Family Sins

Twelve

The thunderstorm passed before morning, and Bowie slept all the way through it with Talia in his arms. Although the passion between them had him longing to make love all night, she was fragile in so many ways that all he could bring himself to do was hold her.

Waking up beside her was a wonderful glimpse of their future. He was already planning how to change his job for the oil company so he didn’t have to work the offshore platforms anymore. No way could he stand being on-site for weeks at a time. Whatever it took to be able to go home to her each night would be worth it. They’d lost time, but thank God they hadn’t lost each other.

After a quick breakfast together, he was already regretting he couldn’t stay, but he had to go home and help there, too. Talia followed him out onto the front porch and then shamelessly threw herself into his arms to say goodbye.

Bowie laughed as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

“You’re not going to make this easy, are you, sweetheart?”

She shook her head.

“Once I let you leave my life without a word. That will never happen again. Come back to me, love, when you can.”

He cupped her cheeks as he brushed a kiss across her lips.

“Oh, I have to come back. I’m leaving my heart with you.” Then gave her one last hug before leaving.

Talia watched him back out of the drive, then went inside to wait for the people to come pick up the hospital bed. While she was waiting, the funeral home called to tell her that her father’s body was ready for a last viewing. Too many things happening at once.

Justin Wayne was on his way to the helipad, thinking about what Blake had asked him to do. The investors were going to fly over the area one last time to see if they could find a suitable substitute for the resort location. If they couldn’t settle on anything here, they would scrap the resort altogether and take their project to the state that had been their second choice. Justin knew what that would mean to the family. If the developers took the resort out of state, the Waynes would be the proud owners of a whole lot of useless land on a mountain and nothing more.

His mind was on the job until he turned down the street that would take him to the helipad. He noticed a couple kissing on a front porch. When it dawned on him that the man was the same one who’d stood outside their gates challenging him, he nearly hit the brakes. What stopped him was the realization that the man was even bigger than he’d thought. He was suddenly glad Fiona and Nita had stopped him from making a fool of himself. Still, the urge to take the man down was strong, and ways to make that happen floated through the back of his mind all day.

Once Bowie got home, his job became keeping Jesse busy so that Leigh could work in peace in the garden.

She’d been hoeing these green beans when Stanton was murdered, and now it was time to pick them again. Later they would all sit out on the porch and break the beans so she could can them. Stanton was gone, but they were not, and life’s needs went on. She finished about an hour before noon and left the green beans inside the utility room when she went inside to start the midday meal. It passed in relative quiet once Jesse settled down to eat. They were just finishing when they heard a car coming up the driveway.

“Someone’s here!” Jesse cried, and bolted from the table.

Leigh sighed.

“Go run him down for me, will you, son? I want to gather up the dirty dishes.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Bowie said, and left the kitchen.

Jesse was already outside on the porch, but when Bowie came out, Jesse backed up against him.

“I don’t know this man,” Jesse said.

“It’s okay. I do,” Bowie said. “Go tell Mama the constable is here.”

“Yeah, the constable,” Jesse said, and headed into the house as Riordan approached.

“Afternoon, Constable. Did you come to tell us you have the killer under arrest?” Bowie asked.

Riordan sighed.

“Not yet. I need to talk to your mother. I’m hoping she might have some insight into her family that would help us.”

The screen door opened behind Bowie.

“Come in, Constable Riordan, and take a seat,” Leigh said.

Bowie stepped aside as Riordan followed Leigh into the house.

Jesse was sitting in Stanton’s chair, ready to visit.

Leigh glanced at him. “Jesse, would you like to take the peelings out and feed them to the chickens? Remember to close the gate behind you when you go in and when you come out.”

Jesse beamed. “Yes, ma’am. I like to feed the chickens.”

“I know you do. The peelings are in the blue tin bowl on the cabinet. When you’re done, come right back, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am. Close the gate in and close the gate out.”

Leigh ran a hand over Jesse’s head to smooth back a strand of hair. As she did, she felt the ridges of scar tissue beneath.

“Run along now,” she said.

“Do you want me to go with him?” Bowie asked.

“No. I want you to stay with me,” Leigh said, and sat down on the couch opposite the chair where Riordan was sitting.

Bowie sat beside her.

