“He promised her that when he died, he’d make sure she had enough evidence to blackmail Gilchrist on her own so she and Mandy could start over. He didn’t want to do it before. Said it was too risky for his family.”
“What evidence?” Emmy asked.
“Mitch Bellingham said he had concrete proof that Gilchrist used Russell to fix the jury. He knew they weren’t going to convict, so he bought his way to a guilty verdict. Gilchrist would pay millions to keep it quiet.”
Emmy watched Bill shake his head. “So what did Allison do?”
“She kept going back to see Mitch thinking he’d give her the evidence she needed to force Gilchrist into paying. Told me Mitch was an honorable man. That she believed him. You know how gullible Allison could be. She always had daddy issues. All it took was some asshole being nice to her, and she did exactly what he wanted.”
Emmy didn’t point out that Bill had worked Allison the same way. “Mitch Bellingham died last week. Why didn’t she leave then?”
“Because we needed money!” Bill yelled. “Are you deaf? Didn’t you hear me? All of this was about money!”
Emmy kept herself from flinching. “If you can’t calm yourself down, I will make you.”
His bluster disappeared as quickly as air leaving a balloon. She couldn’t believe how easily he folded when he didn’t hold all the power.
Emmy repeated, “Why didn’t Allison leave when Mitch died?”
“The old man played her. I told her he was full of shit. He didn’t have anything on Gilchrist. She wasted all that time talking to him for nothing. She was stuck back in the same place. Both of us were.”
Emmy thought about the packed suitcases. Mitch Bellingham’s $300,000. The video on the CD. Maybe Allison thought she was going to leave with Mandy on her own. “So what was Allison’s real plan? Was she going to help Russell, or was she going to double-cross him and blackmail Gilchrist by herself?”
Bill gave her an appreciative look. “She was, then she wasn’t. She kept going back and forth saying she’d help Russell and get him to leave town, then saying she wanted to leave town with Mandy. One minute, she wanted me to go with them. The next, she was telling me she never wanted to see me again.”
The pattern was crushingly familiar. “Did Allison contact Gilchrist?”
“Last I heard, she was going to leave town,thencontact Gilchrist. Do it all through the internet. Keep ourselves safe. She figured in a month, we’d be rich, living on a beach somewhere Russell would never be able to find us.”
“You’re sayingwelike you were back in on the plan by then.”
“Who the hell knows?” He threw his hands into the air. “She changed her mind every other day.”
Emmy knew he was being honest, just like she knew that she hadn’t gotten the full truth. “What made Allison finally decide to leave yesterday afternoon?”
“Thursday, she accidentally walked in on Mandy changing. Mandy freaked out. Tried to cover herself. But Allison saw. She had these bruises all up and down her body. She wouldn’t tell Allison how it happened. We thought it was—” Bill caught himself before he said the name. “The guy I owe money to. Allison went over to where he works, and she came back and said it wasn’t him.”
Voldemort again. “You’re sure this was Thursday?”
Bill nodded. “Allison spent all night begging Mandy to tell her who beat her. Some of the bruises were old. She knew it had been going on for a while. She thought maybe it was some kid at school. For a while, Mandy let her believe that. She was such a little liar.”
Emmy figured Bill was something of an expert in getting women to lie. “Then what?”
“Friday night, Allison came to the motel. She was devastated. Mandy finally told her the truth. It wasn’t a boy from school who laid hands on her. It was Shane Russell. He’d lied to Allison the whole time. The second he got out of prison, he started working on Mandy. Buying her shit, giving her expensive things, telling her he loved her, that he was gonna take her away from Allison. Mandy believed him at first, but then Russell never did anything to leave. Kept saying next week, then next month, then next year. She tried to cut it off with him, but he started hurting her. Twisted her wrist at first. Slapped her. Then he beat her so bad. All she ever wanted was a daddy. Not me—Godknows I tried—but she could be as stupid as Allison. Never saw what was good for her. Said she wanted herrealdad. The poor kid told Allison she took the beat-downs because she loved him.”
Emmy heard sympathy in Bill’s voice that he’d never expressed for Allison. “So, Allison gets it out of Mandy Friday night that Russell is beating her. She decides she has to leave town the next day, but she goes by your motel first to drop off your golf clubs? Then she waits until noon to start packing on Saturday?”
Bill scratched his jaw. “Yeah, that’s what happened.”
“Is that the truth, Bill? Or did she go to the motel because she wanted the files on Reggie and the drug squad?”
Bill started shaking his head. “I told you I lost them.”
“Seriously?” Emmy asked. “Because I’m thinking if I’m in debt to some really bad men, a good way to get myself out of trouble is to give them a bunch of files on dirty cops.”
Bill picked at the cuticle around his thumbnail.
“You didn’t lose anything. You traded Allison’s files to buy more time to pay down your gambling debts.” Emmy knew he wasn’t going to say the Rawley name, but she was going to get the truth out of him if they stayed in the back of this cruiser for the rest of their lives. “The security guard at the motel heard Allison scream, ‘You took the last good thing from me.’ Was that what she was talking about, Bill? The last good thing she did was finding proof to take down a bunch of dirty cops?”
