His voice took on a defensive tone. “I don’t give a shit if they heard either of those things.”
We’d hidden our relationship from practically everyone, so I felt a sense of relief that he was so willing to acknowledge his feelings for me in front of Joe, but now was not the time to dwell on it. “Joe talked to a Dallas detective, and he knows of the guy who tried to kidnap me.”
Joe leaned forward. “He’s a low-level thug for Hardshaw.”
“And he specifically wanted Neely Kate?” Jed asked.
“He was told to snatch her and find out where the money is,” Witt said. “He claims they didn’t care how he got the information.”
Anger washed over Joe’s face. “Neither one of you put that in your statements.”
“Let’s get something straight right now,” Witt snapped. “Neely Kate comes first. Before you and your chief deputy position, before Jed and his bullshit with Skeeter Malcolm, and definitely before me. I’ll lie through my goddamned teeth if that’s what it takes to protect her.” Witt turned to me. “I don’t know what you did in Ardmore, NK, but I wish to God you’d come clean so I can really help you.”
“I’ll tell you everything when we get off this call, but what you need to know right now is that I killed a man in Ardmore, who turned out to come from a family with oil money. Pearce Manchester. He’d paid my supposed boyfriend money for a night that included beating, torturing, and raping me. Only, after the first hour, I killed him. Then I buried his body and his bag, which I didn’t realize at the time contained a lot of money. When morning hit, I caught the first bus home.”
Witt gave me a long hard stare. “You’re leavin’ some important details out, like why you didn’t call the police.”
“And I’ll tell you later, but right now we need to figure out how important I am to Hardshaw.”
“Yeah,” Joe said, sitting up. “She’s right.”
“So let’s look at what we know,” I said. “Chad Manchester suspected his brother had some ties to Ardmore. Neil Franken somehow knew about Ardmore. Neil Franken had ties to Hardshaw, which was why he was meeting Adkins. Franken knew enough about me to come to Fenton County and follow me around and take photos. He planned to meet Alonzo Adkins at noon and what? Give him the information he found? That seems likely to me. But Adkins had to know something since he recognized me.”
“Maybe they were coordinatin’ your kidnapping,” Joe said. “Franken was trying to determine the best time to do it.”
“I was alone last night,” I said. “He could have done it then.”
“Unless Franken wasn’t part of Hardshaw,” Jed said. “What if he was freelancin’? What if he caught wind of Chad’s investigation, piggybacked or stole what Chad knew, then came here to get more info to sell to Hardshaw? Joe, did they find any cash in his car?”
“Five grand and change.”
“There you go,” Witt said. “But what’s the money to Hardshaw? Manchester’s dead. I don’t understand why they’re so determined to get it back.”
“And why would they pay five thousand dollars to get ten grand back?” I asked.
“Maybe there’s something in the money,” Joe said.
Jed ground out a few curse words.
“Where’s the money now?” Joe asked, turning his gaze on me. “Is it in the safe-deposit box with the tape?”
“What tape?” Witt asked.
I swallowed. “The tape that shows me killin’ Pearce Manchester.”
“And what he did to her before she killed him,” Joe added.
“You’ve seen it?” Witt asked.
“No,” Joe answered. “She only told me about it and that it’s locked up in a safe-deposit box at Henryetta Bank.”
“The money’s not in the safe-deposit box,” I said.
“Then where is it?” Joe asked.
I waited for Jed to answer. He’d taken it with him when we’d come back from Ardmore, and we hadn’t discussed it since. But Jed wasn’t talking, so I took his lead. “Somewhere safe.”
“You didn’t spend it, did you?” Joe asked.
Witt snorted. “You think she’d be driving that piece of shit car if she had any money to spend?”
Joe looked chagrined. “I had to ask. But I still need to know where the money is.”
“I have it,” Jed said. “I went through the bag, but all I found was the ten thousand dollars, a video camera, and a couple of blank tapes.” He paused. “Nothing that would provoke Hardshaw to track it down.”
“Did he have anything on his person they might want?” Joe asked.
“No,” Jed said. “I checked.”
Witt’s eyes grew as large as silver dollars. I knew what he was thinking—if I killed Pearce Manchester over five years ago, how would Jed have been able to search his clothes?
“Someone pointed Chad Manchester to Ardmore,” Joe said. “Someone pointed Neil Franken to Branson to tell him about Neely Kate. Someone told Alonzo Adkins that a woman in Fenton County had Pearce Manchester’s money. Who orchestrated all of this?”
“Kate,” Jed said.
I shook my head. “When I saw her yesterday, she said she hadn’t told anyone.”
“You can’t believe a word she says,” Joe said in disgust.
Maybe I was stupid, but I believed most of what she’d told me. I hadn’t caught her lying yet. “We know she hired someone to look into what I did in Ardmore, but she only found the basics,” I said. “What if she had them do more diggin’?”
“That seems likely,” Jed said. “She knew enough to get you flustered, but we figured out she didn’t know much else. She liked playin’ the game, so she had someone try to find more.”
“She must have found something,” Joe said. “She knew enough to put Franken’s body in your basement with a note.”
“And she knew about the hotel room he or Chad Manchester were stayin’ in,” Jed added. “She knows more now than she did before.”
“She called Franken a peace offering,” I said. “And in the hotel room note, she said she was lookin’ forward to a family reunion. Maybe she’s tryin’ to help me.”
“I sure as hell wouldn’t count on that,” Joe said in disgust. “I still think she’s jealous, which means she’s got some master plan to try to destroy you.” His eyes widened. “Tomorrow night.”
“You think she’s gonna show up at the benefit dinner and embarrass me?” But even as I asked, realizing I already knew the answer. More like kill me.
“There’s no way in hell we’re goin’ to that thing,” Joe said.
“Agreed,” Jed said.
“What benefit dinner?” Witt asked.
It was time to tell him everything.
“I’ve got to go,” Jed said, “but if you need me for anything, you call me, you hear? I’ll drop everything and come runnin’.”
“Thanks, Jed.”
He hesitated. Then he choked out a goodbye and hung up.
I sat back in my chair. “Joe, I have to tell Witt about Ardmore.”
“I’m surprised he didn’t know.”
“I hadn’t told anyone until I told Jed a month ago.”
He gave me a thoughtful look, then turned to my cousin. “I think it’s better if I step outside.”
“Can it get worse than what you already told me?” Witt asked.
Neither Joe nor I said anything, and Witt sat back, rubbing his chin. “You got anything to drink in this place?” A wry grin lit up his eyes. “Kiddin’.”
Only I suspected he wasn’t.
“I’ll head down to the coffee shop and pick up some coffee,” Joe said. “It’s close enough to come runnin’ if someone shows up.”
I nodded.
He took Witt’s drink order—coffee, black—then walked out the front door.
“Tell me, little cousin,” Witt said in an unusually somber tone.
I told him everything, from when I left Henryetta to go to Ardmore, getting stuck there, getting a job as a stripper, then going from being Branson’s girlfriend to his prostitute. I told him about the abortion and then about Branson’s client from Dallas, then about killing him, burying the body, and hightailing it home.
When I finished, he couldn’t look me in the eye. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he blinked back tears, and I expected him to get up and take a moment to recover, but he turned to me with an intense gaze. “I will never leave you alone like that again.”