A Grant County Collection (76 page)

Terri told Jeffrey, 'Dr Linton's been real nice, but we had to pay her something for all she's been doing. Tim's medication isn't covered by his insurance.' Suddenly, she looked up, fear lighting her eyes. 'Don't tell Dale,' she pleaded, talking to Lena. 'Please don't tell him I asked for money. He's proud. He doesn't like me begging.'

Lena knew he would want to know where the money went. She asked, 'Did you ever see Abby?'

Her lips quivered as she tried not to cry. 'Yes,' she answered. 'Sometimes, she used to come by during the day to check on me and the kids. She'd bring us food, candy for the kids.'

'You knew she was pregnant?'

Terri nodded, and Lena wondered if Jeffrey felt the sadness coming off her. She was probably thinking about the child she had lost, the one in Atlanta. Lena felt herself thinking the same thing. For some reason, the image of the baby upstairs came to her mind, his little feet curling in the air, the way Terri tucked the blanket under his soft chin. Lena had to look down so that Jeffrey wouldn't see the tears stinging her eyes.

She could feel Terri looking at her. The mother had an abused woman's sense of other people, an instinctive recognition of changing emotions that came from years of trying not to say or do the wrong thing.

Jeffrey was oblivious to all of this as he asked, 'What did you say to Abby when she told you about the baby?'

'I should have known what was going to happen,' she said. 'I should have warned her.'

'Warned her about what?'

'About Cole, about what he did to me.'

'Why didn't you tell her?'

'My own mother wouldn't believe me,' she said bluntly. 'I don't know . . . Over the years, I thought maybe I was making it up. I did so many drugs then, lots of bad stuff. I wasn't thinking straight. It was easier to just think that I made it up.'

Lena knew what she was talking about. You lied to yourself in degrees just so you could get through the day.

Jeffrey asked, 'Did Abby tell you she was seeing somebody?'

Terri nodded, saying, 'Chip,' with some regret. 'I told her not to get mixed up with him. You've got to understand, girls don't know much growing up on the Holy Grown farm. They keep us secluded, like they're protecting us, but what it really does is make it easier for all the men.' She gave another humorless laugh. 'I never even knew what sex was until I was having it.'

'When did Abby tell you she was leaving?'

'She came by on her way to Savannah about a week before she died,' Terri said. 'She told me she was going to leave with Chip when Aunt Esther and Uncle Eph went into Atlanta in a couple of days.'

'Did she seem upset?'

She considered the question. 'She seemed preoccupied. That's not like Abby. There was a lot on her mind, though. She was . . . she was distracted.'

'Distracted how?'

Terri looked down, obviously trying to conceal her reaction. 'Just with stuff.'

Jeffrey said, 'Terri, we need to know what stuff.'

She spoke. 'We were here in the kitchen,' she began. She indicated Lena's chair. 'She was sitting right there. She had Paul's briefcase in her lap, holding it like she couldn't let go. I remember thinking I could sell that thing and feed my kids for a month.'

'It's a nice briefcase?' Jeffrey asked, and Lena knew he was thinking exactly the same thing she was. Abby had looked in the briefcase and found something Paul didn't want her to see.

She said, 'He probably paid a thousand dollars for it. He spends money like it's water. I just don't understand.'

Jeffrey asked, 'What did Abby say?'

'That she had to go see Paul, then when she came back, she was leaving with Chip.' She sniffed. 'She wanted me to tell her mama and daddy that she loved them with all her heart.' She started to cry again. 'I need to tell them that. I owe Esther that at least.'

'Do you think she told Paul she was pregnant?'

Terri shook her head. 'I don't know. She could've gone to Savannah to get some help.'

Lena asked, 'Help getting rid of the baby?'

'God no,' she said, shocked. 'Abby would never kill her baby.'

Lena felt her mouth working, but her voice was caught somewhere in her throat.

Jeffrey asked, 'What do you think she wanted from Paul?'

