Broken Places (15 page)

Chapter Forty-six

Scotty Ragsdale lay flat in the hospital bed, his eyes focused on the ceiling, and didn’t seem to notice when Tom walked in.

“Hey, Scotty.” Tom switched on the portable recorder he’d brought and placed it on the over-bed table.

Ragsdale’s gaze drifted toward Tom, down to the recorder, then back to the ceiling. “Didn’t take you long to get over here.”

“I didn’t want to give you time to change your mind about talking to me. We need to get this done today. Right after your arraignment tomorrow morning, an ambulance is going to move you to the regional jail. They’ve got a sick bay where you can recuperate.”

“Doesn’t matter to me where I am,” Ragsdale muttered.

“Your folks told me you fired your lawyer. The judge appointed one for you, and he’ll be in to see you before you’re arraigned.”

“If he’s going to tell me to plead not guilty, he can save himself the trip. I just want to plead guilty and get it over with.”

“That’s between you and him. You ready to answer some questions?”

Ragsdale’s eyes shifted to Tom again for a second before he turned his head toward the window. “How is she? Meredith. Where is she?”

“You don’t need to know where she is.” Meredith was also hospitalized, on the floor above this one, and even though both prisoners were guarded by deputies, Tom was afraid Ragsdale might try to get to her if he knew she was so close. “She’s doing okay. Talking a lot. She claims you were responsible for everything that happened—you killed Karen Hernandez, and Cam, and Lloyd Wilson—and you forced her to go along with it.”

“I didn’t kill Karen.” Ragsdale’s mumbled words were barely audible.

This was the first statement of any substance that Ragsdale had made since coming out of surgery two days before. “Were you there when she was killed?”

Ragsdale stared out the window at the brilliant blue sky for so long that Tom was tempted to prompt him for an answer, but at last he turned his head on the pillow and met Tom’s eyes. “Yeah. I was there. I didn’t kill her, but I saw her die.”

“Tell me the whole story, Scotty, from the beginning.”

“I loved her,” Ragsdale said, his voice thick with emotion. He swallowed hard and went on. “I loved Meredith for a long time before—I was just a friend to her for a long time.”

Ragsdale fell silent, as if he were lost in thought or memories. In the corridor outside the room, a cart rattled past and the intercom alerted a doctor to a waiting phone call. Tom prodded Ragsdale, “But things changed? You became more than friends? Did that happen recently?”

“Couple of years ago. She thought Cam was fooling around with other women. I don’t know if it was true, but Meredith believed it. She was fed up. We started talking about leaving, going somewhere together.”

“San Francisco?” Tom asked, remembering Scotty’s incoherent rambling when he was high on meth.

“Yeah. We had this picture of ourselves living near the water, writing and having a lot of writer friends.” Ragsdale gave a bitter little laugh. “A big stupid fantasy.”

“Why didn’t you go?”

“Money. Meredith was afraid to take off without much money, and no idea how to support ourselves.”

“Why didn’t she sell the jewelry her aunt left her?”

Ragsdale’s eyes snapped toward Tom. “What jewelry?”

So he hadn’t known. Tom almost felt sorry for the poor bastard. “We found it in her safe deposit box. If she’d sold it, she would have had enough money to live comfortably for a long time.”

Ragsdale’s face contorted with anger. “God damn her and her lies!”

He struggled to sit up in the bed, but Tom pushed him back against the pillow. “Take it easy now. Get hold of yourself. Just tell me what happened.”

For a couple of minutes Ragsdale stewed in his fury, his fists clenched on the blanket and his breath coming in ragged gulps. Tom waited for him to calm down.

When he spoke again, Ragsdale got to the point without any further nostalgic glimpses of the past. “She got upset when she heard Karen was here to see her son. I didn’t know why she cared. I thought maybe she was ashamed to have Karen see how she was living, her and Cam, because Karen was this rich successful lawyer. But she didn’t have to see Karen. She didn’t have to invite her over for a visit. Just knowing Karen was around really had her on edge, though. Then Karen showed up at the house that morning.”

