Whispering winds widows, p.17
Whispering Winds Widows, page 17
“Order in the courtroom,” Father Cullen demanded.
His harsh tone yanked Reyna’s attention in his direction.
Noting her focus on the man, Birdie said, “Father Cullen is our judge.”
So it was Coach Landon. Reyna’s gaze landed on him next. He stared back, fear in his eyes, sweat beading on his forehead.
Walls was right—they needed to call the sheriff. She reached into her bag for her cell. It was suddenly yanked from her reach.
Reyna glared at Birdie. “What are you doing?”
Birdie glared right back. “We all gathered here late yesterday to determine how best to move forward. The decision was unanimous. It took some doing to get prepared to proceed but we’re ready now. There is no going back, Reyna. Believe that if you believe nothing else. We have run out of time.”
Reyna surveyed those present. Her gaze settled on Ben’s mother. “He’s worried sick about you.”
“You’ll understand soon,” Lucinda assured her. “We’ve all seen to our final arrangements and we are now doing what we have to do.”
Horror pounded Reyna in the chest. Was this going to be some sort of mass suicide?
“We’re wasting time,” Cullen announced. “We should begin and we will conduct ourselves appropriately as we proceed.” He looked directly at Reyna. “And no one is leaving until this is done.”
“Thirty years ago,” Birdie began but hesitated. She turned to Reyna. “I’m sorry—I forgot to tell you that I’m the prosecutor.”
Reyna drew in a deep breath and looked around the room. Okay, if this was the way it was going to be, there was one thing missing. “He needs an attorney.”
Birdie flashed her a look of annoyance. “He waived the right to an attorney.” She pointed her attention at Coach Landon. “Isn’t that right, Landon?”
He nodded, his eyes wide and bulging with unadulterated fear.
Birdie smiled at Reyna. “There you go.”
“Thirty years ago,” she said again before Reyna could protest more, “Ward Kane Junior, Duke Fuller and Judson Evans disappeared, and as far as the authorities are concerned, their case remains unsolved.” She looked from one of those present to the next. “But we all know differently.”
Heads nodded, and agreements rumbled through those gathered.
“You’re all going to be arrested,” Walls warned.
“Shut up, Gordon,” Ward snapped.
Reyna opted not to write that down. All she could hope to do was be patient and be ready to stop any harm from happening.
“Coach Landon,” Birdie said, “can you tell us about your relationship with the three missing men who came to be known as the Three?”
He heaved out a breath. “Everyone here knows I was their coach from middle school through high school.”
“When would you say the trouble began between you and these men?” Birdie asked.
Landon shrugged. “At that ten-year reunion. Duke got jealous—”
“Liar!”
Reyna jumped at the word Deidre Fuller had hurled at the man.
“Tell them when it began,” she roared like a mama bear protecting its cub.
“Let me remind you,” the priest said to Landon, “I know the whole truth. I will know if you lie.”
Reyna stared at the man of God, the keeper of the secrets. Dear God, it was him. He knew the truth. Why had he never told anyone? Had any of the Widows told him within the sanctity of the vow of confession? Was this his way of helping see that justice was finally done? He was dying—Father Jordan had said as much.
Understanding settled on Reyna like a load of bricks. He was dying, and he wanted to make this right before he died. Her gaze swung to Ward Kane. He figured his days were numbered as well... He wanted the truth. Her gaze swept across the room. They all wanted something more than just the truth... They wanted justice.
Landon shook his head frantically. “I can’t. I can’t talk about it.”
“Deputy Walls.” Birdie turned toward the man handcuffed to his chair. “We’d like you to tell us the relevant events you saw and heard the day the Three went missing.”
The deputy glared at Birdie, shook his head. “I was at the diner. I overheard a tense conversation where JR told Duke ‘it was the only way.’ Duke didn’t seem to agree, but Judson was ready to go with whatever plan JR had.”
“Did they mention where they were going?” Birdie asked.
He stared at the floor for a moment.
“Answer the question,” Cullen demanded.
“They were meeting Coach Landon to confront him.”
Reyna’s breath exited her lungs so sharply it hurt. “Have you known this all along?” she demanded.
“You don’t get to ask questions,” Cullen warned.
Reyna stood. “This has gone far enough,” she snapped. She walked toward Walls. “You knew they were meeting with Coach Landon, and you never told anyone.” It wasn’t a question. His own words had just confirmed as much because she hadn’t found a single statement he’d given thirty years ago that said where the Three had been going the day they had disappeared.
“He had his reasons,” Birdie said, “but we’re correcting that slip now. It’s going on the record.” She nodded to Reyna. “Write it down.”
Reluctantly, Reyna went back to the desk and wrote the statement on the notepad hard enough to indent every page beneath it.
“You were saying,” Birdie said, her voice hard.
Walls said nothing.
“Finish your statement,” Cullen ordered, “or I will answer it for you.”
Walls sneered at him. “You can’t. You took a vow.”
Cullen laughed, a dry sound. “What do I care about what man can do to me? My fate will lie with the Heavenly Father, and I’m good with whatever He decides.”
