With both hands, Rupe pushed against Dale’s broad chest. Dale fell back a step, and Rupe gave him and his car a scornful once-over. “That’s readily apparent.”
Dale ignored the insult. “You, on the other hand, have made a large target of yourself. You’re easy pickin’s for a media crucifixion.”
“Save your threats. If you tried to destroy me, you’d fail.”
“I don’t think so.”
“You’re already beat, you just don’t know it,” Rupe said. “That’s why I’ve been trying to reach you, to tell you that if you get to feeling sentimental about Allen Strickland, law, justice, and the American way, you’ll be digging your own grave and yours alone.”
“If the Susan Lyston case was reopened—”
“See, that’s what I’m talking about. Beat before you start.” He looked at Dale and shook his head sorrowfully. “Do you think I’d let that case file just languish there in the PD like a ticking time bomb?” He barked a laugh, which caused him to wince with pain. “Hell, no, Dale. That file was adiosed weeks after Strickland’s conviction.”
Dale balled his hands into fists and gritted his teeth. “That file contained all my notes on the case.”
“And you were awfully cooperative to hand everything over to me when requested, Dale. I really do appreciate that.”
Dale closed the space between them. “Where is it?”
“I didn’t just have it sneaked out of the PD, Dale. I lit the match, watched it burn, then scattered the ashes to the four fucking winds. So if anybody tried to find it now, they would be SoL.”
Again, he looked Dale up and down and laughed. “You came out of hiding and got all dressed up for nothing. Sorry, Dale.” He raised his hands and shrugged elaborately, assuming the smug air that made Dale despise him.
But Dale waited, knowing it was coming. He waited. Waited.
And when the King of Cars smiled his billboard smile, Dale slammed his fist into the grillwork of dentistry, destroying it with knuckles of iron and almost two decades of pent-up wrath.
Rupe howled, covered his mouth with both hands, and slid down the side of the car.
Using the toe of his boot, Dale pushed him away from the wheel so he wouldn’t impede him when he drove away. Then, standing over him, he said, “You put the squeeze on Haymaker again, I’m gonna come back and hack off your sagging balls with a dull pair of pinking shears. I had a case once, a guy did that to his poker-playing buddy. He got three years for it. But it taught the other guy a lesson on cheating that he never forgot.”
During the flight back to Austin, neither Bellamy or Dent was very talkative. Parting with Steven had made her terribly sad, because now she knew he had deliberately excised her from his life, whereas before, she’d deluded herself into believing that circumstances were responsible for the rift.
But her somber mood was largely attributed to what he had revealed about himself and Susan. “How could I have lived in the same house with them and not have known?”
She didn’t even realize she’d posed the question out loud until Dent replied. “You were a kid. Maybe you sensed something between them but didn’t recognize it for what it was.”
“I just thought they didn’t like each other much.”
After a moment, Dent said, “He could be making it up.”
“He wouldn’t invent a lie like that. It’s too painful and embarrassing for him.”
“Would he lie about something else?”
She looked at him, her question implied.
He said, “Steven didn’t see you at the boathouse just before the storm. But you didn’t see him there, either, did you?”
“I might have. I can’t remember.”
“Okay. But he told us that he went to the boathouse to get contraband beer when he didn’t even like beer. Kinda struck me as strange.”
“You think he’s lying about where he was when Susan was killed?”
He raised his shoulders. “It’s something to think about, that’s all. He admitted to having motive.”
“So you believe that part, that Susan came on to him sexually.”
“Yeah, I believe it.”
They lapsed into silence. Eventually she said, “She was selfish and vain. But I had no idea that she could be that cruel-hearted.”
“Didn’t you?” Speaking with quiet intensity, he said, “Your quest for the truth could turn up more ugly surprises, Bellamy. Are you sure you want to continue?”
“I have to.”
“No you don’t.”
“I won’t stop now, Dent.”
“Maybe you should. Why keep going when there may be other land mines out there?”
“Nothing could be as bad as the secret we uncovered today.”
He looked at her for a long moment, then, without saying anything more, faced forward.
“The other boys,” she said haltingly. “The ones she boasted having been with…”
“What about them?”
“You didn’t know?”
“Sure I knew.” He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “I didn’t care.”
They spent the remainder of the flight in pensive silence and didn’t speak again until they exited the Austin- Bergstrom terminal for the parking garage where he had left his Corvette.
Bellamy offered to call a car service to take her home. “If you’d rather not drive me all the way to Georgetown.”
“I’ll drive you. But Gall’s airfield is between here and there. I’d like to stop on the way.”
Gall’s pickup was the only vehicle around. The wind sock hung limply on its pole in the late evening heat. Dent drove his car into the hangar, and, as he and Bellamy climbed out, Gall walked toward them, wiping his greasy hands on a faded shop rag.
“How is she?” Dent asked, referring to his airplane.
“Coming along. Want to take a look?”
Dent peeled off in that direction. Gall looked at Bellamy and angled his head toward the office. “It’s cooler in there. Air’s on. Watch the back leg of the chair when you sit.”
“Thank you.”
She went into the office and gingerly lowered herself onto the seat of the chair with the unreliable leg. As she watched Dent and Gall discussing the airplane, she took her cell phone from her shoulder bag.
It had logged three missed calls from her agent, two from the publicist. She could only imagine the tizzy the new edition of
She hadn’t yet read the copy Dent had given her that morning. She admitted to a morbid curiosity about what Van Durbin had written, and only if she knew the content of his column could she prepare a rebuttal against any untruths, but she couldn’t bring herself to read it now. After the visit with Steven, she felt emotionally whipped.
Disinclined to return the professional calls, she punched in Olivia’s number. An automated voice mail answered. She left a message. It still seemed underhanded that she’d gone to see Steven without his mother’s knowledge. Olivia made no secret of missing him terribly and often lamented that she didn’t see enough of him.
Bellamy wondered—well, she wondered many things. But there were questions she couldn’t put to Olivia without breaching Steven’s confidence. As curious as she was to know what Olivia knew about his private life, she would abide by the pact they’d made as preteens to keep each other’s secrets.
Gall and Dent were now looking at another airplane that was parked inside the hangar. Gall motioned Dent toward it. He seemed to hesitate, then walked over to it.
Gall stood with him for several seconds, then turned and, leaving Dent, came into the office. He was chuckling to himself as he moved behind the desk and sat down. “Knew he couldn’t resist.”
“Is that a new airplane?” Bellamy asked.