“You were already there when she arrived?”

Ragsdale nodded. “Meredith tried hard to get me to leave, but I could see she was upset, and I wasn’t going to leave her in that state. She tried to act cool, but she was just about to fall apart. I didn’t get it. Karen was being nice, all smiles. She said she came to see Cam, but it was okay, she’d deal with Meredith instead. She said her son was being pigheaded, and he didn’t know she was coming over there, but she just wanted to give Cam what he needed and be done with it. Then Karen pulled out a check, already made out, and said,
I hope this will be enough to put an end to it. I don’t want my son to be bothered again.
”

“What did Meredith do?”

“She looked like she just wanted to drop through the floor and disappear. Her face turned red and she started shaking, trembling. Then she grabbed the check and tore it up and threw it in Karen’s face. She told her they weren’t beggars and they didn’t want her money. And Karen just blew up. She said,
Well, you’d better talk to Cam about that, because he’s been begging me for money and trying to blackmail my son, and we’re not going to put up with it anymore.
”

“Do you think Meredith knew about the blackmail?”

“No, she didn’t have any idea Cam had gone that far.”

“What happened then? After Meredith tore up the check?”

“They started yelling at each other and Karen said Meredith was a fake, acting like she was so pure-hearted. I didn’t know what she was talking about, but she said there was something Meredith did when they were V
ISTA
s that she always wondered about, and she wanted Meredith to explain it in front of me, since I’d be interested too. I didn’t know what she meant at the time. But I know now.”

“She never got to the point of spelling it out?”

“No. Meredith started screaming at her to shut up, and everything went nuts, I remember the dog was barking, and—Next thing I knew, Meredith had Cam’s gun in her hand, and she shot Karen.”

Ragsdale paused, closed his eyes, and released a long breath.

Tom let him rest for a moment, then asked, “What happened then?”

When Ragsdale continued, he sounded weary, defeated. “After she shot Karen, Meredith fell apart. She couldn’t stop crying.”

“Did you ask her why she did it?”

“Sure I did. She lied to me, I know that now, but I believed her then. She seemed so broken up about it. She said she had an illegal abortion when she was a V
ISTA
, and Karen suspected something but never knew for sure. She said she felt guilty all those years…
haunted
by it, she said, knowing she killed her first baby. She begged me not to hate her. But I didn’t care. Why would I? But the way she was carrying on, I believed it was eating at her and she just snapped because Karen was about to make her own up to it.”

“How did the two of you decide what to do next?” Tom asked.

“She wanted to leave, dump Karen’s body somewhere, ditch her car, and keep on going. But there was some blood on the floor and probably hairs and fibers. She knew a lot about that kind of stuff from Lindsay, and she said we’d never be able to get rid of it all, and the police might come there asking questions when Karen was reported missing. I thought this was our chance, Meredith was finally willing to go away with me, and I wanted that to happen. I came up with the idea of putting Meredith’s ring on Karen’s finger, then setting the house on fire so everybody would think Meredith was dead. She could hide somewhere, and after a few days we could take off.”

“Why did you kill Cam?”

“He knew about Meredith and me. I think he even knew we were talking about leaving together, but he never thought Meredith would do it. He never believed she was capable of doing anything without him. We were afraid he’d figure out what happened if he heard Karen had disappeared and I took off too. We knew it wouldn’t be long before Karen was missed, because she had people expecting her to be at work, and her son would be trying to get in touch with her.”

“So you decided on the spur of the moment to kill Cam too?” Tom could imagine Meredith and Scotty in the little house, facing the reality of what she had done, running out of options, desperately groping for a way to save themselves. “Did Meredith shoot him?”

“No. I did. I did it for her, like the fool I am. She helped me so much, she was always there when I needed her, and I thought, finally, this was something I could do for her.”