“I knew why they wanted to confront him,” Walls admitted reluctantly. “I knew it was the reason Duke went off at the reunion when the scumbag talked about little Jesse Carson.”
“Will you please identify the scumbag you mean?” Birdie directed.
“Landon.” He looked anywhere but at the man in the wheelchair.
“He’s lying,” Landon cried. “He killed them to get back at Lucinda for choosing someone else besides him.”
“This,” Walls roared, “was never about Lucinda. It was about Landon and the monster he kept hidden all those years.”
“We know what you did,” Lucinda charged.
“We’re no longer satisfied with what you’ve lost,” Harlowe snarled. “We want you to pay the price you should have all those years ago, even if we have to pay for the mistake we made trusting you.”
“We should have known you wouldn’t stand by your word,” Deidre said with utter disdain. “You’re a coward.”
“You can’t prove any of it,” Landon argued. “You never had any evidence, and you never will.” He laughed. “Have your fun. The worst you can do is try finishing what you started thirty years ago.” He swung his attention to Reyna.
She flinched at his ugly stare.
“Are you going to be a witness to them killing me, or are you going to save me?” he asked. “The way I see it, you’re the only chance I’ve got of surviving this.”
All eyes rested on Reyna then. Heart pounding, she moistened her lips and said the only thing she could think to say. “Tell me what you did, and I’ll tell you what I can do.” Sounded fair enough. She was here for answers, after all. At the moment she just needed to buy time. Ben would be coming back at some point. She prayed it was sooner rather than later.
“You had a choice, Landon,” Cullen said, drawing the room’s attention back to him. “You made the wrong one.”
Landon shot him a look. “I think I’ll just wait until you’re in hell. I hear you’re headed that way real soon.”
The jury started shouting again.
“Order!” When the shouting continued, Cullen stood. “I said shut up and listen! We’re likely short on time here.” He glanced at Reyna. “Ben will probably show up anytime. We can’t be sure how long he and Sheriff Norwood will be distracted.”
Reyna felt her jaw drop again. These people had set this up—all of it.
The arguing and shouting ceased instantly.
“When we found out what he’d done,” Deidre said, clearly speaking to Reyna, “we gave him a choice.”
“Deidre,” Cullen warned.
“If we expect her cooperation,” she argued, “we need to explain. Otherwise we will run out of time.”
“Just get this over with,” Walls whined. “Kidnapping is a serious crime.”
Reyna looked from one to the next. She had so many questions, but she didn’t want to stop their conversation, afraid it would disrupt the truth from coming out.
Lucinda stood next to Deidre. She pointed to Landon. “He chose Duke Fuller when he was just ten years old.”
Deidre wilted back onto the sofa and put her face in her hands.
“For the next six years,” Lucinda went on, “he used Duke to make videos, which he sold to the highest bidder. When Duke tried to make him stop, Landon threatened to tell his friends and his parents. To take him off the team.”
Deidre was crying now.
Reyna felt sick. Harlowe hugged her friend close and swiped at her own tears. Eudora and Birdie held each other, and they cried too.
“Walls,” Cullen said, “do you have anything to say?”
He glared at Cullen. “He did the same thing to me.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” Reyna demanded.
Cullen lifted his eyebrows at her, but she ignored him.
“Why?” she demanded.
“Who was going to believe me over the town’s beloved coach?” Walls snarled. “Even now, the school is planning to give him a lifetime achievement award. He hasn’t coached in nearly thirty years, and still his coaching record rises above all else.”
Ward stood. “That is our fault,” he snapped. “If we’d told the world the truth when we discovered it, everyone would have known and the bastard would be rotting in prison now. Instead, we did what we thought was right to protect the reputation of the boys.”
“No,” Cullen said. “He wouldn’t be in prison. We had no real evidence. And even if we had been able to convince anyone, the most he would have gotten was ten years.”
“For murder?” Ward howled.
The anguish in his words ripped at Reyna’s heart.
“You know we couldn’t prove the murders,” Cullen argued. “The best we could have hoped for was child pornography. He never touched the boys, as far as we know—it was only the videos.”
Reyna stood again. “You all believe that Coach Landon killed those men?”
“We know he did,” Ward said. “We just can’t prove it.”
“He was seen coming from the funeral home that night,” Walls said. “The night they disappeared.”
“We believe,” Harlowe said, “that he drugged them or poisoned them when they went to confront him and then cremated their bodies. He worked summers and on occasions throughout the year at Addison Funeral Home. That’s why we never found them.” She dropped back to the sofa, and the Widows held each other and struggled with their composure.
Reyna’s heart was in her throat. “How do you know they went to confront him?”
If these women knew all this thirty years ago, why the hell hadn’t they told someone?
“They didn’t know until I told them,” Cullen said. “After the incident at the reunion, Duke came to me and told me everything. He said he’d finally told his best friends, and they had insisted on going with him to confront Landon. He asked me to pray for them, and he gave me his cross to pray over until it was finished.”
