Chapter 15

I wokeup the next morning, anxious to get the show on the road—literally. Even though Ida Belle and Gertie couldn’t come inside with me for the visit, she’d still insisted on driving us there. I wasn’t about to argue since her SUV was a lot more comfortable than my Jeep for a long haul.

I’d contacted Alexander right after receiving the email and let him know I was going to visit Ryan. He’d been excited that I’d gotten clearance so quickly and told me to report back as soon as I got out. If Ryan was up for the DNA test and the procedure, Alexander was prepared to deal with the warden by whatever means necessary.

I’d already checked the visitor dress code, which was fairly standard—nothing remotely revealing or sexy, nothing that looked like a prisoner, and nothing that looked like a prison guard. In addition to that, opting out of gang colors was always a wise choice, so I chose jeans, a yellow T-shirt, and white tennis shoes. Since vehicles were subject to search as well as visitors, we’d all be leaving our weapons at home, which meant no matter how many clothes I had on, I’d still feel naked.

I’d just swallowed the last bite of my egg sandwich when Ida Belle and Gertie walked in, looking as excited as I was. I grabbed my notebook and laptop, which I could use on the way if we needed to research stuff, and we headed out. Gertie popped open her handbag and pulled out a protein bar and offered it to me.

“No thanks. I just finished breakfast when you guys pulled up,” I said.

“I just finished breakfast before we left to pick you up,” Gertie said, “but I’m hungry again. I think all this is burning the calories off me.”

Ida Belle snorted. “You just want an excuse to eat chocolate.”

“It’s a protein bar,” Gertie argued.

“Wrapped in chocolate,” Ida Belle said.

Gertie took a bite. “It’s still better for me than a Snickers.”

“How’s it taste?” I asked.

She frowned. “Not nearly as good as a Snickers. Why do they all taste like chocolate-wrapped cardboard? Oh well, I also brought a meatball sub, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, two cans of Pringles, and a family-size pack of Oreos.”

I turned around and stared. “All of that is in your purse?”

She nodded. “And two bottles of water. Without my weapons, I have extra room. And you know how Ida Belle is about stopping. I have grapes in my bra and a package of licorice under my boobs just in case we run into traffic.”

Since I didn’t have words, I turned back around and pulled out my notebook. Might as well go over the questions I had for Ryan to see if they could think of anything I’d missed. We had a two-and-a-half-hour drive to Angola, so plenty of time to go over what we knew, especially since what we knew wouldn’t get us out of Sinful. Discussing the list of things in Gertie’s bra might take longer.

By the time we arrived at Angola, I was no closer to answers than I was when we left and my excitement had picked up a thread of anxiety. So much was riding on this interview. Usually when I took a case, someone was already dead. This time, someone was going to die if I didn’t solve the case, and there was a ticking clock on how long I had to do it.

Ida Belle and Gertie wished me luck, and I could see their stress levels mirrored my own. I pulled out my cell phone and passed it to Ida Belle, grabbed my notepad, and headed inside. The guard dog did his sniff routine and passed on to the next person when he didn’t find anything interesting. Then the guard checked my credentials, did the usual pat-down, asked me the questions, checked my approval, and finally twenty minutes later, I was waiting for the bus that would take visitors to the main building where Ryan was held. I was told that I’d be limited to an hour due to the number of visitors expected, so that would have to do.

The visitation area was unlike any I’d been to. It had food counters staffed by and the food prepared by inmates, and the smell of Southern cooking wafted over me. Families sat at tables scattered around the building, and if one could overlook the armed guards every couple feet, then it might resemble a church social. But despite the attempt at a cheerful, normal display, the atmosphere was the same as all of them—sad, depressing, and with an overwhelming feeling of despair that seeped into you and left you cold like slow rain in the winter.

I cased the room and spotted Ryan at a small table in the far corner and headed that way. He looked up as I approached, and I maintained eye contact as he rose.

Early thirties but easily looked forty. Six foot two. A hundred seventy pounds. Good muscle tone showed he’d been working out, but prison food wasn’t allowing him to bulk up as he probably would on the outside. He favored his right side as he extended his hands, and I figured he’d either had broken ribs at some point or had been stabbed. His face showed the wear of ten years inside, but at least his eyes hadn’t gone dead. There was still a flicker of hope in them.

