Lessiter backed away as McBeth leaned into him.
“I don’t want to keep…not talking about this anymore! I don’t want to live with this anymore!” His shrill voice echoed off the walls. “I don’t want to cover things up!”
The door opened and Rachette and Patterson stood in the entryway.
“It’s okay.” Wolf put up a hand to them.
“I don’t want you here.” McBeth’s wet eyes bore into Lessiter. “Does he have to be here?” He turned to Wolf, his voice pleading.
“He’s your lawyer, Eagle.”
“I don’t want him here. I want him to leave.”
“Your mother hired me to be here with you, Eagle.”
“You can tell my mother she doesn’t need to worry about me anymore.”
“You’ll be defenseless against these people. You might end up in jail. Don’t you get that?”
“Get out!”
Lessiter closed his notes, put them into his attaché and left without another word.
Wolf nodded at his detectives as they parted and let Lessiter out, closing the door behind them.
McBeth’s hands shook on his lap. But both of them were out in the open now, and he pointedly kept them that way, staring down at his scar with widened eyes. He slowly unbuttoned his shirt sleeve and rolled it to his elbow, revealing a trio of intertwined circles of scar tissue. He ran a finger across the raised flesh.
“My father used to drink himself to sleep every night, and he started first thing in the morning. Not many people knew that about him. I did, though. He never hid it around me. He used to give me pulls of the stuff as early as I can remember.”
Wolf remained frozen in his seat for fear of changing McBeth’s trajectory.
“There was always a point when the monster would take over,” McBeth said. “It could have been any time of day. It just depended on how much he was drinking and who was around. If there were friends and family at the house he could keep it caged up until they left. If he was just working around the ranch and none of the other help was around it could have been by lunchtime.
“He was real big. Used to play lineman in college. I learned to be quick on my feet.” He looked up at Wolf. “I learned to dodge and run, you know?”
Wolf nodded and kept silent.
“Anyway. My mom was smart. She knew that when other people were around the monster kept away, so she started the work program at the ranch, which kept people there all the time. We made one of the barns near the main house into a dormitory. We brought in travelers from around the world. Europe. Australia. And then we started taking in misfits that needed straightening out with good old-fashioned hard work. People like Chris Oakley and Kevin Koling.”
“How did James come to you guys?” Wolf asked.
“Jimmy was different. I met him through a sheep farmer he had been working for. Just got to talking one day when I was delivering feed and we became friends. I told him about our ranch and the dorms and everything. Next thing I knew he showed up. He told me he quit the other job and would rather work for us.
McBeth smiled at the memory. “Anyway, since he wasn’t part of the work program my parents didn’t want him around, but I begged and got him a job with us. Like he was a stray dog or something. He was cool, though, you know? Something about him. We connected.”
“Tell me about the scar,” Wolf said. “What happened?”
McBeth ran his finger over it again. His eyes glazed over, looking like he was staring through time. “Jimmy broke a tractor. Ran it into a ditch in a place my dad told everyone to avoid because of the risk. That got the monster real mad that day. And since I’d fought for Jimmy to stay with us, my dad saw it as all my fault.
“It happened late in the day. Right at sundown. I was in one of the barns when Jimmy came running in and told me about what he’d done. My dad wasn’t too far behind him because he’d seen what had happened.”
McBeth’s voice softened. “Dad yelled. He made Jimmy leave. Jimmy left. And my dad went to the workbench and plugged in the electric branding iron.” Tears fell down McBeth’s cheeks. “I begged. I ran. He caught me before I could get out.” McBeth shrugged and held up his arm. “And he beat the shit out of me and got me with the iron.”
“I’m sorry,” Wolf said.
McBeth wiped his cheeks and chuckled. “Yeah. It was quite a thing. But…”
“But what?”
McBeth looked at Wolf. He looked at the empty chair sitting next to him. “But he got what was coming to him.”
“He received justice,” Wolf said. “Is that what you’re saying?”
“Yes.”
“How?” Wolf asked. “How was justice served?”
McBeth shook his head. His eyes were calculating now. “But…I didn’t know any of this at the time.”
“You didn’t know what?”
“Back then I thought my dad shot himself. But, now…now I think now that Jimmy did it.”
Wolf uncrossed his legs and leaned an elbow on the table, decreasing the distance between them. “Is that the truth, Eagle?”
McBeth’s breathing quickened and he closed his eyes.
“I wonder if it is,” Wolf said. “And I’m curious if you’re absolutely sick and tired of hiding the truth. You just kicked your lawyer out. Jimmy is dead. So is Kevin. So is Chris. So is Mary. A lot of people paid with their lives in service of hiding the truth.”
McBeth said nothing.
Wolf took the leap. “I think you knew that Jimmy shot and killed your dad back then.”
McBeth looked at Wolf.
“Am I right? Did you know back then that Jimmy killed your father?”
“I…I…”
“Stop fighting for something that doesn’t serve you,” Wolf said. “I know from experience. It’s not worth it. That sickening feeling inside? That’s the truth trying to get out. It’s draining you.”
McBeth’s shoulders sagged. “Yes.”
“Yes, what? Yes you knew back then that Jimmy killed your father?”
“Yes.”
Wolf stayed
