by Sharon Sala
Linc had an idea. “Do you mind a suggestion?”
“I’m listening,” Kennedy said.
“Right at the start, if there’s a way Fagan can overhear what the other two are saying to you without them knowing he’s there, you might get to the truth quicker.”
“Why’s that?” Kennedy asked.
“I think Fagan is guilty by blood and silence only. He knew what was going to happen but wasn’t a part of it, and after it was over, he never told. And he intimated to Marlow and me when we heard him confess, that Lucy is probably the brains behind most of it.”
“You’re saying Fagan may be the trigger that blows the lid off their lies?”
“Between my presence and what he hears the other two say, I’d say the odds are good that the whole lot of them spill their guts before it’s over.”
“Then I’ll see you soon?”
“Where do I meet you?”
“Come to the fourth floor, room 416. Wait out in the hall until I come for you.”
“I’ll be right up, and thank you.”
“Son, it’ll be my pleasure.”
* * *
Prince was begging his nurse for pain meds when he saw Detective Kennedy arrive. He remembered the man being in his room before, and watched as Kennedy paused outside the door to speak to the guard and then walked in.
He was surprised to see another cop follow and quickly move toward the far corner of the room, where he began setting up a tripod. When he popped a video camera on it and then turned it toward the bed, Prince felt a surge of panic. What the hell?
He had already come to terms with the fact that he was going down for stalking Meg Lewis and knew from questions the detective had asked him that they were all being questioned about Marcus’s murder, but that had to be it, right? His own sister would never finger him for assaulting her and shooting her husband, because she had to know he would turn right around and finger her for arranging it. If they all stuck together, they could bluff their way out. Couldn’t they?
“How is he doing?” Kennedy asked a nurse who had come to hover in the doorway, drawn by the activity.
“His fever is down.”
“Good. The sooner you get him well, the quicker he’s mine. We need some privacy now, please.”
Prince’s gut knotted. He didn’t like the way that sounded.
Kennedy waited until the nurse was gone, and then sent a text.
“What’s going on with all the mystery?” Prince asked.
“Considering the fact that you’re going to be behind bars for a really long time, I thought you would like your reunion with your family to be recorded for posterity.”
Prince’s eyes bugged. The only family he had was Fagan and Lucy, and he couldn’t fathom why they would be coming to visit. Fagan hated his guts, and Lucy was a snake. He didn’t want to see her any more than he guessed she would want to see him.
“What the hell? Why are you talking to me like that?”
Kennedy shrugged. “How else would I address the fact that you tried to kill Margaret Lewis?”
Prince glared. “I never once told her I was gonna hurt her.”
“Just because you didn’t say it means nothing. You stalked her, broke into her home, shot at her, assaulted her, then chased her up a mountain and caused her to fall to what could have been her death.”
Prince frowned when he heard she wasn’t dead. “That’s not what happened.”
“Don’t bother trying to deny it. Facts talk,” Kennedy said, and then walked to the door.
He saw Lucy being wheeled from one end of the hall, and when he turned to his left he saw a very large man coming from the opposite direction. Since he’d been told Lincoln Fox was on the tall side, he was guessing that was his man.
“Are you leaving?” Prince asked.
“No. We’ve been waiting for your company to arrive, and they’re here.
* * *
All Lucy knew when she left her room was that they were taking her downstairs, she assumed for some tests. Her hair was sticky and matted, and she felt naked without her makeup, but her face was still too swollen to consider it. Wesley had always referred to her makeup as war paint, and she used to giggle about it, but since she’d tried to have him killed, she didn’t think it was prudent to fall back on fond memories of their time together. Like life and seasons, things changed. As far as she was concerned, he had betrayed her, giving up his rights to her loyalty. And she was a bitch when it came to keeping score.
The orderly was wheeling her briskly down the hall, but when they passed the elevator, she pointed.
“Hey, you missed the elevator. Aren’t we going down to the lab?”
“No, ma’am,” he said, and kept rolling.
