Smoke and Mirrors

51

Alexa placed her bag on the bed in the guest bedroom located next to Winter’s. When she came downstairs, Ruger, who had been in the backyard when they arrived, ran to her and jumped up on her, trying to lick her face with a broad and dripping tongue.

Brad grabbed Ruger’s collar and pulled her back. “She and my father have a lot in common,” Brad said. “They are both enamored with the FBI. Stay down, Ruger.”

“She doesn’t care for me,” Winter said.

“Ruger doesn’t know you like I do,” Alexa said, kneeling to put her face on the dog’s level. “Pretty girl. Ruger, be nice to Winter. He is a friend to man, woman, and beast alike. With the exception of deer.”

Ruger looked at Winter as if she knew what Alexa had said, and her wide tongue bobbed.

“Get anyone a beer?” Brad asked.

“None for me,” Alexa said.

“Thanks anyway,” Winter said. “I need to get some rest.”

The ringing doorbell sent a barking Ruger bounding to the back door. Brad walked through the kitchen, leaving Winter and Alexa standing in the den. Winter heard a familiar voice and the door closing.

After thirty seconds, Leigh Gardner came in, followed by Brad and a joyful Ruger.

“Leigh has something she wants to tell us.”

“Brad, do you have any bourbon?”

“I didn’t know you drank,” Brad said.

“I could use a stiff drink if it’s all the same to you,” she said, collapsing in an armchair. “Just ice.”

“Have you heard from Cynthia?” Alexa asked before Winter could.

“Her father spoke to her an hour ago. She’s fine. She stayed overnight with a girlfriend she knows from LSU. I’m furious, but at least she’s all right. He told her how worried we all were and she called me silly. Jacob says she’s trying to keep from thinking about Sherry and she said she’s going to her grandmother’s to spend the night. Probably for advanced bitch lessons. Like she isn’t going to get one from me when she gets home. I’ve half a mind to go up there and drag her home.”

“At least she’s safe,” Alexa said.

Leigh nodded and smiled. “That’s some consolation. Do you have children?”

“No,” Alexa said. “I don’t.”

“Count your blessings,” Leigh said flatly.

Brad opened a cabinet and took out a bottle of Maker’s Mark, found a short glass, dropped two cubes of ice from the freezer in, and poured it half full. He crossed the room and handed it to Leigh.

Leigh drained half the glass before she said anything further.

“The main reason I’m here is because of the conversation I had with Jacob this evening. I find myself in need of advice from…I suppose all of you,” she said. She drained the glass and set it on a coaster on the coffee table.

“Whatever we can do,” Winter said.

“I told you Jacob’s been after me to sell him the bottomland. He brought me an astounding offer. He said that a company needs the land for some project and they won’t take no for an answer.”

“How much did they offer?” Winter asked.

“Two million dollars. Well, two and a half. Jacob said they might go higher, but that there’s a risk if I try to hold out. It seems they have been offering big money from the start, which Jacob failed to mention. Of course, he made it sound like it was all for the children.” She massaged her right temple and closed her eyes.

“We’ve been looking into the land,” Brad said. “That fits with what we found out.”

Leigh raised a brow. “He owes a lot of money to whomever is behind this interest in it. It seems they have been exerting increasing pressure on him to make sure it happens. Now it has to go forward immediately for some reason Jacob swears he doesn’t know. I’m here because it’s very possible, based on what Jacob did tell me, that Sherry may have been shot to make him level with me. What kind of people would murder an innocent child to make a point?”

Alexa and Winter exchanged looks.

“Does Jacob know you came here?” Brad asked.

“I said I was going to the Adams’s house, and I am, after I leave here.”

Winter said, “A corporation called RRI owns the adjoining land. They also own the Roundtable casino.”

“And Jack Beals worked for the Roundtable,” Leigh said.

Brad said, “They intend to build a three-thousand-acre resort, and your parcel is right in the middle of it.”

Leigh raised her brows. “Resort? No, he said he didn’t know what they wanted it for. He did mention a man named Mulvane. At first I told him I had to think it over. He told me that it was their final offer, and that I couldn’t take any time because I’d already held the deal up, which made the people very angry.” Leigh put her elbows on her knees and placed her forehead in her hands. “Evidently he’s told me one thing and them another while he tried to figure out a way to get more money. He’s lied to me for months and months, but that’s just Jacob’s nature. And Sherry’s dead because of it.”

“What did you tell him?”

She sat up. “He was really afraid, Brad. He told me…” She stopped and looked at her hands. “He said I could either take the offer, or next time, instead of a servant, it might be me, Cyn, or Hamp lying dead in the yard.”

“That bastard!” Brad said. “It’s your fault even though he kept you in the dark. I bet he’s been playing them and they’re onto him.”

Leigh shook her head. “He said if I’d have sold it to him, earlier, Sherry would still be alive. He acted like it was my fault, that I made some kind of selfish choice and that was why she was dead.”

Leigh started crying, and Brad sat on the edge of her chair and put an arm around her. She rested her head against him for a split second before straightening. “God,” she asked, “could it be true?”

“It isn’t your fault, Leigh,” Brad said.

“I know it isn’t my fault,” she said. “Could he be telling the truth? Is this a case of ‘sell to us, or your children will die next’? I’m doing it. What else can I do? People will always gamble, and at least I’ll have a legacy for my children and they will never have to farm like I did. It won’t bring Sherry back, but I can use the money to help them out.”

“We can see them punished for killing Sherry,” Alexa said. She looked at Winter and he frowned. Tying anyone at the Roundtable to Sherry’s death was a real long shot. Styer was the link, but proving that connection might be close to impossible.

“If you, or someone else, could get Mulvane to admit to ordering the killing,” Winter said. “He’s the casino manager.”

“You mean carry a recorder and ask this Mulvane to admit ordering a murder?” Leigh smirked. “Just tell me what to do. I want those people to pay for what that Beals bastard did to Sherry.”

“It might be dangerous,” Brad said. “Pinning Mulvane will be tricky.”

Leigh looked at Brad, her eyes dancing. “You can arrest him after I sell him the land. Let the bastard pay twice, so at the least, the money will do some good.”

Winter asked, “How did you leave it with Jacob?”

“I told him that if I had no choice, if our children were in danger, I would sell it. I said to tell them to write the check and give me the papers to sign.”

“And what did he say?”

“He said he’d tell them and took off. What can we do now?”

“We have to develop a plan,” Alexa said. “And a good one if we’re going to take them down.”

And at that, for the first time since Winter had met her, Leigh Gardner smiled.