Jackie could see it was no use talking to Aunt Irene, who refused to say a bad word about anyone, much less her favorite sister.
But Irene went on, "They weren't suited. She married too young, and it didn't work out. It happens in a lot of marriages. She left your father but she never meant to leave you and Alex. That simply isn't true."
Jackie tossed the shell into the dune. "In the two months before she died, she came to see us maybe four times. One other time, Dad took us to her apartment. She'd been drinking, so he brought us home."
"That must have hurt you terribly." A breeze picked up the hem of Irene's yellow cotton dress, and she tucked it under her knees. "What you need to understand is that your mother was so depressed. She could hardly function. She'd sleep twelve hours a day. I tried to get her some help, but she wouldn't follow through on it. You know she was a real estate agent, don't you? After she and your father split up, she found a job at a Century 21 office in West Palm through some friends. I don't know if she made a single sale. She borrowed some money from Ed and me to get by. I wanted her to come stay with us, but she said no, she couldn't be that far away from you kids. Darling, you were always in her thoughts."
"What happened between her and my father?" Jackie said. "Please don't tell me it's the usual thing between a husband and wife. I'd like the truth."
For several seconds Irene stared out at the ocean. "She fell in love with someone, and it ended very badly."
"Oh, I see." Jackie made a soft laugh. "She cheated on him. I was wondering if that was it."
"That's awfully judgmental." Irene swung her legs off the lounge chair. "Listen to me, Jackie. Your mother wasn't in the habit of looking for other men. She stayed married for fourteen years to a man she admired but couldn't please. Louise wasn't perfect, but Garlan expected perfection, and she suffered with every failure."
"Are you blaming
him
?”
"I'm not trying to place blame, only to explain to you how things were between them. You said you wanted to know, so let me finish. They had come to a rough spot in their marriage. They might have worked it out if... this other thing hadn't happened. The man was a builder. I think that's how they met, but I'm not sure. He was younger, and he was also married. Your mother would never have gone after him, but he pursued
her.
He flattered her, made reasons to see her, and sent her anonymous little gifts. She was in her mid-thirties, and all of a sudden a handsome young man wanted her. Louise was so innocent, really. She let herself believe he loved her. She thought he would leave his wife. For a few months she was head over heels, but it dawned on her that he'd just been using her. He'd never loved her. Louise called it off, but inside, she was devastated. She told your father everything and asked him to forgive her. He wouldn't. He said he could never feel the same about her again, that she had betrayed him. After that, Louise decided she had to leave. She wanted you and Alex to come with her, but Garlan was angry and hurt, and he wouldn't allow it. He hired a lawyer. Another woman might have fought back, but not Louise. She just crumbled. She blamed herself for everything."
Irene took Jackie's hand. "Oh, you mustn't think she didn't care. She did. She loved you and Alex more than anything. She would have found her way back to you, I'm sure of it. If only there had been more time."
Jackie finally took a breath. "What was his name?"
"She wouldn't say."
"Did she tell my father who it was?"
"No, she was afraid of what he might do. Garlan thought she was protecting this man, so of course that made things even worse between them."
"Do you think she killed herself? Did she drive off the road on purpose?"
"Of course not. It was an accident, that's all. A tragic, senseless, horrible accident that took her away much too soon. Oh, Jackie, darling, should I have told you all this? I think I've made you unhappy."
"You haven't. I'm glad you told me."
"Please don't blame your mother. Don't blame anyone, you'll destroy yourself that way. We're all so flawed, and we have to forgive each other."
Jackie hugged her. "I love you, Aunt Irene."
Irene held her tightly, then kissed her cheek. "Your mother would be so proud of you. She loved you very much. Don't ever doubt that."
Jackie had to pull away and stand up. She looked out at the sea for a while, then reached down and picked up her shoes. "I think I'll go. If you want to bring Karen to the station, come about two-thirty. Call me."
"We'll see you then."
Jackie started to leave, then said, "Aunt Irene? Gail should tell Karen what's going on. It's not right to try to protect her, because she's going to find out anyway. Eleven is old enough."
Jackie went up the steps over the dune, then down to the road. The sound of the surf receded. The sun was warm on her back.
