Hostile Witness (36 page)

They reached the pier. Josie and Max turned left. Linda might as well have been on a leash, too.  All three walked to the end, passing under the high lights, their illumination ghostly and flattened by the sea mist. The last vestiges of rain hung in the air.  Their shoes were soft.  They were shadows gliding soundlessly over the weather worn wooden planks.

“I’ll have the files packed up by the end of the week. Let me know who is going to be handling the appeal and I’ll send them along,” Josie said just to hear herself talk, unable to walk with this woman in comfortable silence. Suddenly Josie stopped, unable to keep what she was thinking inside any longer.  “I think you lied, Linda. Or at best, I think you weren’t sure what you saw that night, and I hope another lawyer can get you to tell the goddamn truth during an appeal.”

Linda’s head cocked to the side as she listened. She lowered her eyes then wandered to the railing that ran the length of the pier. Her shoulders rose and fell as she breathed in the salty ocean air. Josie looked at her back, knowing that there wasn’t much to see below but dark.

“And what’s that truth, Josie?” Linda asked.

Josie took a step forward and then another. Her voice was low, her words were sure.

“I think the truth is that you would have said anything to protect your husband. Or maybe you just wanted all this to be over and pointing the finger at Hannah was the way to make that happen.”

Linda raised her head.  Josie could see the lovely curve of her cheek, her thick, dark hair, and those long lashes that shaded her exquisite green eyes.

“What you’re saying is that it never was, never could have been, Hannah.”  Linda sighed. “Why is it you’re the only one who sees clearly, Josie? I’ve always wondered that? Why are you the final word?”

“I’m not. I only ask the questions until I’m convinced I have the final answer. In this case, I don’t think I’ve got that.”

Linda lifted her face to the ocean breeze. She inhaled. Josie could hear the breath come out of her mouth for a long time as she exhaled. Finally Linda turned around and rested her elbows on the railing. She crossed her feet at the ankles.

“It’s kind of moot, Josie.  There won’t be an appeal if Hannah doesn’t want one, and how am I going to know if Hannah won’t talk to me?  Hannah won’t talk, period.”

Just then a huge wave cracked against the pilings.  Max skittered behind her at the sound. Josie pulled him close then stuck her hands in the pockets of her jacket.  It was a nesting night, the kind of weather that inspired beach people to light wood in fireplaces long unused, the kind of night that made Californians think they were actually having a season, the kind of night that Josie treasured when she shared her bed with Archer. Josie’s soul was tired. Her mind was tired. She didn’t want to fight with Linda anymore.

“What do you really want, Linda? Do you want to be friends? If that’s it, then you can just turn around right now. We never really were friends, and we sure as hell aren’t going to be now.”

“No, I’m not here for me. It’s Hannah,” Linda admitted. “I was hoping you would try to convince her that she needs to see me.  It shouldn’t end like this between a mother and daughter.”

“Shit happens between mothers and daughters, Linda. Get used to it.  Leave it alone for awhile,” Josie said, offering the best advice she had.

“Easy for you to say, she’s not your daughter. But you tried to make her feel like she was. You tried to take her away from me with all that understanding crap you fed her,” Linda said peevishly. “Now I want Hannah back. I want you to go ask her to talk to me. You owe it to me to at least to try, Josie. I mean after everything you did.”

“You know what, Linda? I think we all screwed up big time. So if you want to talk about debt, if I owe anyone, it’s Hannah. And pay back isn’t getting you a face to face so you can get under that kid’s skin again. That’s about where I’m willing to leave things. I’m sick and tired of the both of us.”

“Don’t give me that. I did what I could,” Linda snapped.

“Yeah, you were real helpful when you testified. There’s nothing like an eyewitness account from the defendant’s mother.”

“What choice did I have?” Linda cried as Josie started to walk back down the pier. When Josie didn’t stop, Linda hurried after her.  “Tell me, what choice?”

Josie laughed softly and shook her head. She stopped walking.