“I’ll make this brief,” Riordan said. “First of all, I want to tell you again how sorry I am for your loss. The reason I’m here is that I’m hoping you can shine some light on your family for me.”

“I haven’t talked to any of them in over thirty years,” Leigh said.

“How did you keep from running into them in Eden?” Riordan asked.

“Because they don’t lower themselves to shopping where people like us would go. They have people to handle the mundane things in life,” she said.

“Your children never ran into Charles while they were in school?”

“I don’t know who Charles is,” Leigh said.

Riordan didn’t bother to hide his shock.

“He’s Blake’s son.”

She shrugged. “I homeschooled my boys.”

“You must be a very intelligent woman, Mrs. Youngblood.”

She shrugged. The fact that she’d graduated college by the time she was seventeen was immaterial. Being the brain of the family had gotten her nothing but disdain. She’d had it drummed into her from her youth that her smarts were wasted on a girl.

“Stanton helped tremendously. He already had his college degree in business and economics before we married. He was an online broker and licensed for quite a few years. He had his own clients.”

“What will happen to them now?” Riordan asked.

Bowie touched his mother’s arm and answered for her, because he knew she wouldn’t.

“Mama took over the investment part of Daddy’s business years ago. She and Daddy’s clients will all be fine.”

Riordan eyed Leigh with renewed respect.

“That’s good to know. Meanwhile, as to why I came… Now that I understand the distance you kept between you and your family a little better, I want to know if you suspect any one sibling in particular. Is there anyone you think is capable of murder?”

She rolled her eyes. “Any of them. All of them.”

Riordan grunted softly. “Seriously?”

Leigh sighed. “Our father was a hard taskmaster. He never liked to fail, and he drilled that same fear into all of us. I guess if I had to pick one, I’d pick Justin.”

Bowie was surprised and let it show. “Your twin brother?”

Riordan frowned. “He’s your twin?”

“I’m older by a minute and a half,” Leigh said.

“Why Justin?” Riordan asked.

“He holds grudges, and he’s mean like our father was,” Leigh said. “Do you have any evidence against him?”

Riordan sighed.

“The evidence I have doesn’t point to anyone in particular, or I wouldn’t be here. Telling you that is highly irregular, as I’m sure you know. Normally we don’t admit there isn’t much of a lead to follow.”

Leigh’s hands curled into fists.

“You aren’t telling me they’re going to get away with this, are you?” she asked.

“Not if I have anything to do with it,” Riordan said. “I’m hoping someone panics and gives up the guilty party, or the killer panics and makes a mistake.”

Leigh frowned.

“The only one who might panic is Nita, but unless it’s common knowledge among them as to who did it, the guilty one will never tell.”

“Why not?” Riordan asked.

“Because the others would turn him or her in just to get the monkey off their backs,” she said.

Bowie was stunned. He couldn’t imagine having that kind of relationship with family.

Riordan made a couple of notes and then moved to another topic.

“I need to ask you about paying off the loans on the property belonging to Stanton’s brother, and also his sister’s property.”

Leigh nodded, then glanced over her shoulder, a little concerned Jesse wasn’t back.

“Bowie, would you make sure Jesse is okay?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Bowie said, and left the room.

Riordan could only imagine what it cost her emotionally to take care of a grown man with a child’s mind. Her situation strengthened his determination to solve this crime as soon as possible.

“Did you and Stanton know when you decided to pay off those loans that your estranged family was heavily invested in the resort, and did you know they owned the lending institution that bought up the loans from the local bank?”

“No, of course not. Like I said, I know nothing about them now. Nothing. We did it because Polly and Carl are living on the Cyrus home place, and because Thomas and Beth are living on the Youngblood home place. Stuff like that matters to us. People hit hard times. It’s not the first time the homesteads were ever mortgaged, but it was the first time the loans were called in. It was the abruptness of it that caused the hardship, and the new owner of the loans wasn’t giving anyone a break.”

The moment Leigh said that, her eyes welled with tears. She’d forgotten for a moment that there was no more “us.” She took a slow, shaky breath and looked away.

Bowie came back at a lope.

“I had to take a picture,” Bowie said. “You need to see what Jesse’s doing.” He was smiling when he sat down beside Leigh and handed her the phone.

