„In that case, screw it. You don’t get to order my detectives around. That’s my job. And, if you’re not gonna help them, then stay the hell out of their way.“
Buchanan’s mouth was moving, but no words were coming out. This was almost an assault, these words of insurrection. And now it must occur to him that the lieutenant had a bomb in his pocket.
He did.
„I smell conflict of interest,“ said Coffey, and this was a roundhouse punch of words. „Hell, you’re going out of your way to advertise it.“ He walked around his desk to loom over the shorter man, and Buchanan lowered himself into the chair. The lieutenant bent down, working his way into the man’s personal space, and the DA had nowhere to go. „I’m betting that law firm turns up on your A-list for campaign contributions. You like the Smyths so much? Fine. Then you go down with them.“ Heady words in an election year.
Mallory appeared out of nowhere. Neither man had heard her coming. She laid a copy of Sheldon Smyth’s canceled check in the DA’s lap to back up the lieutenant’s charge of conflict of interest. Buchanan was a long time staring at that check, as if he were counting the many zeros of his purchase price.
As if Mallory only wanted change for a dollar, she said, „I need a court order to force Nedda Winter into protective custody. No judge will sign off on that until they get a call from you.“
The man’s eyes were little gray pinballs as he considered his options. And now, Buchanan the Weasel was back, eyes sly and calculating. He crushed the photocopy in one white-knuckled fist, perhaps with the idea that women were easier to intimidate. „Is this your idea of – “
„A gift?“ Mallory dusted imaginary lint from the shoulder of her blazer.
„Yes, that’s exactly what it is. You’ll want to return that campaign contribution before we make the arrest.“
Mallory was now dead to the district attorney. He turned his angry face on the lieutenant. „All right, Jack. You’ll get custody of the old lady – but that’s all you get.“ He held up the photocopied check. „Down the road, you don’t get to use this crap on me again.“
„Deal.“ And Coffey would abide by it. The favor bank of cops, politicians and other felons depended upon the principle of honor among extortionists.
Cleo Winter-Smyth made a break with manikin demeanor. She was so much softer now. Leaning down to the trunk, she wiped ages of dust from the small brass plaque to read the name of her youngest sister, „Sally.“ The woman sank to the floor and knelt before the spilled remains of a dead child. There was no flesh on the bones. A hole had been gnawed in the trunk, and that could only be the work of hungry rats.
So much for the theory that it was the house and not the exterminator that killed the vermin and other pests.
The rodents had left behind a long corn-silk braid. Cleo caressed it with a trembling hand. „Baby Sally. That’s what we called her.“ She picked up a tiny shoe, brittle with age. The laces had rotted away. In a stutter of tears, she said, „We were a family, Sally, Lionel and me.“
Bitty was stunned. Mother instinct had been there once, but it had been exhausted on a little girl who had died so long ago.
Mother? Can you see me? I’m standing here right beside you. I’m alive. Look at me. Look at me!
This was the lament of a child, and it had never worked. Bitty stared at the ax in her hand and the destruction of the closet wall. She was still invisible for all of this.
„Baby Sally,“ echoed Lionel with more feeling than Bitty would have thought possible. Suddenly, the bizarre little family reunion with a skeleton was done. Feelings spent, brother and sister donned their masks again and turned in unison to face Sheldon Smyth.
Lionel stepped toward the man, as if to strike him. „Your father told us she died in the hospital. But Sally never made it that far.“
„What are you saying?“ The lawyer was backing away.
„Uncle James was long gone,“ said Cleo. „Sally didn’t have a guardian to authorize hospital care. Did that worry your father, Sheldon?“
„Maybe,“ said Lionel, „he was afraid the authorities would ask too many questions. They might find out that our guardian had abandoned us.“
Cleo seamlessly continued her brother’s thought. „The court would’ve appointed another guardian and asked a lot of questions. But the Smyth firm wasn’t finished draining our trust fund.“
Lionel pointed to the bones at his feet. „So it was Sally’s bad luck to get between the lawyers and the money.“
„You can’t believe my father would have any part in murdering a small – “
„No, I don’t,“ said Cleo. „Sally was dying from the day she was born. But I think her death was damned inconvenient for him.“
„And when she was dead,“ said Lionel, „your father put her inside that wall. If she was ever found, then Uncle James could take the blame – if he ever came back.“
„If Uncle James ever demanded the rest of his cut,“ said Cleo. „There’s no other explanation for keeping Sally’s body in the house. Or did your father intend to blame it on us?“
Lionel Winter turned to his niece with mild surprise, as if noticing Bitty for the first time. „Your mother and I were only children – so easy to intimidate. Uncle James disappeared after a few years, and the three of us were left with a nanny and Sally’s nurse. If the authorities found out what our situation was, they would’ve split us up and put us in foster care. That’s what the lawyers told us. They said we were penniless. Sheldon’s father moved the three of us into the summer house. He said the cost of taking care of us was out of his own pocket – his generosity, his money.“
„He told us we were worse than penniless,“ said Cleo. „He said this house would have to be rented out to pay down the family debts.“
„One day, your mother and I came back from school, and the nurse told us our litde sister had been taken to the hospital. We never saw Sally again.“
„She was here all that time.“ Cleo glared at her ex-husband.
If the ax were in her mother’s hand -
„I’d like to know,“ said Lionel, „was Sally dying or dead when the nurse called your father out to the summer house to collect her?“
„No, Sheldon,“ said Cleo, „don’t shake your head – don’t pretend that you don’t know all the details. I know your father would’ve warned you about a little body walled up in this house.“
„The Smyths are long-term planners,“ said Lionel.
Cleo looked down at her daughter, another Smyth. „Didn’t you ever wonder why your father never wanted custody of you? The Smyths plan ahead for generations.“
Bitty turned to her father, but he was looking elsewhere. All her life she had been told of a custody battle that had never taken place. And all this time, she had been her father’s tie to the Winter family fortune, a tie that could not be undone until a day when all the money would flow back again the other way – generational planning.
The lawyer in Sheldon Smyth was smiling at his ex-wife. „If this is made public, Cleo, you and your brother lose everything back to the trust fund. When Nedda dies, it all goes to the Historical Society. You’ll be dead broke, the both of you, and lucky if you don’t wind up in jail.“
„But we didn’t do anything wrong,“ said Cleo. „We were the victims.“
„I don’t think the district attorney will see it that way,“ said Sheldon. „It all depends on what sort of a deal I make for myself – if it comes to that – if you push me to it. You two became co-conspirators when you had the trust fund money repaid to your personal accounts. You were originally intended to have a lifetime draw, but you wanted all the money. Those were your terms.“
„That was so long ago,“ said Lionel. „Surely the statute of limitations – “