“Then what on—”
She let the question go when she saw Detective Kennedy step out of a room just a few doors down. He seemed to be waiting for her, which made her nervous. When she saw a tall, dark-haired man turn a corner at the other end of the hall and come toward them, she panicked. It was Lincoln, and when Kennedy stopped him and shook hands, she panicked. Why did this feel like an ambush?
She wouldn’t look at Lincoln, but she felt his gaze. The old saw—if looks could kill—had never been so true. And then the orderly wheeled her past the men and into the room. When she saw the patient in the bed, she gasped.
Prince saw the shock on Lucy’s face and realized something was up. She was just as surprised to see him as he was to see her. When Lincoln Fox walked in behind Kennedy, it was obvious they were about to be fucked. He just didn’t know how far over he would have to bend.
Kennedy was watching the siblings and their body language. What was most telling was that they had yet to meet each other’s eyes, let alone speak. His phone buzzed. He scanned the text and stepped out into the hall. Marlow and his deputy were coming down the hall with a handcuffed man between them. The last family member had arrived. Time to get the party started. He waited until they were standing just outside the door, raised a finger to his lips to caution them to stay silent, then stepped back into the room.
“So, Prince...Lucy...this isn’t the greeting I would have expected,” Kennedy said. “Prince, I would have thought you’d want to apologize to your sister, seeing as you tried to kill her and her husband.”
Lucy’s gut rolled.
Prince frowned at Lucy. “What the hell? I didn’t try to kill you, and you know it.”
Linc eyed the detective, curious as to what he was thinking since Prince had essentially just admitted the attack on Wesley by not denying the accusation. He waited to see what else the bastard gave away.
“That’s not what she said,” Kennedy said.
The shock on Prince’s face was obvious. He looked at Lucy in disbelief.
“Lucy! Is that what you told them? That I tried to kill you?”
Lucy had one chance to talk her way out of this, and she wasn’t going to blow it. She turned on the tears and shrank back in the wheelchair, as if she was afraid he would jump out of the bed and start hammering on her again.
“I know you told me to lie,” she said, and started to tremble. It was a skill she’d perfected back when she was a kid and her daddy would get so mad at all of them that he would start beating the first one he could catch. “I know you told me to say it was a heavyset, middle-aged man with a salt-and-pepper mullet, but I couldn’t lie. I couldn’t lie to the police.”
Prince snorted. “Since when? You been lying all your life.”
Lucy started to sob. “Oh, Prince. You tried to kill my sweet Wesley and now you’re blaming me? I didn’t think I could be any sadder, but I was wrong. You have broken my heart.”
Prince was desperate and turned to Kennedy. “No, Detective. That’s not how it went down at all. It was her idea to off her old man. She wanted him dead before he filed for divorce. Fagan knew it, too. She told him. Hell, maybe it was Fagan who did it.”
Linc’s heart skipped a beat. Here it comes.
Lu
cy wailed.
Prince was cursing.
And then Fagan walked in, and once again the siblings were shocked into silence.
Fagan was obviously pissed, which was what Linc had been hoping for. Earlier he’d seen Fagan trying to distance himself from the actual crimes, and he guessed that was what was about to happen again.
“I can’t believe the crap coming out of your mouth,” he said.
Lucy sniffed and mopped at her eyes. “I know, baby brother. I was shocked, as well.”
Fagan snorted. “I was talking to you, Lucy.”
Lucy gasped. “How dare—”
Fagan pointed at her. “You. Don’t talk.” Then he glared at Prince. “You are a mean bastard, Prince, and whatever happens to you, you have coming.”
“Shut the hell up!” Prince yelled.
Linc froze. He’d heard that voice and that phrase outside his house just before it blew.
He moved to the end of Prince’s bed. “You’re fond of that phrase, aren’t you?”
Prince frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, just that I heard you say it before, but you weren’t talking to your brother, you were yelling at your dog—just before my house blew up. I know because I heard you.”
