by Robin Caroll
“Maybe she doesn’t want company,” Sheldon suggested.
“Then let her tell me.” Gabby jabbed the button once more.
“That’s out-and-out rude, Gabby Rogillio.” Immy grabbed her arm and tugged. “Let’s just leave the woman be.”
Gabby sensed that Amber was just on the other side of the massive oak door.
Tonna and Sheldon started down the stairs. “Come on, Gabby. You can talk to her tomorrow.”
Dragging her feet, Gabby turned to follow the girls down the steps.
Smash!
At the sound of glass breaking against tile flooring, Gabby spun around and crossed the veranda. She beat on the door with the side of her closed fist. The other girls hit it, as well.
“Amber, are you okay?”
“Let us in, Amber.”
The dead bolt clicked, and Amber pulled the door open. She swayed as she moved out of its way. “Hey there, girls.” Her words came out slurred.
Gabby pushed inside the house. The strong smell of liquor accosted her senses, making her take a step back. She fanned under her nose. “Amber, are you—” she leaned over to scrutinize the woman’s face “—drunk?”
“Yep, I think I am.” Amber nodded with slow exaggeration, then slumped against the door. As if in slow motion, she began to slide to the floor.
Sheldon whipped an arm around her waist, catching her. “Whoa, there.”
“Let’s get her to the couch,” Immy said, her gaze glancing around the neighborhood outside.
They maneuvered Amber into the living room and Sheldon lowered her to the couch.
“What’s wrong?” Immy sat beside the drunken woman.
“Well, let’s see, Imogene. My husband’s in jail for a crime he didn’t commit, and my marriage is over anyway.” She belched and giggled. “That’s about it.”
“I’ve never seen you drink before,” Tonna said.
“That’s because I never have. Not since high school, anyway.” She bent her head and sobbed. “My whole life is one big mistake after another. No wonder everyone hates me. I should’ve just been shot a long time ago.”
“That’s not true.” Immy patted Amber’s knee. “God loves you and forgives you for every mistake you make. Forgiveness is His free gift. You only have to accept it.”
Amber snorted. “You just don’t know some of the things I’ve done. He, nor anyone else, could ever forgive me.” Her sarcasm gave way to tears.
“Oh, He can always forgive. He knows we’re sinners, one and all. The gift of salvation, of the promised eternal life, is yours for the taking. You simply have to admit you are a sinner and accept Jesus as your savior. He died on the cross for you.” Immy’s words were filled with such passion, tears welled in Gabby’s own eyes.
“I don’t think so. No one can forgive me for what I’ve done. Robert couldn’t.” She lifted her tear-stained face. “He really was planning on filing for divorce. He can’t forgive what I’ve done.” Her body shook as wave after wave of sobs tore from her. “And I love him so much.”
Gabby knelt in front of her. “Is this about the baby you had with Sam and gave up for adoption?”
Amber’s eyes went wide. “You know?”
“We found out today. Is that why Robert wants to divorce you? Because he found out you had a baby?”
“Not only that I had one and never told him, but because I gave it up for adoption.” Fresh tears spilled from her eyes. “We tried to have children, but couldn’t. For him to find out I gave one away…it was even worse.” She sniffed. “After I had to tell him everything, he accused me and Sam of carrying on after we married. Said if I’d hide the fact that I’d had a child, I’d lie about an affair.”
Gabby’s heart twisted.
“I promise y’all, I never cheated on Robert. Not a single time. Never.”
“We know you didn’t, honey.” Immy kept smoothing and patting, her words oozing like a soft balm.
“But he was even angrier about the money,” Amber sobbed.
“Money?” Gabby’s ears perked up and she rocked back on her feet. “What money?”
“The money I’d taken out of our accounts. Mine. Ours. The station’s.” She wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “Don’t you see? I took out money from every account I could, and Robert found out. I don’t know how I expected to hide it from him, but I just wasn’t thinking. I was desperate.”
Gabby jerked a tissue from the box on the end table and passed it to Amber. “Why would you do that? Why would you steal money from the station?”
