“The last thing you said to me twenty-two years ago? Do you want me to tell you? I remember it like you said it twenty-two seconds ago. Do you want to hear it, Will?”
When Robie said nothing she continued. “You told me, ‘I will always be there for you, Laura.’ That’s what you said to me by the rock wall next to my dear mother’s fabulous Barksdale garden.”
Now Robie took a step back, his glistening eyes widening in shock as the truth swept over him.
“But you weren’t always there for me, Will. In fact, you were never there for me, were you? Not when I really needed you.”
When Reel moaned, Robie looked down at her and then back to Victoria. “Please let me get her help. Then you can do what you want with me.”
Victoria shook her head. “Doesn’t work that way. This plays out on my terms, not yours.”
Robie knelt next to Reel and put a comforting hand on her shoulder while he tightened the sling around her wound, trying to stop the bleeding.
“I told you not to do that. I won’t say it again.”
Robie rose. “Why did you kill all those people?”
“It wasn’t madness, if that’s what you’re thinking. Not all people who kill are mad, Will. You’ve killed, right? You’ve killed people here. And Dan told me that you serve your country somehow which also involves killing people. So are you deranged? Are you mad? I doubt you think you are.”
Robie said nothing, but his breathing accelerated and he felt as if a giant hand were smashing down on his chest.
Victoria leaned against the wall but kept the gun pointed at him. “If you want explanations, here they are. Janet Chisum was a slut. She sold herself to Sherman Clancy. So did her sister. For money. I befriended both of them. And then killed them.”
“Emma Chisum said Janet was going to make money off some secrets of important people in town.”
Victoria snorted. “Janet Chisum was a liar. But she told her kid sister a little of the truth. I was the important person who was going to give Janet money. After Janet was dead I told Sara that maybe her father was the killer. That maybe all that religion had made him nuts. I told her she needed to get out of town. That I would help her. That I felt sorry for her. Wanted her to have a better life.” She added in a scoffing tone, “As if. Old horny men and stupid, greedy young women, just doesn’t work out. I didn’t like it. So I stopped it. But I have to admit, I didn’t know you two would be there when I killed Sara. That was a bit of a complication. It was lucky I saw her in town that day and told her to meet just off the road instead of in the clearing. Otherwise, we might have had this confronation earlier.”
“I put a round in the Rover. You covered the hole with a New Orleans Saints sticker. And then you fired a round into the Rover in Clancy’s garage to make it seem as though that Rover was used. Only you apparently didn’t remember that Dad is a Cowboys fan.”
She shrugged. “We all make mistakes. And it wasn’t like I had a whole lot of time. I barely had time to wash the damn truck before you two showed up. But then I distracted you by having Ty run under the hose. I mean why would I suddenly be washing both cars? The Rover supposedly hadn’t been driven since your father was arrested.”
Robie slowly shook his head, silently berating himself for missing that.
“And Sherman Clancy?” he asked. “I found a photo of you as a teenager in his car. Did he know you were Laura?”
She laughed. “He was clueless about that. I drove over to the Clancys’ and put the photo in there the night I killed Sara. That’s when I put the bullet into his Range Rover.”
“Why?”
“Why not? I had already slit the man’s throat a while back. He thought he was going to have slam-bang sex with me because I told him that’s what I wanted. Instead, he got sent to an early grave. So I left a little reminder of who had really killed him behind. The police had already searched the car. I doubted they would go back again.”
“But why did you need Clancy? You told me he was blackmailing you about your drug addiction problem.”
“No, that was a lie. But I needed Clancy. You see, while people thought I was Sherm’s alibi that got him off for killing Janet, he was actually my alibi for when I killed her. I had arranged to meet with Janet that night. I went to Biloxi and left Ty with Priscilla in her room. Then I came back to Cantrell and went to Clancy’s house by prearrangement. I knew that Pete was away. Sherm wanted us to be all alone. We started drinking. Only he drank and I poured mine down the sink. And I was real flirty and let him grope me just to keep him focused. And then I slipped a sleeping pill into his drink. When he finally passed out, I went and killed Janet. Then I came back to Clancy’s.”
“But then he started remembering things?” said Robie.
“Exactly. Like the fact that I wasn’t there when he woke up from what he thought was his drunken stupor. And then when he found out Janet had been killed that night he put two and two together. It was ironic that he was arrested for her murder when I had actually killed her. And then I had to swoop in to save poor Sherm by giving him an alibi, when he was actually providing me with one. But once he was out of jail he secretly met with me. And told me what he’d figured out. And then he really tried to blackmail me. Well, I knew he was experienced in that endeavor, but it wouldn’t work with me. He was going to die. In fact, I had already planned to kill him regardless.”
“Why?”
“How else could I get your dear old dad arrested for murder? The unfaithful wife? The angry husband? The dead lover? The arrest? The noble life ruined? It was a nice story. And it fit together so damn well. You see, he was the object of my revenge because I didn’t know where you were. And I looked, Will, but I could never find you. And then you just walked right back into Cantrell. I couldn’t believe my luck when I saw you at the Willows.”
“So you planted all that evidence against my father?”
“Of course I did. I’m nothing if not thorough.”
“Why do that to my father? He never did anything to you.”
Her smile disappeared and her voice hardened. “Oh really? When I came by your house to find out what had happened to you, he told me you had gone off without me. By choice. You’d abandoned us both. And your father told me it was best. He made it seem like we were from two very different walks of life. But I knew what he meant. I wasn’t good enough for you. I would hold you back. I was so furious I wanted to kill him right then, only I didn’t have the guts.”
“But you married him. You had a child with him.”
“That’s right. I did. My second child.”
Robie drew back another step, nearly stumbling over an old pile of wood stacked on the floor. “Who was your first?”
“You met her. Jane Smith?”
“But she’s your age.”
“No, she just looks my age. She’s actually twenty. Or was twenty.”
“So Emmitt was the father?”
She chortled. “Emmitt? My God, no, not Emmitt. He was too scared to try to rape his little sister, though he probably wanted to. That compulsion evidently runs deeply in the Barksdale male line. Perhaps from inbreeding.” She paused. “No, it wasn’t Emmitt.” She paused once more. “My father is the dad.”
“Your father impregnated you?”
Robie put a hand out and steadied himself against the wall. He could barely process what she was saying. He had figured Henry Barksdale for some messed-up pervert, but he had never imagined he had committed incest with his own daughter.
“He raped me. Many times, Will. Remember when we were teenagers and you would ask me what was wrong? Well, now you have your answer.” She smiled. “But I got over it, for the most part. By killing those who had hurt me. Like Emmitt. You see, my dear brother held me down in a bathtub while that…thing came out from between my legs. It was so bloody, that bathtub. And the pain. I thought I was going to die. I think you saw him in his bathtub. There wasn’t nearly as much blood, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances. The poison I injected into him was something I learned about when I was a pharmaceutical rep. Nasty stuff. Paralytic first and then the kill dose. I took his phone and laptop because it might have had something on it I didn’t want others to know.”