'Maybe she asked him for some money?' Terri guessed. 'I told her she'd need some money if she was going off with Chip. She doesn't understand how the real world works. She gets hungry and there's food on the table. She's cold and there's the thermostat. She's never had to fend for herself. I warned her she'd need money of her own, and to hide it from Chip, to keep something back for herself, in case he left her somewhere. I didn't want her to make the same mistakes I had.' She wiped her nose. 'She was such a sweet, sweet girl.'

A sweet girl who was trying to bribe her uncle into paying her off with blood money, Lena thought. She asked, 'You think Paul gave her the money?'

'I don't know,' she admitted. 'That was the last time I saw her. She was supposed to leave with Chip after that. I really thought she had until I heard . . . until you found her on Sunday.'

'Where were you last Saturday night?'

Terri used the back of her hand to wipe her nose. 'Here,' she told them. 'With Dale and the kids.'

'Can anyone else verify that?'

She bit her bottom lip, thinking. 'Well, Paul dropped by,' she told them. 'Just for a minute.'

'Saturday night?' Jeffrey verified, glancing at Lena. Paul had insisted several times that he was in Savannah the night his niece died. His chatty secretary had even backed him up. He said he had driven to the farm on Sunday evening to help look for Abby.

Jeffrey asked, 'Why was Paul here?'

'He brought Dale that thing for one of his cars.'

Jeffrey asked, 'What thing?'

'That Porsche thing,' she answered. 'Paul loves flashy cars – hell, he loves flashy anything. He tries to hide it from Papa and them, but he likes to have his toys.'

'What kind of toys?'

'He brings in old beaters he finds at auctions and Dale fixes them up for a discount. At least Dale says he's giving a discount. I don't know what he charges, but it's gotta be cheaper to do it here than it is in Savannah.'

'How often does Paul bring in cars?'

'Two, three times that I can think of.' Terri shrugged. 'You'd have to ask Dale. I'm in the back mostly, working on the upholstery.'

'Dale didn't mention Paul came by when I saw him the other night.'

'I doubt he would,' Terri said. 'Paul pays him in cash. He don't report it on the taxes.' She tried to defend his actions. 'We've got collections after us. The hospital's already garnishing Dale's wages from when Tim went in last year. The bank reports back everything that goes in and out. We'd lose the house if we didn't have that extra cash.'

'I don't work for the IRS,' Jeffrey told her. 'All I care about is Saturday night. You're sure Paul came by Saturday?'

She nodded. 'You can ask Dale,' she said. 'They stayed in the garage for about ten minutes, then he was gone. I just saw him through the front window. Paul doesn't really talk to me.'

'Why is that?'

'I'm a fallen woman,' she said, absent any sarcasm.

'Terri,' Jeffrey began, 'was Paul ever in the garage alone?'

She shrugged. 'Sure.'

'How many times?' he pushed.

'I don't know. A lot.'

Jeffrey wasn't so conciliatory anymore. He pressed her harder. 'How about in the last three months or so? Was he here then?'

'I guess,' she repeated, agitated. 'Why does it matter if Paul was in the garage?'

'I'm just trying to figure out if he had time to take something that was out there.'

She snorted a laugh at the suggestion. 'Dale would've wrung his neck.'

'What about the insurance policies?' he asked.

'What policies?'

Jeffrey took out a folded sheet of fax paper and put it on the table in front of her.

Terri's brow furrowed as she read the document. 'I don't understand.'

'It's a fifty-thousand-dollar life insurance policy with you as the beneficiary.'

'Where did you find this?'

'You don't get to ask the questions,' Jeffrey told her, dropping his understanding tone. 'Tell us what's going on, Terri.'

'I thought –' she began, then stopped, shaking her head.

Lena asked, 'You thought what?'

Terri shook her head, picking at the cuticle on her thumb.

'Terri?' Lena prodded, not wanting Jeffrey to be too hard on her. She obviously had something to say; now was not the time to be impatient.

Jeffrey adjusted his tone. 'Terri, we need your help here. We know Cole put her in that box, just like he did with you, only Abby never got out. We need you to help us find out who killed her.'