“It all goes back to that horrible mistake. That child I gave up for adoption.”
“I don’t understand.” Rayne moved to sit on her other side. “What does the baby you gave up have to do with you taking out money from the station’s account?”
“The baby I gave up,” Amber hiccupped, “is in town. He’s been blackmailing me for the past six months. Threatening to expose me and my past. Threatening to tell everyone how horrible I am.” She doubled over, sobs tearing from deep within her chest.
Gabby’s emotions went off the radar. “Eric’s been blackmailing you?”
Amber stopped crying and glanced up at her. “You know he’s the baby I gave up?”
“We found that out today, too.” Rayne shifted to face her. “He’s been blackmailing you for money?”
“At first, I thought he just needed to know. He’d tracked me down, found his original birth certificate, made the connection between me and Jane.” She swiped the tissue across her face. “I was happy to meet him, see that he’d been taken care of, but scared, too. Scared that Robert would see me with him and ask questions that would bring out the whole sordid story. My next mistake was telling Eric my fears.”
Gabby squeezed her hands into balls until the nails digging into her palms hurt too much. “He started blackmailing you then? When he found out Robert didn’t know you’d had a baby?”
“Yeah. He said he wanted to get Martin Tankersly back for all the abuse he’d endured, and he needed money to do it.” New tears shimmered in her eyes. “I was heartbroken to hear of the abuse. If I’d known, I’d have never let Martin keep him after Jane died. Never.”
“So you knew Eric was your son before he confronted you?” Gabby couldn’t believe a woman would live in the same town with her own biological child and not try to cultivate a relationship.
“Of course. Jane was my cousin. Up until she died, she’d send me pictures and cards and such about him.”
“But it was a closed adoption,” Gabby argued.
Amber smiled. “We only did that to protect me. If someone had stumbled upon that information, it could have ruined me.” Her smile turned sad. “Now it almost has. Can you imagine what the good folk of Mystique would have said? I’m sure they’ll start up soon enough now.”
“What about Robert? Didn’t he have to know you’d just had a baby? I mean, you came back married pretty quickly,” Sheldon stated.
The smile on Amber’s face now reached her eyes. “I met Robert two weeks after I’d had the baby and given it up. It was literally a fairy-tale romance. He swept me off my feet.” Her eyes misted over again. “We spent every day together for a month, learning about each other and falling in love. I didn’t tell him about the baby—after all, I didn’t want to scare him off. I loved him more in that first month than the three years I’d spent with Sam.” Her words trailed off, and she stared into blank space.
“But why didn’t you tell him later?” Tonna asked.
“Because he proposed. I jumped at the chance.” Amber shrugged. “I figured I would just let the past stay in the past and move forward with my life.” She glanced around at each of the girls. “Don’t you see? Robert made me special. He loved me for me, not because we’d become comfortable with each other. He wanted to marry me, to wake up next to me every morning for the rest of his life. That’s intoxicating.”
Gabby swallowed. How would it feel to wake up next to Clark for the rest of her li
fe? The thought sent warm tingles through her body. It wasn’t such a bad idea, maybe.
“We got married and he was looking to leave Louisiana, get out from under his parents’ thumbs, so to speak.”
“I can understand that,” Rayne mumbled. Gabby’s heart went out to her friend. Rayne had been living under the VanDoren shadow all her life.
“Naturally, I wanted to come home. Robert wanted to make me happy,” Amber said, smiling wistfully. “So we moved to Mystique.” She shook her head. “I didn’t even think about how Sam would feel. I’m afraid he’s always assumed Robert took advantage of me or something. He didn’t. Truth be told, I took advantage of Robert’s trusting nature.”
Gabby shoved to her feet and paced, her steps moving as fast as her mind. “But you never told Robert about the baby? Even after you settled into marriage?”
“By then, it was too late. I mean, I hadn’t realized how into the church he was. Oh, I knew he was a religious person when we dated, and he attended church all the time. I guess I just didn’t realize how important it all was to him.” She shook her head. “When we were dating in Louisiana, I pretended to be a Christian. But it was a lie. I couldn’t look the preacher in the eye for fear God would reveal what I’d done.” Amber lowered her voice another notch. “I still can’t.”
