"Landry?" I asked as he started down the hall. He glanced back at me. "Any sign of Van Zandt yet?"
"No. He never came back to the town house." He started to turn away and I called him back a second time.
I took Erin's bracelet from my pocket and held it out to him. "I found this on the floor of the examination room Erin was in last night. Ask her about it. Maybe it was a gift from Jade."
He took it from me, his fingers brushing mine. He nodded.
"Thank you," I said. "For filling me in."
Landry tipped his head. "Your case first."
"I thought you didn't share."
"First time for everything."
He looked at the bracelet in his hand, then walked away.
I left the hospital and took a drive around the parking lot with an eye peeled for a navy blue Chevy, but Van Zandt wasn't there. Nor was Krystal Seabright's white Lexus or Bruce's Jaguar. Ever the loving parents. Erin had told them to go, so they'd gone. Off the hook.
I have never understood people who have children but don't raise them, don't nurture them, don't help them become human beings. What other reason is there? To carry on the family name? To get a welfare check? To preserve proof of a relationship? Because that was what one was supposed to do at a particular time in one's life: get married, have kids. No one ever explained why.
I didn't know much about Erin Seabright's upbringing, but I knew she hadn't gotten where she was by being loved. She was, by her own sister's account, an angry, bitter girl.
I didn't like her sketchy tale. I knew from personal experience that angry, bitter girls want the people who hurt them most to pay for their sins. I wondered if she might blame whom she wanted to blame. Perhaps Jade hadn't loved her. Perhaps he'd broken her heart. And, in pain, in terror, under the influence of drugs, she might have projected his identity onto her tormentor.
Or perhaps the tormentor had put the idea there for her to believe.
I thought of Michael Berne again. It would have been simple for him to call Radio Shack and ask for that cell phone to be set aside. He could have sent a minion in to get the thing. If he had known about Erin's attraction to Jade, he could have played on that during Erin's captivity.
But who would Michael's partner be? He had no connection to the Seabrights I was aware of. He was on the wrong side of the relationship with Trey Hughes.
Trey Hughes, who kept my father's phone number in his wallet. Trey with his eye for the girls and his connection to every aspect of this sordid tale.
I didn't want to believe he could be a part of something so vicious as what had been done to Erin Seabright. I was still putting money on Van Zandt.
But it seemed to me I had pieces from three different puzzles. The trick would be coming up with a final picture that wasn't an abstract.
45
The assistant state's attorney seemed unperturbed by the fact that Erin Seabright had not seen the faces of her captors. As Elena had said, they had enough evidence to hold him on the charges, to arraign him and make a strong argument for high bail or no bail. They would then, by Florida law, have 175 days to bring Jade before a jury. Ample time to put the case together, provided the additional evidence was there to find.
The blood that had been found in the stall where Jill Morone had died had been typed. If they could match it to Jade, they were on their way to a murder indictment to add to the kidnapping charge. They had put Jade's alibi for the night of Jill's death in doubt. He had no alibi for the night the horse had been killed, the event Estes believed had kicked everything into motion.
Landry thought of Elena as he left the prosecutor's office. He didn't like that she had doubts about Jade's involvement, and he didn't like that it mattered to him what she thought. She had dragged him into this mess, and he wanted it to lay out as simply as her original theory had. Most crimes were like that: straightforward. The average murder was about money or sex, and didn't require Sherlock Holmes to solve. Kidnapping for ransom-the same. Good basic police work led to arrests and convictions. He didn't want this case to be any different.
And maybe the reason Estes' doubts bothered him so much was that some of those same doubts were chewing at the back of his mind. He tried to shake them off as he walked down the hall. Weiss came out of the squad room to meet him.
"Paris Montgomery is here. Asking for you," he added with an eye roll.
"Did you find anything at the Seabright house?"
"Jackpot," Weiss said. "We found a videotape stashed on a shelf in Seabright's home office. You won't believe it. It actually shows the girl being raped. We've got Seabright in the conference room. I'm on my way now."
"Wait for me," Landry said, fury burning in his gut. "I want a crack at that son of a bitch."
"There'll be a line," Weiss assured him.
Paris Montgomery was pacing behind the table as Landry walked into the interview room. She looked upset and nervous, though her emotional state had not prevented her from putting on makeup or styling her hair.
"Ms. Montgomery. Thank you for coming in," Landry said. "Have a seat. Can I get you anything? Coffee?"
"God, no," she said, sitting down. "If I have any more caffeine I'm going to start spinning around the room like a top. I can't believe any of this is happening. Don in jail. Erin kidnapped. My God. Is she all right? I just tried calling the hospital, but they wouldn't tell me anything."
"She's been roughed up," Landry said. "But she'll recover."
"Will they let me see her?"
"Immediate family only, for the time being. Maybe later today."
"I feel terrible about what happened. I mean, she worked for me. I should have looked out for her." Tears filled the big brown eyes. "I should have done something. When Don said she'd quit and gone- I should have tried harder to contact her. I should have known something was wrong."
"Why is that? Did you have reason to be suspicious?"
She glanced away; her expression seemed to have the kind of glazed look people get when they are watching memories run through their minds.
"Erin had seemed happy with the job. I mean, I knew she was having boyfriend trouble, but what girl her age doesn't? I just- I should have questioned her leaving so suddenly. But you have to understand, grooms come and go during the season. There's too much opportunity. Someone offers more money or health insurance or an extra day off and they're gone."
Landry offered no platitudes, no absolution. Someone sure as hell should have been paying closer attention to what was going on with Erin Seabright. He wasn't inclined to let anyone off the hook.
"Were you aware of any relationship between Erin and Don?" he asked.
"Erin had a crush on him."
"To your knowledge, did he act on it?"
"I-well-Don is very charismatic."
"Is that a yes or a no?"
"He's a magnetic kind of person. Women are drawn to him. He enjoys that. He likes to flirt."
"With Erin?"
"Well… sure… but I didn't think he would take advantage of her. I don't want to believe that he did."
"But he might have."
She looked uncertain, which was answer enough.
"Did Erin say anything to you about the death of the horse?"
"She was upset. We all were."
"Did she hint that she knew something about what happened?"
She looked away again and pressed two fingers against the small crease digging in between her eyebrows. "She didn't believe it was an accident."
"She took care of the horse, right?"
"Yes. She was very good with him-with all the horses. She put in extra time with them. She would come and check on them after hours sometimes."