Chapter Twenty #5
Bill stared at the bars in front of his face.
“What you need to understand is, Russell is a seriously dangerous man. You think I hurt Allison? Russell was with her for three years, and he beat her down like a dog almost every day. Raped her more times than she could count. Broke every bone in her hand. Kicked her so hard in the stomach that she peed blood for weeks. She’d talk about leaving and he’d put a gun to her head.
Made it clear that if she ever tried, he would kill her.
Then later, when he was briefly out of prison, she got pregnant with Mandy and he hit her so hard she landed in the hospital for two weeks.
She almost lost the baby. That’s when she knew she had to do something to get rid of him. Allison would do anything for her kid.”
Anything but leave Bill Garrison.
Emmy couldn’t imagine what that roller coaster had been like for Mandy.
Hearing her mom say they were leaving one day, then the next hearing that Bill was coming with them.
The girl must have felt so desperately trapped.
No wonder Russell had found her such easy prey.
Mandy had fantasized for years about a father who would finally save her.
All that she’d really needed was an adult who would do the right thing.
Emmy repeated, “Why did Allison visit Shane Russell four times in prison?”
“She thought she could reason with him. Allison was book smart, not street smart. You know that. She thought she could appeal to his humanity. Convince him to stay away from Mandy. She was scared he’d destroy her life. Our lives. He’s a monster.”
Emmy could easily see Allison thinking she could persuade Russell to be a better man. She had wasted most of her waking hours thinking that she could change her abusers. “How’d that work out?”
“’Bout how you’d expect.” Bill leaned his head into his hand. “Russell doesn’t have any humanity. He’s barely even human. He told Allison he’d do whatever it took to get his way, even if that meant hurting Mandy.”
“What did he want Allison to do?”
“Help blackmail Ezekial Gilchrist. Russell wanted twenty million dollars. Said that was the least he deserved for being in prison all that time. He told Allison if she didn’t help him, he’d hunt Mandy down and do to her exactly what he used to do to Allison.
Beat her. Rape her. Then he’d kill her when there was nothing left to hurt. ”
Emmy stared at the flashing red light. She felt her heartbeat pulsing along with it. There was no telling what horrors Shane Russell had planned to inflict on his own child. “Russell wanted Allison to help him blackmail Ezekial Gilchrist for murdering Ruel Clifton?”
“Yeah,” Bill said. “For murder, for fixing the trial, for everything.”
“Tell me what Allison did.”
“She told Russell that she’d do it, but then she reached out to the FBI. Offered up Reggie. Said she’d testify against him if they gave her and Mandy witness protection. But she could tell the FBI was getting cold feet. She said she had to work all the angles.”
“Which took her back to the blackmail plan with Russell?”
Bill nodded.
“Why didn’t Allison just take Mandy and leave?”
“I just told you Russell is an animal. He gets it in his head that you crossed him, and he won’t let it go. She’d be signing Mandy’s death warrant if she told him no. Jesus Christ, she was willing to give up your dad. That shows you how desperate she was.”
“All right,” Emmy said. “She was afraid of Russell tracking her down. Is that the only reason she didn’t leave?”
Bill let out a heavy sigh. “She asked me to run away with her, but I’m too old to start over.
Not without a lot of money. Gilchrist could help fund our retirement.
He could pay us twenty mil just as easily as he could pay Russell.
The old asshole wouldn’t miss a dime. I’m all for leaving this shitty town, but I’m not gonna live in a trailer and work at a car wash. ”
Emmy thought about the money in the attic. “Keep going.”
“Allison told Russell that Gilchrist was too dangerous. She started researching the jurors. Said they’d be easier targets. But some of them were dead. A lot of them weren’t local anymore. A few of them were still connected.”
“And Mitch Bellingham was an old man dying alone in a nursing home.”
Bill’s eyes tracked across her face. He’d finally accepted that she wasn’t an idiot he could control.
“Allison was supposed to work Mitch for information on the other jurors, but he started working her. Turned her against me. Talked her into filing for a divorce. She told me that she and Mandy were still leaving, but not with me. Sent me a goddam text. Couldn’t even tell me in person. Can you believe that shit?”
Emmy could only think about how elated Mandy must have been to think even for a moment that they were finally getting away from Bill.
