The Guilty (Will Robie 4)

He kept his gaze on the water; the Gulf was very un-Katrina like now—flat, smooth, like polished aquamarine glass instead of a boiling mass of fury carrying the combined destructive force of a dozen nukes. It was Mother Nature’s most powerful punch, the wickedest, most indiscriminate arrow in her quiver.

“I was busy,” replied Robie. “A long way away. But I’m glad that Cantrell wasn’t hit.” He turned to her. “My father lives at the Willows. I met his wife and son.”

“Lots of surprises for you.”

“How could he afford that place?”

“You really are out of the loop.”

“Can you help me get back in it?”

“Why do you want to? Why are you even here—and don’t feed me that crap ’bout your daddy bein’ in jail accused of murder, ’cause I ain’t buyin’ it.”

Robie started to say something but then stopped. He recalibrated his remark, moving it far closer to the truth than he had initially intended.

“I’ve come to a point in my life where things that didn’t matter to me now do. This is one of them.”

When she gazed up at him, he did not look away from her.

She said, “Now that may be the first piece of straight talk to come out your damn mouth since you been here.”

He didn’t respond to this. He wanted to hear what she had to say.

“Your daddy can afford the Willows ’cause he hit it rich as a lawyer.”

“How? His stuff was nickel-and-dime, and he was mostly paid in chickens and vegetables.”

“When you were here, yes. But then he represented four families that lost folks in a drillin’ platform explosion out in the Gulf. There were safety violations, cost-cuttin’, fudged paperwork, guys workin’ way too many undocumented hours, the typical corporate make-as-much-money-as-you-can-and-screw-everybody-else bullshit. Facin’ all that evidence, they brought in the big legal guns and tried to overwhelm your daddy. Then when that didn’t work, the oil company sent in some seriously bad dudes. His office got burned out. His car got shot up. They caught up to him one night and broke his arm, but he laid two of those suckers out. And all that just made your daddy—”

“—fight harder,” observed Robie. He could envision his father facing these long odds and relishing the battle. The oil company had picked the wrong man to intimidate.

His father feared nothing, except maybe a son he had never come close to understanding.

Or perhaps loving.

She said, “Yes sir, he did. Took years, but the families got tens of millions of dollars each and your daddy got his piece. Then he ran for county judge and won.”

“When did he marry Victoria?”

“Oh, a little over four years ago.”

“How’d they meet? She’s not from Mississippi. I knew that when she spoke.”

“Well, you’re from Mississippi, and you don’t sound like it.”

“True.”

“But the fact is, she’s not from here. They met, so’s I heard, at a legal convention up north somewhere.”

“She’s a lawyer?”

“No, don’t believe so. Leastways she’s never hung out her shingle. But she was at the convention. Love at first sight, way I heard tell.”

“From who?”

“From everybody, Robie. Your daddy come back with his heart all full of love. All’s he could talk about was Victoria this and Victoria that. Not much later they were hitched and he brought her here. They bought the Willows. And then they had Tyler.”

“Who doesn’t talk?”

“That’s right. They’ve had lots of doctors look at him, but so far nothin’. Maybe he just don’t have anythin’ to say right now. Maybe when he gets older, he’ll never stop talkin’.”

“I spoke to Priscilla.”

“She’s a smart lady, don’t miss much.”

“She said she knew why Clancy wasn’t convicted, but she wouldn’t tell me.”

“Well, it ain’t no big secret. He had an alibi.”

“Who?”

“Who do you think?”

“No clue.”

“You met her today.”

Robie flinched. “Priscilla?”

“No. Your stepma, Victoria.”

Chapter

14

YOU WANT TO explain that to me?” said a stunned Robie.

“Pretty simple. She was his alibi on the night that Janet Chisum was murdered.”

“If that was the case, why was Clancy even tried?”

“Well, initially there was lots of evidence against him. They were seen together earlier that day. And her body was dumped in the Pearl where it crosses Clancy’s land.”

“What was the alleged motive?”

“That was the other bit of evidence. Clancy liked his girls young and hot. Chisum fit both criteria. Chisum suddenly had money to buy stuff. They’d been seen together before. It was obvious that Clancy was giving her money. For what? Well, I always had my suspicions.”

“You mean he was paying her for sex?”

“Hell yes he was. And he admitted it, too. Now the prosecution figured that Clancy wanted somethin’ that Chisum was unwillin’ to give, and he got ticked off and he killed her. Probably while he was drunk, which he pretty much always was after three in the afternoon.”

“That doesn’t explain the alibi.”

“Well, that came later, while the trial was goin’ on. Victoria came forward and testified that she was with Clancy from eight that night till six the next mornin’.”

Robie stared wide-eyed at her. “You mean she spent the night with him?”

“Well, she said she was with him durin’ the night, so I guess one could read it that way.”

“Doing what?”

“She said they were just talkin’. And drinkin’. And that that was all.”

“Why did she wait so long to come forward?”

“Well, your daddy was a jealous man for one. And he was also the judge in the case. Pretty damn dicey. She was probably scared, but then she decided to come forward ’cause it looked like Clancy was gonna be convicted. Now he was pure scum, but if he was innocent of killin’ the gal he shouldn’t go to prison for it.”

“But if Clancy had been with Victoria, why didn’t he tell his lawyers or the police that? Then they would have brought Victoria in for questioning.”

“Apparently he did. And they did ask her. And she denied all of it. Then she changed her story and admitted she was with him. They could’a got her for lyin’ to the police, but they just dropped it. Figured she’d suffered enough by comin’ forward like she did.”

“Didn’t the prosecution object?”

“Oh, they sure as hell did. Screamed till the cows come home. Thin’ is, your daddy had to recuse himself the minute she said she was with Clancy. No way could he still be the judge then.”

“I guess not.”