Page 136 of The Secrets We Hide
“She gave them to me to take to work. She was afraid Reggie would find them in the house.” Bill looked down at his hands. “I thought she was being paranoid. I don’t remember where I left them.”
Emmy didn’t believe him. “That was her plan A. What was her plan B?”
Bill shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She gave him a stern look. He couldn’t even keep track of his own stories. “Why did Allison visit Shane Russell four times in prison?”
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 headthat 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?”
