The Second Lie (24 page)

Kyle could hardly stand to look at himself in the mirror when he thought about the aftermath of his one hour of drunken indiscretion. How could he possibly face the condemnation, the disappointment, he would see in Sam's expressive blue eyes?

Drawing close to the site, Lillie jerked her head on the reins, and Kyle noticed the doe rummaging through the dirt-covered charred remains. With a light touch of his hand on the bridle, he stopped Lillie and watched. The fire department had cleared the land of any damaging chemicals and covered the ground with new earth. The deer was safe. But would she find anything of benefit to her in the new land?

He heard the car before the doe did. Recognizing Sam's Mustang, he watched as the deer hopped off across the field, heading for a cove of trees.

Dismounting, Kyle held Lillie and waited while Sam pulled off the road and climbed out.

"Checking up on me?" he asked as she skirted the edge of the field and came up to them.

"How's my girl?" Sam rubbed Lillie's nose. And Kyle's horse nuzzled her back.

"I've been driving by as often as I can," she said, still fondling the mare as she looked up at Kyle. "Someone dumped that waste, Kyle."

"I know. I've been making rounds, as well."

She was in uniform. And still looked beautiful to him. His horse, his senses, were working against him.

And then she buried her face in the mare's neck, breathing deeply as though shoring up her strength, and Kyle started to sweat.

Her eyes, when she turned back to him, were blazing.

"Mind telling me why you paid Sherry Mahon ten thousand dollars last year, Kyle?"

She'd gone back far enough. There'd always been that chance.

"Who's asking? The cop or the friend?"

"How about the woman you've been sleeping with for the past thirteen years?"

"I'm not sure who that is."

"Ditto. You're scum, Kyle. Lying scum. I...can't find words to tell you what I think of you right now."

Samantha's wrath wasn't new to him. Her passion in bed was a hundred percent more acute than its shadow side.

"Tell me, Kyle. Tell me why you risked everything--your farm, Grandpa, your last chance with the experimental crop...us. Why would you throw all of that away by giving that woman every dime you had left in savings?"

"Why don't you tell me?" She wasn't going to hear anything he had to say. Not right now. Not when she was glaring at him and shaking and trying not to cry.

"I'll tell you why," she said. "I think she's blackmailing you. That's what I think."

She'd surprised him. He'd expected her to think he'd been supporting the woman on the side. Like a mistress.

"Blackmailing me? For what?"

"I'm not sure about that." She looked down and her voice lowered a couple of decibels. "I just found out about this an hour ago. I haven't had time to work through all the facts. It's probably got to do with the drugs somehow. Like she found out you were involved with the meth she's dealing and is extorting your silence."

Kyle had lain awake in bed so many nights lately, imagining his life unraveling. He'd never envisioned anything like this...this calm, almost slow-motion spiral. He stood, as though outside himself, watching the whole thing. He was no longer just imagining.

"Is that what you really believe?" His voice sounded a lot calmer than he felt.

The seconds that Sam stared up at him were interminable. "I don't know what to believe. I can't believe my Kyle would ever have anything to do with drug production, distribution or use. But then, my Kyle wouldn't have screwed another woman the day after we broke up, either. Or gotten back together with me the next day without owning up to the mistake."

"Dammit, give me a break, Sam." The words were wrung out of Kyle. "I was as devastated as you were when you gave me your ring back that Friday night. It was like permanent darkness descended. All good feeling was gone out of my life. I made a horrible mistake. I was too drunk. Had a disgusting lack of judgment. I get that. But if I'd told you about it that Sunday when you came over asking for your ring back, would you have taken it? Would you have gotten back together with me?"

She didn't blink. Didn't lower her gaze as she considered his question. "No."

If he'd told her the truth, he'd have lost her. By not telling her the truth, he'd lost a part of himself.

And that was the choice he'd made.

"Why did you give her what was left of your life's savings, Kyle?"