'I don't . . .' Terri let her voice trail off.

Jeffrey said, 'Terri, Rebecca is still missing.'

She said something under her breath that sounded like a word or two of encouragement. Without warning, she stood, saying, 'I'll be back.'

'Hold on a minute.' Jeffrey caught her by the arm as she started to leave the kitchen but Terri flinched and he let go.

'Sorry,' she apologized, rubbing her arm where Dale had bruised her. Lena could see tears from the pain well into the other woman's eyes. Still, Terri repeated, 'I'll be right back.'

Jeffrey didn't touch her again, but he said, 'We'll go with you,' in a tone that said it wasn't just a friendly suggestion.

Terri hesitated, then gave him a curt nod. She looked down the hallway as if to make sure no one was there. Lena knew she was looking for Dale. Even though he was handcuffed in the squad car, she was still terrified he could get to her.

She opened the back door, giving another furtive glance, this time to make sure Lena and Jeffrey were following. She told Jeffrey, 'Leave it open a crack in case Tim needs me,' meaning the door. He caught the screen so it wouldn't slam, playing along with her paranoia.

Together, the three of them walked into the backyard. The dogs were all mutts, probably rescued from the pound. They whined quietly, jumping up at Terri, trying to get her attention. She absently stroked their heads as she passed, edging around the garage. She stopped at the corner and Lena could see an outbuilding behind it. If Dale was looking this way, he would be able to see them go to the building.

Jeffrey realized this about the same time Lena did. He was offering, 'I can –' when Terri took a deep breath and walked out into the open yard.

Lena followed her, not looking at the squad car, feeling the heat of Dale's stare anyway.

'He's not looking,' Jeffrey said, but both Lena and Terri were too frightened to look.

Terri took a key out of her pocket and slid it into the locked shed door. She turned on the lights as she went into the cramped room. A sewing machine was in the center, bolts of dark leather stacked against the walls, harsh light overhead. This must be where Terri sewed upholstery for the cars Dale rebuilt. The room was dank, musty. It was little more than a sweatshop and must have felt like hell itself in the dead of winter.

Terri turned around, finally looking out the window. Lena followed her gaze and saw the dark silhouette of Dale Stanley sitting in the back of the squad car. Terri said, 'He's gonna kill me when he finds out about this.' She told Lena, 'What's one more thing, huh?'

Lena said, 'We can protect you, Terri. We can take him to jail right now and he'll never see the light of day again.'

'He'll get out,' she said.

'No,' Lena told her, because she knew there were ways to make sure prisoners didn't get out. If you put them in the right cell with the right person, you could fuck up their lives forever. She said, 'We can make sure,' and from the look Terri gave her, Lena knew the other woman understood.

Jeffrey had been listening to all of this as he walked around the small room. Suddenly, he pulled a couple of bolts of material away from the wall. There was a noise from behind them, almost like a scurrying mouse. He pulled away another bolt, holding out his hand to the girl crouched against the wall.

He had found Rebecca Bennett.

Jeffrey watched Lena with Rebecca Bennett, thinking that even after all these years, if someone asked him to explain what made Lena tick, he would be at a loss for words. Five minutes ago, she had sat in this same kitchen as he talked with Terri Stanley, barely speaking, acting as if she was a scared child. Yet, with the Bennett girl, she was in charge, being the cop she could be instead of the abused woman she was.

'Tell me what happened, Rebecca,' she said, her voice strong even as she took the girl's hands in hers, balancing authority with empathy. Lena had done this a million times before, but still the transformation was hard to believe.

Rebecca hesitated, still a frightened child. She was obviously exhausted, the time spent hiding from her uncle wearing away at her like the constant flow of water over a river rock. Her shoulders were turned in, her head bowed as if all she wanted in the world was to disappear.

'After you guys left,' Rebecca began, 'I went to my room.'

'This was Monday?'

Rebecca nodded. 'Mama told me to lie down.'

'What happened?'

'I got cold, and I pulled back my sheets and found some papers there.'

'What papers did you find?' Lena asked.