“You’re forgetting one thing, Linda.  I didn’t ask you if you saw who set the fire, I asked where your husband was when the fire was set. If you’d answered the question I asked, Hannah wouldn’t be in prison right now.”

“Yeah,” Linda shot back, “and Kip would be there for something he didn’t do. That’s a choice?”

Josie started on again. This argument was accomplishing nothing.

“Give me a break. You put Hannah in prison, not me, and I’m not going to try to get you off the hook.”

“Jesus, don’t say that,” Linda breathed, “I swear, it just came out when you were pounding on me about Kip. It wasn’t fair.  It just made me so mad that Hannah would tell you that Kip wasn’t in bed. After everything he did for her. I couldn’t believe she would be that ungrateful. She’s the one that made all this happen.”

Josie threw up her hands and wiggled Max’s leash. He started to walk a little faster. She went with him and Linda followed. Angrily, Josie kept talking.

“Hannah never said a word against you, or Kip.  Not one.  It was her friend from rehab who told me. Miggy Estrada came to my house and gave me Hannah’s sketchbook.  He told me Hannah checked on you every night. He told me about Chicago.”

“That loser? He’s the one that did this?” Linda cried in disbelief.

“If Miggy’s such a loser, and he’s who Hannah went to for help, what does that make you?”

At the end of the pier Josie jumped the few feet to the still wet sand and helped Max. When Max hit the ground they both headed toward the water, the night air did nothing to cool Josie’s frustration.

Linda jumped down too and jogged to Josie’s side. The breeze kicked up. The fog had come in. Linda’s hair had frizzed around her face. She pushed the stray hairs back behind her ear and followed when Josie took a sharp left to dodge the wash of a wave. Linda grabbed Josie and twirled her around.

“Listen. I did what I could do ever since that kid was born. Maybe I didn’t ask Hannah all the right questions because I didn’t want to hear the answers, okay? I was afraid to hear them. You did what you could do to save her, but the fact of the matter is Hannah finished this whole thing by pleading guilty.”

“So leave me out of whatever else goes down now, Linda.”

Another wave was coming in. It broke a few feet away and skittered up the sand. Josie stepped back. Linda did the same but not fast enough. They both looked down just as the water pooled around Linda’s shoes.

“Damn.” Angrily Linda lifted her foot to shake off the seawater then stepped back when another wave followed close behind.

Josie stayed put. The water ran over the top of her shoes and Max’s paws and rushed back out to sea.  It left the sand glistening with wet, smooth again as it waited for the next wave – or the next footstep that would leave an imprint.

Oh my God.

Josie’s psyche doubled over with the brutal blow that had just been delivered. There in the shimmering sand was a pattern Josie had seen before. They were shallow indentations at the heel and toe; the same pattern that had been left at the door of Hannah’s studio. A pattern that belonged to the person who walked into the west wing before the fire started, the person who left before Hannah’s paintings fueled the fire that killed Fritz Rayburn. These were the marks left by a murderer and those marks were made by Linda Rayburn.

“Josie. Jesus, you’re going to get soaked.”

Startled, Josie looked up. The water came again but Josie was rooted to the ground. She looked at Linda’s feet then back at the sand until finally she caught Linda’s curious gaze.

“Oh, Christ.”

Josie pulled Max close. He stumbled with her, away from the water. She stumbled in the sand, lurching backwards, knowing one thing and one thing only. She needed to get away from Linda Rayburn.

“Look, it’s late.  I’ve got a lot to do, Linda. I can’t help you anymore. I can’t. I just can’t.”

Josie started toward home but Linda took her arm.  Max’s tail went down and a growl came up. Josie looked at the hand that held her and then up into Linda Rayburn’s face.  The breeze blew Linda’s ponytail over her shoulder and nipped at the back of Josie’s bare neck but it was the look in Linda’s eyes that raised the goose bumps on Josie’s skin.

“I want to go home, Linda,” Josie said quietly. 

