Perfect Justice

68.

“THANKS FOR COMING,” BEN said, when Belinda entered what was left of Coi Than Tien’s barn.

“I came as soon as Mike told me where you were.” She ran up to Ben and clasped his hands. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.”

“I heard you were trapped inside that church. My God—you might have been killed!” She reached up and brushed some of the black soot from his face. “I was so worried.”

“Belinda—” He gently pushed her away.

“What’s wrong? What’s bothering you now?”

“Belinda—” Ben’s eyes began to swell up. He fought it back. “Belinda. I know.”

“Know what? I don’t understand.”

Ben looked down at the dirt. He hurt so much he wasn’t sure he could go on. “I know you killed Tommy Vuong.”

“Me?” A horrified expression crossed her face. “Is this some sort of sick joke?”

“Of course not.”

“What could ever make you think I killed him?”

Ben unfolded the paper in his pocket. “Cindy Jo Simpson. The last name threw me off at first, but then I remembered that you were married previously. Your husband’s name was Hamilton, and you didn’t retake your maiden name when you were divorced. I had Mike check it out. You were born Belinda Todd Simpson.” He crumpled the paper in his hand. “Cindy Jo Simpson was your younger sister.”

Belinda fell back against several bales of hay stacked against the wall.

“I remember Mary Sue described the woman who visited Vick as resembling you, only younger,” Ben said. “And when I first saw her in the smoke of the Truong home, I thought she was you. Small wonder there was a resemblance.”

All at once tears tumbled from Belinda’s eyes. “How much do you know?”

“I think I’ve figured out most of it, but I’d rather hear it from you. Revenge, right?”

Belinda brushed the tears from her cheeks. “I told you my sister was always in trouble. And it was always my job to get her out of it. To set the world right again.”

“I know Vuong was accused of rape about a year ago. Your sister was his victim, wasn’t she?”

Belinda nodded. “It was a date rape. She had been hanging around him and some of the others since she met them in Porto Cŗisto. She followed them up here. I think she had a crush on Tommy, but at first he wouldn’t give her the time of day. Finally he asked her out. She was thrilled. So excited. So … vulnerable. On the way home he threw her down in the forest and started beating her. He was beyond mean—psychotic. She had bruises on her face and breasts that lasted for weeks.” Belinda paused, trying to steady her voice. “And then he raped her.”

“Didn’t she report it to the police?”

“Yes, but she had no proof other than her own testimony. Tommy had a squeaky-clean reputation, and everyone knew she liked him and that she wanted to go out with him. They assumed it was consensual intercourse. He winked and jabbed and told them she liked it rough. And they believed him.”

“Surely you could’ve taken the case to higher authorities.”

“I probably could’ve, but unfortunately I didn’t know about this at the time, and Cindy Jo didn’t have the slightest idea what to do. It was only several months later that she called me. You see, there was another complication. Cindy was pregnant.”

“By Vuong?”

“Right. She ran away from Coi Than Tien, from everyone she knew. She was so despondent, so ashamed. When the baby was almost due, she called me, desperate. She had no money, she knew nothing about babies, she didn’t know what to do. She was distraught, practically irrational. The last nine months of isolation, guilt, and trauma had destroyed her. She was a different person. Very sick, getting sicker by the day.”

“That was the reason you decided to personally head up the Hatewatch operation in Silver Springs,” Ben said.

“True. But when I got here, I couldn’t find her. Not a trace.” She paused, drew in her breath. “But I sure as hell could find Tommy Vuong.”

“So you decided to kill him.”

“It wasn’t like that. I told you I was in that bar when Vick and Vuong fought. The idea came to me in a flash. I could accomplish two great goods with a single stroke. I could take care of the bastard who raped my sister, and at the same time I could strike a blow against ASP, the men who have brought so much misery to so many people. The men who tied me to their cross and beat me like I was an animal.

“When Vick’s head crashed down on my table, he left a smear of blood and a few hairs behind. I waited until John went to the bathroom, then carefully scraped the hair and blood into one of those plastic bags I always carry in my purse.”

“You stole the crossbow and bolts from the ASP stockpile,” Ben said.

“It was risky, but it was critical if I was going to implicate Vick and the rest of ASP. Frank had been watching the ASP camp for weeks. He knew when I should go and how to get in without being caught. He also told me Vick had picked up those crossbow bolts the day before. So naturally that’s what I used.”

“And then you planted the blood and hair on the crossbow, erected a burning cross—the ASP emblem—and waited for Vuong to fall into your trap.”

“That’s right. You know, even then I wasn’t sure I would be able to do it. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to fire the bow. I had to think about it for a long time. When he first saw me and our eyes met—” Her face was lost in shadow, and she whispered to Ben a few more details about what happened next. “But I did it.”

“After you shot him, you left the crossbow where you knew it would be found.”

“True. And I dumped a pile of ASP hate literature I had in my files near the cross.”

“That was your first mistake,” Ben explained. “The fine print on some of the brochures specified that they had been printed in Birmingham. Why would Dunagan and his gang import literature when they have a printing press at their camp right here? It was possible, but it struck me as unlikely. That’s when I began to wonder if the brochures had been planted. I checked Jones’s research on ASP’s activities in Birmingham. Only three people were there who are also here. Grand Dragon Dunagan. Frank Carroll. And you.”

“How stupid of me. I didn’t even think.”

“What happened to your sister?”

“Even after Vuong was dead, I still couldn’t find Cindy Jo. I don’t know where she had the baby. I know she didn’t know what to do with her. She had no home, no help, no money. In her state of mind, she was utterly unable to deal with a newborn. But I still don’t know why she left her in the Truongs’ home.”

