“What did you do?” Keely asked apprehensively.
“The boy liked to get high,” Ella continued miserably. “He did it all the time, anyway. He had a supplier, one of Brent’s dealers—she died and her sister married a local cattleman a few months ago. We promised him that we’d send the boy a kilo of coke, all for himself, if he wouldn’t tell on us.”
Keely was feeling sick. She already had an idea of who her mother was talking about. “And?”
“Oh, he agreed. In fact, we promised him a dime bag on the spot. That’s a hundred dollars of cocaine in street talk. What we didn’t tell him was that it was one-hundred-percent pure—it wasn’t cut with anything to lessen the effect. We gave it to his supplier, and he had her inject him. And he died. Of course, she didn’t know, either. But we had her in our pocket then, too, because she couldn’t prove that she didn’t know she was killing him.”
Keely’s eyes closed. “It was Sheriff Hayes Carson’s younger brother, Bobby, wasn’t it?” she asked huskily.
Ella sighed. “Yes. I’ve lived with the guilt and the fear all these years, terrified that Sheriff Hayes would find out. He wouldn’t rest until he put me in prison. He’s blamed others, and that took the heat off me. It was the only hope I had…”
“No wonder you paid for the game park for Dad,” she said, seeing clearly the pattern of the past. “It’s why you let him take me along.”
Her mother nodded slowly. “After Bobby died, I couldn’t bear to look at Brent anymore. He made me feel like a murderess. I was afraid, too, that he might get high one night and tell someone what we’d done. So he promised to leave town if I’d let him have the money for the game park. He even said he’d straighten up, give up drugs, try to get his life back together. He said he’d never wanted anything more than he wanted that game park.”
Keely’s eyes became tormented as she remembered what her mother had said; she’d had to pay her husband to take Keely with her.
“No,” Ella said quickly, reading Keely’s expression. “I wanted to hurt you that night. It wasn’t true. Brent wanted you with him. He said that if I fought him, he’d go to the police with the truth. He had nothing to lose by then. He’d already been arrested for possession twice and gotten off with the help of a lawyer. But he’d never get away with murder, and neither would I. So I let him take you.” She looked up. “I never even asked if Jock was the reason. You see, Jock had noticed you when he came by to see Brent and told him about the old game park that he was running. The owner wanted out. Brent said that Jock liked young girls. I didn’t even connect it, at the time.” She shivered. “I should be shot.”
Keely felt sick all over. Perhaps that accident, as terrible as it was, had saved her from something much more terrible. Now she realized what had probably happened. Soon after her father had purchased the rickety old game park where Jock worked and started renovating it, Jock had been arrested. Apparently he’d served time in prison, too, because it was only two years later that he showed up at the park. That was when things started to go downhill, and only about a week before Keely’s accident. After that, Jock couldn’t bear to touch her. Probably it was his idea for Brent to dump Keely, so the two of them could pursue other illegal enterprises. Keely might have been part of the plan for those jobs, she thought with muted terror. She’d been saved from more than she knew at the time, even though she’d resented being deserted.
She hadn’t known her father at all. She’d thought he loved her. In those two years when it was just the two of them, and Dina keeping books, her young life had been happy and secure. Her father had, twice, even given up drinking; although Keely hadn’t known he was using drugs. But just before Jock had turned back up, Brent Welsh had involved himself with the flashy woman who took him for everything he’d saved; and there had been a good bit. Jock had been livid when he’d discovered that.
“What are you thinking?” Ella asked.
She looked up. “How happy we were for a couple of years. I guess it was while Jock was in prison, because he left when Dad and I settled into the game park and only came back a few days before Dad brought me here.”
Ella looked relieved. “At least Jock didn’t have much access to you, did he?”
“No,” Keely replied. “I was afraid of him.”
“I still am,” Ella confessed. “Your father could be dangerous when he was drunk. But he said Jock was dangerous cold sober.”
Keely smoothed her hands over her knees. “Thank you for telling me the truth.”
Ella’s eyes were troubled. “I was scared, Keely,” she said abruptly. “I couldn’t face the fact that I’d helped kill a man, even if nobody knew. I started drinking and I couldn’t stop. It helped me forget.” She bit her lip again. “I should never have said that I didn’t want you, Keely. Or that your father was disappointed you weren’t a boy. I wanted you so much. I would have given up anything
