“You could see it in her eyes.” Teena indicated her own face. “Had that haunted look, like she was waiting for the next blow.”
“I imagine you’ve read about Allison online?”
“No, darlin’, I don’t need to go on the World Wide Web for gossip. I get plenty of that round here.”
Emmy asked, “Did you ever overhear any conversations between Allison and Mitch Bellingham?”
“No, they were always quiet. Kept their heads close together. You’d think they were hatching a bank heist instead of trading war stories. She was a police officer, you know. He loved talking about his time in the Army.”
Jude wondered if Teena was more perceptive than she gave herself credit for. If she was right that Allison was blackmailingEzekial Gilchrist, Mitch Bellingham could have been helping her. It would make sense that the man would want vengeance, especially when he had nothing else to lose.
Emmy must have been thinking the same thing. “Did you ever see him give Allison anything? An envelope or a thumb drive?”
“No, but when he passed, he left something for Allison. I saved it for her when they cleared out his room. Mr. Mitch was a tidy man. Very organized. Kept everything stored in plastic bins. One of them had Allison’s name on it.”
“Was the bin clear or—”
“It was blue with a red top.”
“Can I show you something?” Emmy swiped open her phone. She found a photo of a blue plastic bin with a red top that was roughly the size needed for $300,000 in bricks of hundred-dollar bills. “Does this look like the bin Mitch Bellingham left Allison?”
“Yes, ma’am. That’s the one. Mr. Mitch loved his red, white and blue. He was such a patriot.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
Emmy kept her phone out as she walked away. Another text had come through. Jude could tell from Emmy’s expression that the information wasn’t good. They were both silent until the elevator doors had closed and they were heading to the bottom floor.
Emmy said, “Julian checked the prison visitation logs. Allison Vickery visited Shane Russell four times over the last year before he was released.”
Jude should’ve felt more surprised, but it made sense. “Allison knew him. And she knew he was getting out.”
“You told me if a woman is with one abusive asshole, she’s with another. Shane Russell sounds exactly like Allison’s type of man. He has a long, documented history of domestic violence. He was in and out of prison for assault. Bill Garrison wasn’t the first man Allison was in a violent relationship with. Shane Russell was just one abusive asshole in a long line of them.”
Jude could see where she was going, but she wanted to hear it. “And?”
“In 2010, Purdue Pharma started making Oxy with a coating that made it harder to crush. By December, most of my busts were heroin. In my arrest report on Shane Russell, I recorded that he told me the drugs had been planted. Maybe he wasn’t lying. Maybe Allison planted them, then tipped me off. She wanted him to go to prison. That’s the only way she could get away from him and stop the abuse.”
Emmy clearly knew the answer, but Jude asked, “What else happened in 2010?”
“Allison gave birth to Mandy. She got rid of Russell because she wanted to protect her baby.” Emmy shoved her phone into her pocket. “That tracks with something that’s been bothering me since I talked to the girls. They call Allison either Mrs. Vickery orMandy’s mom. They call Bill by his name. Bill. NotMandy’s dad.”
Jude hadn’t noticed at the time, but she realized that Emmy was right. It wasn’t just the way the girls said Bill’s name, either. It was the way they pronounced it. There had been real hatred in their inflections, as if they’d picked up on Mandy’s sense of impotent rage.
She said, “At the hospital, Mandy asked for her father before she went into the operating room. Then when you were questioning her, she asked for him again.”
“She wasn’t asking for Bill,” Emmy said. “She was asking for Shane Russell. He has to be Mandy’s real father.”
Jude lost her words for a moment. “Tell me how.”
“The timing lines up.” Emmy looked as staggered as Jude felt. “Allison sent Russell away sixteen years ago. Why would she do that if she wasn’t protecting Mandy? And why would she protect Mandy if Russell wasn’t her father?”
Jude felt her heart sink at the thought of the teenager trapped at the center of this. “Mandy must’ve been desperate for an adult to save her. There’s no better fairytale than a father rescuing a child.”
Emmy was clearly thinking the same thing. “I can’t imagine how isolated Mandy must have felt. How hopeless. Then Russell comes along and she thinks he’s going to protect her from Bill.”
“Abusers often use children to control their victims. I imagine it was easy for Russell to groom Mandy. Just give her the things that Bill wouldn’t. Starting with money.”
“Why did he start beating her?”
