“I could wait inside the office,” Jeffrey suggested, thinking he could go through Paul’s things.
The secretary chuckled at the idea. “Paul doesn’t even like me in there when he’s gone,” she said, still typing on her computer. “Better you should wait out here. He’ll be back in a jiff.”
Jeffrey crossed his arms, sitting back in the chair. He had only been waiting five minutes, but he was beginning to think he should go find the lawyer himself. The secretary hadn’t called her boss to announce the fact that the chief of police was here, but his white Town Car with government plates was pretty easy to pick out in a crowd. Jeffrey had parked it right in front of the building’s main doors.
He looked at his watch again, marking another minute gone by. He had left Lena at the Stanley place so she could keep an eye on the two women. He didn’t want Terri’s guilt to make her do something stupid, like call her aunt Esther or, worse, her uncle Lev. Jeffrey had told them Lena was there to protect them, and neither of the girls had questioned this. Brad had run Dale in on a resisting charge, but that wouldn’t stick more than a day. Jeffrey doubted very seriously Terri would help with the prosecution. She was barely thirty, trapped with two sick kids and no discernible job skills. The best thing he could do was call Pat Stanley and tell him to get his brother’s house in order. If it were up to Jeffrey, Dale would be lying at the bottom of a quarry right now.
The secretary said, “Reverend Ward?” and Lev stuck his head in the room. “Do you know where Paul is? He has a visitor.”
“Chief Tolliver,” Lev said, entering the room. He was drying his hands on a paper towel and Jeffrey assumed he’d been in the bathroom. “Is something wrong?”
Jeffrey sized up the man, still not completely certain Lev didn’t know exactly what was going on. Rebecca and Terri had insisted he was oblivious, but it was clear to Jeffrey that Lev Ward was the leader of this family. He couldn’t imagine Paul getting away with this kind of thing right under his older brother’s nose.
Jeffrey said, “I’m looking for your brother.”
Lev looked at his watch. “We’ve got a meeting in twenty minutes. I don’t imagine he’s gone far.”
“I need to talk to him now.”
Lev offered, “May I help you with something?”
Jeffrey was glad he was making this easy. He said, “Let’s go to your office.”
“Is this about Abby?” Lev asked, walking down the hallway toward the back of the building. He was wearing faded jeans, a flannel shirt, and scuffed cowboy boots that looked as if the soles had been replaced about a dozen times since they were made. Clipped onto his belt was a leather sheath containing a retractable carpet knife.
“You laying carpet?” Jeffrey asked, wary of the tool, which held an extremely sharp safety razor capable of cutting through just about anything.
Lev seemed confused. “Oh,” he said, looking down at his side as if he was surprised to find the sheath there. “Opening boxes,” he explained. “Deliveries always come on Thursdays.” He stopped in front of an open door. “Here we are.”
Jeffrey read the sign on the door, which said, “Praise the Lord and come on in!”
“My humble abode,” Lev told him, indicating the room.
In contrast to his brother, Lev did not have a secretary guarding his space. As a matter of fact, his office was small, almost as small as Jeffrey’s. A metal desk stood in the center of the room, a rolling chair without arms behind it. Two folding chairs were in front and books were stacked around the floor in neat piles. Child’s colorings, probably Zeke’s, were pinned to the walls with thumbtacks.
“Sorry about the mess,” Lev apologized. “My father says a cluttered office is a sign of a cluttered mind.” He laughed. “I guess he’s right.”
“Your brother’s office is a little… more grand.”
Lev laughed again. “Papa used to get onto him all the time when we were little, but Paul’s a grown man now, a little old to be taken over the knee.” He turned serious. “Vanity is a sin, but we all have our weaknesses.”
Jeffrey glanced back out into the hall. There was a short corridor opposite the office that held a Xerox machine. He asked, “What’s your weakness?”
Lev seemed to really give it some thought. “My son.”
“Who’s Stephanie Linder?”
Lev seemed puzzled. “Why would you ask that?”
“Answer my question.”
“She was my wife. She died five years ago.”
“Are you sure about that?”
He turned indignant. “I think I know whether or not my wife is dead.”
“I’m just curious,” Jeffrey said. “You see, your sister Mary came in today and told me she has a daughter. I don’t remember anyone mentioning that before.”
Lev had the wisdom to look contrite. “Yes, that’s right. She does have a daughter.”
“A daughter who ran away from her family.”
“Genie- Terri- that’s what she likes to go by now- was a very difficult teenager. She had a very troubled life.”
“I’d still say it’s a bit troubled. Wouldn’t you?”
“She’s straightened up,” he defended. “But she’s a proud girl. I still have hopes for a reconciliation with the family.”
“Her husband beats her.”
Lev’s mouth opened in surprise. “Dale?”
“Cole put her in a box, too, just like Abby. She was about Rebecca’s age when he did it. Did Mary ever tell you that?”
Lev put his hand on his desk as if he needed help standing. “Why would…” His voice trailed off as he obviously began to realize what Cole Connolly had actually been doing all these years. “My God,” he whispered.
“Three times, Lev. Cole put Abby in that box three times. The last time, she didn’t come out.”
Lev looked up at the ceiling, but Jeffrey was relieved to see it was to try to staunch the tears in his eyes instead of to break into spontaneous prayer. Jeffrey gave the man some space, letting him wrestle with his emotions.
Finally, Lev asked, “Who? Who else did he do this to?” Jeffrey didn’t answer, but he was glad to hear the fury in Lev’s tone. “Mary told us Genie ran away to Atlanta to have an abortion.” Obviously, he thought he could anticipate Jeffrey’s next remark, because he said, “My father has strong feelings about life, Chief Tolliver, as do I. Still…” He paused, as if needing a moment to collect himself. “We would never have turned our backs on her. Never. We all do things that God does not approve of. That doesn’t necessarily mean we’re bad people. Our Genie- Terri- wasn’t a bad girl. She was just a teenager who did a bad thing- a very bad thing. We looked for her. I looked for her. She didn’t want to be found.” He shook his head. “If I had known…”
“Somebody knew,” Jeffrey said.
“No,” Lev insisted. “If any of us had known what Cole was up to, there would’ve been stern repercussions. I would have called the police myself.”
“You don’t seem to like getting the police involved in anything.”
“I want to protect our workers.”
“Seems to me you’ve put your family in jeopardy while you were trying to save a bunch of strangers.”
Lev’s jaw tightened. “I can see why you view it that way.”
“Why didn’t you want to report that Rebecca was missing?”
“She always comes back,” he said. “You must understand, she’s very headstrong. There’s nothing we can do to…” He didn’t finish his sentence. “You don’t think…” He faltered. “Cole…?”
“Did Cole bury Becca like he buried the other girls?” Jeffrey finished his question for him, watching Lev closely, trying to figure out what was going on in the other man’s head. “What do you think, Reverend Ward?”
Lev exhaled slowly, like he was having trouble absorbing all of this. “We need to find her. She always goes into the woods- my God, the woods-” He made to go, but Jeffrey stopped him.
“She’s safe,” Jeffrey said.
“Where?” Lev asked. “Take me to her. Esther’s beside herself.”