Chapter 30
The first time, she slammed the door in my face. But Josie and I went back a very long time. She knew I wasn’t leaving her front porch until she came out to talk to me. After a minute more of my slamming the brass door knocker, she finally opened up but wouldn’t come out onto the porch.
Fine.
“Don’t lecture me,” she started. “You can’t tell me what to do and I’m not afraid of you.”
“I don’t care what you’re afraid of,” I said. “I was just hoping you cared about your own daughter.”
“I do care! How dare you suggest I don’t?”
The urge to wring her neck hadn’t left me. I took one step back and a breath. “Then please explain to me why you thought this was a good idea. Do you think this will make Emma want to have anything to do with you?”
“You’ve all been poisoning her against me for decades.
Nobody’s ever asked for my side of the story.
Not until that podcaster lady did. Maybe if Joe and the rest of you had treated me fairly and hadn’t blocked my relationship with my own daughter, I wouldn’t have had to resort to something like this.
At least now my story is out there. If Emma ever wants to hear it, she won’t have to go through you to get to me. ”
“Emma’s twenty-three years old!” I shouted. “If she wants to hear from you, nobody’s stopping her.”
Josie rolled her eyes. “Whatever, Cass. I don’t have anything else to say to you. I’m not going to pretend I’m not glad people are seeing Katy for what she is. She’s a manipulative monster. And she’s dangerous. Joe’s just lucky she didn’t slaughter him while he slept after all these years.”
“This actually isn’t about Katy,” I said. “You really don’t understand the damage you’ve caused Emma.”
“Like you said, she’s twenty-three years old. She’s old enough to know the truth about who I really am.”
Was she serious? “Oh, I think we can agree on that. You sure did show her who you really are.”
Josie slammed the door in my face and locked it. I raised my hand to knock again, but froze. I was wasting my time with her. Josie was a first-class narcissist. She would never see herself as anything but the hero or victim in any situation.
I collected myself. If I could at least keep Joe from charging over here and making everything worse, I’d call it a victory. Still fuming, I stepped off the porch and got in my car.
I had three more missed calls from Joe. It was just after ten. Jeanie would already be in court by now. She had one last card to play. She’d call Tom Loomis’s current station manager, for all the good it would do.
My dashboard alert went off. I was on E. I pulled into a gas station at the next intersection. After loading the pump into my fuel tank, I stepped away, meaning to call Joe back.
I never got that far. Just as the pump clicked off, another car pulled up behind me. Tallon Shipley was behind the wheel.
I stayed calm, pulling the pump out of my car and putting it back in its holster. I cashed out, then slowly walked up to Tallon’s driver’s side window.
“Park over there,” she said. “Then you and I can go for a drive.”
A strange request. “I don’t think so,” I said. “There’s a fast food place inside. We’ll get a table.”
She shook her head. “Not happening, Cass. I know you want to talk to me. I want to talk to you. But it’s happening on my terms. We won’t go far, but I’m in control.”
“Or what?” I said, my tone dark.
“Or I drive off and you never see me again.”
“We can do this at my office then,” I said. “Were you following me?” The second I said it, I knew that wasn’t it. There was a reason Josie had waited so long to come to the door. She probably tipped Tallon off as soon as I pulled into her driveway.
Another car had pulled in behind her. The driver laid on his horn. Every pump had a line of cars waiting. Gas had shot down a dollar a gallon since yesterday morning.
I wanted to tell Tallon off. But she was right that I needed to talk to her. Right now, she was the best lead we had as to what might have really happened to Tom Loomis. And she’d made things personal, putting Emma in the middle.
“Fine,” I said. Against my better judgment, I did what she asked. I parked my car in front of the fast food place. I climbed into her passenger seat and she drove away.
Shamrock Park was just two blocks away. Tallon pulled into its gravel lot.
There weren’t many people here. Just a few moms with their preschool-age kids at the swing sets and dinosaur slide.
There were a handful of others running the trails leading off into the woods.
No one paid the slightest attention to us.
“You should have told me who you really are,” I said. “I know about you and Tom Loomis. I know your real name is Theresa Sheffield.”
I’ll admit, I took satisfaction in the shocked look on her face.
“How …”
I turned to her. “You want me to reveal my sources? Then it’s time you revealed yours. And it’s time you told the truth to the police.”
She recovered quickly, her face breaking into a smile. “You think I care about the cops? Not one bit. I haven’t broken any laws.”
“You’ve been lying about who you are and your connection to a murder victim. Were you in love with him? Did you think he wanted you back? Did you pressure him into talking to his divorce lawyer?”
Again, surprise colored her expression. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Do you think I had something to do with what happened to Tom? Wait. You think I killed him?”
I didn’t answer.
“I didn’t come here to confess any sins to you, Cass. That’s not why we need to talk. I think you’re the only one with something to confess.”
Now I was surprised. She waited for me to say something. I didn’t.
“Look,” she continued. “We both want the same thing. The truth about what really happened to Tom. That’s all I’ve ever been after.
You’re accusing me of lying. I haven’t. I just didn’t tell anyone I had a connection to Tom.
Yet. But that’s my truth to tell. When I’m ready.
When it serves my best interests and nobody else’s.
I’m done covering for anyone. Including Tom. ”
My mind raced. What could she think she was covering up for Tom? What happened between them back in Detroit? And why had she waited until now to talk about it?
