filled the big brown eyes. 'I should have done something. When Don said she'd quit and gone- I should have tried harder to contact her. I should have known something was wrong.'
'Why is that? Did you have reason to be suspicious?'
She glanced away; her expression seemed to have the kind of glazed look people get when they are watching memories run through their minds.
'Erin had seemed happy with the job. I mean, I knew she was having boyfriend trouble, but what girl her age doesn't? I just- I should have questioned her leaving so suddenly. But you have to understand, grooms come and go during the season. There's too much opportunity. Someone offers more money or health insurance or an extra day off and they're gone.'
Landry offered no platitudes, no absolution. Someone sure as hell should have been paying closer attention to what was going on with Erin Seabright. He wasn't inclined to let anyone off the hook.
'Were you aware of any relationship between Erin and Don?' he asked.
'Erin had a crush on him.'
'To your knowledge, did he act on it?'
'I-well-Don is very charismatic.'
'Is that a yes or a no?'
'He's a magnetic kind of person. Women are drawn to him. He enjoys that. He likes to flirt.'
'With Erin?'
'Well… sure… but I didn't think he would take advantage of her. I don't want to believe that he did.'
'But he might have.'
She looked uncertain, which was answer enough.
'Did Erin say anything to you about the death of the horse?'
'She was upset. We all were.'
'Did she hint that she knew something about what happened?'
She looked away again and pressed two fingers against the small crease digging in between her eyebrows. 'She didn't believe it was an accident.'
'She took care of the horse, right?'
'Yes. She was very good with him-with all the horses. She put in extra time with them. She would come and check on them after hours sometimes.'
'Had she checked on them that night?'
'Around eleven. Everything was fine.'
'Why did she think it wasn't an accident?'
Paris Montgomery began to cry. She looked around the room as if looking for a crevice to disappear into.
'Ms. Montgomery, if Don Jade did what we believe he did, you don't owe him any loyalty.'
'I didn't believe he'd done anything bad,' she said in a small voice, making the excuse for herself, not for Jade.
'What happened?'
'Erin told me Don was at the barn already when she got there that morning. Early. Really early. We had horses showing that day, and Erin had to get there early to braid manes and get the horses ready. She told me she saw Don in Stellar's stall, doing something with the cord of the electric fan. She went over to the stall to ask him why he was there so early.'
She stopped and tried to compose herself, her breath catching. Landry waited.
'She saw Stellar was down. Don told her the horse had bitten through the cord of the fan, and he held the cord up. But Erin said he had something in his other hand. Some kind of a tool.'
'You think he cut the cord to make it look like an accident.'
'I don't know!' she sobbed, covering her face with her hands. 'I don't want to believe he could have killed that poor animal!'
'And now that might be the least of what he's done,' Landry said.
He sipped his coffee impassively while Paris Montgomery cried for her sin of omission. He turned the new facts over in his mind. Erin could have fingered Jade for staging the accident. That might logically have led to her death, he thought, as it may have led to Jill Morone's death. But the evidence regarding the cell phone purchase indicated the kidnapping had been planned in advance of the horse murder. Therefore, the one thing had nothing to do with the other.
'What did you do when Erin came to you with this information?' he asked.
Paris dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. 'I got angry. I told her of course it was an accident. Don wouldn't-'
'Despite the fact that Don had on several occasions previous.'
'I never believed that was true,' she said adamantly. 'No one ever proved anything.'
'Except that he's clever and adept at evading the consequences of his actions.'
Even now, she rose to Jade's defense. 'In three years I have never known Don to do one cruel thing to a horse in his care.'
'What was Erin's reaction when you didn't believe her?'
'She was upset at first. We talked some more. I told her what I just told you about my experience working for Don. I asked her if she could believe him capable of hurting anyone. I made her feel ashamed for even thinking it.'
'So, when Jade told you she had quit later that day-'
'I wasn't that surprised.'
'But you didn't try to call her.'
'I tried to call her, she didn't answer. I left a message on her voice mail. I went to her apartment a couple of days later, but it looked like she had moved out.'
She sighed dramatically and looked at Landry with the big eyes, looking for forgiveness. 'I would give anything if I could go back to that day and change what happened.'
'Yeah,' Landry said. 'I'll bet Erin Seabright would too.'
46
I went back to the day it all began. The day Stellar was found dead in his stall. The day Erin Seabright was snatched from the back gates of the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Center. I laid it all out in black and ecru on sheets of expensive stationery I found in the writing desk. A timeline. When Jade had allegedly purchased the cell phone. When Erin and Chad had argued. When Stellar had been found dead. When Erin had been taken. Everything I knew about the case, I wrote down and I spread the sheets out in order on my bedroom floor.
I had become focused on the idea that everything had come out of the death of Stellar, but looking at the timeline, reflecting on what I knew, I realized that it wasn't so. The kidnapping plan was already in motion when Stellar died. Someone had purchased the disposable cell phone. Someone had lined up the trailer where Erin had been held, had gathered the video and audio equipment, had procured the ketamine to drug Erin and found the van used in the abduction. An elaborate plan with at least two people involved.
I wanted to know everything that had transpired that Sunday, the day of Stellar's death and Erin's abduction. I wanted to know what had gone on between Erin and Jade that day and prior to it. I wanted to know where Trey Hughes had been that day, and Van Zandt.
I looked at my timeline and all the things I did know. No matter how many times I went over it, the simplest explanation was not the best. But I knew plenty of people would have been happy to stop there. Landry among them.
I have never been able to do things the easy way.
I went back into the living room, pulled out the tape of the kidnapping, and shoved it into the VCR.
Erin standing at the back gate, waiting. She watched the van approach. She stood there as the masked man got out. She said, 'No!' Then she ran. He grabbed her.
I rewound the tape and played it again.