“Why the hell didn’t you tell anyone?” Reyna demanded. The explanation certainly clarified why the cross was in the rectory. But it didn’t explain what her FBI friend had told her. “Were you afraid the police would connect you to your own secret?”
All eyes were on Reyna again.
Cullen’s gaze remained locked with hers as he answered the accusation. “My secret is only that I witnessed something I could not unsee. For that, my former life had to be left behind. And that, Ms. Hart, is for another time. Not today.”
He was in witness protection. She nodded. “You’re right. Forgive me.”
“They’re going to kill me,” Landon cried. “They already tried once. You can’t let them do this.”
“Shut up, you bastard,” Walls snarled. “You should have died in that fire, and maybe the rest of us would have had some peace the last three decades.” He jerked at his restraints. “Take off these cuffs,” he commanded, “and I’ll end this now.”
“And here you thought,” Cullen said, “we secured you to keep you from escaping.”
Walls glared at him. “This is not going to end the way you hope.” He shifted his glower to Reyna. “Not now.”
“Tell the truth, Landon,” Eudora said, standing with the help of Birdie, “and this will be over. You can be arrested, and we can go on with what’s left of our lives.”
Landon shook his head. “You have no evidence, and I’m not saying anything.” He swung his attention to Reyna. “They tried to kill me—are you aware of that? This so-called priest got me drunk and left me passed out on the floor of my bedroom. Then he left, and they—” he pointed to the Widows “—set my house on fire. It’s a miracle I woke up and was able to jump out the window.” He glared at the women. “You’re lucky I never said a word. I kept your secret.”
Ward jabbed a finger in the man’s direction. “You murdered my son and his friends. Nothing you have suffered mitigates murder.”
“Prove it,” Landon challenged.
Reyna surveyed the crowd... No one said a word.
Because they didn’t have the one thing they needed...proof.
Chapter Fifteen
Whispering Winds High School
School Road
4:30 p.m.
“Telling you not to worry is pointless,” Norwood said, “so I won’t bother. But I can tell you that we will find your grandfather.”
Ben shrugged. “Yeah, well, that’s what they told my mother and my grandfather all those years ago about my father.”
“I guess I deserved that one.” Norwood stared at the ground a moment. “There’s something going on, Ben. Something that your grandfather and the Widows are twisted up in. I don’t know what exactly, but truth is it’s got me worried.” She eyed him skeptically. “You don’t know what that might be, do you?”
Ben considered the idea that he probably shouldn’t go on the record about anything, but he knew Tara Norwood and, more importantly, he trusted her. “Eudora Davenport contracted Reyna to come here and dig around in the disappearance. My grandfather agreed to be a part of it. My mom and Harlowe Evans talked to her, but Deidre Fuller refused. We’ve met with Father Cullen, Coach Landon and anyone else who would talk to her or to us both.”
“All these strange things started to happen after Reyna came to town, right?”
“This is not her doing,” Ben argued. “I’m not sharing this information with you to have you thinking Reyna is responsible for any of this, because that’s not true at all. She has no idea who is behind all this. I think whoever it is, they’re using her to...” He shrugged. “I don’t know, call attention to the story, something.”
“Obviously the retired priest didn’t tell you anything.”
Ben thought of the cross they’d found in his room. He decided it was best for now if he kept that to himself. “He did not.”
“Have you learned anything,” she asked, “that wasn’t already a part of discovery in the original investigation?”
For a moment—a single moment—he considered again telling her all he knew. About the cross, the new suspicions he had about Coach Landon given the incident at the high school reunion. But he kicked the idea away.
“I can’t say that we’ve learned anything you can grab on to and say here, this makes a difference. But there are pieces missing, and I think there are folks who have those pieces who haven’t come forward.”
She nodded. “So that’s a yes.”
He wasn’t really surprised she understood he was being evasive. She was the sheriff. “Nothing I feel confident in sharing.”
“You let me know if you change your mind. Meanwhile, I’ll call you if we find anything or hear from anyone who’s seen Ward.”
“Thanks. I appreciate all you’re doing, Sheriff Norwood.”
“You just remember you said that if you find something you believe I need to know.”
Now he felt guilty for not coming clean. “Yes, ma’am.”
“One more thing,” she said before letting him go. “That little cabin over on Trout Lake.”
Maybe she’d been holding something back too. “Did you find anything?”
“Not really, but there was something odd about it.” She set her hands on her hips and pinched her lips together for a moment. “The wood it was built from was old, but we determined that it had been put together out there just recently. There was no dust, no cobwebs, nothing to suggest it had been there long at all. We’re thinking someone put it there, like, last week. Oddly enough, we found several items hidden behind photos and the jerseys that pointed to Wade Landon as having been the one who set the place up. There were notes in his handwriting about games and players. The sort of thing someone like him would keep in school files. There were Polaroid-type snapshots of him with the Three going back to their peewee football days. Just random stuff that appeared to have come from Landon. In fact, I sent a deputy to the school and checked on any files he might have had. All his files had been retired, as expected, but when the deputy and the administrator went to pull those files, they were missing. Any thoughts on how a man in a wheelchair could have made that happen?”
