"We got together after her event."
"Don, don't-"
"Oh." Landry nodded. "You mean the same time she was also partying with friends at Au Bar?"
Jade sank back into his chair and rubbed his temples. "I don't remember the time exactly-"
"You would have been smarter picking Jill for your alibi for Thursday night, after all," Landry said. "She was willing to lie for you, and she was probably home alone at the time."
Shapiro was up now, hovering behind his client. He leaned forward and said, "Mr. Jade has nothing to say to you on this subject or any other. We're through here."
Landry gave the lawyer a look. "Your client can still help himself out here, Mr. Shapiro. Don't get me wrong. He's in deep shit, but maybe he can still climb out of it and take a shower. His partner is still out there, running around loose. Maybe Don here wasn't the one with the whip. Maybe the whole scheme was the partner's idea. Maybe Don can help himself out giving us a name."
Jade closed his eyes for a moment, inhaled and exhaled, composing himself. "I'm trying to be cooperative, Detective Landry," he said, still struggling to be calm. "I don't know anything about a kidnapping. Why would I risk doing something so insane?"
"For money."
"I have a very good career. I have a very good situation with Trey Hughes at his new facility. I'm hardly desperate for money."
Landry shrugged. "So maybe you're just a psycho. I once knew a guy killed a woman and cut her tongue out just to see how far back it went in her throat."
"That's disgusting."
"Yes, it is, but I see that kind of thing all the time," Landry said reasonably. "Now I see this deaclass="underline" one girl dead, one girl missing, and a horse killed for the insurance money; and it all revolves around you, Mr. Jade."
"But it doesn't make sense," Jade insisted. "I would have made good money on Stellar as a sales horse-"
"Provided you could get him sold. I understand he had some problems."
"He would have sold eventually. In the meantime, I collected my training fee every month."
"And you'll collect your training fee for his replacement, too. Right?"
"Trey Hughes doesn't have to wait to sell one horse to buy another."
"That's true. But I've learned over the years there are few people greedier and less patient than the rich. And you stand to make a big commission on the replacement horse. Isn't that right?"
Jade sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to gather himself. "I intend to have a long and happy working relationship with Trey Hughes. He's going to buy and sell a lot of horses in that time. I'll profit on all of them. That's how the business works. So, why would I risk that by kidnapping someone? The risk would far outweigh any possible gain.
"If, on the other hand, I live a law-abiding life," he went on. "I'm set to move into a beautiful new facility to train horses for people who will pay me a great deal of money. So you see, Detective Landry, you simply don't have a case against me."
"That's not quite true, Don," Landry said, pretending sadness.
Jade looked at Shapiro.
"What do you think you have, Landry?" Shapiro asked.
"I have ransom calls placed to the Seabright home on a prepaid cell phone purchased by Don Jade two weeks ago."
Jade stared at him. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"And do you have a witness who can positively identify Mr. Jade purchasing this phone?" Shapiro asked.
"I never purchased any phone," Jade said, peeved with his attorney for making it sound like he had.
Landry kept his gaze on Jade. "I've got Erin Seabright, beaten and bloody and scared to death, telling me you're responsible. It doesn't get any more real than that, Don."
Jade turned away and shook his head. "I had nothing to do with it."
"You got greedy," Landry said. "If you wanted her out of the way because she knew something about Stellar, you should have just killed her and dumped her body in a canal. You hold a hostage, things go wrong. People are unpredictable. You maybe wrote the script, but not everybody takes direction as well as a girl chained to a bed."
Jade said nothing.
"Do you own property in the Wellington area, Mr. Jade?"
"That would be a matter of public record," Shapiro said.
"Unless he put it in a partnership or a blind trust," Landry pointed out. "Will you share that information with us or make us dig for it? Or should I ask Ms. Montgomery, who keeps track of all your little details?"
"I fail to see what this has to do with anything," Shapiro said.
Again, Landry ignored him, his focus on Jade, watching every nuance of his expression. "Have you ever had any dealings with Bruce Seabright or Gryphon Development?"
"I know Gryphon Development is in charge of Fairfields, where Trey Hughes' barn is going up."
"Have you personally had any dealings with them?"
"I may have spoken with someone from their office once or twice."
"Bruce Seabright?"
"I don't recall."
"How did Erin Seabright come to work for you?" Landry asked.
"Trey knew I was in need of a groom and told me about Erin."
"How long have you been associated with Mr. Hughes?"
"I've known Trey for years. He brought his horses to me last year."
"Shortly after the death of his mother?"
"That's it," Shapiro announced. "If you want to go on a fishing expedition, Detective Landry, I suggest you hire a boat. Come on, Don."
Landry let them move for the door to the interview room, speaking only as Shapiro reached for the doorknob.
"I own a boat, Counselor," he said. "And once I get a trophy on the line, I reel him in, fillet him, and fry him. I don't care who he is or who his friends are or how long it takes."
"Good for you," Shapiro said, pulling open the door.
Dugan was standing on the other side with Armedgian and an assistant district attorney.
"You're free to go, Mr. Shapiro," Dugan said. "Your client, however, will be enjoying the county's hospitality for what's left of the night. Bail hearing tomorrow."
44
He told me to meet him at the back gate," she said quietly, her eyes downcast.
Landry had slept on a bunk at the station and come back to the hospital at the crack of dawn to wait impatiently for Erin Seabright to wake up. Jade would be arraigned later that morning. Landry wanted the state's attorney to have every scrap of ammunition possible to keep Jade in the tank.
"People gossip-especially about Don," Erin said. "He said he didn't want them talking about us. I totally understood that. I thought it was kind of exciting, really. Our secret affair. Pathetic."
"Had you had sex with him prior to that?" Landry asked. He kept his voice matter-of-fact. No accusation, no excitement.
She shook her head. "We flirted. We were friends, I thought. I mean, he was my boss, but… But I wanted it to be more, and he did too. At least, that's what he told me."
"So he asked you to meet him at the back gate. You knew no one would see you there?"
"There weren't any horses in those last two barns that weekend. That's where the dressage horses are stabled when they come to Wellington for a show, but there wasn't a show for them. Plus it was Sunday night. No one hangs around."
"You hadn't told Mr. Jade you were quitting your job, moving to Ocala?"
"No. Why would I? I wanted to work for him. I was in love with him."
"What happened then, Erin? You went to the back gate to meet him…"
"He was late. I was afraid he had changed his mind. Then this van pulled up and a guy in a mask jumped out and-and-he grabbed me."
Her voice died out as another bout of tears came. Landry handed her a box of tissues and waited.
"Did you recognize him, Erin?"
She shook her head.
"Did you recognize his voice?"
"I was so scared!"
"I know you were. It's hard to remember details when you're afraid and something awful like that is happening. But you need to try to slow it all down in your mind. Instead of seeing it all happen so fast, you need to try to see individual moments, like snapshots."