“Fortune Redding,” I said as we shook, and I motioned for him to sit. “I’m sorry we have to meet under these circumstances.”

He held his hands up. “Look around, Ms. Redding. My circumstances were already in the toilet.”

I nodded. “Would you like something to eat? It smells good. How is the food?”

“A bunch of Louisiana boys in the kitchen. The food is great. I wouldn’t mind gumbo and a po’boy.”

“Sounds good.” I hopped back up and headed for the counter and ordered two gumbos, a po’boy, and two glasses of sweet tea. They ran better than a lot of restaurants I’d been in, and the food was up within minutes.

I headed back to the table and set the tray down, but Ryan didn’t make a move for the food.

“Are you sure he’s my kid?” he asked.

“Kelsey said she was only with two men—you and her current husband. Ben is not her husband’s biological child, so you’re the only other option.”

“And you think she’s telling the truth?”

“Why wouldn’t she be? Did you sleep with her that night?”

He nodded. “I guess she doesn’t have a good reason to lie, does she? I’m the last person she’d want as a father for her boy.”

I opened my notebook and pulled out some photos from inside. “This is Kelsey. I just want to verify that she’s the woman you spent the night with.”

He looked at the photo and his expression softened, then he nodded. “That’s her. She’s a little older but still just as beautiful. How is she?”

“Scared, depressed, and I think she feels an enormous amount of guilt that you’re locked in here and she could have alibied you if she’d known.”

He shook his head. “Raymond Beech wanted me to go down for this, and I’m not sure she could have done anything about it. I used to be a good judge of character—bartender skills, you know—and I think Kelsey was a good person. It didn’t sound like the guy she ended up with valued her as an individual, which was sad. I liked her. I still loved Lindsay, but I really liked Kelsey. Even though it was only one night of my life, she stayed in my mind, and not just because it was that night. I always hoped she’d ended up with the life she deserved.”

My heart clenched a little for this man, whom ten years of prison hadn’t quite broken. I pulled out another photo and slid it across the table. “This is your son.”

He hesitated and a sliver of fear crossed his face, then he reached for the photo and picked it up. As he studied the photograph, his lips trembled.

“He looks like me,” he said. “When I was a boy, I mean. When Hot Rod told me, I didn’t want to believe it, but I knew he wouldn’t lie. Then I thought maybe she was lying although I couldn’t come up with a good reason why. But this…”

He put the photo down and looked away, as if it hurt him to see it. “This photo clinches it. Hot Rod said he’s going to die.”

I nodded. “He needs a kidney. The last transplant failed, and it’s highly unlikely the transplant board would approve him for another. Even if they were inclined to…”

“It might be too late. But what am I supposed to do? My hands aren’t just tied, they’re in cuffs.”

My heart ached for him. His situation was already heartbreaking but now his incarceration, for a crime that I didn’t believe he’d committed, might result in the death of his son.

Unless I could prove him innocent.

“My friend and attorney—your attorney now—is going to start to work on the warden just as soon as I tell him you’re willing to do this.”

“Of course I am! Why wouldn’t I be?”

I held my hands up, and he nodded.

“I get it, but you can tell your—my—attorney to do everything he can. Hot Rod said he’d help cover his fees. I don’t know how I’m ever going to repay him.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that just yet. Your attorney is semiretired and often takes on cases for his own enjoyment. He loves nothing better than taking down the bad guys and championing the good ones. You’ll need to notify the prison that you’ve got new representation. His name is Alexander Framingham III.”

Ryan’s eyes widened. “The Grim Reaper? You’re friends with the Grim Reaper? And he’s going to represent me? You’re making this up, right?”

“Didn’t Hot Rod tell you anything about me?”

“Not really. Just that you were a PI and could figure out everything. We spent more time talking about how I had a kid.”

“I’m former CIA. And I collected the evidence that helped Alexander take down a lot of bad people. We understand each other and have common goals. More importantly, we both believe you’re innocent. If he says he can get the warden to bend, I have zero doubt that he can. So the first thing we need is a DNA test. You need proof that you’re the biological parent. Then he’ll be able to proceed with the requests for you to donate a kidney.”

