“Why did you hit me?” Meredith sobbed.
“Did you kill my sister?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
His sister? Rachel didn’t understand what he was accusing Meredith of. She didn’t care. She had to get out of here. She kept moving backward. Where was the pistol? Who had the gun now?
“I read what you wrote.” Ragsdale loomed over Meredith, his hands fisted at his sides. “I read it in your own words, telling how you pushed Denise out in the snow in the dark and left her to freeze to death. You wrote it all down, every detail.”
“Scotty, no, you don’t understand—”
“Karen guessed, didn’t she? That’s what she was about to tell me. That’s why you shot her, to stop her from telling me what you did to my sister.”
“Scotty, please, let me explain—”
“You played me for a fool,” Ragsdale said. “I let you drag me into this mess, I almost killed those two women for you, I shot Cam, I shot that old man—And all the time, you were lying to me, laughing at me.”
“No, Scotty, no. Please, please listen to me—”
“I ought to kill you right now.” Ragsdale lunged at Meredith.
The gunshot exploded through the empty rooms. Rachel froze, watched Ragsdale fall to his knees, clutching his abdomen. Meredith stood over him, gripping the gun with both hands, disbelief and astonishment on her face. “Oh, my god! Scotty!”
Panting, Ragsdale folded forward, his head almost touching the floor, then he tilted sideways and collapsed.
Meredith knelt beside him, one hand on his head, like a frantic mother with an injured child. “Scotty, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to. I need you! You have to help me—”
“Mom,” Lindsay said, “he needs a doctor. You don’t want him to die, do you? Let me call 911.”
Meredith pointed the pistol at her daughter. “You don’t understand! You’re just like your father.”
“Mom, no, please—” Lindsay raised her hands, and they shook so violently that she might have been waving at her mother.
Rachel spun and ran, through the dining room to the kitchen. She flung the back door open. Outside. Sunshine. Birds singing.
The dog rocketed past Rachel, bumping her legs and almost knocking her off her feet. She grabbed the door jamb to regain her balance, then she started after Cricket, toward freedom.
Meredith’s voice stopped her. “If you move one more inch, I’ll shoot you. Get back in here.”
A second later Rachel felt cold metal pressed against the back of her neck.
“Lindsay, get hold of her,” Meredith said.
“Mom—”
“Get her. Do what you’re told.”
Lindsay appeared beside Rachel, her movements jerky as a robot’s. She didn’t meet Rachel’s eyes, but caught her by the arm and pulled her back into the kitchen.
Stay calm, Rachel told herself. Don’t panic. There has to be a way. There has to be. Wait for it. Watch for it. Be ready.
Lindsay let her go and stepped away. Meredith reached for Rachel’s arm. With one hand Rachel grabbed Meredith’s wrist and twisted, with the other she chopped at the hand holding the gun.
For a second Meredith’s arm dropped, but she held onto the gun. Rachel struck her arm again, at the same time she dug her thumb into the nerves at the base of Meredith’s other hand. Meredith screamed and her face contorted with pain. Then she raised the gun again, aimed at Rachel’s head. She shoved Rachel away and held her injured wrist against her body, grimacing as she tried to flex her fingers. “You little bitch. I’ll kill you right now.”
“Mom, wait!” Lindsay said. “You don’t want to leave her blood in the house. We’ve already got Scotty to clean up after. You ought to take her out in the woods. We could bury her and she might never be found.”
Rachel stared at Lindsay, at the yellow hair glued to her cheeks with sweat, her trembling hands, the frantic gleam in her eyes, and she couldn’t tell whether Lindsay was trying to buy time or trying to help her mother get away with murder.
It didn’t matter. Meredith intended to kill Rachel regardless of what Lindsay said or did. Something broke loose inside Rachel, and she felt rage boiling up, swamping her fear.
“Will you help me dig?” Meredith asked Lindsay. “I can’t do it alone. And we might have to bury Scotty too.” The gun drifted away from Rachel.
Now!
Rachel sprang forward, caught Meredith’s hair with one hand and yanked her head back. She thrust out her other hand and scraped her fingernails across Meredith’s eyes, digging in with her nails. Meredith screamed. The gun fired and a window shattered, raining glass into the sink.
Rachel clawed at Meredith’s eyes again. The gun clattered to the floor as Meredith raised both hands to her face.
