Healing Waters (33 page)

She shook her head.

“Then we have no choice but to take you in to
our
office and ask you the same thing, and I guarantee you, you won't like the accommodations there.”

“Are you threatening me?” Sonia said.

“Oh yeah,” he said.

“Sonia.” I took a step forward from the wall I hugged next to Sullivan. “Just tell them what they need to know, or it's going to get worse. Trust me on that.”

I could feel Sullivan looking at me curiously, but I didn't care. Sonia's look was the only one that mattered at the moment. She cast it angrily on me, but she finally nodded.

“Good,” Ingram said. “Now, let's start with Bryson Porter, your gardener-driver type.”

“Bryson is my brother in Christ.”

“You've never had even so much as an argument with him?”

“No. We always prayed together before we went out in the car. He made my yard so beautiful.”

“Were you aware that he used pesticides containing cyanide?”

“Doesn't everyone?” She tried a smile.

Don't do that, Sonia. Don't try to charm them.

“Diana Gables.”

“Didi. She's completely committed to my ministry.”

“Then why did she quit?”

Her back straightened. “She quit?”

“That's what she told Agent Schmacker.”

Sonia looked at me. “Lucia, did she?”

“We haven't seen her in several days,” I said.

“She said she was overworked,” Agent Schmacker put in from the window seat. “Can you think of any other reason why she might have quit? Did you have an argument with her? Shortchange her on her pay? Cut down on her hours?”

“None of that, no.”

For a face that couldn't show expression, Sonia came across quite clearly as obstinate. Beside me, Sullivan recrossed his arms.

“Halsey Coffey,” Ingram said.

“Chip,” Agent Schmacker put in.

I closed my eyes.

“He is my brother-in-law,” Sonia said. “And he worked for me for three months.”

“We know all that. Why did he quit?”

“He wanted to go home to his wife—my sister.”

“You were aware that he had done prison time for drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering, but you still had him working for you.” Ingram's voice lowered to a growl. “You're a pretty trusting soul, aren't you, Ms. Cabot?”

“Chip was completely repentant,” Sonia said. She raised her voice for the first time, all trace of cream gone. “He did wonderful work here with God and was delivered totally from his former sin.”

“And you were responsible for that.”

“God was, Agent Ingram. And Chip was grateful. He sobbed right here in this office.”

I forced myself to open my eyes, if for no other reason than to make sure Sonia was actually saying this. Sullivan caught my eye and looked discreetly away. At least I wouldn't have to spill my guts about this part in therapy.

“Then let's move on to Yvonne.”

“She was my daughter's nanny.”

“And she came after these others—Holly—”

“They had no reason to want me dead! They took care of my child, and I paid them well and allowed them free access to all ALM services.”

I looked nervously at Sullivan, who rubbed his chin. I wondered if that meant he, too, heard the brittle breaks between words.

“And Hudson Fargason?”

Sonia didn't answer. Hudson. Hadn't Marnie said he was the cook at one time?

“He was a wonderful chef,” she said finally. “I wish he hadn't left.”

Ingram leaned back in his chair. “You seem to have a hard time keeping staff, Ms. Cabot. Why did Hudson Fargason leave?”

“I don't know.”

“I think you do.” Ingram angled himself forward again. “Isn't it true that you fired him?”

“All right, I let him go.”

“Then you just lied to us.”

“What happens here in my home is my private business. It has nothing to do with this.”

“Why did you fire him?”

She said nothing.

“Why, Ms. Cabot? We can go downtown and do this—”

“Because I got food poisoning twice. I thought he was being careless, and I had to let him go—but I didn't even tell him why. I just said I didn't need his services any longer.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because I had no proof. I still don't.” She tried to jerk her head away and failed against her gnarled skin. “Hudson has a sweet spirit. He would never hurt anyone.”

“He tried to poison you!”

“That was a mistake! He had no reason to do it on purpose. I accepted him when no one else would.”

I wanted to stop this. So, I could tell, did Sullivan. He opened and closed his fists and shifted against the wall.

Schmacker looked at him. “Just two more names,” she said.

Ingram pulled his face from the hand he leaned on. “You think you can be honest about these?” He didn't wait for an answer. “Tell us about Roxanne Clemm.”

“Roxanne didn't work for me,” Sonia said. “She was my best friend.”

An eyebrow shot up. “Was?”

“Until she moved into my place at Abundant Living after I stepped down. I took that as a betrayal. But isn't that me having an issue with her, and not the reverse?”

That was my sister. Even backed into a torturous corner and ready to snap, she still tried to get herself in command of the conversation.

“Did it ever occur to you that she wanted your position all along?” Ingram said. “That she might have wanted you out of the way so she could take over?”

I never thought I would want to hear Deidre Schmacker's grandmotherly voice instead of anyone else's, but I was just short of begging her to take over now. This bordered on cruel, and Sonia couldn't take much more.

She bore down on Ingram with her eyes. “That is a slanderous, evil thing to say. Roxanne is an opportunist, not a murderer.”

“Then that leaves us with only one more name on our list,” he said.

“And who is that?”

He looked at Deidre Schmacker and nodded. She came around to the front of the desk and leaned against it, arms folded.

“You, Ms. Cabot,” she said.