Rebecca looked at Terri, and the older woman gave a small nod, indicating it was okay. Rebecca paused, her eyes on her cousin. Then she tucked her hand into the front pocket of her dress and pulled out a neatly folded stack of papers. Lena glanced at them, then handed them to Jeffrey. He saw that they were originals of the insurance policies Frank had already pulled.

Lena sat back in her chair, studying the girl. 'Why didn't you find them Sunday?'

Rebecca glanced at Terri again. 'I stayed at my aunt Rachel's Sunday night. Mama didn't want me out looking for Abby.'

Jeffrey remembered Esther had said much the same thing at the diner. He looked up from the documents just in time to catch an exchanged glance between the two cousins.

Lena had obviously seen this, too. She placed her hand palm down on the table. 'What else, Becca? What else did you find?'

Terri started chewing her lip again while Rebecca stared at Lena's hand on the table.

'Abby trusted you to do the right thing with what she left,' Lena said, keeping her tone even. 'Don't betray that trust.'

Rebecca kept staring at Lena's hand so long Jeffrey wondered if the girl was in a trance. Finally, she looked up at Terri and nodded. Without speaking, Terri walked over to the refrigerator and pulled the magnets holding some of the kids' drawings. There were several layers before she got to the metal surface.

She said, 'Dale never looks here,' sliding out a folded sheet of ledger paper from behind a child's stick rendering of the crucifixion. Instead of handing it to Jeffrey or Lena, she gave the page to Rebecca. Slowly, the girl unfolded the paper, then slid it across the table to Lena.

'You found this in your bed, too?' Lena asked, reading the page. Jeffrey leaned over her shoulder, seeing a list of names, recognizing some of them as workers on the farm. The columns were broken out into dollar amounts and dates, some already passed, some in the future. Jeffrey mentally compared the dates to the policies. With a jolt, he realized that this was some kind of income projection, a tally of who had what policy and when they could be expected to cash out.

'Abby left it for me,' Rebecca said. 'She wanted me to have it for some reason.'

'Why didn't you show it to anybody?' Lena asked. 'Why did you run away?'

Terri answered for her cousin, speaking quietly as if she was afraid she would get into trouble for doing so. 'Paul,' she said. 'That's his handwriting.'

Rebecca had tears in her eyes. She nodded to Lena's silent question, and Jeffrey felt the tension ratchet up at the revelation, the exact opposite of what he had been expecting when they finally told the truth. The girls were obviously terrified of what they held in their hands, yet giving it to the police did not bring them any relief.

Lena asked, 'Are you afraid of Paul?'

Rebecca nodded, as did Terri.

Lena studied the paper again, though Jeffrey was sure she understood every word on the page. 'So, you found this on Monday, and you knew that this was Paul's handwriting.'

Rebecca did not respond, but Terri provided, 'She came here that night sick with worry. Dale was passed out on the couch. I hid her in the shed until we could figure out what to do.' She shook her head. 'Not that there's ever anything we can do.'

'You sent that warning to Sara,' Jeffrey reminded her.

Terri shrugged with one shoulder, as if acknowledging that the letter had been a cowardly way of revealing the truth.

Lena was gentle when she asked Terri, 'Why didn't you tell your family about this? Why not show them the documents?'

'Paul's their golden boy. They don't see him for what he really is.'

'What is he?'

'A monster,' Terri answered. Her eyes filled with tears. 'He acts like you can trust him, like he's your best friend, and then he turns around and stabs you in the back.'

'He's bad,' Rebecca mumbled in agreement.

Terri's tone was stronger as she continued, but there were still tears in her eyes. 'He acts all cool, like he's on your side. You wanna know where my first hit came from?' She pressed her lips together, looking at Rebecca, probably wondering if she should say this in front of the girl. 'Him,' she said. 'Paul gave me my first line of coke. We were in his office and he said it was okay. I didn't even know what it was – could've been aspirin.' She was angry now. 'He got me hooked.'

'Why would he do that?'