The sight of her son happily sitting in the middle of the chicken yard hand-feeding peelings to the hens all bunched around him was exactly what she needed to see. She laughed.

“Oh my goodness, I’ve never seen him do that before,” she said. Then she leaned forward to show the picture to Riordan. “He’s going to be my saving grace in this heartbreak.”

Riordan grinned. “If you could bottle up that joy and sell it, you’d be a rich woman,” he said.

Leigh sighed. “I already am rich…in love and family.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Riordan said, as he handed the phone back to Bowie.

“Is there anything we can do?” Leigh asked. “I’ll do anything to get justice for Stanton.”

Riordan frowned. “No, ma’am. You do not put yourself in harm’s way. You have a family who loves you and a son who needs you.”

At that moment the back door banged, and then they heard footsteps.

“Speaking of that son,” Leigh said, as she got up and caught Jesse on the run long enough to pick a little chicken feather from his hair, then check the back of his jeans to make sure he hadn’t sat in chicken poop. “Go wash your hands, Jesse, then Bowie will get you a root beer.”

“Root beer!” Jesse cried, and loped toward the hall.

Riordan’s admiration for Leigh Youngblood rose even more as she sat back down.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t more help,” she said. “Maybe Polly or Thomas could tell you more, only they aren’t at home today. One of Thomas’s grandchildren is having surgery to fix a broken arm. They’re all at the hospital.”

Riordan nodded.

“No matter. Again, sorry to have bothered you, and thank you for your information.”

“It wasn’t nearly enough,” Leigh said, and then got up to see the constable to the door.

She stood in the doorway until he was gone, then turned around and went to check on Jesse.

Even though she’d maintained her emotions, Bowie could tell she was upset. He heard her calling Michael and leaving a message, asking him to find out who now owned all the foreclosed property around the lake.

A short while later Michael returned her call. Bowie didn’t know what was said between them, but whatever it was, she was quiet all afternoon as they sat out on the porch breaking beans. When they had finished, she carried them straight into the kitchen, ran some water into the huge basins of beans waiting to be canned and once again headed for her phone.

Bowie knew something was brewing when she called Samuel to ask if he was free to go to Eden with her now, and apparently he said yes, because she asked him to wear good clothes and bring Bella to stay with Jesse. Then she called Aidan and Michael and asked them the same thing, to which they, too, apparently agreed.

When Leigh turned around and saw Bowie looking at her, she lifted her chin.

“I’m going to change clothes. Did you bring any dress clothes?”

“Yes, ma’am. What I was going to wear to Daddy’s funeral.”

“Well, I need you to change into that for me, son.”

“Where are we going, Mama?”

“To visit my family. They’re not going to break ranks unless I rattle them, and I know just how to do that. I think it’s time I introduced my sons to the enemy, and then I’m going to scare them so bad they’ll uncover the guilty party and turn him or her in on their own.”

Bowie’s eyes widened. “Can you do that?”

She sighed.

“I vowed when I left that I’d never set foot in that hellhole again, but this situation calls for desperate measures. They value money and power, and I am their threat to all of that. Yes, I can make them very afraid.”

“Where’s Jesse?” Bowie asked.

“In his room, watching cartoons.”

“Then I’ll go change,” he said.

As it turned out, all three of her daughters-in-law came, too. They settled in with Jesse, who was delighted his nephew, Johnny, was there to play with.

“We won’t be long,” Leigh said, as she thanked them for coming to help, and then gave her sons’ appearances the once-over, just as she used to do when they were young.

They were all dressed in suits, or sports coats and slacks. Samuel’s hair was in a braid. Aidan and Michael had pulled theirs back at their napes. Bowie had left his down in honor of his father. She seemed satisfied with how they looked.

“You look pretty, Mama,” Samuel said.

Leigh smoothed a hand down the back of her hair and picked a tiny piece of lint from the front of the little black dress she was wearing.

“I know you’re wondering why I asked you to do this. We’re going to pay an unannounced visit to the Wayne family. Partly, I want them to see the beautiful sons Stanton and I made. I want them to know they did not beat us down, do you understand?”

“Yes, ma’am, but what are you going to do?” Samuel asked.

“I am going to put the fear of God in every one of them.”