“Okay. I just want to make sure we understand each other.”   Linda put her free hand in her pocket.  Josie tensed. Her eyes darted over the deserted beach. If Linda had a knife or a gun in that pocket Josie needed a plan but Linda had neither. She had an envelope. “I have your check.”

Josie looked at it and tried not to shrink away. She couldn’t touch this blood money; she couldn’t bear the touch of this woman who had given up her only child to save herself.  Josie’s brain pounded with that knowledge. She had been so blind, ignoring Linda’s questions about eyewitnesses and Hannah’s survival.

“We’re square, Linda.”

Josie shook off Linda Rayburn’s hand and backed away. She kept her eye on Linda Rayburn a minute longer, then turned and trudged across the sand, careful to walk even though she wanted to run. Gulping air in an attempt to calm the beating of her heart and clear a mind that was racing with the implications of what she had just seen Josie tried not to arouse Linda’s interest. Her back burned where she was sure Linda was watching, her interest sharp and keen.  At the bike path, Josie chanced a glance over her shoulder. Linda was standing where Josie had left her but she was looking out to sea, not at Josie after all.

Linda’s hands were in the pockets of her jacket. Her feet were wide apart.  Her head up.  She should have looked lonely standing there on that stretch of beach; instead Linda Rayburn looked as if she was an army of one and was stronger than the invading force.

Josie jogged the rest of the way home.

39

“Archer. It’s Jo. Call me back ASAP. Sooner than that. Call me.” – Josie Baylor-Bates, 10:34 PM

“Hi there, Josie. What are you doing?”

Linda Rayburn’s voice was so sweet she could have been greeting a lover.  That lilt might have called him back to her bed or teased him into a favor or put him on notice that she was on to his game, but Linda Rayburn wasn’t talking to a lover. She was calling to Josie who knelt on the floor of the spare room in a puddle of light from the lamp on the small table.

Josie stiffened when she heard that sultry, peppery voice. Her hands trembled and her stomach turned with a sudden sickness. Bad times were coming. The landlord was there, and the rent was due. Frozen in mid-air, Josie’s hands hovered over the array of photographs she had ripped out of their file jackets and spread on the floor. Slowly, she sank back on her heels as Linda Rayburn circled around, towering over her, confident as could be.

“Did I leave the door open?”

Josie’s eyes were steady as they met Linda’s. There was no flicker of surprise, no current of fear to betray her astonishment at finding Linda standing in her home - uninvited, unexpected, and unwanted.

Linda’s shoulders raised playfully, a coquette’s apology. Her smile was charming and edgy.

“Nope. Front door’s closed up tight,” she said.

“I didn’t know you could pick locks, Linda.”

“Didn’t have to, Josie. This isn’t the most secure place in the world.  You should have had someone take care of that broken pane on the back door. Easy as pie to get in.”

Josie was lulled by the shadows in the room, Linda’s casualness. Her jacket was zipped up so that the collar framed her face. Her cheeks were rosy red from the cold. She was wearing gloves. Josie didn’t remember her wearing gloves while they walked.  There was sand on the carpet. Linda’s shoes had tracked sand into the house. Her shoes. Josie was looking at them – staring at them - when Linda laughed.

“Your game face isn’t so good anymore, Josie,” Linda chided. “There’s something on your mind, and I have a feeling it just might have something to do with me.”

“Not everything revolves around you, Linda.” Josie tried to fake.  Linda wasn’t fooled. She chuckled.

“Oh, I think you’re fibbing.  I saw something change out there. You didn’t think I noticed that?  It was like a light bulb going on over your head.” Linda leaned forward and pantomimed. The smile faded, her eyes hardened.  “Why don’t you just tell me what got your short hairs up? Does it have something to do with what you’re looking at, Josie? What’s that? There.”  Linda nudged the photographs with her toe. “That one. What’s that one?”

Josie picked it up and held it out to Linda. It was self-explanatory but Josie said:

“You and Hannah by the fire truck.”   Linda took it.  Her brow furrowed. “It was two o’clock in the morning when the fire broke out.”