Murdering her husband. Quite a gift. It took some effort for Tom to keep his expression neutral.

“Everything started moving so fast,” Scotty went on. “I think back on it now, and it’s just a blur. Meredith called Cam on his cell phone and found out where he was and when he’d be heading back to town, and I went over there and waited for him to come along. I flagged him down and made him get out of the car and go in the woods. And I shot him. He was laughing at me when I pulled the trigger.”

“Did you see Rachel Goddard at the edge of the woods?”

“I saw somebody standing there looking straight at us. I didn’t know who it was until later.”

“What happened after you shot Cam?”

“I went back to the house. While I was gone, Meredith—Jesus, she took a hammer and smashed Karen’s face in, she said she had to break the teeth so Karen couldn’t be identified. We dragged the body into the kitchen by the door so we could get out fast when the fire started. Meredith poured kerosene right on Karen’s face and her body, just doused her with it. We took Meredith’s medicine and some food for her and the dog, and we got rid of the Jaguar before I drove her out to the McClure house to hide.”

“We found Karen’s jewelry with Meredith’s things at the McClure place,” Tom said. “What did you do with her other belongings? Her laptop, her luggage?”

“Threw them in the river.”

“And after that you decided to get rid of the witnesses? Rachel Goddard, Holly Turner, Lloyd Wilson.”

“I had to try. They saw me. They could put me at both places. I couldn’t understand why you kept waiting to arrest me. I figured if they weren’t around to testify—I was just trying to protect myself. You can’t tell me you don’t understand that. Anybody would do the same thing, wouldn’t they?”

Tom didn’t trust himself to attempt an answer.

***

Tom hurtled down the farm road in the dusk of early evening, mentally rehearsing his speech to Rachel. This would be the first time they’d had a chance to talk privately since he’d found her at the McClure house.

I love you,
he’d say.
I want a life with you, and I hope that’s what you want too. But we have to be honest with each other. If you don’t trust me enough to—

He passed the stable and Rachel’s cottage came into view.
Oh, Christ.
Ben Hern’s black Jaguar sat in Rachel’s driveway.

Tom slammed on the brakes and idled in the road, debating whether to turn around and leave. Hern was probably having dinner with Rachel and Holly. He might be planning to stay for hours. Tom would be an intruder, unwelcome.

But no, he wouldn’t leave. He was here because he loved Rachel and he wasn’t going to stand by and let her walk out of his life without trying to win her trust. And if being with her meant accepting Ben Hern as her friend, so be it. He might have to go out of his way to overcome Hern’s resentment—being accused of murder was hard for most people to forgive—but he would make the effort. Hell, they might end up liking each other. Maybe they could play basketball together. Go fishing.

Yeah, right.
Maybe he’d get lucky and Hern would go back where he came from.

He parked his Sheriff’s Department car on the road in front of the cottage instead of pulling into the driveway. Wouldn’t want to block Hern in and keep him from leaving.

From the passenger seat he grabbed a paper bag containing some things he’d brought for Rachel. As he climbed out, Hern emerged from the house with Rachel behind him. They spotted Tom and stood on the porch watching him approach.

Rachel was a slender silhouette with light spilling across her back from the open front door, her face in shadow. Tom couldn’t tell whether she welcomed or dreaded his presence.

Hern surprised him by sticking out a hand as Tom mounted the steps. “Tom,” Hern said. “Good to see you.”

First names, huh? Okay.
“Ben.” Tom shook his hand. “How are things going? I know it can’t be easy right now.”

Hern broke the contact, stuck both hands into his pants pockets. “I’m leaving for New Jersey in the morning. That’s where most of my mother’s family is. We’re having a memorial service up there in a couple of days.”

Tom wanted to ask if Hern’s plans for the future included leaving Mason County permanently, but he kept silent.

“Are there any new developments you can tell us about?” Rachel asked. “Have you been able to question Ragsdale yet?”