Page 17 of The Secrets We Hide
“Every—” The word got caught in his throat. “Everybody knows Reggie’s got a temper.”
“Mandy was shot, too.”
Bill looked genuinely stunned. Tears sprang into his eyes. He took off his hat. Used the back of his arm to wipe his face.
“They’ve got her in surgery over in Albany. It’s not looking good.”
“Y-you …” Bill’s voice was shaking. “You know I would never hurt Mandy.”
Emmy thought about the worn shoe cubbies that had served as a makeshift ladder to the attic. You didn’t hide from somebody you knew was never going to hurt you.
“Mandy wasn’t more than a baby when me and Allison got together. I watched her grow up. I know I’m not her real father, but I’ve always been her dad. Just ’cause I never signed the paperwork don’t mean she’s not mine.” He covered his eyes with his hand. “Jesus. Who would hurt that sweet little girl?”
“There’s gotta be somebody, Bill.”
“Allison pissed off a lot of people.” His hand dropped away. He was on firmer ground with somebody else to blame. “She was on the job twenty years, then she was running around town spying on cheaters. She arrested her share of bad guys. Worked with even worse ones. You know what happened when she left. She threatened a lot of folks who don’t like being threatened.”
“What folks?”
Bill wiped his eyes again. Stuck his hat back on his head. “Do you have a family app on your phones, something like Life360? Maybe we can figure out who she’s been talking to by tracking her recent locations.”
Bill reflexively reached for a phone in his pocket. Emmy couldn’t tell if he was remembering it was left in the truck or coming up with a lie. “No, we never used anything like that.”
Emmy guessed lying had won out. She needed to keep him talking, preferably in a confined space. “Let’s go back to the station and see if we can come up with some names. Maybe there was a suspect she mentioned or—”
“No, I need to be with Mandy.” He started toward the parking lot. “I don’t want her waking up all alone. Somebody who loves her oughtta be there.”
Emmy walked beside him. “You’re in no state to drive, Bill. Let me take you. It’ll be faster in my car. I’ll put the lights on.”
He hesitated. “All right, yeah, thanks.”
Emmy motioned for Gregg to toss her the keys. Bill had almost reached her cruiser when he abruptly stopped. He turned to look at Emmy. His beady eyes had narrowed again. He’d seen through her ruse.
“I’ll drive myself.”
Emmy watched him walk toward his Chevy. She motioned for Gregg to let him go. Bill only looked back once before climbing into his truck and speeding off.
She told Gregg, “Put a cruiser on him. Make it conspicuous.”
Gregg clicked his radio for dispatch. Emmy took out her phone. She texted Layla Paulson at the trauma center to make it clear that Bill Garrison was not Mandy’s legal guardian and was not allowed near the girl unless Emmy was standing between them. Then she sent a second text to Brett telling him to request a search warrant for the CCTV footage from the Lazy Eight motel going back fourteen days.
Gregg asked, “Where to, chief?”
“Back to Allison’s.”
Emmy waited to dial Taybee’s number until they were on the road. Her cousin sounded more anxious than usual when she answered the phone.
“Where the heck are you, lady?” Taybee had to raise her voice over the boisterous crowd of mourners. “You’re missing your own mama’s funeral.”
“I’m sorry.” The apology sounded perfunctory even to Emmy’s ear. “Listen, I need to know if you’ve got a client named Allison Vickery.”
Taybee went uncharacteristically silent. She was a divorce lawyer with a reputation for flaying her adversaries to the bone. Emmy should’ve used her when she’d divorced Jonah but she hadn’t wanted her cousin to find out what a fool she’d been.
“Taybee?”
The background noise faded, then stopped altogether. There was the soft tap of a door closing, then the sound of Taybee’s heels across wooden boards. She’d gone outside for privacy.
“It’s a lie, isn’t it? The little girl who accidentally shot herself?”