“I didn’t exactly look my best.” Linda let the photo flutter to the floor.

“You were dressed,” Josie pointed out. “You were fully dressed, Linda.”

“I threw some clothes on when I saw the fire. It’s just a top and slacks, my shoes. It took a few seconds.”

“But you saw Hannah start the fire,” Josie reminded her. “That’s what you testified to. You saw her. If you saw her, then you had to be dressed before the fire started. Then you had to be outside when the fire started. Why were you outside?”

Linda checked out her nails. She looked around and found little to interest her.

“Hannah looked in my room. I knew she did it every night. I followed her when she left.”

“Did you stay dressed every night just so you could follow her?”

“No. Just that night. I did it that night,” Linda said, wary now but still in control. “She was having problems with Fritz, Josie. She wasn’t in her right mind. A good mother looks out for her child. I wanted to make sure she didn’t get into any trouble.”

“If you were following her, Linda, why didn’t you stop her before she set the fire?” Josie moved slowly as if her position was uncomfortable and she wanted to settle in while they talked. She put her hands on the ground, a runner’s stance. She tried to get up but Linda raised her foot, put it against Josie’s shoulder and eased her down.

“I like it this way. Why don’t you just stay there,” Linda suggested.

Josie sat down again. This time her legs were to her side, her hands on the floor next to her. Her eyes were sharp, trained on Linda’s face but also her hands. Above all, Josie wanted to keep Linda’s hands in sight. She knew how quick Linda could be.

“What was the question, Josie? I forgot. It’s so different when you’re sitting in front of everyone in a courtroom. Then you remember every question. You have to really be sharp in a courtroom. It’s different here. All cozy. I just forgot what you asked.”

“I want to know why you didn’t stop Hannah if you saw what she was doing. There were two flash points. You could have seen the first one in Fritz’s room through the window. Hannah would have had to take time to spill the turpentine, to light the match on the second. You’re strong. Even if you weren’t, you could have stopped her just by calling her name. Hannah would do anything for you. But I guess you know that.”

“No,” she sighed, “I don’t think I could have stopped her. I was too far behind. I wasn’t sure which route she took.  It was a huge home. A perfect home, Josie. It was a perfect life.”

“Hannah took the same route every night, Linda. Mrs. Peterson testified to that.”

“Maybe she didn’t that night.  Things can always change,” Linda said. “But, with all these questions, it seems you think something else happened.”

“Maybe you were there before Hannah. Maybe Kip wasn’t the only one missing when Hannah looked into your room.  I mean, if you lied about Hannah setting the fire maybe you lied about you being in bed. In fact, I never asked you if you were there, did I?”

“Ooh.”  Linda pursed her lips. “That’s a good one, Josie.”

“Maybe you weren’t so sure about Kip’s undying devotion after all. Could that be it?”  Josie baited her.

“That’s a lot of maybes, Josie.”

“That’s my job, but sometimes I’m not so quick. But look. . .”

Josie reached for the box next to her. Linda’s foot shot out. She stepped hard on Josie’s hand. Josie crumbled and gasped, gritting her teeth against the pain as Linda brought the full force of her weight down on her.

“There’s nothing in there but pictures, Linda. I promise.” Linda eased up. Josie slid her hand from underneath Linda’s foot. “Look, I just want to show you Hannah’s sketchbook.”

Linda stayed close enough to control Josie if she had to. Cautiously, Josie reached inside the box. Carefully she opened the book.

“I thought this was a picture of you leaving Hannah behind.  But this is Hannah watching you run from the fire you set.  She was confused and scared, and her beautiful paintings were in that downstairs room.”  Josie raised her eyes. “Hannah didn’t lie. She did try to put out the fire, and she didn’t even know Fritz was lying upstairs. She didn’t know because she lied about that, too, didn’t she?”

“Fritz was abusing her. She didn’t lie about that,” Linda said lazily.  “I can’t believe that bastard did that to Hannah.”

