She pushed the metal door open and stepped inside. Marilyn followed. A bare fluorescent light made the tiny room too bright. The walls were yellow-painted cinder block, no windows. Six white washing machines lined one side. Stacked dryers lined another. A few mateless socks lay scattered on the linoleum floor. Amy closed the door and locked it. An empty chair waited by the soda machine, but neither one took it. They went to the folding table in the center of the room and stood at opposite ends, facing each other.
“Okay,” said Amy. “Now tell me. What’s going on?”
Marilyn struggled for words, struggled to look at Amy. “I haven’t been honest with you.”
“No kidding.”
“I wish there was some unselfish explanation for my dishonesty. I’d like to be able to tell you it was for your own good.”
“Please. I’ve heard that one enough for one lifetime.”
Marilyn nodded, knowing the old story. “That always sounds so hollow, doesn’t it? Rarely is it ever for the benefit of anyone but the person who is being dishonest. But I was able to fool myself for years. I told myself it was for your own safety that I didn’t tell you the truth. Only tonight did I admit to myself that all the deception was for my benefit — for the good of my career. It took something pretty drastic to get me to realize that.”
“What?”
“I realized that unless you know the truth, you are going to get yourself killed.” She looked away, then back. “Just like your mother.”
Amy went cold. “My mother was murdered, wasn’t she.”
“I don’t know.”
“Stop lying! Ryan Duffy showed me Mom’s letter. I know the rape never happened.”
“That’s not what it says. It says Frank Duffy didn’t rape me.”
Her voice lowered, but the tone was just as bitter. “What’s the difference?”
“I was raped.”
A tense silence fell between them. “By who?”
She paused, then said, “Joe.”
“You married the man who raped you?”
“I didn’t know it was him. I thought it was Frank.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Listen to me, please. It’s not as ridiculous as it sounds.” She quickly recounted the drive to Cheesman Dam forty-six years ago, the drinking that led to her passing out. “The next thing I knew, I was in the police station. My parents were there. A counselor was there. I had been raped. Joe denied ever laying a hand me. He made a real scene of it, accusing Frank of raping me when he drove me home. He even punched Frank in the face.”
“And they believed Joe?”
“Frank ran with the rough crowd in high school. Never did anything major, but enough to make the police think he was capable of rape. Joe was the perfect kid from the perfect family.”
“Couldn’t they do a blood test from the semen?”
“They were both O-positive. Something like forty percent of the population is O-positive. And of course this was decades before they started doing DNA testing.”
“So Frank got charged.”
“And convicted.”
“How did you find out the truth? What is the truth?”
“The truth is, Joe raped me after I passed out. Before any of us ever left Cheesman Dam. Before I got sick.”
Amy stepped away from the table, taking it all in. “When did you find all this out?”
“Joe finally told me. Years after we were married.”
“He just confessed?”
“No. Joe is one of those even-tempered gentlemen who blow a gasket every now and then. He could get pretty rough, especially if he drank. One time I actually had to hit him to keep him off me. He came back and said something like, ‘I’ll rape you again, bitch.’ It was the again that hung him. I forced it out of him.”
“What did you do?”
“I wanted to tell Frank Duffy how sorry I was. But if I ever told anyone, Joe swore he’d say our sex was consensual and that it was my idea to put the blame on Frank Duffy, just to save my reputation.”
“But… you told my mother.”
“Yes. I had to.”
“I don’t understand.”
Marilyn tried to step closer, but Amy kept her distance. Marilyn said, “It was the same night your mother told me she had cancer. She was worried about you. She asked me to be your guardian.”
Amy was confused, anguished. “What did you say?”
“I was torn. I wanted to. I would have done anything for Debby and you.”
“But you didn’t say yes.”
“I couldn’t give her an unconditional yes. I thought this thing with Frank Duffy was a potential noose around my neck. The absolute worst thing for you would be to lose your mother to cancer and then lose your guardian because she was embroiled in a rape scandal. I wanted Debby to know everything that could possibly impact on my perceived fitness to be your guardian. So I told her I had decided to divorce Joe. And I told her why.”
“You told her Frank Duffy didn’t rape you. You told her it was Joe.”
“That’s right.”
“And then she wrote to Frank Duffy and told him exactly what you said. Why?”
“I don’t know why. Maybe she thought Frank might need the letter to clear his name someday. Whatever she was thinking, I’ve always felt somewhat betrayed by that.”
The rage returned. “And that’s when Frank Duffy started to blackmail you and Joe.”
“Yes.”
“And then my mother was shot.”
“After. Yes.”
“Oh, my God. It’s like Ryan Duffy said. You and Joe are in this together. You killed my mother for telling his father the truth.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“That’s why Joe paid all that extortion. You weren’t just hiding the rape. It was the murder. You killed my mother for writing that letter to Frank Duffy. And then you paid Frank Duffy to hide the letter and keep your motive a secret.”
“Amy, I didn’t kill her.”
“Then Joe did.”
Marilyn was silent.
Amy came around the table, ready to strike her. “Joe killed her, didn’t he!”
Marilyn stepped back, on the verge of tears. “I don’t know. I swear to God, I don’t know.”
“You know, Marilyn. In your heart, you know.”
She covered her face, her hands shaking. “Don’t you think it’s been hell for me? Yes, in my heart I’ve suspected.”
“Then why didn’t you do something? Just go to the police.”
“I couldn’t. Not after Joe started paying the blackmail. The way he set it up, the whole scheme looked like it was designed to protect my reputation, my career. The police would have thought I was behind the murder. Not Joe.”
“Why shouldn’t I think the same thing?”
“Because now Joe’s motive is finally apparent. It was a long-term investment for him. The blackmail, the murder. He controls me. And if I get this appointment to the Board of Governors, he’ll control the Federal Reserve.”
“You let him control you.”
“I made a bad decision, and it snowballed. But I would never have done anything to hurt your mother. Or you. I’m a victim here, too. How do you think it feels after forty-six years? To be deceived into marrying the man who raped me. And to be manipulated by him still, twenty years after the divorce.”
Marilyn wiped away a tear. Amy felt every right to be angry, but she felt sorry for her, too.
“All I want,” she said, seething, “is to find the man who killed my mother. And make him pay.”
“I can understand that. But if you’re looking for an actual trigger man, it wouldn’t have been Joe. Not personally, I mean.”
“Who was it?”
“Probably a man named Rusch. He’s been with Joe for years. He does the kind of work Joe never talked about, not even when we were married.”
“How do I meet this Mr. Rusch?”
“Trust me. You never want to meet him.”
She stepped closer, right in Marilyn’s face.
“Take me to him.”
“Amy, the reason I came here is to make sure you don’t meet him.”
“Excuse me?”
“Somebody faxed your mother’s letter to me this morning and said to meet them at Cheesman Dam tonight. I called Joe and told him about it. He’s sending Rusch in my place, in my Mercedes. It’s a trap.”