It wasn't any of her business. Not now. His shame was his own. He didn't have to share it with her.

And if he didn't, the cop standing there with tears in her eyes as she gazed up at him would run with her theory that he was being blackmailed by one of his distributors.

"She called me. About six weeks after that night. Told me she was pregnant."

Sam's shoulders dropped and her expression went dead.

"She wanted money, support for her and the kid. She suggested that we get married."

He gave Sam a chance to say something. She didn't.

"I asked her how sure she was that the baby was mine. After I told her I was going to ask around at the bar where I'd met her, she admitted that she'd been with someone else, but swore they'd used protection."

Another pause met with eerie silence.

"I told her that I wanted a paternity test. And that if the test showed I was the baby's father, I'd help pay for the birth and would support the child, help raise it, but that I couldn't marry her."

"So the ten thousand was only last year's installment on child support? You've been paying her all these years?"

"No. There is no child, Sam."

Hands in his pockets, he swallowed bile. "I called her back a week later to see how she was doing. She'd had the child aborted."

"Was it yours?"

"Probably. But there was no way of knowing for sure. Last year, after all these years, I got a call from her. Said she was having female complications due to the abortion and needed surgery. She didn't have insurance so I gave her everything I had left to pay for it."

"Did you go see her afterward?"

"Hell, no. She's nothing to me, Sam, other than the biggest mistake of my life."

"And you haven't seen her since?"

"No."

"Sherry Mahon was in jail for most of last year, Kyle. I'll check on the surgery story, but I'm guessing your ten thousand dollars paid for one hell of a lot of methamphetamine."

Kissing Lillie goodbye, Sam turned her back and left him standing there.

21

D
avid Abrams finally returned Samantha's call Thursday morning. She'd had three days to investigate a man she'd known, in passing, for most of her life and, as far as she could tell, he'd never defended a methamphetamine case.

There were no obvious signs of an influx of cash in his life. The new house was nice, but not flashy, and was in the moderate range of what he should be able to afford given his case list and hourly rate. He'd been driving the same car for a couple of years. Hadn't taken any recent vacations, except to see his parents in Florida.

He worked and volunteered and donated ten percent of his income to various charities. He spent time with his family and was active in a local political party. A trustee at his church, he was also a member of the parent organization at school.

Sam found no scandals, rumors, no professional complaints against him, according to the Ohio bar association website. Not even a speeding or parking ticket marred his record.

The judge, his colleagues and even the police spoke highly of him.

But he'd lied to Sam--a deputy sheriff.

And everyone had secrets.

At this point, after her experience with Kyle, if someone told her David Abrams was a mass murderer, she might believe them.

She'd left her cell number with him a number of times that week and he called while she was in the Mustang, having followed Maggie Winston from her home to the school. Her shift didn't start until noon so she'd watched Shane arrive, as well, cruised by Malcolm Hardy's rented home and checked out the park just to make certain Maggie hadn't backtracked to meet her Mac. Sam had also already been out to the sports complex to see if there were any kids making rendezvous when they should be in school.

"I'm following up on a previous conversation we had," she told the lawyer as she switched lanes, made a U-turn and headed out toward Mechanic Street and the vacant house a couple of blocks from Abrams's new place. She'd look for any changes at the empty residence, any sign of temporary occupancy, and then head out to Kyle's part of the county.

"Is this for a case?"

"Not really." She sipped from her favorite of the many thermal coffee mugs she owned. "This isn't an official call, David. I'm just checking up on something for a friend and thought maybe you could help."

"Sure, if I can."

"Do you remember when we talked a couple of weeks ago?"

"Of course. You were asking about a girl. A teenager. I can't remember her name, but I remember that she wasn't old enough to drive."

Right. Because he and Susan had agreed to hire only babysitters with a license.

"That's the one," Sam said, making a turn and then another. Chandler was quiet that morning. Peaceful. "You told me you weren't at home the morning she stopped by your house."

"I didn't tell you that."