“Hot Rod said all that would take too long.”

“If it was any other attorney, I would agree, but Alexander has a way of expediting things.”

He nodded, then looked down at the table. “And the other thing?”

“I’m working on getting your conviction overturned, but you have to know how hard it is to get evidence on a crime after this much time has passed.”

“Yeah. At first, I thought something would shake loose, you know, but then another year passed and nothing happened. Then another year and another. I finally realized it was never going to because no one had an incentive to work on it. Except Hot Rod, but he’s a mechanic, not a detective or an attorney. He’s had people review it every year or so, but no one came up with a good enough reason for an appeal.”

“I’m working on that, but I need information, and you’re probably the only person who is willing to level with me on everything except Kelsey. So let’s dig into this gumbo and you can fill in some blanks for me. Then when I leave here, I’ll have more directions to look.”

He studied me silently for a couple seconds, then nodded and picked up his spoon. “CIA, huh? Were you like an agent or something?”

“If I told you that, I’d have to kill you…and I could.”

His eyes widened a little and he smiled for the first time. “What do you want to know?”

“Let’s start with you and Lindsay. Since we both agree you didn’t kill her, the easiest way to get your conviction overturned is to figure out who did. I know you two were separated at the time, but it hadn’t been very long. So who had issues with her?”

He took a couple bites of gumbo while he considered. “My problem has always been figuring out who had a big enough beef with Lindsay to kill her, but I guess I need to stop thinking that way. I know what it would take for me to kill someone, but I guess I can’t make that call about other people.”

“That’s exactly right. I need you to tell me everyone who might have had a problem with Lindsay. Any problem. Leave it to me to figure out the depth of the issue and whether or not it was enough to send the person with the problem over the edge.”

“Well, clearly her father was a problem, but I don’t think he killed her.” He sighed. “Sorry. That’s for you to decide. Anyway, her father tried to control everything about her life, and he managed right up until the time she graduated and got a job with another firm. That’s when their relationship really went south, she said.”

“He expected her to work for him?”

“He always said he expected her to take over the firm, but there is no way that man was relinquishing control to anyone, not even Lindsay. He would have had to die first, and she knew that, which is why she stayed away.”

“But she wouldn’t move out of Magnolia Pass. I know that was a problem between the two of you.”

He nodded. “That’s the reason I left. I couldn’t take living there anymore. The whole place is creepy. I mean, it looks so pretty on the surface, but underneath, it was just a handful of horrible people telling everyone else how to live.”

“So why didn’t she want to move? You both worked in NOLA. She had no desire to bend to her father’s will. Why stay?”

“She said she needed to keep an eye on Holly. Their father was never much of a parent, and Lindsay had basically been raising Holly since their mother died. She didn’t trust Jared or her father to see that Holly got the care she needed. Have you met her?”

“Yes. She doesn’t seem quite normal.”

“She’s not, and Lindsay was trying to convince her father to let her take Holly to specialists. Teachers tried for years to do the same thing, but instead of listening, he got the teachers reprimanded. He finally pulled her out of school altogether and hired tutors.”

“What did Lindsay think was wrong with her?”

He shook his head. “She wasn’t a doctor and wasn’t allowed to take her to one, but she guessed maybe some form of autism, or worse—maybe a personality disorder.”

“Why a personality disorder?”

“Holly would fixate on things and wouldn’t let go, even making up her own stories and ‘facts’ to back her constantly shifting moods. And she was far more immature than her age. She was fifteen back then but often acted so dramatic, more like a ten-year-old. Except when it came to men, and then she was suggestively inappropriate for her age. It was disturbing to watch.”

“You said her father ended up hiring her tutors.”

“She was developmentally delayed as far as education went. Read on a third-grade level and couldn’t handle even basic math. Until she went off to university, Lindsay said she still read to Holly, then she switched to audiobooks. Raymond told Lindsay that he pulled Holly out of private school to get her more qualified teachers, but Lindsay always figured Holly had been kicked out. She figured Holly was having meltdowns there like she did at home and they were over it.”

I nodded. “Did Lindsay ever mention Holly being violent?”

