She just sounded hysterical, like she had no idea what was happening.
After they left, I waited until I thought they were long gone, then I turned on my flashlight and went to him. He looked horrible. I was just standing there feeling sick, not knowing what to do, when another light went on and caught me. I heard Julie scream a little again, so I know it was them. I guess they’d been waiting on the road above. So I took off as fast as I could.” %221 “They didn’t follow?” “They might have tried, I don’t know. I wasn’t listening for them, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to wait around. I’d parked my car way up the road and I just took off.” There was a slight pause while Spinney and I absorbed all this. Major questions remained unanswered: What had motivated Wingate’s assailant to kill him? Since we now knew the killer wasn’t Rennie, then who was he?
Sarris, perhaps, hell bent on eliminating both Wingate and Rennie with one blow?
“Why were you there in the first place?” Spinney asked. Gorman was sitting slumped on his stool, absentmindedly rubbing the side of his head. “Bruce called me. He called me several timesafter the fire, after the lie detector test. He was falling apart.
He’d gotten a note from Julie late Wednesday night asking him for a get-together later that night. We talked about it some; I said I’d come along to back him up, but we decided I should stay out of sight.” “Why come along at all? Weren’t you running the risk of scaring her oIl?”
“Bruce was scared. I found out at that meeting that Julie had tried to kill him once already, just before the fire-” Gorman hesitated, obviously aware he’d opened a potential can of worms. He spoke rapidly to reseal the lid. “I know nothing about the fire, by the way. When Bruce called me that morning, all he said was that there had been one, that he’d gone back to the house after the fight with Fox, had argued with Julie, who’d reappeared, and that ‘things hadn’t worked out’those were his words. He made it sound like the fire was just an accident.”
“Did he tell you if Julie got away before the fire?” I asked, remembering Wingate’s minimal interest in the victims the following morning.
“Not in so many words. I asked him something like, ‘Is Julie okay?” and he said she was fine. I guess he lied about part of it to keep me involved. He knew I’d have nothing to do with violence.” Spinney ignored the self-righteous undertone. “You said you found out that night that Julie had tried to kill her father. What did she say exactly?” Gorman looked pained, ruing his own indiscretion. “I don’t remember exactly; it was something like, ‘I’m sorry I didn’t kill you.’”
“To which he said?” “‘You don’t know what you’re saying.’” “Was there any mention of how she tried to kill him? A gun or a knife?” “No.” %222
“Or whether anyone else died as a result?” “No, they both knew what they were talking about. They didn’t go into detail for my benefit.” I spoke up. “If they didn’t go into detail, how did you know she tried to kill her father before the fire-that’s what you said. The fire could have been the method she tried.” Gorman was looking increasingly uncomfortable. “I’m trying to remember all this, okay? It was pretty wild. I think that’s just something I assumed. As far as I know, they never saw each other after the fire, except for the night he died, so it must have been before. And I think the fire was accidental, because they both blamed each other for that.” Spinney mulled that over and returned to his original line of questioning. “So you say Wingate was scared, and that’s why you agreed to be his backup?” His voice was totally neutral.
“He was scared-he even brought a gun. But all he told me was that he thought they were crazy and that he wouldn’t know what to do if a bunch of them showed up at once.” “So you were supposed to be the cavalry? I find that hard to believe.” He hesitated.
“You’re facing felony charges already, Gorman. Don’t start dicking around now.” “All right, all right. Bruce was hoping he could talk her into coming back home-most parents do. But he also thought that if she wouldn’t come, maybe the two of us could grab her. I’d told him that, if you can get a kid like that in a neutral place, sometimes you can turn them around, make them see the cult for what it is and give it up.”
“So you were hoping to kidnap her?” He didn’t like the phrasing. “As a last resort. I didn’t know she was homicidal. He lied to me.” “What was the meeting like, before the attack?” Gorman looked bitter.
“I was hiding up the hill a bit. It was dark, the sky had been covered by clouds, couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. Bruce was at the bottom with a flashlight. Julie appeared out of nowhere-it was creepy. They talked. He accused her of causing the fire, and said if she came with him, no one would ever know about it.” “Did she admit setting it?” “Not directly, but she talked about it. She said he was as much to blame as she was, that if he’d just left her alone, none of it would have happened. She made it sound like an accident, but one they’d both caused. It didn’t make much sense to me.” %223 “Go on.” “It was pretty obvious she hadn’t called the meeting to talk about going home.
She wanted him to leave her alone or she’d ‘turn him in’-those were her words; I don’t know what she meant. Anyway, he said she couldn’t do that without implicating herself. She answered she didn’t care because he’d ruined her life anyhow and now it was her turn, that her merely speaking out would screw up his job and his cherished reputation forever. She was incredibly angry. I mean, I’d never seen such hatred.
She loathed the guy. I was thinking I’d tell him later that he was well rid of her and that he should dump the whole thing.” Spinney scratched his head in puzzlement. “Why didn’t you report any of this? You weren’t guilty of anything. In fact, you made yourself an accessory by keeping quiet you must have known that.” Gorman looked at us with wide eyes. “You weren’t there. This guy just took him apart. I mean, this wasn’t some sort of fight where a gun goes off or something. This guy butchered him-like a madman. I was scared to death. They had that light right on me. I looked up into it-they saw my face.” “So why not get in your car and drive off into the sunset?” Spinney asked.
“I thought about it. But I had to talk to Ellie first, to tell her what had happened.” “Did you?” “Not right away. I went to the Inn, but that old bat was around. I could see her through the windows.” “Greta?”
“Yeah. I don’t know what she was doing, but she was up and about in the middle of the night. I was stuck then, because I didn’t want to go back to the motel, in case they’d found out where I was staying, and I couldn’t leave Ellie high and dry. So I drove around all night. I figured the motel would be safe after dawn, so then I waited in my room for Ellie to call me. I knew she would as soon as she heard about Bruce.” “Why didn’t you just call her on your car phone?” “It doesn’t work up here, no cellular relay stations. Besides, I knew they didn’t have a phone in their room. If I’d called, Greta would have answered and might have wondered later about the coincidence of Bruce dying and my telephoning the same night. I wasn’t even supposed to be near here, much less at the scene of a crime.” “So why didn’t you leave then?”
Spinney persisted. “I was going to, but then I saw what was happening.
Julie and whoever it was were trying to frame Rennie Wilson. That’s when I realized I was probably okay.
They’d seen who I was, but they weren’t %224 going to do anything about it because it would have blown their frameup.” “Come on, they could have rigged it some way. You could have had a fatal accident,” I said.