“Is this about ratings?” I asked. “Revenge?”
“It’s about the truth,” she barked. “Everyone in this whole case is lying. Including you.”
“I don’t know what you want from me,” I said. “You’re the liar. You’re a material witness in this case. You could be charged with obstruction of justice at the least. If you had something to do with what happened to Tom, then it’s time to come clean. You know I have to tell them what I know.”
She laughed. “Right. Because Katy’s your client.
Because it’s your duty to protect her. Are you going to pretend you didn’t just withdraw from the case?
Of course you won’t admit why. Pretty convenient of you to hide behind attorney-client privilege.
It’s brilliant, actually. How you haven’t been brought up on obstruction charges yourself is the real shocker here. ”
“What is it that you think you know?” I asked.
“Come on. The cops and lawyers in this town might actually be too dumb to figure it out, but I’m not.
There’s only one reason you would have agreed to represent Katy Loomis.
And it’s the same reason you hung her out to dry in the middle of her trial.
Because you know who really killed Tom. You’ve been protecting him all along.
Your brother Joe killed him and Katy was in on it.
You’ve been trying to protect and cover for Joe this whole time.
And I know I’m this close to proving it. ”
My head spun. “It’s a nice story,” I said, not giving her the satisfaction of sensing any alarm from me.
“If it were true. Do you want to know what I think? I think you’ve decided to hide in plain sight.
The only thing I can’t quite figure out is whether you really thought Tom loved you, or whether you just wanted him to pay for rejecting you.
Were you jealous that he married Katy? Did you go there that morning with the intent to kill her and it didn’t work out? ”
She didn’t react how I thought she would. Not with fear or surprise. Instead, she rolled her eyes and reached across me to open her glove box. She pulled out a folded stack of paper and put it in my lap.
“I figured there was an outside chance I’d have to prove it,” she said. “Read it for yourself.”
I picked up the papers. It was a flight itinerary. Flight 1042 out of Tampa, Florida. It left at 6:18 in the morning of March 14th and landed in Detroit at 9:13 a.m.
“I was visiting my dad in St. Pete Beach,” she said. “He lives in a condo with my stepmom. But I don’t stay there when I go. I stayed at the Don CeSar. I can find my reservation if you want that too. I’ve got an alibi for the morning Tom was murdered. Does your brother?”
I clutched the papers, crumpling them.
“Then why?” I asked.
“I didn’t love Tom,” she said. “Not anymore. Maybe not ever. I was young. Just starting out in the news. WDTN was my first job out of college because I’m good at what I do.
Except I walked into the biggest cliché and I’m not proud of it.
Tom was handsome and charming. And dumb as a post. Oddly, I found that endearing.
But then I also figured out he was a jerk.
He could have just broken up with me. Told me the truth that he had met somebody else.
I admit I didn’t handle it great. I got mean.
Things were tense at work. But we could have worked it out.
He just needed to give me a little time to cool off.
Instead, he tried to get me fired for his own convenience.
Well, I wasn’t going to stand for that so I filed a complaint. ”
“So you got him fired,” I said.
“Forced to resign,” she said. “It was kind of a shock, really. That management sided with me. Tom was a major talent. They were going to promote him.”
“They made you sign an NDA,” I said. Her comment about not wanting to cover for Tom anymore made sense.
“He left. I got to stay. But people treated me differently after that. I could tell they thought I was a problem. I did the right thing. I wasn’t a victim, but Tom did take advantage of me. The whole thing soured me on the corporate news business.”
“But not broadcasting,” I said.
“I built Tallon for Justice all on my own,” she said. “The first two seasons weren’t huge. But I was gaining steady subscribers.”
“Then your ex-lover ended up a murder victim and you saw an opportunity.”
“That’s not it,” she said. “I was angry about how things ended. Yes. But I never hated Tom. What happened to him made me sick. I really do want to bring his killer to justice. No matter who I have to go through to find the truth.”
“Your story,” I said. “On your terms. You’ve got a nice little ratings-grabbing twist, haven’t you? That’s the plan? Reveal your true relationship after the verdict?”
“I haven’t broken a single law,” she said. “If the police had wanted to question me, I would have cooperated without revealing my sources. I still will. But I’m not a witness. I wasn’t even in town. I hadn’t spoken to Tom in nearly six years. I’m nothing more than a footnote in his life story.”
“It’s unethical,” I said.
“You really think you should be calling anyone else out on their ethical duties? And you still haven’t answered my question.
I know you won’t. But I also know I’m right.
It’s you who’s hiding something. I think if your brother really was involved, you’re willing to let Katy take the fall for it all by herself.
And maybe she really is the only one who’s guilty.
But you know more than the police do. I’m sure of it.
I’m just as sure I’m about to prove it. So consider this a warning.
If anything happens to me, I’ve got a file saved to the cloud outlining everything I suspect and how far I’ve gotten in this case.
A friend of mine knows what to do with it.
And she knows I’m meeting with you today. ”
I was seething. She’d outplayed me. In my rage at Josie, my concern for Emma and Joe, I’d let my guard down. I’d been thinking with my emotions far too long. I had walked right into this.
Almost on autopilot, I stepped out of her car. “You can keep that, by the way,” she said. I was still holding on to her flight itinerary. She gave me a wave and a smug smile as she pulled out and left me in the dust.