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ed Monty bluntly.
“Sure. Join the party.” Monty waved him in.
“No. Alone.” James’s jaw set.
Monty considered the offer, exchanging a quick glance with Deputy Tompkins. “We have time to kill before Ms. Chambers gets here,” he said. “Any problem if I meet with Golden Boy for a few minutes?”
Tompkins’s lips quirked at Monty’s reference to James. “No problem. I’ll stand outside the door.”
“I’ll take Dr. Vista back,” Kearney said, gesturing for Vista to accompany him. “We’ll be in the living room with the others.”
Devon watched them go, hanging back for a minute.
“Go ahead, Dev,” Monty instructed. “It’ll be easier if James and I talk one-on-one.”
She nodded, following the others to the door.
James caught her arm as she passed. “I’m not a killer, Devon,” he said, his panicky gaze on her face. “You must realize that.”
“I do,” she agreed. “You’re not a killer. Just a coward, a felon, and a spoiled, self-centered son of a bitch.”
He flinched, releasing her arm and letting her leave.
“I guess you expected Devon to be an ally,” Monty commented when they were alone. “Think again. She’s got a core of steel when it comes to her family.”
“I understand.” James swallowed. “I don’t know what Vista told you, but I can give you a lot more. But it has to be off the record. No cops, no tapes, no notes.”
“In other words, you want to be able to deny having said any of it.”
“For the time being, yes. Look, I can’t go to jail. It’s that simple. Until I figure out the best way to accomplish that, I’m keeping my options open. So, do you want to hear what I have to say or not?”
Monty folded his arms across his chest in a formidable stance. “I’m listening.”
James sank down into a chair. “I didn’t know any part of what I’m about to tell you until a few hours ago, when I walked into this room and saw my grandmother pointing a gun at you. I was as stunned as you were.”
“Yeah.” Monty nodded. “That much I believe.”
Stark relief registered on James’s face, and inspired him to continue. “My grandfather was very shaky when I settled him in. He needed to talk. The more he said, the sicker I felt. He told me my grandmother was responsible for what happened at the cabin in Lake Luzerne. She knew what your ex-wife had overheard between Frederick and my grandfather at the stables. She was hell-bent on preventing her from ruining things. So she hired one of Vista’s illegals—some guy with a criminal background—to kill Sally. The plan backfired. Frederick came face-to-face with the guy and wound up dead instead. My grandmother promised to pay the guy fifty thousand dollars and gave him a one-way plane ticket to Uruguay. He was supposed to vanish into the woodwork.”
“Your grandfather had no part in this?”
“Nope. Not until afterward, when my grandmother confided in him. He’s been protecting her from the get-go. He was desperate to flush out your ex-wife so he could hand her a blank check and put the whole fiasco to bed. He hired that guy Carlos, who’d done some electrical work and who spoke English. My grandfather paid him to keep tabs on Devon and to bug her phone, just in case she had any contact with her mother.”
“But your grandmother wasn’t satisfied,” Monty surmised.
James nodded grimly. “She didn’t think my grandfather was being aggressive enough. She thought it was naive to assume your ex-wife could be bought off. She was also worried about all the poking around Devon was doing. Apparently, she was outside this door, listening, when Blake confronted my grandfather and told him how much Devon knew. My grandmother wanted her stopped. So she delivered that threatening note, warning Devon to back off. When that didn’t work, she resorted to kidnapping.”
“And attempted murder.”
“Yeah. That, too.”
“What about Philip Rhodes?” Monty pressed. “Your grandmother took care of his murder herself. She announced that while she held us at gunpoint.”
“I know.” James rubbed the back of his neck. “It seems that Philip dug up the information documenting those funds my grandfather used for his payoffs.”
“His payoffs?” Monty interrupted, his brows arching dubiously.
“Okay, fine, our payoffs.” James gave an impatient, and defensive, wave of his hand. “Look, Detective, I never claimed to be an altar boy. Sure, I greased a few palms along the way. I was also in on the ongoing arrangement with Paterson involving the Antidoping Agency’s drug-testing schedule.”