I plastered myself to the wall so I wouldn't lunge forward. Sonia did. Agent Ingram went to his feet, hands out as if he were going to wrestle her to the floor. Sullivan Crisp was halfway to them when Sonia fell back into her chair. Her chest rose and fell as she struggled to breathe.

Ingram gave Sullivan a hard look that sent him back.

“Are you suggesting that I planned my own death?” Sonia said.

“Not your death,” Ingram said. “Maybe a near-death experience that went awry. If it had gone as planned, it would have bolstered your ministry. You could write your next book about it. You could claim that God saved you because you've been His loyal servant. Isn't that what you propound, Ms. Cabot?”

Sonia drew herself up on the thread that held her together.

“That is Satan talking through you,” she said. “And I will not have Satan in my home. I want you both to leave.”

I shoved my fist against my mouth. This was the part where they would put my sister in handcuffs and push her head down into their car and take her away. This was the part I couldn't handle.

But Agent Ingram stood up and put his list back into his file, and Agent Schmacker picked up her bag.

“It isn't Satan, Ms. Cabot,” she said. “It is merely two frustrated investigators who do not understand why you won't help them find out who did this thing to you.”

“You know something,” Ingram said. “And we will find out what it is.”

I let Sullivan show them out, but I couldn't leave Sonia alone to suffer a humiliation I knew only too well. My soul ached for her.

“I'm sorry you had to go through that,
sorella
,” I said.

“Don't call me that.”

Her voice froze me.

“If you are going to turn on me and God like everyone else, you are not my sister.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You let them come in here with their evil—”

“They're the FBI, Sonia. You don't tell them where they can and can't go.”

“You okay, Sonia?” Sullivan said from the doorway.

She rose from the chair, eyes menacing and unstable. “Get out,” she said to me. “Get out and leave me with my God.”

“Sonia,” Sully said.

“You get out too!”

“Hey, okay—we'll give you some space.”

He nodded to me, and I moved robotically to the door.

“How about if one of us stays with you?” he said.

“I want you out. I want you out now—”

“All right, we're going.”

“Close the door behind you.”

“I'll do that,” Sully said. “But there's no need to lock it. We're going to respect your privacy.”

She sank back into the chair and knotted her hands until she had them where she wanted them, tied into her lap. “Just go, please.”

We did, Sully closing the door behind us. The lock didn't click, but I heard her prison doors slam.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

W
hen Lucia lowered herself into the Adirondack, Sully could see the strain on her face, but he didn't need the light of the torches to know it was there. He could feel the tension come off of her like radio static.

“You need a minute?” he said. “Just to take a few deep breaths, maybe?”

She shook her head. Her dark ponytail barely moved, as if it, too, were weighed down by too much everything.

“I'm okay,” she said.

“You have to be exhausted after that scene. I know I am.”

“Well, as you now know, I've been through something like that before.” She tilted her head to the back of the chair. “Thank you, FBI.”

“That's why it's not fair to you that I'm privy to things about your life that you don't choose to tell me,” Sully said.

She shrugged.

“I'd buzz you for that,” he said, “but I don't think you're in the mood.”

She moved only her eyes toward him. “Why would I get a buzz?”

“Because a shrug doesn't take us anywhere. If you're upset that they spilled the proverbial beans about your husband in front of me, that's okay. You have a right to be.”

Lucia lowered her forehead into her hands. “Nothing is sacred with those people. They just tear your life apart until they find what they want, and then they leave you with the mess to clean up.” She looked at him, eyes as close to frightened as he'd seen them, even at times when she should have been terrified. “Do they really think Sonia staged the plane crash herself?”

“I don't think so. I think they just did that to scare her into helping them come up with somebody who had a motive. Answering their questions about other people might seem safer after that.”

“It didn't work, did it?”

Sully looked over his shoulder at the house. “Did you check in on her again?”

Lucia nodded. “I knocked on her bedroom door, and she said she was praying and to leave her alone. I heard one of her DVDs going in there, so I guess she's watching herself. Is that healthy?” She put up her hand. “I'm sorry—we're not supposed to be talking about Sonia.”

He did buzz her then, and she let her face collapse into a smile she seemed too tired to hold back.

“Let's just go where we need to go with this,” Sully said. “Whatever helps you get a handle on it.”

He watched her assemble a question.

“I feel bad even asking this,” she said, “but you don't think Sonia would do something to hurt herself, do you?”

“Are you talking about the plane crash?”

“It's stupid, isn't it? Those people have me so paranoid.”

“It's not stupid. They put it out there, and you have to process it somehow. Personally, no, I don't think the thought ever entered Sonia's mind. She looks for ways to show God's power in her life, but I seriously doubt she'd manufacture something.”

Lucia let out a long breath. “I didn't think so either.”

“Would she hurt herself now?” Sully propped one foot across the other knee. “That we don't know.”

“Marnie's in the Gathering Room. Sonia won't let her in either, but I asked her to keep an ear open and let us know if she heard anything . . . strange.”

“Good plan.”

Sully waited, hoping she'd go farther down the path she was obviously glancing at. When she didn't, he said, “Do you have a relationship with Marnie?”

“No, and I don't want to talk about her if it's all the same to you.”

For somebody who let half the world walk on her, Lucia Coffey knew when to put her own boots on.

“Do you want to see my list?” she said.

“That's why I came out here tonight,” he said. “You did it?”