She remembered that last summer. The afternoon heat, the unmoving air. Walking into the barn, hearing voices. Her mother's soft laughter. Whit McGrath in his boots, tall and blond, looking around to see who was there, tugging on Jackie's braid.
Hey, little girl. You're growing up as pretty as your mama.
Her mother turning away to pet his chestnut horse in the stall.
By September she was dead. Aunt Irene had said not to blame anyone. But someone had to bear responsibility. Her mother, for needing someone? Her father, for not loving her more? Or Whit, who wanted her? Maybe they were all to blame.
Gail had been right: It was more complicated than Jackie had thought. She had wanted an answer and still didn't have one.
Her phone rang as she was upstairs in her garage apartment working her way through some leftover potato chips and reading about the effect of cold weather on the rate of decomposition.
The most commonly applied rule of thumb is that the body cools 1½ degrees Fahrenheit per hourâ
Eyes still on the page, Jackie picked up the telephone. It was Gail.
She said, "I've found Mary Jo."
"That was fast. How'd you do it?"
"Well, actually, Hector did. It seems that Gary told me the truth. Mary Jo and her husband left Stuart in 1988 and moved to Miami to open a bar on South Beach. It didn't last long, though. The bar went bankrupt, the husband ran off with another woman, and Mary Jo went to Fort Pierce. That's not far, is it? How long would it take to get there?"
"This time of day about half an hour."
"She said I could come by. Want to go with me?"
Gail let Jackie drive. They would go right up the coast, and Jackie knew the way. Besides that, she could probably get away with speeding. Neither of them had much time. Gail would talk to one of the jurors at two o'clock, and Jackie had to meet Irene and Karen at two-thirty.
They got into Jackie's Isuzu Trooper and headed north. Fort Pierce was in the next county, another little coastal town full of tourists and boats.
It occurred to Gail, as Mary Jo Hammond opened the door, that if Amber Dodson hadn't died, she might have ended up just like this. Divorced, thirty-six, living with an adolescent son in a modest house in a new development, working as a computer systems administrator. Still a good figure, keeping herself up. She had acrylic nails and highlights in her blond hair.
"Amber was crazy about Whit. She had these fantasies that he would leave his wife for her. I don't
think
so. She started going out with Gary Dodson to make Whit jealous. He was a lawyer and not bad looking. Her parents pushed her to marry him, so she did. Slid right into it, which let me tell you is how most of us do it, right?"
"What about after she got married? Was it over with Whit?"
"No." Mary Jo snorted a laugh. "If he needed a quickie, and she was there, he'd call her into his office and she'd get on her knees. I said, 'Amber, wake
up?
But I don't think she cared."
Jackie sat at the other end of the kitchen table with her chin in her hands, a perfectly blank expression on her face. Gail had told her to jump in if she had any questions, but so far she had said nothing.
Gail asked, "Could the baby have been Whit's?"
"Uh-uh. He had a vasectomy after his two kids. But after Amber got pregnant, which was totally unexpected, by the way, Gary made her quit work. Then Gary got fired. He started his own law practice, but he wasn't making much money, and Amber was going crazy at home. I was living in Miami Beach then, but she'd call me and talk for hours, how her life was so boring, and how Gary was such a dud. She wanted to leave him but she didn't have any money, and Gary couldn't afford alimony and child support, and there was no way she'd live with her parents again. I got sick of listening to it, so finally I told her not to call me anymore."
"She went back to River Pines," Gail said. "Do you know if she and Whit had become involved again before she was killed?"
"I have no idea. I hadn't spoken to her in a long time when I heard she was dead. It was on the news, they arrested the guy that did it. But you say he didn't. Holy shit. I bet it was Gary."
"The police checked him out," Gail said. "He was at work."
Jackie finally spoke. "Why do you think it was Gary? Was he violent?"
"She said he wasn't, but... I didn't like him. He was weird."
"Weird?"
"Yeah. Like this Seiko watch he gave her for Christmas. She thought it was cheap so she wouldn't wear it. He took it out in the carport and laid it on the concrete and smashed it with a hammer. He never screamed at her, but they argued a lot. Afterwards he'd go into the spare room and sit there in the dark and ... you know." Mary Jo looked around to make sure her boy was still in the kitchen making his sandwich.