“But Robert’s a deacon in our church. Of course, it’s very important to him.” Tonna shook her head. “And I just can’t believe Eric would blackmail you.”
“That’s why I couldn’t come clean later. Can you imagine how he’d have reacted if I’d told him sooner?” Amber’s tears splattered from her eyes. “But I ended up having to tell him anyway, and look where it’s got us.”
“Why did you tell him?” Gabby turned to face Amber. “Why now?”
“I’d cleaned out all our personal accounts to pay Eric his blackmail money. I’m just lucky Robert bought out Howard before I emptied our accounts, or he’d have realized it sooner. But once all the money was gone, I had to come clean. I thought he’d forgive me.”
“Why would you pay a blackmailer? Don’t you know they just keep coming back again and again for more?” Sheldon asked.
“I was scared. Eric said he just needed some funds to try and get himself established. He needed to get away from his abusive stepfather. I had to help him, don’t you understand? Not only to keep the secret from Robert, but also because I’d put my own son into such a horrible situation.” She patted her eyes with the tissue. “I’m such a horrible person. A failure as a mother and a wife.”
“So, you cleaned out your personal accounts. Then what?” Gabby probed.
“Eric said he had a plan. A way for Robert to never know the truth.”
Gabby’s compassion seeped away. Secrets and lies…murder.
“What happened then?” Tonna asked.
“I did tell Robert the truth. He blew up. Yelled and screamed. Accused me and Sam of carrying on all these years.” Amber sniffed and blinked back the tears swimming in her eyes. “Told me he was going to divorce me and fire Eric. He wanted no part of the whole mess.” The tears broke free and poured down her face.
“Great day in the morning.”
“He wouldn’t even look in my direction, much less talk to me. He’d sleep in the bedroom upstairs. Said he had an appointment with his lawyer.” She wiped her nose on her sleeve, the tissue lying matted in her lap.
Frustration tightened on Gabby’s stomach.
“But Eric told me he had a plan to protect me.”
“What was that?”
“I went to him after Robert blew up. Eric said he could stop Robert from divorcing me. He said I would have total control of the station, and when that happened, I was to put him in charge.”
Gabby couldn’t wrap her mind around it. Why would Amber have trusted Eric at all? “And you went along with it? After he’d been blackmailing you?”
“He’s my son. I don’t expect any of you to understand. I was responsible for the abuse he’d endured from Martin Tankersly. I needed to help him. And I didn’t want Robert to divorce me. Given time, we might’ve had a chance to work through it.”
“What did Eric tell you?” Gabby held her breath.
“He didn’t really tell me. After Howard was murdered, Eric called and told me to keep quiet. Said soon the station would be in my control. I’d save face in the community, and Robert wouldn’t divorce me. I had no choice.”
“We always have a choice,” Sheldon snapped.
It all made sense now…the way Eric and Amber would never make eye contact…the way he tried to keep pointing the blame on Tankersly once he realized Gabby wouldn’t stop searching until she found a way to clear Robert. He probably did call and ask his stepfather to come to the station to cast suspicion on him.
Gabby turned to Amber. “How does Howard fit into it?”
“Howard was suspicious of Eric…told Robert he should fire him. That’s one of the reasons Robert and Howard argued, and why Robert bought out Howard. Over Eric, who wanted to put Martin to shame. Wanted him to live with knowing the stepson he’d always treated like a second-class citizen had bested him. Eric wouldn’t be satisfied until he caused Martin’s station to either close or have to sell to Eric.”
Gabby held her breath, not believing what she was hearing.
Amber continued, her face contorted with pain.
“Eric planned to kill both Howard and Robert, thought he had. He shoved Robert and heard his head hit the stairs. Robert wasn’t moving. He thought Robert was dead, so decided to frame him. He put the gun in Robert’s hand and wrapped his finger through the trigger to get his fingerprints on the murder weapon.” She lifted her face to the girls. “He’s not really good at remaining calm.”
