"How about since your wife died?"
"How about you mind your own fucking business?"
"Actually we're talking about your fucking business."
"No, we're not. You are."
"In light of your wife's affair, I think you'd find it difficult to trust another woman."
His mouth compressed into a tight, angry line, indicating that she'd struck a tender nerve. "You don't know anything about-"
But Tiel never learned from him what she didn't know anything about because he was interrupted by Donna's ear-splitting scream.
chapter 12
KIP'S VIDEOTAPE WAS PLAYING SIMULTANEOUSLY on two monitors in the van, with everyone inside clustered around to view them. One of the FBI agents was manning the control panel, standing by to freeze the picture at Galloway's command.
"Where's my daughter? I don't see Sabra."
Galloway detected liquor on Dendy's breath. Periodically he had been stepping outside "to get some fresh air."
It seemed he was taking in more than oxygen.
"Patience, Mr. Dendy. We're anxious to see all of it. I need to know where people are positioned. Once I have an overview, we'll restart the tape and pause it on the segments that warrant closer study."
"Maybe Sabra tried to send me a private message. Like a signal."
"Maybe," was the senior agent's noncommittal reply.
His nose was no farther than ten inches from the color monitor as he listened to Tiel McCoy's opening remarks.
She was poised, he'd give her that. Unruffled. She lo
oked a little worse for wear in her Texas flag T-shirt, but she was as composed and articulate as she would have been in a television studio, safely behind a sleek news desk.
"That son of a bitch," Dendy snarled when Ronnie appeared on the screen.
"If you can't keep your mouth shut, Dendy, I'll be happy to shut it for you." Cole Davison issued the threat in a soft voice, but there was muscle behind it.
"Gentlemen," Galloway said.
No one else spoke while Ronnie was delivering his speech. But the silence became even heavier when the camera moved to Sabra and her newborn. The images were poignant, heart-rending. The dialogue was disturbing.
No new mother cradling her infant should be threatening to take her own life.
For several seconds after the tape ended, no one spoke.
Finally Gully had the courage to say out loud what everyone else was thinking. "Guess that settles the question as to who's responsible for all this."
Galloway held up his hand, discouraging any further unsolicited editorial comments on Russell Dendy's culpability.
He turned to Cole Davison. "What about Ronnie?
How does he seem to you?"
"Exhausted. Scared."
"High?"