Instigator? I thought. Has anyone ever used that word in a confession before?
"What real harm was she doing at Magnolia Ranch?" Cooper asked—which I found a surprisingly sympathetic question for him. "I mean, there's plenty of money to go around. I believe JoLynn made your friend Elliott happy."
"Don't you agree that would have changed over time?" Ian said. "Money aside, I didn't want Elliott to get his heart broken. He's got a lousy ticker as it is."
I said, "She needed a home and he needed a granddaughter. She was a threat to your own daughter's inheritance. Maybe your own. Isn't that what worried you the most?"
"Absolutely not. I was protecting Elliott as well as Simone's inheritance. How was I to know Mr. Dugan would corrupt her automobile—I don't even quite understand what he did to the car, by the way. I suppose he was a psychopath bent on revenge and I had no way of knowing he was capable of murder."
"Actually," Kate said from her spot against the farthest wall from his cell, "the correct term is antisocial personality disorder."
"Thank you for correcting me, Dr. Rose. I will store that information to impress my future cell mates."
I said, "Maybe you didn't realize what a bad dude he was, but like our daddy would have said, 'You roll around with the hogs, you better expect to get muddy.' "
"I am certainly ashamed of what I did behind Elliott's back. But I never intended to kill that man. I met with him late Thursday evening hoping to terminate our relationship. I wanted nothing more to do with him after what he'd done—that murder attempt he was so proud of. But he grew hostile, wanted money to keep quiet, and when I drove off, he got in the way of my automobile."
That's when I started to wonder what the autopsy showed. Somehow, I doubted Dugan's death was an accident. Ian wanted us to believe that, though, wanted to sound noble and concerned, if only for his daughter and his friend. I also began to consider the possibility he never intended to harm himself. He'd been caught like a minnow in a bucket in that garage tonight. Maybe his repeated pronouncements of remorse along with his confessions were all for show.
I finished my Coke just as I heard the sound of a car. DeShay and Chavez must be here. I saw that Cooper rested his hand on Kate's back when the two of them stood, and smiled to myself. They probably had a very nice drive on the way up here and maybe an even nicer dinner. I wanted all the details on our ride home.
DeShay held the door for Chavez and said, "I hear you have someone who needs a ride back to the city." He looked at me. "You never stop working, do you, Abby girl?"
"Take him," Cooper said, "because I'm tired of listening to him yak."
Richter and the nerd backed up to give the new arrivals room, and Richter shot Cooper a look.
Cooper saw it and said, "Sorry if that bothers you, Mr. Richter. You're a very smart man, but you made a mistake with McFarland. Your friend is bad news."
Richter's face reddened, but he didn't argue.
"Can we go home now?" I asked DeShay.
Maria Chavez went in to get their prisoner and DeShay walked by, ready to help her.
"Sure. And we can give you a fast escort. We drove up in a marked car and will go back to Houston with lights, no siren."
I smiled. "Sounds good to me."
On the wonderfully fast ride home behind Chavez, the speed demon, Kate wanted to talk about how I'd figured things out. But I was afraid I'd let something slip about JoLynn's biological family. I told her she knew everything I did, that maybe I'd gotten lucky on this one using a little guesswork. She didn't need to hear the details of what happened in McFarland's garage, either. So I questioned her about her time spent with Cooper and she was happy to share. This was the old Kate and I couldn't be happier to see her revived.
Jeff was waiting for me after I dropped off Kate at her house. I'd called him from Pineview PD and though I didn't share everything then because I wasn't exactly in a private place, DeShay apparently filled him in during his drive to Pineview to pick up McFarland.
"Doris upstairs?" I said, after he gave me a wonderful hug—a hug far different from the one I'd experienced in the arms of Ponytail Nick. And again, I was reminded of my promise. I hadn't realized that promise might mean giving up a small part of myself—a portion of the complete openness Jeff and I shared. This was information I could never share with a cop, not one as dedicated as Jeff was to bringing in criminals. And JoLynn's family had broken the law.
"Doris is spending the night with Loreen," he said. "I thought you could use a massage after the day you've had. Come on."
He took me by the hand and led me up the stairs. When he opened the bedroom door, my hand went to my mouth. "What have you done?"
The room was lit with candles, and vases of yellow roses sat on the tables, the dressers and my small vanity.
"I know I'm not the big romantic type, but you were gone all day and when I found out what went down, how you stared down that turd without your weapon, I got a sick feeling right here." He touched his belt. "If I ever lost you . . ."
I put a finger to his lips. "That's not happening."
Then he asked me a question I didn't want to answer, because I didn't want to lie. "Did Dugan hire that jerk to tackle you in the parking garage?"
"Probably, but with Dugan dead, we may never know. The fake security guard might have been Dugan's pal, too."
"That makes sense, but I—"
"No more talking. I heard someone up here was giving away massages."
32
Turned out, JoLynn Richter went home to Magnolia Ranch without even making the transfer to Methodist Hospital. She was transported by ambulance with Maxine by her side on Tuesday, two days after Ian McFarland's arrest. Just hours later, Ian was out on bail after being indicted for second-degree murder. Seems the preliminary autopsy results indicated Kent Dugan had been run over by a car at least twice, probably more. Some accident.
I was busy writing up my case report for Elliott Richter late that afternoon when he called me. "I was wrong, Abby, and I've apologized to Chief Boyd as well. I wanted you to know I've decided not to assist Ian in his defense. I simply cannot support him, not after what he did. In some twisted way, I suppose he thought he was protecting me. At any rate, I shouldn't have behaved the way I did in that police station."
"You believed in your friend. That's not a bad thing. But he has money of his own, right?" I stroked Diva, who was purring on my lap as I sat in my office chair.
"Plenty. Simone doesn't know I've refused to help him and I've convinced Adele not to tell her. At least not now. I understand he's hired a high-priced attorney." Richter sighed. "You know what that means."
"Bad-guy victim and high-priced defense attorney? I smell acquittal. But that won't happen for at least a year," I said. "How is Simone handling this?"
"She doesn't know he found her pictures and stole her camera. That may come out in the trial. Maybe he'll tell her himself now that he's free. I've instructed him to clear off my property, though. I don't want him anywhere near JoLynn."
"I don't think he meant for her to get hurt," I said. "He was . . . jealous on several levels. Wanted her gone. At least that's my take."
Richter was silent for several seconds. "Jealous? I never thought of it that way."