“Jacob was a total loser,” Cyn added, her voice rising to a petulant whine. “He ruined everything he could get his hands on. He was a totally selfish asshole. If he’d had his way, the plantation would have been lost, along with everything our family has held on to. He’s lying about everything. My mother is totally innocent.”
Winter waited until she finished speaking.
“Say I’m willing to believe that you do love Brad, Leigh. That doesn’t change the fact that you and Cynthia, to some extent, are directly or indirectly responsible for every death that is connected with this.”
“Even if Jacob were telling the truth, nobody could have foreseen that anybody would be harmed,” Leigh said. “And I can’t believe you are playing this in front of Cynthia. It’s too cruel for words. She was a victim of that Beals creature. He raped her. She was a child.”
Winter decided to blend Leigh’s claim with the truth he suspected. “I have her cell phone records and Beals’s too. The text messages they traded are very interesting. Cynthia may have been initially victimized by Beals, but she didn’t report the assault, and she kept right on meeting him until very recently. Cyn’s car was in that barn when it blew up.”
“I lied about where I got kidnapped, but not by who. I didn’t know that man.”
Winter pounced. “You drove out there.”
She nodded slowly, chewing her fingernail.
“Should I get the call record so you can see it and refresh your memory?”
“Yeah, I got a message to meet Jack, but he wasn’t there and that man you shot kidnapped me.”
Winter picked up the recorder and fast-forwarded to one of the numbers he had filed in his memory. He had doubted there would be any reason to play the tape in its entirety, and it was best they didn’t know everything that was on the tape. The secretly recorded conversation began with Jacob’s voice.
“This is out of control. Brad and Massey grilled me like a criminal. I don’t give a shit what you say, they know things they had to have gotten from you, Leigh. They aren’t getting it from talking to Albert White. If you think I’m going to take the blame for this pile of shit while you walk away rich, you’re fucking nuts.”
Leigh’s voice said, “Hold yourself together, Jacob. Cynthia is going to be all right as soon as we do the deal. Why would I be telling them anything that would threaten you? It’s paranoia. Brad and Massey are just fishing. Ignore it. Just keep your shit together, your mouth shut, and we’ll be out clean with a lot of money. Don’t forget who it was turned the couple of hundred grand you would have settled for into millions.”
Jacob said, “People have died. More could.”
Leigh came back. “You think I don’t know that? We’re going to have to live with Sherry’s blood on our hands.” Leigh was crying. “It was that Mulvane who did that. You do what you’re told or you will go to jail.”
There was the sound of Jacob hitting Leigh, and of Hamp running in and calling Jacob a bastard.
Winter clicked off the machine.
Cynthia said, “Tell him, Mother. I didn’t have anything to do with any of it. Jack raped me when he was a cop and I was a minor. Just because I had a joint on me when he stopped me. I had just turned sixteen. And he made me keep seeing him. I never wanted to, but Daddy told me to see him again or he’d turn Jack in for statutory rape and make sure everyone knew it was me.”
Leigh sat up straighter and her expression was one of total resignation. “Billy, are you representing me here?”
“Yes.” Billy nodded. “Winter played the tape for me. You have already hired me, so yes, technically you are my client.”
“This is just a copy of the tape,” Winter told her. “The original is in a safe place.”
Leigh asked, “Winter, are you acting in any official capacity as a representative of any police agency here?”
“No,” Winter said. “I resigned my commission, so at this moment I am acting on my own behalf.”
“I don’t want Cynthia involved with this,” Leigh said. “It’s all on me, okay? She is a victim.”
“See?” Cynthia said. “I was only accidentally involved. I’ve been at school.”
“Some. But I bet you’ve been in town a lot lately,” Winter said, guessing. “Okay, get out.”
Cynthia grabbed her purse and went to the door.
“Wait for me in the reception area,” Leigh ordered. Cynthia smiled weakly at her mother before leaving the room.
132
“I won’t make excuses for myself,” Leigh said. “I am guilty of what Jacob accuses me of. It started off as one thing and turned into a nightmare. Cynthia is the way she is because I raised her to be able to take my place, the same way my father raised me. Weakness is for those who can afford it, and we’ve hung on when few others in our business have. She is strong-willed and, yes, even manipulative. That is what is required of a woman in a man’s world. Jacob’s attitude toward her was always cold because he knew Cynthia was Brad’s child…” Her voice trailed off. “I truly did love Sherry and saw her as a member of my family, and…poor dear Estelle…and Bradley…and Dr. Barnett. All the others…I deserve any punishment I receive and I will accept any blame.”
“Leigh, only you know the full extent of what you’ve actually done, and precisely what you are or aren’t guilty of,” Winter said. “You used Brad, Alexa, and me, and we never suspected it. Despite her voluntary participation, Cynthia was in real danger of being killed because you and Jacob involved her. She has problems that probably aren’t going to get any better. People are dead, lives are destroyed. You put Hampton’s life at risk. As far as I can tell, he’s the only one around here that is salvageable. And I want him to be saved.”
Leigh interrupted, “Some good did come of it. You killed that monster who killed Sherry and Dr. Barnett. He would have killed my children. I knew I should have come clean, and I really wanted to, but I couldn’t without admitting what I had done. And Brad…”
“There’s one last thing,” Winter said. He lifted the recorder, fast-forwarded it until he found the corresponding number, and snapped the PLAY button. Winter watched Leigh’s face as Jacob’s recorder played his confrontation with Winter, Brad, and Alexa outside the house. The tape was rolling when Jacob drove away. There were two minutes filled with the mad rantings of a man driven by terror as he barreled down the county road. The sound of a horn honking was followed by Jacob cursing, “Pass me if you can, you prick!”
The engine roared as Jacob pressed down on the accelerator, laughing and cursing, unaware that the recorder in his coat pocket was collecting the sounds of the car’s interior. “Jesus,” he cried out. “Jesus Christ, you’re going to kill us both, you idiot. Pizza face! Wait!”
There was a pop, which was the window glass shattering, some bumping, and a final smacking sound.
“Who shot him?” Leigh asked. “Pizza face?”
Winter shrugged. “Tug Murphy. Alexa checked your home phone records. You called White an hour before Jacob hit you and left the house. All it took was you telling White that Jacob was going to break. And now of course White and Tug are both dead.”
“Jacob believed that Mulvane had Cyn. I knew they wouldn’t hurt her if they got the land. I should have admitted everything then, but I knew Cyn would have been killed if Jacob had screwed things up-and he would have. He’d have told you and Brad everything and you could not have saved my daughter. Jacob didn’t care about her. That’s why I called Albert White.”
Leigh’s face slackened and her eyes showed fear. “This will destroy Brad. And Hamp…Tell me what you want me to do.”
Winter stared at her, reading her truthfulness as best he could.
“What if Brad doesn’t need to know? He would have to charge you with conspiracy or depraved indifference or whatever the law allows for crimes like yours. I expect he’d quit his job first to let others handle that, and it would absolutely destroy him. I don’t think he could live, knowing you were responsible for his father’s death and all of the rest of it. Brad is a very good man. I am going to believe that you really do love him. Maybe you just think you do so you can feel better about yourself. It doesn’t have to matter.”