Samuel nodded.

“Good. I’m happy to do my part to make that happen,” Michael added.

“Let me know if I need to growl at them, Mama,” Aidan added.

There was a moment of confusion among the brothers until Leigh suddenly threw back her head and laughed.

“I’d almost forgotten about that,” she said. “The year you were a dog. I didn’t think you’d ever quit that.”

Bowie grinned.

The other brothers laughed, too, now that she’d reminded them.

“You were four. I thought something was wrong with you, but your daddy just laughed and said you were being a boy, and he was right,” Leigh said, and then the smile slid off her face as she drew a quick, shaky breath. “Damn them for taking him away from us. Let’s go while I’ve still got my wits about me.”

Moments later they were loading up in two vehicles, and then they were gone.

Because of the hot phone sex she and Andrew had shared last night, Nita woke up in a mood of euphoria. It lasted most of the day, until the family began coming home for dinner. At that point the mood in the house quickly darkened.

Blake and Justin were arguing when they entered the mansion. It escalated to a shouting match, which Jack brought to an abrupt end.

“What the hell is wrong with you two?” Jack asked.

When they both started to talk at once, he stopped them again. “Justin, what is your problem?”

“Your golden boy sent me to do a job this morning, which I did. I turned in my report, and he doesn’t like what I had to say, which is stupid as hell, because I only did what he wanted.”

Jack shifted focus to Blake. “Did you send Justin on a job?”

“Yes, but-”

“Did he do it to your satisfaction?”

Blake shoved a hand through his hair in frustration.

“I guess, but when the investors asked him if we’d be interested in buying into the resort at a different site, he told them he doubted it, but that he’d run it by the family.”

Jack frowned at Justin.

“Why would you give them such a negative impression?”

Justin threw up his hands.

“Oh, hell…I don’t know…maybe because of all the money we pumped into the project in the first place to make sure they could proceed on the first site.”

Blake frowned.

“But you already know we don’t have what we promised them. Keeping an interest in the project is the only way we’ll ever recoup what we’re going to lose when they officially call a halt to their plans here.”

“Exactly how much did we spend accumulating the land they wanted?”

Blake shrugged. “I don’t have the exact figure.”

“I do,” Justin said. “Wayne Industries, through the lending institution we own, is the proud owner of millions of dollars worth of mountain, part of which we bought up without issue, and the other part we got when we bought up the loans from the bank and foreclosed on the owners. An investment in a resort of that quality would have been worth it. But the land we own is no longer suitable because the only place the investors are willing to build the actual resort is about five hundred yards from the Youngbloods’ front door, and the facilities to house horses for trail rides and hold the gift shop selling local artisan crafts was at the back corner of the Cyrus property.”

Jack frowned.

“And if we stay with the consortium and invest in another site, what are your plans for recouping our initial investment?” Jack asked.

Blake was backed into a corner, and he knew it.

“I guess we’d parcel up the land and sell it to people wanting to build homes on it.”

“But we just bought it from people with homes that were torn down. They aren’t going to buy back their own land, and well-to-do tourists aren’t going to build their fine vacation homes on it if the resort and all its amenities are in another state,” Justin said.

Jack sighed. “I never thought I’d say this, but Justin is right.”

Justin glared at his uncle. He wasn’t that much older than them, and yet he was still the boss. And now, even when he was right, the son of a bitch couldn’t give him anything but a backhanded compliment.

Blake was now officially pissed. “So, Uncle Jack, what would you have us do?”

Jack frowned.

“I don’t know, but I do know this witch hunt wouldn’t be happening if whichever one of you shot Youngblood had just finished the job. Back-shooting and then walking away without confirming the kill is sloppy work.”

They both glared at each other, then at Jack, then strode up the stairs side by side without speaking.

Jack headed to the kitchen to find out what Cook was making for dinner, then retired to the library for a stiff drink.

When dinner was finally announced, the argument between the brothers had been put on hold. The meal was served without incident. The conversation was purposefully polite and nonconfrontational. They were halfway through the main course when they heard the doorbell sound in the hall.

Jack glared at Nita. “Did you invite Andrew again?”

“No, we’re going out dancing later, but if I had, I don’t need to get your permission, you know.”

