“I’m talking about you and Daddy murdering my mother. He wasn’t around to help you with Ben, though. You handled that murder all by yourself, didn’t you? Ben must have been ready to tell Kate and me the truth and so you killed him. Killed him for a stupid thirty-year-old secret.”
He blinked several times. “That’s ridiculous. Where did you ever get the idea that I, or your father, for that matter—”
“You knew Ben’s real identity, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I’ll admit I did, but—”
“If you’re so innocent, if you didn’t kill him, why didn’t you share what you knew with the police?”
“Because I—”
“Oh, I know why.” I stood, leaned close to his face, and poked my finger in his chest. “You were covering up. You had a hand in an illegal adoption, and even if the statute of limitations had long passed, you’d be in serious trouble with the bar. Your reputation would be ruined.”
“You think I’m a killer?”
“You had motive, and you sure as hell had the opportunity to fix up that cyanide trap.”
“I certainly didn’t want you and Kate to find out about the adoption from Ben, but I didn’t kill him, and neither Charlie nor I murdered your mother.”
“I’ve been lied to my whole life. Why should I believe anything you say?”
“Charlie didn’t even know your mother’s name when he adopted you two. He didn’t want to know. I handled the deal with Feldman.”
“Because what you were doing was illegal, right?”
“That, and he feared that if you knew your mother was alive, you’d want to find her one day.” He reached out to touch me and I shrank from his outstretched hand. “You have every right to be angry, Abby, but—”
“Angry? Angry doesn’t begin to cover it.” I turned away, hugging my arms, trying to contain the pain his betrayal had caused.
“Charlie thought he had all the bases covered. Feldman assured us no one would know. Said the mother didn’t want you. So when she showed up...” He shook his head. “Charlie was devastated. But I swear he had nothing to do with murder.”
I turned back. “Quit lying, Willis.”
“That’s the God’s truth.”
“So how did you find out she was looking for us?”
“Feldman called. God, Charlie was furious. He blamed everything on me at first. Said I should have researched the mother. But I could tell he realized this was as much his fault as mine. And then he took off for Galveston to deal with Feldman himself.”
“And not long after Cloris Grayson died. You’re telling me that was all Feldman’s doing? You still insist you and Daddy had nothing to do with her murder?”
“We didn’t know the woman was dead until Ben showed up.”
“Why don’t you just tell the truth? Because I’m going to the police with what I know no matter what.”
“Go ahead. But before you do that, get all the facts,” he said. “I happen to know Ben and your father made some sort of agreement right before Charlie died.”
The room was quiet, in stark contrast to the scene outside, where wind was hurling rain at the windows. Beyond, the sky was as dark as night.
“What kind of agreement?”
“I’m not sure, but I don’t think Charlie would have contacted Feldman. He hated the man.” He shook his head, looking puzzled.
“Did you know Daddy made Judge Hayes resign? Were you sweating bullets that night at the country club while I blabbed on about her?”
“I never knew how Charlie dealt with the, uh... problem, until you told us Judge Hayes resigned.”
“Not plausible. You’re a lawyer. You’d have heard about the resignation. And you also know Daddy could have permanently silenced my mother.”
“He couldn’t have killed her, Abby. He didn’t have it in him.”
Willis was good. If I didn’t know the two of them had lied through their teeth for years, he might have pulled off this innocent act.
“Come on, Willis. It’s over. I’m going straight to Jeff. He’ll help me find the proof I need to put you and Feldman away.”
“If you’re hell-bent on proving this theory of yours, I’d take a closer look at the CD from the safe-deposit box. Charlie told me he had kept a record of everything that had transpired since the adoption, and I tried to get my hands on it, but you found it before I did.”
“Are you saying Daddy confessed on that CD? That he imbedded information about the adoption in that program?”
“I’m not absolutely certain. Charlie said Ben Grayson was pressuring him, but had agreed to give Charlie time to tell you and Kate himself. I was surprised when Ben didn’t come to you right after Charlie’s heart attack. But maybe all this is explained on that CD.”
And then I remembered the day of the murder, recalled Ben saying how he knew Kate and I were grieving for our father and so he’d been waiting for the right time to “say what needs saying.”
Willis was speaking and I refocused on him. “After Ben died I knew I had to check the files at the Victorian,” he said, “I realized Charlie could have hidden the information about your adoption there. So I went over, sure I’d find either a document or a disk.”
I blinked. “Oh, my God.
He held up his hands as if to fend me off. “Okay. I did search the files in Galveston, but I never went near your attic. Caroline must have made that mess, despite her protests to the contrary.”
It was all coming together, making me sicker by the minute. “
“I’m sorry about hurting him. All I could find was a wrench, and I tried not to hit him too hard. He took me by surprise and I had to search through—”
“You could have killed Steven!” The anger smoldering in my gut ignited again. “How could you come to our house, eat with us, give advice, act so damn moral and condescending when the whole time...” Tears stung behind my eyes. “Jeff Kline is going to get an earful, and so help me, Willis, if you call Kate, there’ll be another murder. Yours. Do you understand?”
He couldn’t even look me in the eye. He shook his head and said, “I’m sorry, Abby. I’m so sorry for everything.”
I didn’t want to hear his empty apology. I turned on my heel and left.
I called the police station from Kate’s car, but Jeff was out of the building. I left a message for him to contact me, keeping one ear tuned to the radio broadcast announcing road closings. The freeways remained passable, so the weather hadn’t gotten too serious yet, but if this horrendous rain kept up, it wouldn’t take long for the entire Gulf Coast to flood.
I revisited my conversation with Willis, realizing it didn’t all add up. Why would he admit some things and lie about others? Obviously I knew everything, so what was the point?
He confessed to hitting Steven, but he swore he didn’t ransack the attic. But if not Willis, then who? Caroline? She had no reason to lie about messing things up, since she’d already ’fessed up to taking her letters.
It all came back to Willis. He had to be lying. But why did one of those lies include his insistence that my father was innocent? Why protect a dead man? It would be so simple to blame Cloris’s murder on Daddy. Dead men can’t deny anything.
I’d missed something somewhere.
I needed that CD.
Once I returned home, I tore past Kate, who was chopping up vegetables near the sink, and went straight to the study.