“You didn’t hear shit,” Prince said. “You were already uncon—”
Linc’s heart skipped a beat. Prince looked like someone had just stuck a cattle prod up his ass.
Linc kept pushing. “What? You didn’t finish what you were going to say. Were you about to say that I was already unconscious? You bastard! You stood outside that house and watched it burn. Who killed Dad? You or Wendell? Oh, wait...let me guess. Neither one of you had the balls to stand up to him face-to-face. But you are fully capable of being the shit who distracted him while Wendell came up behind him and bashed him in the head with my baseball bat.”
Prince’s lips went slack, and then he started trying to explain his way out of the gaffe he’d made.
“We didn’t kill your dad. Why would we? He was family.”
Sheriff Marlow had been standing in the doorway, keeping an eye on his prisoner, but this was when he honored his promise to Lincoln. He cleared his throat and moved into the room.
“Sorry, Prince, but that’s not true and you know it. What you don’t know is that we have identified you and your brothers as the men who robbed a bank in Lexington over eighteen years ago. It’s a done deal, so don’t argue about it. Fagan confessed. What you don’t know is that Fagan also told us that Marcus Fox found out that you boys were the ones who stole the money. When he told Lucy, she called Wendell and told him Marcus knew. She was mad at all three of you, because if you got arrested it would embarrass her. She told Wendell to kill Marcus to keep him quiet. She didn’t care about being a widow, because she already had a lover waiting in the wings to pick up the slack. She wouldn’t have to move back into her mama’s house. Not when Wesley Duggan was waiting for her to move into his.”
Lucy screamed and kept on screaming until Linc took a step toward her. She choked on a sob and covered her face.
Prince’s mouth dropped. When he regained the use of his voice he shouted, “Fagan!”
Fagan glared. “What? I told you I was sick and tired of being dragged into your messes. I told Lucy the same thing, and now you both know I meant it. I’m done. Whatever happens to me for not telling sooner is gonna have to happen. My sin was keeping silent, and I’m done. I cleaned the dirt out of my house, and now I’m cleaning the dirty lies out of my soul, just like Mama would have told me to do.”
Prince glared. “You are no Goody Two-shoes, little brother. You are a worthless drunk who smokes more of the weed you grow than you sell. I have always stood up for you! I didn’t throw you out in the cold. That’s what you did to me!” Prince yelled.
“And you know why, so shut your mouth,” Fagan muttered, then began talking to Kennedy. “There’s no love lost between me and Prince, but to be on the fair side, there’s no love lost between me and Lucy, either. She’s a nasty mean bitch. She can order a hit like she’s ordering one of her fancy damn coffees, but she thinks if she doesn’t pull the trigger, she’s lily-white. So Prince and Wendell killed Marcus like she asked. And then she got in trouble again when Lincoln Fox came back and told Wesley that he’d lied on the stand. It opened up a new can of worms when Wes found out she’d lied to him. He told her he was going to divorce her and confess to perjury. She was pissed and asked me to get rid of Husband Number Two. I believe her actual request was to ‘make her a widow.’ I told her no way in hell.”
Kennedy eyed Lucy curiously. “What do you have to say to that, Mrs. Duggan?”
She cringed, glanced up at Linc and then looked away. “I didn’t say that,” she muttered.
Fagan snorted.
Prince sighed. “Do I get a court-appointed lawyer?”
“Yes, but you’d better come clean now,” Kennedy said. “It will go better on you in the long run.”
“I’ll come clean, all right. What Fagan said about Lucy is the truth.”
Lucy shrieked. “You liar!” She stood up from the wheelchair and grabbed Kennedy’s arm. “He’s lying. I swear.”
Kennedy shrugged out of her grasp. “Sit down, Mrs. Duggan.”
Lucy dropped.
Prince laughed.