“I think I do,” Ben said. “She had been with the Coi Than Tien people for some time, so she must’ve known a good deal about them. Including the fact that Maria Truong desperately wanted a baby.”

“I guess that’s it.” Ben could see tears once more beginning to form. “Cindy Jo had no idea the Truongs’ home would be torched before anyone woke up and found the child. But when she learned what happened—when she learned what happened to her little baby—” Her voice was cut off in a choke.

“She did her best to save her,” Ben said. “She was desperate to get inside that burning house.”

Belinda held her face in her hands. “The trauma of losing her baby in that hideous way must’ve been more than enough to push her over the edge.”

“So she killed herself.”

Belinda nodded bitterly. “Mike told me. My poor poor Cindy Jo. She asked me to help. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t help her at all.”

Ben put his arm around her.

“I don’t know what happened to me,” Belinda said, sobbing in great heaving bursts. “I’ve never done anything so … violent in my entire life. I just couldn’t stop thinking about what that monster did to Cindy Jo.”

Ben hugged her tighter. Sheriff Gustafson’s words echoed in his memory. When something horrible like that happens to your own sister, it just does something to you. Tears you apart. Makes you go a little crazy. Makes you want to kill the man responsible.

Ben held her in silence for a long time. Finally she brushed the streaks of tears from her face.

“Can you ever forgive me?” she asked, her eyes wide and pleading.

“I can forgive a woman who made a mistake because she loved her sister.” He looked down at the ground. “What I have a hard time forgiving is a woman who was willing to let another man die for her crime.”

“You mean Donald Vick? Ben—he’s ASP. He’s scum.”

“You’re wrong. He’s not a bad kid at all—just one who made some stupid mistakes when he was young. Like everyone does. His family pressured him into ASP. He never liked it. He never participated in any of their destructive activities.”

“I don’t believe it.”

“It’s true. He didn’t agree with the terrorist tactics ASP was using against Coi Than Tien—in fact, he tried to stop them. Remember Mary Sue mentioning that Vick had a Vietnamese visitor two days before the murder?”

Belinda nodded.

“That was Dan Pham. See, Vick was feeding Pham inside information about ASP’s plans. That’s how Pham stayed so well informed. Dunagan knew there was a leak, but he didn’t know who it was. After he heard Mary Sue’s testimony at trial, he realized it was Vick. That’s why he decided to throw Vick to the wolves when he testified, and that’s why ASP later branded him a traitor.”

“But, Ben, that man came into the bar and started beating Vuong for no reason at all. I saw it!”

“You’re wrong. I had a little heart-to-heart with my client. Now that the trial is over and the woman he was trying to protect is dead, he was willing to talk. You remember the testimony about a woman who came to visit Vick the night before the murder? That was your sister.”

“Cindy Jo?”

“Yes. Apparently she and Vick had met in town a few days before and he offered to help her. Turns out Vick is basically a softhearted guy, even if he is an ASP member. She came to his boardinghouse and told him about Vuong, what he had done, how she was about to have this baby and didn’t know what to do.”

Belinda’s eyes seemed to turn inside her. “That’s why he sought out Vuong at the Bluebell.”

“Right. She made him promise not to tell anyone, but he didn’t promise not to do anything about it. In his naivete, Vick tried to get Vuong to marry her, just so the baby wouldn’t be illegitimate. When he refused, Vick told Vuong he should at least give her some money. When Vuong refused that suggestion and laughed in his face, Vick blew up. That’s why he lashed into Vuong. That’s why he called Vuong perverted. He was referring to the beating and rape. And that’s why he got thrown out on his butt. He was looking after your sister.” Ben paused. “Just like you.”

The full horror of what he had said stabbed Belinda like a knife. She seemed frozen, transfixed.

“Even when he was on trial, Vick wouldn’t tell Cindy Jo’s secret, because he had promised not to, and because in his simple Southern way he thought an illegitimate pregnancy would ruin her reputation, if people found out. The fact is, the man you framed was the only man in this town who tried to help your sister.”

“Oh, my God,” Belinda said softly, over and over again. “I hated that man. I hated him.”

Ben clenched his eyelids shut. “More hate. And with the same result.”

Belinda looked up at him. “What are you going to do?”

Ben felt a clutching inside his chest. “You mean—about what I know? Belinda, I don’t think I have any choice.”

She took both of his hands and pressed her head against his chest. “Ben—if you talk, they’ll try me for murder!”

“And if I don’t, the jury that’s deliberating will probably sentence Vick to death. For a crime you committed.”

“Ben—” She threw her arms around him. “Please don’t do this to me!”

Ben felt a hollow aching in his heart more painful than any of the physical beatings he had endured. He didn’t answer her. He couldn’t.

A rapid, chopping noise slowly filtered into the barn.

“That’s Mike, isn’t it?” Belinda asked. She looked at him accusingly. “You’ve been waiting for him to return. That’s why you kept me here all this time. You’ve been waiting for him!”

“Belinda, I—”

She pushed herself away from him. “I can’t believe you would do this to me!”

“Belinda—”

“Is he going to arrest me? Is that it?”

“I was hoping you would turn yourself in. It’ll look better at trial.”

Her astonished expression slowly became one of horror and loathing. “After what we’ve shared. After all we’ve—You’re turning me in.” She whirled away from him.

Ben reached out and grabbed her hand.

She slapped him away “What do you want?” she said bitterly. “Did you think I was going to kiss you goodbye?” She glared at him, her eyes filled with contempt. “I thought you loved me.” She turned suddenly and raced out of the barn.

Ben heard the helicopter land, and then, a few moments later, he heard Mike emerge and talk briefly with Belinda. Then they both climbed into the copter.

Ben remained in the barn, standing motionless in the dark, as the helicopter bearing the two of them disappeared into the night.

“I do,” he whispered.