She pulled over to the side of the road. "You didn't?" Of course he had. He'd said he'd never seen or heard of Maggie Winston. And that Susan had told him about meeting the potential babysitter.

"No, what I said was I didn't see the girl. Susan answered the door because I was upstairs with Devon, who was throwing up. As I recall, you didn't even ask if I was home. You only asked if I knew the girl."

He was right about that.

"Are you at home now?"

It was early enough, but she knew the attorney had a habit of being in his office at the crack of dawn.

"No, I'm on my way to the office."

"Oh, sorry, do you mind holding on for a second?"

"Sure, no problem."

Clicking her cell phone to put the call on hold, Sam dialed David's home phone from her contact list. If his story checked out, she could just have given everyone around her reason to believe their concern about her being obsessed was credible.

David and Chuck were brothers-in-law and played darts with Kyle and Pierce. There was no chance that the morning call would go unreported.

Susan Abrams answered on the third ring.

After asking how the other woman was doing--and making an inane joke about Chuck, Susan's brother--Sam asked if Susan knew Maggie Winston.

"Yes, she's Glenna's friend."

"Your babysitter?"

"Yes. Why? Is something wrong? Glenna's not hurt, is she?"

"Nothing's wrong," Sam said. "A friend of mine was asking about Maggie and I'd heard she'd been at your house. Were you home alone when the girls came by?"

"No, the kids were here. And David was, too, as I recall. He was upstairs. I remember because Devon was sick and David had had to reschedule a couple of court hearings to stay home and help me with him. I couldn't take the time to talk to the girl after she'd come all the way over to meet me."

Confirming David's rescheduled court cases would be easy.

Thanking Susan, and apologizing for interrupting her morning, she returned to David.

"I have to be honest with you, David. I just called Susan to check up on what you told me about Maggie Winston. I've been watching out for the girl, not as a cop, but as a favor for a friend, and I got a little crazy there when Kyle told me you'd been home the day that Maggie visited. I thought you'd lied to me and--"

"Why on earth would I do that?"

She couldn't be that honest. "I had no idea. I was hoping you were going to tell me."

"Is she in some kind of trouble?"

"Not trouble. She's a great kid. But she might be in danger."

"What kind of danger?"

"I'm not sure. But there've been some strange things happening and her mother is worried about the possibility that she's falling under the spell of a pedophile."

"A pedophile? Here in Chandler?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. Truthfully, I have no proof of anything. It's just some things the girl has said."

"What kind of things?"

He cared. And she owed him after practically accusing him of being involved with Maggie himself.

"Just that she has feelings for this older guy. Stuff like that."

"Has she said who he is?"

"Just a first name. Mac. We've checked every Mac, MacDonald and Michael, in the vicinity and--"

"You think she's seeing him?"

"I know they've met at least twice. But she doesn't have any way of getting in touch with him. She insists there's nothing going on. That she just made an offhand comment that's been taken way out of proportion."

"Is that possible?"

"Of course."

"For what it's worth, I think you're doing the right thing, Sam. There are a lot of despicable crimes, but sexual impropriety with a minor is at the very top of the list."

"Yeah, well, I'm really sorry I involved you."

"I'm not. You're a good cop, Sam. Don't let anyone make you feel any differently."

He had no idea how much his words meant.

"Thanks, I appreciate that."

"I mean it."

"I know. Give your kids a hug for me."

"You got it. And tell my brother-in-law that he'd better get himself out to the house for dinner or I'm going to come looking for him. Susan worries about him, and she doesn't need any extra stress right now."

"I'll tell him."

Kyle was cooking bacon Friday morning when he got the call.

"Kyle?" He didn't recognize the number on his caller ID. Or the voice, either. At first.

"Yeah."

"This is Viola..."

Bob Branson's wife. He'd been meaning to call her-- Bob, too--to find out if there was anything he could do to help hold their marriage together. With everything going on at the farm, he'd lost touch with the Bransons over the past year.