Something was still off.
Amber sobbed softly. “All I know is that Eric told me if I opened my mouth about anything that would link him to the murder, I’d pay the ultimate price.”
Gabby gasped. “Did you tell Sheriff McGruder all this?”
“I couldn’t. I must keep quiet.”
“Even though Robert could be charged for something Eric did?” Gabby couldn’t keep the sharp tone from her words.
“I have to.”
“No, you don’t. You have to tell Sheriff McGruder this. Now.” Gabby grabbed Amber’s forearm and tugged her to her feet.
“You don’t understand. I can’t. I’ll be divorced and an outcast. I’d be forced to move. There’s nowhere for me to go anymore. I can’t go back to my parents. They’ve never forgiven me for getting pregnant. And now that Mr. McKay has bought the station…well, Eric is desperate and there’s no telling what he’ll do. He’s tried to scare off Mr. McKay already.”
The vandalism. The trashing of his house. And once Gabby wouldn’t give up digging, he’d slit her tires, called and threatened her. “You’ve got to stop thinking about yourself.” Gabby moved her toward the front door. “You have to tell the truth and let the chips fall where they will.”
Amber screamed. “I can’t. I won’t.”
Then she collapsed into a crumpled heap on the tiled foyer.
TWENTY-ONE
Clark gripped the arms of the chair tighter. Fighting with Sheriff McGruder for the past hour and a half had worn him down. To top off his bad mood, the office reeked of burned coffee and stale air.
“I see where you’re coming from, Mr. McKay, but I can’t just bring Eric in for questioning. Being adopted isn’t a crime.” The small-town sheriff had long ago moved past Southern hospitality to just wanting Clark to leave. He’d asked flat out twice.
Too bad. Clark wasn’t leaving until he got the man to agree to at least look into the evidence. “But Sheriff, just look at how it all links together. There has to be something missing, and isn’t it your job to figure it out?”
“Look, I don’t know how they did things from where you’re from, Mr. McKay, but down here in Mississippi, we don’t run around questioning innocent people.” He leaned forward and rested his palms on h
is desk.
“But you’ll lie in wait to lock up an innocent man, right, Sheriff McGruder?” a familiar throaty voice interjected.
Clark’s heart rate increased as he jumped to his feet and turned. There she was—his vision of loveliness.
“Gabby, we’ve been through this all before.” Sheriff McGruder rose to his feet, too much of a Southern gentleman to not stand when a lady entered the room.
But it wasn’t just one lady who rounded the corner and filed into the sheriff’s office. All of Gabby’s friends marched in right behind her.
“Not this, we haven’t.” Gabby moved to stand beside Clark, and she took a second to give him a slow wink.
His heart quivered.
“What is it now?” The little lines around Sheriff McGruder’s eyes etched deeper into his tanned face.
“We know who the real murderer is, as well as a blackmailer.” Gabby threw a triumphant glare at the young lawman.
“Who would that be?”
“Eric Masters.”
Clark didn’t try to stop the smile from sliding across his face. They’d been right.
“All y’all got it in for Eric, huh?” The sheriff scratched the stubble on his chin. “I’m sure you’re here to give me the same song and dance as Mr. McKay. But I’ll tell you the same thing I keep telling him, it’s not against the law to be adopted or work for your stepdaddy’s rival business.”
“How about blackmail and murder so you can get control of a radio station? Do those constitute crimes?” Sheldon moved from the back.
The sheriff rested his hands on his work belt. “What’re you talking about, Sheldon?” His voice, unlike his earlier words, was softer, gentler.
Sheldon laid out facts like the librarian she was.
“Sheldon, you really do read too many of them mystery novels.” But the sheriff wasn’t laughing.
Neither were Gabby and her friends.
Sheriff McGruder scratched his chin. “How would Eric blackmail Amber Ellison? They hardly know each other.”
“Maybe because he’s the son she had right after graduation and gave up for adoption.” Gabby smiled.