'I'm not the villain here! I'm not the one who called you people in when the kidnappers said not to.'
'No,' Krystal said, lifting her head. 'You didn't call anyone! You didn't do anything!'
'Erin would be home by now if not for that detective sticking her nose into it,' Bruce said angrily. 'I was handling it. They would have let her go. They would have known I wouldn't give in to their terrorism, and they would have let her go.'
'You hate her!' Krystal shrieked. 'You want her dead! You never want to see her again!'
'Oh, for Christ's sake, Krystal. Neither do you!' Seabright shouted. 'She's nothing but a nasty little piece of white trash, just like you were before I found you! That doesn't mean I want her dead!'
'That's it!' Landry declared, moving toward Seabright. 'You're out of here.'
'I've given you a life you never would have gotten any other way,' Seabright said to his wife. 'You didn't want Erin messing it up. You threw her out of the house yourself.'
'I was afraid!' Krystal cried. 'I was afraid!'
Sobbing again, she fell off the chair onto the floor, and curled into a ball.
'Out!' Landry said, shoving Seabright to the door.
Seabright shrugged him off and went out into the hall. Landry followed, with Dugan coming behind him.
'I'm pressing charges!' Seabright shouted.
Landry looked at him like he'd lost his mind. 'What?'
'I want that woman brought up on charges!'
'Your wife?'
'Estes! None of this would be happening if not for her.'
Dugan looked at Landry. 'What's he talking about?'
Landry ignored him and advanced on Seabright. 'Your stepdaughter was kidnapped. That wasn't Estes' doing.'
Seabright stuck a finger in his face. 'I want her license. And I'm calling my attorney. I never wanted you people involved, and now look what's happened. I'm suing. I'm suing this department and I'm suing Elena Estes!'
Landry batted his hand to the side and backed him up against the wall. 'Think twice before you start throwing threats around, you fat prick!'
'Landry!' Dugan shouted.
'I find one thing that ties you into the kidnapping, you can bend over and kiss your ass good-bye!'
'Landry!'
Dugan grabbed him roughly by one shoulder. Landry shrugged him off and stepped aside, his glare still on Seabright.
'Take a walk, Detective Landry,' Dugan said.
'Ask him what she meant,' Landry said. 'Ask him what Erin meant when she said she had asked him to help her. When did she ask? Why didn't we hear about it? I want a warrant for that house and for that bastard's office too. If he's withholding evidence, he can rot in jail.'
'Go,' Dugan said. 'Now.'
Landry went down the hall, into the squad room to his desk, and dug through the pencil drawer for a pack of Marlboro Lights he kept there. He had quit smoking as a rule, but certain moments were exceptions, and this was one of those moments. He shook out one cigarette, took the lighter, and went out of the building to pace on the sidewalk and smoke.
He was shaking. He wanted to go back into the building and beat Bruce Seabright unconscious. The son of a bitch. His wife's daughter kidnapped and his solution was to do nothing. Let her rot. Let them rape her, kill her, throw her in a canal. Jesus H.
I asked you to help me! Why won't you help me? Do you hate me that much?
Seabright hadn't said anything about having spoken with Erin directly. Landry was willing to bet his pension Seabright had another tape stashed somewhere. A tape where Erin begged for help. And Bruce Seabright hadn't done a goddam thing.
But that wasn't why Erin was being punished, was it? She was in that filthy place, chained naked to a bed, being beaten with a whip because the rules had been broken and the Sheriff's Office had been called in.
It could have been that Estes had poked at the wrong hornet's nest. She'd spoken with everyone involved with Erin Seabright. Maybe Van Zandt had figured out she wasn't what she seemed to be.
All of Jade's crowd had been interviewed Saturday regarding Jill Morone's death. Erin's name had been raised. Jade might have been tipped off that way.
Someone in the neighborhood might have been watching, but Landry didn't believe it. He'd looked over the reports on the neighbors: their families, their professions, their connections to the Seabrights. Nothing.
Maybe the kidnappers had had the house bugged, but that seemed a long stretch. This wasn't some multibillionaire they were trying to shake down.
Or the kidnappers had inside information. That kid of Seabright's. Or Seabright himself.
What better way to distance himself from suspicion than to cooperate with the cops, then blame it on them when things went south. He would never have done a thing to help Erin if Estes hadn't stuck her nose in it.
He would have done exactly what Landry had said in the beginning: kept all the info to himself until the girl turned up dead-if she turned up at all. And he would have told his wife he'd done everything he could, everything he'd thought best. Too bad it hadn't worked out, but what the hell, Erin was just a white trash liability anyway.
The cigarette was gone. Landry dropped it on the sidewalk, ground the butt out, picked it up and threw it in the trash.
And how did Don Jade fit into the picture?
Estes had told him: Seabright sold land to Trey Hughes, Don Jade worked for Trey Hughes. Bruce got Erin the job with Jade through Hughes. The girl would have been better off running away from home to live on the street in Miami.
Everything goes back to Jade, Estes had said in the beginning. But that wasn't quite true. Everything went back to Trey Hughes.
Landry dug his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed Dwyer, who had the tail on Jade.
'Where is he?'
'Having dinner at Michael's Pasta. Specials of the night: penne putanesca and seafood risotto.'
'Who's he with?'
'Some tiny old broad with big fake tits and orange hair. Can we pick him up?'
'No.'
'What happened at the drop?'
'It was a setup. They knew we'd be there.'
'How?'
'I've got a hunch.'
'They've got medication for that now.'
'Yeah, it's called an arrest. Do you know where the feds are?'
'Sitting with their thumbs up their asses. They say Van Zandt hasn't left the town house. The Mercedes is sitting in the driveway.'
'And where's the Carlton woman's car?'
'Don't ask me. I'm doing my job.'
'Great.'
Landry wished for a second cigarette as he watched Dugan come out the door behind Bruce Seabright. Seabright went across the parking lot to his Jaguar, got in, and drove away. His wife was noticeably absent from the passenger's seat. Dugan turned and came down the sidewalk.
'I've gotta go,' Landry said to Dwyer, and snapped the phone shut.
'What do you know about Elena Estes?' Dugan asked.
'She used to be a narc.'
'What do you know about her being a private investigator?'
'I know she's not.'