He glanced around the table at the others.

“Are any of you expecting company, because if you are, I want you to know having them arrive at dinnertime is the epitome of rudeness.”

Before they could answer they began hearing the sound of footsteps coming down the hall. All of a sudden Frances came flying into the dining room on the verge of tears.

“I tried to stop them, Mr. Wayne, I swear I did.” Then she moved out of the doorway just as Leigh and her sons walked into the room.

The shock of her appearance was evident in the sudden silence, and before any of them could begin to raise hell, Leigh took the floor.

“I thought since you are all so comfortable with attacking when someone’s back is turned, that it would only be fair if I arrived in the same fashion.”

Blake started to get up, but Bowie stepped forward.

“Sit the hell down,” he said softly.

Blake wasn’t accustomed to threats, but he felt the power of this one in every word.

Leigh touched Bowie’s arm, and he moved aside. She lifted her chin, giving all of them a slow, studied look.

“I vowed never to set foot on this property again, but you made it impossible for me to keep that vow. I’m here now because I want my sons to know the faces of their enemies.”

Jack slapped the flat of his hand on the table in his usual dictatorial manner and started to rise.

“Leigh! This is highly irregular and-”

Leigh moved so fast no one saw her coming. One moment she was standing beside Bowie and the next she had flung a piece of crystal stemware at the wall just above Jack Wayne’s head.

“You heard my son. Sit the hell down! I have something to say to the lot of you, and then I will be gone, but for the time I am here, I don’t want to hear another peep or the next glass I throw will be at your damn face!”

Her sisters’ hands went straight to their cheeks, as if the need to protect them had already arrived.

Jack was stone-faced.

Blake was in shock.

Justin was so angry he was shaking.

Charles was almost mesmerized by the woman and the giants she called her sons.

“One of you murdered Stanton, but I don’t know who. Constable Riordan paid me a visit today. He asked me if I was to guess which one of you would be capable of murder. I told him any of you…all of you.”

Blake reached for his wineglass. Bowie pointed a finger. Blake put his hand back in his lap.

Leigh glanced at Blake.

“My dear older brother Blake hides his deceit behind fancy suits and a wad of money. My little brother Justin is just mean. He always was. He always will be. He’s just like Father, and you all know it.”

Justin reacted as if she’d slapped him when she called him her little brother. Samuel knew his mother was oldest by little more than a minute and grinned at Justin, which made him even angrier.

Leigh pointed at Nita and Fiona.

“Sisters are supposed to be close, someone you can share secrets with. Someone you can depend on. My sisters didn’t like me, and I knew it by the time I was ten. Why? Because I was smarter than all of you. Taller than both of you, and I didn’t cater to our father’s demands just to stay on his good side. I can see by the age and anger on your faces that you’re still mad, and I still know why. Because I escaped and you didn’t. And you need to know that I don’t think for a minute that either one of you is innocent. You’d just as soon hire a hit man as buy a new pair of shoes if the need arose.”

Fiona gasped, and Nita started crying.

“Yes, cry, sister, cry, just like I cried when I found my husband lying in a pool of blood with a bullet hole in his back and his killer’s name scratched in the dirt.”

Jack Wayne inhaled slowly, mesmerized in spite of himself by the majestic anger in this woman he barely knew. He saw the way her four sons stood beside her in such tight formation, ready at a second’s notice to back her and protect her. Then he thought of the childish behavior of Blake and Justin, fighting this evening like hateful children, and closed his eyes, for the first time wishing he’d retired to the south of France years ago instead of staying on as CEO.

Then Leigh looked at the youngest man at the table.

“I have been given to understand that you’re Blake’s son, Charles. I didn’t know you existed until Constable Riordan told me about you today. I didn’t know what I would think, seeing you for the first time, wondering if you were already too caught up in this family’s sins, or if you were still young enough to escape with your soul.”

She took a step closer to the table, and her sons moved with her.

She leaned forward, staring intently into Charles’s eyes, and then abruptly straightened.

“This one has secrets. Big secrets.”

Blake jerked, and when Charles flushed a dark, angry red, making him look guilty even though she hadn’t specified a thing, everyone saw it.

“Just one more thing, and then we’re gone. Your resort is never going to be built.”