Gail and Jackie exchanged a glance. Gail said, "Let's go back to what you said before, that Gary was fired from the law firm. What did Amber tell you about that?"
"She said they made him resign, which is the same thing. They found out he did something shady for Whit McGrath, and they told him to leave."
"Something shady? What does that mean?"
"Jesus, if I can remember." She tapped on a front tooth with one of her long red nails. "Amber made it sound shady. Some trick they pulled on a real estate deal. Gary did ... whatever he did, and the law firm found out and fired him."
On the way back to Stuart, Gail said, "Well, that was certainly interesting."
Jackie skillfully gunned her SUV around a slower car on the narrow road. The intracoastal was on their left, old frame houses on the sloping ground to their right. She said, "And you got what you were after. Amber Dodson was involved with Whit McGrath."
"Yes, but Mary Jo can't say they were involved around the time of the murder, which is what I need. Hector is looking for Vivian Baker. She was working at River Pines as the director of sales when Amber died. She isn't there anymore. Maybe she'll talk to me. I should also check into why Gary was fired, don't you think?"
Eyes on the road, Jackie said, "I would."
"It could explain why Gary Dodson started working for Whit McGrath, if he wasn't lying to me about it. Gary was fired because of something he did for Whit, and Whit was making it up to him. Maybe. I wonder what he did? You know, Jackie, if it was
illegal,
as opposed to just
shady,
that might be something else to look into." They passed a long line of palm trees, and shade and sunlight rapidly alternated. "I wonder who I know with connections at Hadley and Morgan in Palm Beach."
Jackie was holding the wheel with both hands, concentrating on the road. Gail had noticed that she was even quieter than usual. She didn't seem to be in a bad mood, just preoccupied. Gail wondered if it had to do with the chat with Irene after breakfast. Gail had no idea what Irene might have said, but as soon as she got back, she would ask her. It would be rude to start questioning her cousin.
They crossed the county line doing about sixty. A Martin County sheriff's deputy going the other way lifted a hand in salutation. He must have recognized the white Trooper belonging to the sheriff's daughter. Jackie glanced at her speedometer and slowed down. "Oops."
"I don't think he would have stopped you for speeding," Gail said.
"Yeah, but it sets a bad example."
Gail couldn't hold back a smile. "You're such a Girl Scout."
Jackie slowed to thirty going through a neat little trailer park with tiny plots of grass. The trailers were turquoise and pink single-wides that might have been there for forty years. A hurricane storm surge would have tossed them away like so many toys. The view went straight down the intracoastal, Hutchinson Island on the left, vanishing in the distance.
"Why don't you ask Whit McGrath why Gary got fired."
"How? Go knock on his door?"
"There's a big event going on tonight at the River Pines Club. He's unveiling Phase Two, a complete build-out of River Pines. It's supposedly invitation only, but I think you could walk in if you look like you belong."
"Great. 'Mr. McGrath, is it true that Gary Dodson is one of your lawyers? Why would you hire such a loser? What illegal or unethical act did Gary Dodson do for you when he was employed by Hadley and Morgan? Did Amber want money to keep quiet? Is that why you killed her? Or was it because she was tired of being on her knees, and she was going to tell your wife?' "
Jackie's smile broke into a laugh.
Gail said, "Maybe I'll just go there and watch."
"Tell Anthony to come too. It doesn't take that long to get here from Miami."
"He's trying very hard to stay out of this."
"All he has to do is show up. It's good to have a guy with you. That way you don't look as obvious. You'll have someone to talk to."
Gail thought about it. "That's true."
Jackie dropped her at the same shopping center parking lot where they had met two hours ago. "Call me later," she said. "And tell Whit that Jackie Bryce says hello."
Gail made some other stops before going back to the hotel. She sat in the kitchen of one of the jurors on
State vs. Clark,
explaining, persuading, finally begging him to sign an affidavit. To her surprise, he did. He would not have voted to convict Kenneth Ray Clark of murder, and recommend death, if Tina Hopwood had testified that Clark had left the trailer at 10:00 a.m. on February 6.