“Don’t be evasive,” Jac said. “You had to know what happened. Why did you just take off with your family—without your grandmother?”
He shook his head. Clenched his fists. “No. No. Grandma kicked us out. She didn’t want us living with her any longer. That’s what my mother said. What everyone said.”
“So… you’re telling us that you came home from…wherever you were that day, and your mother told you to pack up, you were moving?” She’d heard stranger stories, but Jac wasn’t sure she bought this. It just seemed too simple.
“Yes. I was working. I worked at the junkyard. I’d enter receipts into the old computer Jon David had. We had a deal.”
Jac recognized the name of the auto parts dealer. It was through him that they’d been able to find Lesley in the first place. “What kind of deal?”
“I did all the computer stuff, swept his office, fed his stupid dogs, and helped customers get parts off the junkers. He’d give me a hundred a week, plus any parts I wanted.”
“You had no tax records for that period.”
A guilty look hit his face. “No. That’s because he paid me cash. Worked out better for both of us that way. Then I didn’t have to…”
“Report your income? Tax evasion is a crime.” Although they had no proof, other than his confession. On a fifteen-year-old crime. Getting that to stick would be tricky.
“So my parents wouldn’t know.”
“Was that a problem for you?” Miranda had told them how he’d charge her and her friend for a ride. Had he been desperate for money? Taxiing his sister around, working for cash under the table—why?
“Yes.”
“Drugs?”
“No. I never did anything like that. I just bought stuff for my car. Bought clothes, shoes. That kind of stuff. My parents didn’t have the money to buy me a bunch of stuff; so I bought it myself.”
“Where was your grandmother that day? It was a weekday. A school day. Take us back to that morning.” Jac softened her tone, hoping to get him to respond. They just needed to figure out where everyone had been that day—then they could determine who was most likely to have killed and buried Helen.
“I went to school.”
“What about your brothers and sisters?” Max asked. “Did they go to school?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I think they had the flu or something. Every time they were sick, Grandma would keep them home. Even if they didn’t want to. Even if they weren’t sick. She was weird like that. Always saying we were sick, even when we weren’t. I think she liked the attention. Or feeling important or something.” He snorted. “Grandma was a real witch to Monica, Jen, and Liv.”
“Olivia? You mean Honey?”
“Olivia. She’s always hated being named Honey. Says it sounded like a stupid dog.”
“Was that why she changed her name?”
“Yes.”
“Why did everyone change their names?” Max asked. “That’s not exactly something most families do when they move.”
Lesley shrugged. “Mom wanted it. Said that leaving Masterson behind us meant we were all getting a fresh start. That everyone was changing their names, that we were no longer Beises. She just kept pushing. Had a bunch of new rules from that night. Everybody obeyed my mom.”
“How did your family feel about that?”
“My dad hated it. He and mom argued like crazy. So we all changed our names. She made a game out of it.”
“Lesley, tell us exactly what happened and what you remember being said that day. Can you tell us what day it actually was?”
“April fourteenth. I’d turned eighteen two days earlier, but I had a year of school left.” He shot Jac a suspicious look. ”This will help with my case, right? I have a job. I have bills to pay. Kids to take care of.”
“I’m not making any promises. You did physically assault Miranda Talley.”
“Why did you do that?” Max asked, sneaking in the question.
Guilt flashed across the man’s face. “I…”
“Tell us.” Jac ordered.
“I owe fifteen hundred dollars.” Lesley rubbed the unshackled hand across his eyes. “Back support. I…my ex, Candy. She threatened me last night with having me arrested. I just panicked. I got another kid who needs the money more right now. He’s been sick. Has to have really expensive medicine right now. Candy can wait. I just bought her new tires for her car. What more does she want?”
“And that made you hit a federal agent and run?”
He wasn’t so belligerent now. It didn’t surprise her. In her experience, interrogations went three ways: total silence, blustery belligerence at the beginning, or building anger. It just depended on how nervous and how guilty the interrogated was. “It was stupid. I just…panicked. And I thought…Miranda…I’d heard she was some fancy cop somewhere now. I guess I figured I couldn’t work if I was in jail or something. It was stupid. And I’m sorry.”
Well. That didn’t happen often. Confession and apology, right there. And they hadn’t even left the interview room.
“What happened to my grandmother?” Lesley asked her. He seemed to respond better to her. They’d go with it. “Who hurt her?”
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out. The day you moved; did you see your grandmother? After she supposedly kicked your family out? Why did she do that?”
“My mother and my grandmother were always arguing. Always. It never stopped.”
“What did they argue about?”
“The three younger kids, mostly. Luke, Liv, and Jenny. And the new baby. Grandma thought mom should raise them one way. And my grandmother’s word was law. For all of us. Grandma didn’t want the new baby at all. Said she wasn’t going to take care of it.”
“Even your father?”
“No. He was the one person my grandmother actually seemed afraid of. She never hit him.”
“She hit you?”
Shame hit his face. One Jac intimately understood. “Sometimes. When I pissed her off.”
“Did she hit the other children? Your mother?” Max asked, bluntly. “Had she hit anyone that day?”
Jac thought about the photos she’d seen of Helen Caudrell. The woman hadn’t exactly been small. A big, stocky woman who, even at sixty-something, could