“No, I mean the other thing. Hannah had been in his bedroom.   She didn’t hit Fritz, you did. That first night I saw you there was a scrape healing on your knuckles. It could have been a week old. Your DNA and Hannah’s would be virtually identical.”

Josie pushed the sketchbook toward Linda. She pushed it as far as she could so that she had to lean forward and balance on her knees. Josie raised her eyes, still talking, tensing her muscles and gauging Linda’s balance.

“Hannah was willing to take the rap for you, wasn’t she, Linda?”

Linda walked to the far corner of the room, moving as if choreographing a war dance. Six steps and then a turn. Her head was in profile and her neck was taut.   She was out of range. Josie relaxed and watched for the next opportunity.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like that. Everybody was supposed to bend over backwards to make this go away because Hannah was a minor, because she was Fritz Rayburn’s granddaughter. It was a great plan considering how fast I had to come up with it when they figured out the fire wasn’t an accident.”  Linda threw her head back and raised her eyes heavenward as if to ask for answers not forgiveness. “Who would have thought they could make a case out of all those little, idiotic things: matches and hair in his bedroom and everything? I almost died when you asked Klein to name eyewitnesses during the bail hearing. Remember that? I figured I was dead right there.”

Linda turned again. She was staring at Josie with such intense hatred Josie felt it searing into her.

“And then you made it all so much worse. A plea, Josie. That was all I wanted.   Just plead her out, send her to a hospital. She was sick, anyway. A couple of years wouldn’t have made a difference. But no, you had to go for it. You had to win. Do you know how hard it was to face my kid everyday knowing that all the promises I’d made her were shit?”

Linda sniffed and turned up her nose.

“And she just stood there and took it. Hannah reeked with that damned sanctimonious silence, her unadulterated love, that whole mother/daughter thing. You don’t think there was a shit load of guilt there for me?”  Linda touched the table, the wall.

“Then there was you and Hannah. She trusted you, not me. That really hurt, Josie. It truly pissed me off. More than that, it worried me. I thought she’d tell you the truth. I knew you’d come after me if she did that.”

 “Then why didn’t you tell me the truth?  I could have helped you.”

Linda took a deep breath and let it out. She splayed her legs. Josie’s eyes went to the shoes. Linda didn’t notice.

“That is a stupid question. Fritz wanted me gone.  Hannah thought it was her fault that Fritz was making Kip divorce me, and all the time it was just another little fun activity for Fritz to enjoy.  Kip had no patience with Hannah, he resented her. Do you think if I was indicted Kip would hang around? I explained all this to Hannah. She understood.”

“Oh my God. You blamed her for ruining your perfect gig?” Josie managed to sit back on her heels again, ready once more to sprint if she had to.

“No, dammit!” Linda struck the wall with her fist. “I was telling her the facts of life. The fact is there wouldn’t have been any problems in my life if I didn’t have her. It took me years to find someone suitable, who loved me enough to take me with that kid in tow.  I did what I had to do to protect us. I got rid of that freak of an old man. I saved myself. I saved Kip. I saved her. I saved all of us. When she was arrested, it was her turn to do what she had to. That’s just the way things shook out.”

Linda twirled toward Josie. She fell to the ground, right onto her knees so that they were close enough to feel one another’s breath.

“Hannah was screwed without me and she knew it. If Kip divorced me we’d be back on the street, me sleeping with anything that had enough money to feed us. If Kip stayed with me, and Fritz cut him off, we’d still be back to square one. No money. No prestige. Nothing.”

“Linda, listen to what you’re saying,” Josie said quietly.  “Kip is a lawyer. You wouldn’t have been destitute.  It never would have come to that.”

Linda’s eyes blazed as her face came closer still.  She tipped her head as if she might kiss Josie. Instead she pointed out Josie’s stupidity slowly, almost sensually.

“And we wouldn’t have been rich.” She pulled away. “Kip wouldn’t have lasted a minute in a two-bedroom track house with me and Hannah while he got himself situated.”

Josie shook her head, trying to understand what Linda was telling her.