Smoke and Mirrors

everything would work fine right up until the babysitter got shot, which nobody knew was going to happen. Beals was helping this new guy and keeping Albert informed, but this guy told Beals shit, and according to White, the guy killed him. Since I didn’t fully trust White, Cyn would double-check White’s information from Beals. She knew him from when he was a deputy, and she was sixteen, when he stopped her for reckless driving and she had weed on her. My daughter, never one to keep her legs together, fucked Beals to keep from getting in trouble, and from then on she’d meet him for a quickie every now and then. I found out about it when she was staying with me, but figured it wouldn’t hurt to see if she could help, pump Beals on the side to make sure White was staying honest. She agreed. Call it insurance. That was between me and Cyn, and I thought it best Leigh didn’t know.

“White didn’t know anything about the babysitter’s killing. Then Beals got killed, and White was freaked, but the money held him tight. That and a threat to tell Mulvane what he’d been doing for us. They’d have killed him for that and he knew it. I tried to get Mulvane on tape admitting to having Sherry killed, but he took the tape. Hell, he was probably recording me. If they were willing to kill Sherry Adams-and I know that Leigh was more likely the actual target-they’ll kill me. Maybe White is playing both sides. I can’t trust anybody, especially based on Brad’s actions, and what Leigh’s been telling him. Now Mulvane’s guys have Cynthia and if little Miss Barnett isn’t killed, she’ll back Leigh up. I sure as hell don’t trust those two. Leigh’s been talking to Barnett and his buddy and lying to me about what she’s telling them sure as I’m sweating. I certainly don’t believe she’s just playing them to see what they know and what they’re up to like she said. She’s one conniving bitch, so I’m making this to cover my own ass.”

Winter stopped the tape recorder.

“It’s all lies. He was jealous of Brad because he knew I loved him. He knew Cyn wasn’t his daughter, that I was pregnant with Brad’s child when we got married. Can’t you see? I love Brad. I’ve always loved him.”

“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