“I really thought she was serious. Even took back my goddam fake ID like she was teaching me a lesson. Stole it out of my truck when I was at work.”
Emmy knew he’d gotten it back somehow. “How else did Mitch Bellingham work Allison?”
“He promised her that when he died, he’d make sure she had enough evidence to blackmail Gilchrist on her own so she and Mandy could start over. He didn’t want to do it before. Said it was too risky for his family.”
“What evidence?” Emmy asked.
“Mitch Bellingham said he had concrete proof that Gilchrist used Russell to fix the jury. He knew they weren’t going to convict, so he bought his way to a guilty verdict. Gilchrist would pay millions to keep it quiet.”
Emmy watched Bill shake his head. “So what did Allison do?”
“She kept going back to see Mitch thinking he’d give her the evidence she needed to force Gilchrist into paying.
Told me Mitch was an honorable man. That she believed him.
You know how gullible Allison could be. She always had daddy issues.
All it took was some asshole being nice to her, and she did exactly what he wanted. ”
Emmy didn’t point out that Bill had worked Allison the same way. “Mitch Bellingham died last week. Why didn’t she leave then?”
“Because we needed money!” Bill yelled. “Are you deaf? Didn’t you hear me? All of this was about money!”
Emmy kept herself from flinching. “If you can’t calm yourself down, I will make you.”
His bluster disappeared as quickly as air leaving a balloon. She couldn’t believe how easily he folded when he didn’t hold all the power.
Emmy repeated, “Why didn’t Allison leave when Mitch died?”
“The old man played her. I told her he was full of shit. He didn’t have anything on Gilchrist. She wasted all that time talking to him for nothing. She was stuck back in the same place. Both of us were.”
Emmy thought about the packed suitcases. Mitch Bellingham’s $300,000. The video on the CD. Maybe Allison thought she was going to leave with Mandy on her own. “So what was Allison’s real plan? Was she going to help Russell, or was she going to double-cross him and blackmail Gilchrist by herself?”
Bill gave her an appreciative look. “She was, then she wasn’t.
She kept going back and forth saying she’d help Russell and get him to leave town, then saying she wanted to leave town with Mandy.
One minute, she wanted me to go with them.
The next, she was telling me she never wanted to see me again. ”
The pattern was crushingly familiar. “Did Allison contact Gilchrist?”
“Last I heard, she was going to leave town, then contact Gilchrist. Do it all through the internet. Keep ourselves safe. She figured in a month, we’d be rich, living on a beach somewhere Russell would never be able to find us.”
“You’re saying we like you were back in on the plan by then.”
“Who the hell knows?” He threw his hands into the air. “She changed her mind every other day.”
Emmy knew he was being honest, just like she knew that she hadn’t gotten the full truth. “What made Allison finally decide to leave yesterday afternoon?”
“Thursday, she accidentally walked in on Mandy changing. Mandy freaked out. Tried to cover herself. But Allison saw. She had these bruises all up and down her body. She wouldn’t tell Allison how it happened.
We thought it was—” Bill caught himself before he said the name.
“The guy I owe money to. Allison went over to where he works, and she came back and said it wasn’t him. ”
Voldemort again. “You’re sure this was Thursday?”
Bill nodded. “Allison spent all night begging Mandy to tell her who beat her. Some of the bruises were old. She knew it had been going on for a while. She thought maybe it was some kid at school. For a while, Mandy let her believe that. She was such a little liar.”
Emmy figured Bill was something of an expert in getting women to lie. “Then what?”
“Friday night, Allison came to the motel. She was devastated. Mandy finally told her the truth. It wasn’t a boy from school who laid hands on her.
It was Shane Russell. He’d lied to Allison the whole time.
The second he got out of prison, he started working on Mandy.
Buying her shit, giving her expensive things, telling her he loved her, that he was gonna take her away from Allison.
Mandy believed him at first, but then Russell never did anything to leave.
Kept saying next week, then next month, then next year.
She tried to cut it off with him, but he started hurting her.
Twisted her wrist at first. Slapped her.
Then he beat her so bad. All she ever wanted was a daddy.
Not me—God knows I tried—but she could be as stupid as Allison.
Never saw what was good for her. Said she wanted her real dad.
The poor kid told Allison she took the beat-downs because she loved him. ”