His eyes widened. “You don’t think…wow. Lindsay told me from the beginning that when Holly didn’t get her way, she could snap. I figured she meant crying and screaming, but then Jared called late one night when I was working, completely frantic. Apparently, Holly had insisted on going to see a new litter of kittens in the barn and their father had refused. My understanding is that he didn’t trust her around his prize horses, so the barn was off-limits to her. She responded by locking her bedroom door, setting the room on fire, and climbing out her window, while the rest of them scrambled to put out the fire, panicked that she was still inside. Lindsay found her in the barn, playing with the kittens like she’d done absolutely nothing wrong.”

“Good Lord.”

He shook his head. “I was dumbfounded when Lindsay told me about it. I’ve never known anyone like that. General assholes and bitter people, sure, but that’s something well beyond a personality flaw.”

I nodded and made some notes. Nothing Ryan had said had necessarily surprised me, and more importantly, it had put Holly firmly on the potential suspect list. Everything he’d said pointed to a huge mental instability. And the fact that she appeared to be untreated and living in that environment had certainly made her worse.

“I understand that Holly had a crush on you. Was that a problem?”

“Oh yeah! To be honest, I wanted to leave Magnolia Pass because of Holly probably even more than Raymond.”

I shook my head. “So the main reason you wanted to leave was also the main reason Lindsay wanted to stay. I can see why you two were at an impasse. What did Holly do to make you feel that way—aside from setting fires when she didn’t get her way?”

“She followed me around like a puppy. Always coming over to visit on my days off when she knew Lindsay wouldn’t be there. I got rid of her as quickly as I could, and never allowed her in the house, but she kept coming back.”

“Smart not to be alone with her.”

“No way was I setting myself up for that kind of trouble. Holly had a history of telling lies about people who wouldn’t cater to her. She got a few people at the estate fired before her father realized how manipulative she was. But Raymond just paid them off, and it all got swept under the giant rug that they hid all Beech discretions under.”

“Did Lindsay ever talk to Holly about her fixation on you?”

“Sort of. I mean, she didn’t want to come right out and tell her to stop stalking me. Holly had never admitted to the crush, and Lindsay didn’t want to embarrass her and risk setting her off. But she did tell her not to bother me on my days off because I needed to catch up on my sleep. And she made it clear that she was only to visit when Lindsay was home.”

“Did Holly take that advice?”

“Of course not, so I stopped answering the door. I figured I could just play it off as I was sleeping and didn’t hear her ring the bell. I always had the TV running and the blinds drawn so she wouldn’t have known I was lying. I even deleted my social media accounts because she stalked me there. If I posted or replied to someone during the day, then she knew I was awake.”

He shook his head, frowning.

“What?” I asked.

“I know it sounds stupid coming from a big guy like me, but Holly kind of creeped me out the way she was always lurking, and not just online. If I went to the store, she appeared. Same with the post office, the butcher, the library. I know she was just a kid, but she made me uncomfortable. I don’t like admitting it, but you asked me for the truth, and that’s it. I know Lindsay wanted to help Holly, but to be honest, I would have loved to have cleared out of Louisiana altogether and never had any dealings with her family again.”

I nodded. “She was stalking you. That would creep me out as well, especially after that curtain-burning incident. Did she know you were living at the motel?”

“No way. Lindsay wouldn’t have said anything about our split. She didn’t tell her family anything about our relationship, but she definitely avoided talking to Holly about me.”

“But they probably suspected. Magnolia Pass is small and gossipy. Your neighbors would have noticed your vehicle hadn’t been there in a while, and Holly would have noticed your absence given that she was stalking you.”

“You’re probably right. But they wouldn’t have known for sure. Not from Lindsay, anyway, and my vehicle was still there some. I still had a key and all my stuff was there. Plus, I kept coming back to talk to Lindsay, trying to figure out how to fix things.”

“Your neighbor heard arguing a couple nights before Lindsay was killed.”

He nodded. “It was me. I was still trying to convince her to move.”

He frowned again, and his brow scrunched as though he was trying to remember something.

“What are you thinking?” I prompted.

“Nothing, really. I mean nothing concrete. It’s just that a couple times at the motel, I got that same feeling I did when Holly was following me around town.”