'Because he could,' Terri said. 'That's what he really gets off on, corrupting us. Controlling everybody while he sits back and watches our lives crumble.'

'Corrupting you how?' Lena asked, and Jeffrey knew where she was going.

'Not like that,' Terri said. 'Jesus, it'd be easier if he screwed us.' Rebecca stiffened at her language, and Terri moderated her words. 'He likes to bring us down,' she said. 'He can't stand girls – hates all of us, thinks we're stupid.' Her tears started to fall, and Jeffrey could see that her anger came from a burning sense of betrayal. 'Mama and them think he walks on water. I told her about Cole and she went to Paul and Paul said I was making it up, so she believed him.' She gave a snort of disgust. 'He's such a bastard. He acts all friendly, like you can trust him, and then you do and he punishes you for it.'

'Not him,' Rebecca said, though quietly. Jeffrey could see that the girl was having a hard time admitting that her uncle was capable of such evil. Still, she continued, 'He gets Cole to do it. And then he acts like he doesn't know what's going on.'

Terri wiped her eyes, her hands shaking as she acknowledged the pattern.

Lena waited a few seconds before asking, 'Rebecca – did he ever bury you?'

She shook her head slowly. Then she said, 'Abby told me he did it to her.'

'How many times?'

'Twice.' She added, 'And then this last time . . .'

'Oh, God,' Terri breathed. 'I could've stopped it. I could've said something –'

'There was nothing you could do,' Lena told her, though Jeffrey didn't know if this was true.

'That box . . .' Terri began, squeezing her eyes shut at the memory. 'He comes back every day, praying. You can hear him through the pipe. Sometimes he yells so loud, and you cringe, but you're just so happy to know someone is out there, that you're not completely alone.' She used her fist to wipe her eyes, a mixture of sadness and anger in her words. 'The first time he did it to me, I went to Paul, and Paul promised he'd talk to him. I was so stupid. It took me so long to figure out it was Paul telling him to do it. There's no way Cole could've known all that stuff about me, what I was doing, who I was with. It all came from Paul.'

Rebecca was sobbing now. 'Nothing we did was ever right. He was always riding Abby, trying to get her to mess up. He kept telling her it was only a matter of time before some man came along and gave her what she deserved.'

'Chip,' Terri spat out the name. 'He did the same thing with me. Put Adam in my way.'

Jeffrey asked, 'Paul set up Abby with Chip?'

'All he had to do was make sure they were together a lot. Men are stupid that way.' She blushed, as if remembering that Jeffrey was a man. 'I mean –'

'It's okay,' Jeffrey told her, not pointing out that women could be just as stupid. He would be out of a job if they weren't.

Terri said, 'He just liked to see bad things happen. He likes to control things, set people up and then take them down hard.' She chewed her bottom lip, a trickle of blood coming from the broken skin. Obviously, the years that had passed hadn't lessened her anger. 'Nobody ever questions him. They all just assume he's telling the truth. They worship him.'

Rebecca had been quiet, but Terri's words seemed to be making her stronger. She looked up and said, 'Uncle Paul put Chip in the office with Abby. Chip didn't know anything about that kind of work, but Paul made sure they were together enough so that things happened.'

'What kind of things?' Lena asked.

Terri said, 'What do you think? She was going to have a baby.'

Rebecca gasped at this, turning stunned eyes to her cousin.

Terri apologized quickly. 'I'm sorry, Becca. I shouldn't have told you.'

'The baby,' Rebecca whispered, hand clutched to her chest. 'Her baby is dead.' Tears came streaming down her cheeks. 'Oh, my Lord. He murdered her baby, too.'

Lena went deadly quiet, and Jeffrey watched her closely, wondering why Rebecca's words had such an impact on her. Terri had gone just as blank, staring at the refrigerator, the colorful drawings her children had made.
Lion. Tiger. Bear.
Predators, all of them. Like Paul.

Jeffrey didn't know what the hell was going on, but he did know that Lena had dropped a serious question. He stepped in, asking, 'Who killed her baby?'