“After Fagan turned her down, she asked me to kill Wesley. She didn’t know he’d already filed for divorce and confessed to the perjury that sent Lincoln Fox to jail. I showed up at her house a couple days later and found her drunk off her ass. Long story short, I cleaned her and her house up, hid the empty booze bottles in the neighbors’ trash cans, and then we had ourselves a little family brawl to explain why I had the gun that I was supposed to use to kill her old man. Only he’s not dead, so you can’t charge me with his murder.”
“No, but we can charge you for Marcus Fox’s murder, which we will. Got anything else to say?” Kennedy asked.
Prince’s shoulders slumped. “Truth is, me and Lucy had bigger fights for less reason when we were all still living at home. She’s just mad at me cuz I missed Wesley’s heart.”
Lucy moaned.
Fagan spoke up again then, throwing another twist into the story that took the last load of guilt off Lincoln’s shoulders.
“Oh...I’m not done cleaning my house,” Fagan said. “Don’t forget about Prince stalking Meg Lewis. That had nothing to do with any of this other shit. Her ex, Bobby Lewis, killed Wendell a couple of years after the trial. He’s been in prison ever since. When he learned he was dying of cancer, he had his brother, Claude, ask Prince to come see him, said he would make it worth his while. Just mention the word money and Prince would kiss the devil’s ass, never mind the man who killed our own flesh and blood. So Prince goes to see Lewis, finds out that when he killed Wendell, he stole the money off Wendell’s body and hid it. Something like twenty thousand dollars. Anyway, Bobby didn’t tell Prince where it was buried, said it was where he’d buried his favorite dog, Ike, and that his ex-wife would know and to ask her.” Fagan was so mad he was shaking. “But did my brother go ask her that simple question and leave her the hell alone? No. He plagued her and stalked her and scared her half to death, then told me as soon as she told him what he needed to know he was gonna slit her throat. That’s the kind of people I’m related to. Deviants. Fucking deviants!”
Linc was shocked. Finally the truth about why Meg had been targeted, and it had nothing to do with him.
Lucy was weeping loudly. Fagan turned on her.
“You better cry now and get it out of your system, sister, because where you’re going, no one’s gonna care. You wanted Marcus dead and Wendell did it. You wanted Wesley dead and Prince gave it his best shot. You need to be taken out of circulation before someone else pisses you off and you want them dead, too.”
Before they could stop her, she launched herself at Fagan, screaming at the top of her lungs.
“I spent my life trying to live down being kin to you. It’s not
my fault, it’s yours! I begged Marcus not to tell, but he wouldn’t listen. He said it wasn’t right that they’d taken someone else’s money because they were too lazy to work. I couldn’t let everyone know I came from criminals. I didn’t want to be tarred by that brush.”
Lincoln had had enough. He shoved the wheelchair against the backs of her legs. She fell into it with a plop as he turned her to face him.
“You are a murderer, Lucy White—” He used her maiden name just to insult her. “And you’re even worse than your brothers. You keep talking about them dragging down your name and reputation, but you’re as dirty as they are, right down to the bone. You’re a killer and a coward. You pointed the gun and let someone else pull the trigger, then you blamed it on me—a kid, damn it! You were willing to sacrifice my life just so yours would stay perfect.”
Linc’s fingers were curled into fists, and he was so mad he was shaking.
“Detective, if you’re finished with me, I think I’m done here.”
“We’re done here, too,” Kennedy said. “We’ve got everything on video, loud and clear. Thank you for coming. Hell of a road they put you on. You know the justice system. This will take a little time, but you’ll get your day in court and a clean name to go with it. I’m making it my business to see that your record is expunged and that you are completely vindicated.”
Too moved to speak, Lincoln nodded once, then walked out of the room without looking back. The worst of his past was over.
He had a woman to see about the rest of his life.
Epilogue
After three weeks in the hospital Meg had come home to a house decorated for Christmas, and a man and dog waiting for her on the front porch.
After that, they marked the winter off in increments.
* * *
The day Prince, Lucy and Fagan White were charged with multiple counts of perjury, theft, arson and murder.
The day Meg took her first step without a walker.