“If she was truly obsessed and stalking you, changing location wouldn’t have altered her fixation. It’s possible she followed you to the motel. Did she have a car?”

“She didn’t even have a license. But the estate has several vehicles for staff and all the keys are kept in the main house. Once, when Raymond and Jared were out of town for business, Lindsay took off work early to go check on Holly and caught one of the security guards teaching her how to drive. Lindsay figured she’d paid him to do it or threatened him with his job.”

I nodded, wondering what else Holly had paid the guards to do for her. Or how much Raymond and Jared had paid them to forget.

“What about Jared? Did Lindsay have problems with him?”

“Issues between Jared and Lindsay were all one-sided, and that side was Jared’s. He wanted to be his father’s shining light, but all those accolades went to Lindsay. Jared just wasn’t smart like Lindsay, and he was never going to have half of her skills. Raymond knew it and he constantly hounded and pushed for Lindsay to come to the firm so she could be groomed for the top spot. The only time Raymond acknowledged Jared existed was when he was berating him for not being as good as his sister.”

“That’s a great way to create a grudge between siblings.”

“Raymond was one of the worst human beings I’ve ever met, and I’ve been in prison for ten years. There are guys in here who are hard and dangerous and some that probably weren’t born with a conscience, but Raymond seemed to go out of his way to make people miserable. He liked everyone to feel incompetent.”

“Because then they’d have no choice but to relinquish control to him.”

“Exactly.”

“So Jared had a lot of reasons to want Lindsay out of the way.”

“I’m sure he played the grieving brother, but I don’t think for a minute he’s sorry Lindsay is gone. But with that said, I can’t imagine him killing her. He’s got the backbone of a squid. And Lindsay could have taken him in a fight, hands down.”

“According to the medical report, it’s likely the first stab was through the back of her neck. I think that would have severely limited her ability to counter.”

He swallowed, and I saw his eyes cloud with tears. “I shouldn’t have moved out. If I’d been there?—”

“You still would have been working that night, so the killer could have just done it earlier or a different night or during the day when you were away. You can’t blame yourself for this. When someone wants another person dead, they’ll figure out a way to do it, regardless of perceived obstacles.”

“But us being separated like that made me look guilty.”

“Not in and of itself. Most domestic murders are committed by the partner, so you would have had the spotlight on you anyway, especially with Raymond Beech owning the local cops.”

He blew out a breath. “I really never had a chance, did I?”

“No. But I’m going to do everything I can to change that. Let’s shift gears for a minute—I talked with Mandy Reynolds. She said that Lindsay was having some trouble at her job.”

“That’s a polite way of describing it. Her boss was hitting on her—and he’d moved past suggestive and into threatening.”

I blinked. That was new and something no one had ever mentioned. “Brett Spalding was harassing Lindsay?”

He nodded. “She didn’t want to tell me at first, but I knew something was bothering her. She finally said she was getting unwanted attention from her boss. A couple weeks after that I went to a business party with her—one of those fancy ones with ice sculptures and small food. He was too touchy-feely for my taste. Always pulling her away to ‘make introductions,’ and always with his hand on her back, like she was a prized possession.”

I shook my head. “It seemed that everyone wanted to own Lindsay.”

“Not me,” he said sadly. “I just wanted to get away from all the bad stuff and for us to live our lives. I never asked her to be anyone other than who she was. And she was a great person—beautiful, kind, smart. I know a lot of people say they’re going to change the world, but I honestly think if she’d been given a chance, Lindsay could have.”

“Did she tell you what the harassment involved exactly?”

“Not down to specific words. She probably knew I’d track him down and punch him, but the gist of it was he wanted certain favors and if she wanted to be promoted, she’d get on board.”

I blew out a breath. “Mandy didn’t say anything about that, and I’m certain she would have if she’d known. I wonder why Lindsay didn’t tell her?”

He shrugged. “Lindsay was embarrassed by the whole thing. I know we’re always telling women they shouldn’t be. That it’s not their fault…but you know how it is. She didn’t think she’d caused it, but she thought she should be the one to fix it.”

“I suppose, but it seems like the kind of thing you’d tell your best friend, especially since they’d known each other all their lives.”

