Shapiro: walking, talking, designer-dressed prick.
Landry looked at the attorney with hooded eyes. "What's your connection to these people, Counselor?"
"This should be self-evident, but we are dealing with the Sheriff's Office, after all," Shapiro said to the room at large, amused with himself. Stubby little cocksucker. "I'm Mr. Jade's attorney."
"Yeah, I caught on to that. And Van Zandt's attorney."
"Yes."
"And who else in that little rat's nest? Trey Hughes?"
"My client list is confidential."
"Just trying to save you some time," Landry said. "Hughes will be in here next, talking to us about Mr. Jade. So, if he's one of yours too, you can just hang out with us morons at the Sheriff's Office all day. Enjoy our hospitality and bad coffee."
Shapiro frowned. "Do you have some legitimate reason for wasting Mr. Jade's time here, Detective?"
Landry looked around the room, the same way Shapiro had. "That should have been self-evident when Mr. Jade was Mirandized. He's charged with the kidnapping of Erin Seabright."
Jade pushed his chair back from the table and got up to pace. "That's absurd. I haven't kidnapped anyone."
"What evidence do you have to support the charge, Detective?" Shapiro asked. "And before you answer, let me point out to you that it's not illegal to have one's photograph taken by an ardent fan or employee."
Landry looked at Jade, letting the anticipation gain some weight. "No, but it is against the law to hold a young woman against her will, chain her to a bed, and beat her with a riding whip."
Jade exploded. "That's ridiculous!"
Landry loved it. The cool cat was in a corner now. Now the temper came out. "Erin didn't seem to find it amusing at all. She says you were the mastermind."
"Why would she say such a thing?" Jade demanded. "I've never been anything but kind to that girl."
Landry shrugged just to be annoying. "Maybe because you terrorized her, abused her, raped her-"
"I did no such thing!"
Shapiro put a hand on his client's arm. "Have a seat, Don. Clearly, the girl is mistaken," he said to Landry. "If she's been tortured, as you say, who knows what kinds of things the kidnappers put into her head. They might have convinced her of anything. They might have had her on drugs-"
"Why would you say that?" Landry asked.
"Because clearly the girl isn't in her right mind if she thinks Don had anything to do with this."
"Well, somebody's misunderstood something," Landry said. "When last we spoke, Mr. Jade denied having had anything other than a working relationship with Erin Seabright. Maybe he misunderstood the meaning of 'working relationship.' That doesn't generally involve sex between employer and employee."
Jade blew out a breath. "I told you before: I have never had sex with Erin."
Landry pretended not to be listening. He fingered the photographs on the table. "You know, we found these photographs this morning-Sunday morning-in the apartment shared by Jill Morone-victim of murder and sexual assault-and Erin Seabright-victim of kidnapping and sexual assault. Jill Morone was last seen alive having an argument with you, and you yourself admit you were the last person to see Erin before she disappeared."
"She came to tell me she was quitting," Jade said. "I had no idea she'd gone missing until you brought it up."
"Employee relations are not your strong suit, are they, Don?" Landry said. "Erin wants to leave you, so you chain her to a bed. Jill disappoints you, so you shove her face in a pile of shit and suffocate her-"
"My God," Jade said, still pacing. "Who could believe I would do any of that?"
"The same people who believe you electrocuted a horse for the insurance money."
"I did nothing of the kind."
"Erin knew, Jill knew. One's dead, one's lucky not to be."
"This is all speculation," Shapiro said. "You don't have a shred of evidence against him."
Landry ignored him. "Where were you a week ago Sunday, Don? Sunday late in the day, say around six o'clock."
Shapiro gave his client a look of warning. "Don't answer that, Don."
"Let me speculate," Landry said. "With your friend Ms. Atwood, who has the amazing ability to be in two places at once?"
Jade glanced down. "I don't know what you mean."
"You told me Ms. Atwood was with you Thursday night when Michael Berne's horses were being set loose and a woman was being assaulted not fifty yards from your barn."
Shapiro held a finger up. "Don't say anything, Don."
Landry went on. "The night Ms. Atwood was also seen in attendance at a charity ball in Palm Beach. Did you think we'd just take your word for it, Don? Or the lady's, for that matter?"