words.
He brushes his fingertips across Salome’s shoulder. She offers him a faint smile. Then he withdraws his BlackBerry and strides over to the window, texting like a fixated high school student.
I turn my attention to Salome. Myriad emotions rush through me in a torrent when our gazes meet. She’s been crying; her eyes are red-rimmed and swollen. Even knowing everything that I do about her, there’s a part of me that’s moved. A part of me wants to go to her, believe in her, protect her from all these big bad cops and an attorney who looks at her as if she’s a piece of meat. But with four people dead, I don’t have the luxury of sticking my head in the sand.
I’m aware of Tomasetti watching me, but I don’t look at him. I hear the lawyer speaking with quiet authority into his BlackBerry. But all of my attention is focused on the girl sitting across from me. She doesn’t know about my conversation with her brothers. She has no idea I suspect her of cold-blooded murder. She still believes I’ve come here to beg her forgiveness for killing her lover.
“Thank you for seeing me,” I begin.
She sends me a small, uncertain smile. “I didn’t know if you’d come. I’m glad you did.”
I match her smile. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine.” She looks down at her hands, little-girl hands. For the first time, it strikes me how incongruent they are with the rest of her, with everything that’s happened, everything she’s done.
“Do you need anything?” I ask.
She raises her gaze to mine. Her eyes are soft and benign and so utterly lovely, I can’t look away. “I just wanted to tell you … I mean, about what happened … with Mose.” She visibly swallows, blinks back tears. “I’m not mad. And I don’t blame you. I know you were only doing your job.”
“Thank you,” I tell her. “I’m glad you don’t hold it against me.” Silence weighs heavy for a moment, like the electrically charged air right before a crack of thunder. “I was afraid he was going to hurt you.”
“He never hurt me. He would never do that. He loved me.”
“I know.”
“He was trying to protect me. He was … confused.”
“I understand.”
Thornsberry passes close, listening, so I pause.
Salome struggles for composure. “I just want this to be over so I can go home and see my brothers and all of us can get back to normal.”
I wonder what normal is for her. Killing her parents? Manipulating a lover? Threatening children? Eliminating anyone who gets in the way of her goal? The thoughts make me so angry, my hands begin to shake. “I saw Ike and Samuel earlier this morning,” I tell her. “They seem to be doing okay. They asked about you. I thought you’d want to know.”
She sends me a grateful smile. “Mose was really mean to them. I’m so sorry for that. Ike and Samuel loved him so much. They looked up to him.” Two huge tears break free of her lashes and run down her cheeks. Using both hands, she quickly wipes them away, but not before Thornsberry notices and sends me a frown.
Salome continues. “Samuel and little Ike are so confused right now. I just want to hug them both and tell them everything’s going to be okay.”
“I bet you do.” Remembering how terrified the boys were of her, I suspect the only reason she wants to see them is so she can threaten them and tell them not to open their mouths.
“They’ve been through a lot,” I say.
“I still can’t believe all of this happened,” she whispers. “
Next to her, Adam Slabaugh leans toward her and pats her shoulder awkwardly. “It’s going to be all right.”
At the window, Thornsberry blabs on about some other client’s pretrial-hearing date. I use that moment to catch Tomasetti’s eye. Not hard to do, since he’s been staring at me since I entered the room. He returns my gaze, his eyes warning me to behave.
I turn my attention back to Salome. “Did you know Mose’s parents were killed in a manure pit accident ten years ago?”
She blinks at me. The look of surprise that crosses her face seems so genuine that, not for the first time, I find myself believing its sincerity. “I didn’t know.”
“That’s odd. He didn’t tell you about it?”
Her eyes flick nervously to her uncle, then to Tomasetti, and back to me. “He told me they were killed in a buggy accident.”
Leaning forward, I put my elbows on the tabletop and lace my fingers. “You know what, honey? I think you
“What?” She chokes out a sound of pure shock. “That’s … crazy. I would never do that.”
Next to her, Adam Slabaugh stiffens. “What are you saying, Chief Burkholder? What is this? What are you doing?”
I give him a hard look. “Did you know Solly called Abel and asked him to drive down to pick up Mose and take him back to Indiana?”
He looks baffled and doesn’t respond.
I turn my attention back to Salome. “You knew, didn’t you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Your parents found out you and Mose were having sex, didn’t they?”
“No!”
Thornsberry crosses to me, slaps his hands down on the tabletop in front of me in a dramatic gesture designed to intimidate. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Chief Burkholder?”
I ignore him, never taking my eyes off Salome. “When they threatened to send Mose away, you decided to kill your father. Mose had told you about the manure pit accident and you manipulated him into carrying out the plan, didn’t you?”
“No!” she cries.
“Your uncle was expendable, too, wasn’t he? When he fell into the pit, it was no big deal, was it?”
“Stop it!”
“Only the plan went wrong, didn’t it? Your mother fell in when she was trying to help. You hadn’t counted on that.”
“Chief Burkholder!” Thornsberry shouts. “That’s enough!”
Shock waves reverberate through the room. Across from me, Adam Slabaugh shifts uncomfortably in his chair. “Why are you saying these things?” he cries.
“Because they’re true.” I stare hard at Salome. “Aren’t they?”
“Kate.” Tomasetti practically growls my name. “This is not an appropriate time to discuss this.” But he doesn’t sound very convincing, and he makes no move to stop me.
“Maybe we should wait until Ike and Samuel turn up dead,” I snap. “Would that make this more appropriate?”
Salome opens her mouth. This time, the shock I see is real. She can’t believe I’m talking to her like this, can’t believe her act isn’t working on me. She can’t believe no one in the room is coming to her rescue, protecting her from the bad bitch cop.
“You controlled Mose with sex. You manipulated and abused your little brothers by threatening them with violence,” I tell her. “You told them if they didn’t do exactly as you said, they’d be sent to jail.”
“I did not! I’m the one who saved their lives! I was afraid Mose would try to hurt them, so I threw the ball into the pit for them!”
“Is that why Mose’s prints were on that ball, not yours?” I snap.
She makes a choking sound, her mouth and eyes wide. “You’re lying!”
Adam Slabaugh rises abruptly. “Stop this! Right now!”
“Chief Burkholder, you are out of control.” Jabbing a finger at me, Thornsberry snarls the words to Tomasetti. “Get her out of here!”