“My guess is Lindsay didn’t want to pile any more onto Mandy than she already had on her plate. She’s not a happy person. Her mother was a housemaid on the Beech estate. Did she tell you that?”

“No.”

“That’s how she and Lindsay became friends, much to the dismay of Lindsay’s parents. They never thought Mandy was good enough, and if they were being honest, I think the Perkinses blamed Lindsay for Mandy hooking up with their son. That’s stupid, of course. It’s not like Magnolia Pass is New York City. Sebastian knew who Mandy was whether or not she was hanging out with Lindsay.”

“It seems the founding families aren’t big on personal responsibility.”

“Ha! It’s practically nonexistent. But Mandy messed up marrying Sebastian. She’s a talented artist, but her parents couldn’t afford school and there’s really nothing else she was good at. Lindsay tried to talk her out of marrying him, but I think she saw a way out of her mother’s life.”

“It seemed that everyone at the estate is afraid of him, including his wife.”

“I think he tunes her up. Sometimes she’d be wearing long sleeves when it was ninety-five degrees out and a hundred percent humidity. Meanwhile, everyone else would be walking around in the least amount of clothes they could get by with legally.”

I nodded. That tallied with my thoughts. “The trouble Mandy was referring to was a mistake on a client’s account. Mandy said it cost the client a lot of money and he ended up moving his money to Raymond’s firm. The suggestion was made that Lindsay had intentionally screwed up the account to get her father the business.”

Ryan shook his head. “No way! Lindsay was too ethical to do anything of the sort, and why would she send business to her father when she had no intention of ever working for him?”

“So nothing deliberate—just a mistake?”

“I don’t believe that either. Lindsay could have never made a mistake that big. She’d never seen a number she didn’t remember, and she was a magician with investing. I’d been giving her my tip money—probably five hundred or so a week—for a couple months. She turned that two thousand into twelve thousand in the same amount of time. I hate to say I don’t believe Mandy, but maybe she’s confused. Lindsay never told me anything about it, and if she told me her boss was hitting on her, I don’t know why she wouldn’t tell me that.”

“I think it happened right before her death, so you’d probably already moved out. Brett Spalding confirmed the error and that it lost them a client to Raymond. I’m going to verify with the client, of course, but at this point, I have to assume it really happened.”

He looked worried and frustrated. “If that’s what got her killed… I didn’t even know. Because I wasn’t there.”

“We’ve been through this already. You couldn’t have prevented what happened. The only thing that would have changed was timing.”

“Maybe. But if Lindsay had made a mistake and really cost them a big client, then why didn’t Brett fire her?”

“He said because you didn’t fire your best employees without investigating first. But maybe it was because he was hitting on her. He might have thought keeping her on would gain him favor.”

“That sounds about right,” he said, his disgust apparent. “All those money-obsessed guys are the same. But I still find it hard to believe Lindsay made a mistake so big she was killed for it.”

I nodded. “Who had access to your house?”

“Only me and Lindsay.”

“But you rented it, right? So the landlord had keys, and maybe the previous renters if he didn’t change the locks. There was no sign of forced entry. If we discount a professional thief breaking in—and given that nothing was stolen, I think that’s a safe bet—we’re left with two options: someone had a key or Lindsay let them inside.”

“She would have let anyone we’ve discussed inside.”

“Even in the middle of the night?”

“If she thought what they wanted was important enough, sure. It would have never occurred to her that someone she knew was going to kill her.”

“I get it.”

He sighed. “You’re not going to be able to solve this, are you? No one believed me back then, and it’s been too long. Even if someone knew something, why would they stick their neck out now? They’d just be in trouble for not telling what they knew back then.”

“I know it seems hopeless, but I’m not going to give up. I don’t want you to, either. The guard is signaling, so I have to go, but keep thinking about everything. If you can think of anything else, call me as soon as you have privileges.”

“And Ben?”

“I’ll call Alexander as soon as I leave. He’ll get everything in motion.”

As I headed for the impatient guard, I glanced back. Ryan was staring down at the table, the picture of Ben in his hand. Even from across the room, I could see the tears glistening in his eyes. I prayed that I could come up with something quickly.

There were two lives on the line.