Rebecca looked up at Terri, and they both looked at Jeffrey.

'Cole,' Terri said, as if it was obvious. 'Cole killed her.'

Jeffrey clarified, 'He poisoned Abby?'

'Poison?' Terri echoed, mystified. 'She suffocated.'

'No she didn't, Terri. Abby was poisoned.' Jeffrey explained, 'Someone gave her cyanide.'

Terri sank back in her chair, her expression revealing she finally understood what had happened. 'Dale has cyanide in his garage.'

That's right,' Jeffrey agreed.

'Paul was in there,' she said. 'He was in there all the time.'

Jeffrey kept his attention on Terri, hoping to God Lena saw how much she had fucked this up by not getting Terri to answer this simple question two days ago. He asked it now. 'Did Paul know about the cyanide?'

She nodded. 'I walked in on them once. Dale was plating some chrome for one of Paul's cars.'

'When was this?'

'Four, five months ago,' she said. 'His mama called and I went out to tell him. Dale got mad at me because I wasn't supposed to be in there. Paul didn't like me there. Didn't even like to look at me.' Her expression darkened, and Jeffrey could tell she didn't want to say all of this in front of her cousin. 'Dale made some joke about the cyanide. Just showing off to Paul, letting him know how stupid I was.'

Jeffrey could imagine, but he needed to hear it. 'What did Paul say, Terri?'

She gnawed her lip, and a fresh trickle of blood appeared. 'Dale told me he was going to put the cyanide in my coffee one of these days, that I wouldn't even know it until it hit my stomach and the acids activated the poison.' Her lip quivered, but this time it was from disgust. 'He told me it'd kill me slow, that I'd know exactly what was happening, and he'd just watch me there, thrashing on the floor, shitting in my pants. He told me he'd look me in the eye till the last minute so I'd know he was the one who did it to me.'

Jeffrey asked, 'What did Paul do when Dale said this?'

Terri looked at Rebecca, reached over to stroke her hair. She was still having trouble saying bad things about Dale, and Jeffrey wondered what she was trying to protect the young girl from.

Jeffrey asked his question again. 'What did Paul do when he said that, Terri?'

Terri dropped her hand to Rebecca's shoulder. 'Nothing,' she said. 'I thought he would laugh, but he did absolutely nothing.'

Jeffrey looked at his watch for the third time, then back up at the secretary posted sentinel in front of Paul's office at the farm. She was less chatty than the one in Savannah, but just as protective of her boss. The door behind her was open, and Jeffrey could see rich leather chairs and two huge chunks of marble with a glass top that served for a desk. Shelves lined the room, leather law books and golfing memorabilia scattered around. Terri Stanley was right, her uncle certainly liked to have his toys.

Paul's secretary looked up from her computer, saying, 'Paul should be back soon.'

'I could wait inside the office,' Jeffrey suggested, thinking he could go through Paul's things.

The secretary chuckled at the idea. 'Paul doesn't even like me in there when he's gone,' she said, still typing on her computer. 'Better you should wait out here. He'll be back in a jiff.'

Jeffrey crossed his arms, sitting back in the chair. He had only been waiting five minutes, but he was beginning to think he should go find the lawyer himself. The secretary hadn't called her boss to announce the fact that the chief of police was here, but his white Town Car with government plates was pretty easy to pick out in a crowd. Jeffrey had parked it right in front of the building's main doors.

He looked at his watch again, marking another minute gone by. He had left Lena at the Stanley place so she could keep an eye on the two women. He didn't want Terri's guilt to make her do something stupid, like call her aunt Esther – or worse, her uncle Lev. Jeffrey had told them Lena was there to protect them, and neither of the girls had questioned this. Brad had run Dale in on a resisting charge, but that wouldn't stick more than a day. Jeffrey doubted very seriously Terri would help with the prosecution. She was barely thirty, trapped with two sick kids and no discernible job skills. The best thing he could do was call Pat Stanley and tell him to get his brother's house in order. If it were up to Jeffrey, Dale would be lying at the bottom of a quarry right now.