Rachel and Lindsay both dived for the gun at the same time. Rachel got to it first, seized it and turned it on Lindsay.
Meredith sank to her knees, hands over her eyes, keening.
“Mom! Oh, god.” Lindsay knelt beside her mother.
Rachel raised her voice to be heard over Meredith’s wails. “Give me a cell phone. Yours, hers, I don’t care.”
“Why aren’t you leaving?” Lindsay said. “Run, get out of here while you can.”
“I’m not going anywhere. Give me a phone, Lindsay.”
Lindsay dug into Meredith’s pants pocket, came out with a cell phone.
Rachel snatched it and pressed 911. “This is Rachel Goddard. I’m at Pauline McClure’s old house on Albemarle Road. Someone’s been shot, another person’s hurt—Send an ambulance, send the police, tell Tom Bridger—”
She was still trying to explain the situation to the operator two minutes later when Tom burst into the house, gun drawn, with Brandon on his heels. Rachel gaped in disbelief. All she could say was, “But I just called.”
“Tommy,” Lindsay cried, “thank God you’re here!” She scrambled to her feet and rushed toward him.
“Stay back.” Tom pointed his gun at her.
“Tommy.” Lindsay sounded as hurt and bewildered as Meredith had after Ragsdale struck her. “I’m not part of this. I didn’t know she was alive until today, I didn’t know about—”
“Shut up!” Tom’s gaze jumped from Rachel to Meredith and back. “Where’s Ragsdale? We heard a shot. Who fired it?”
Tom was right there in front of her, but Rachel couldn’t quite believe he was real. She kept the gun she held aimed at Meredith, in case she was imagining things. “Meredith shot Ragsdale,” she said. “I think he’s unconscious—or dead.”
“What are you doing here?” Tom peered at Rachel’s face. “Aw, god, what have they done to you?”
“Meredith hit me with this gun.” The pain in Rachel’s cheek had been a distant throb in the last few minutes, but now it roared back full-force. “She made me come in the house, she locked me in that hole under the stairs—”
“I tried to help Rachel,” Lindsay said. “I really did. Please believe me, Tommy.”
“That’s true,” Rachel said. “She tried to protect me.”
“We’ll get all that sorted out later.” Tom motioned to Brandon, pointed at Meredith. “Cuff her.” Then he held out a hand toward Rachel. “Want me to take that?”
“Oh.” She looked at the gun in her hand. “Yes. Yes, please.” When she handed Tom the pistol, Rachel felt as if she had surrendered a crushing burden.
Brandon stood above Meredith and rolled her onto her stomach. When he jerked her hands behind her to cuff her wrists, she raised her head and let out a long scream. Blood ran from both her eyes.
Rachel’s stomach lurched at the sight of what she’d done. She backed up until she hit a wall, then she let herself slide down to sit on the floor.
Meredith’s dog slunk in through the open kitchen door and sidled over, her tail between her legs. Rachel pulled Cricket close and pressed her face into the dog’s shaggy coat.
<
br /> Chapter Forty-six
Scotty Ragsdale lay flat in the hospital bed, his eyes focused on the ceiling, and didn’t seem to notice when Tom walked in.
“Hey, Scotty.” Tom switched on the portable recorder he’d brought and placed it on the over-bed table.
Ragsdale’s gaze drifted toward Tom, down to the recorder, then back to the ceiling. “Didn’t take you long to get over here.”
“I didn’t want to give you time to change your mind about talking to me. We need to get this done today. Right after your arraignment tomorrow morning, an ambulance is going to move you to the regional jail. They’ve got a sick bay where you can recuperate.”
“Doesn’t matter to me where I am,” Ragsdale muttered.
“Your folks told me you fired your lawyer. The judge appointed one for you, and he’ll be in to see you before you’re arraigned.”
“If he’s going to tell me to plead not guilty, he can save himself the trip. I just want to plead guilty and get it over with.”
“That’s between you and him. You ready to answer some questions?”
Ragsdale’s eyes shifted to Tom again for a second before he turned his head toward the window. “How is she? Meredith. Where is she?”
“You don’t need to know where she is.” Meredith was also hospitalized, on the floor above this one, and even though both prisoners were guarded by deputies, Tom was afraid Ragsdale might try to get to her if he knew she was so close. “She’s doing okay. Talking a lot. She claims you were responsible for everything that happened—you killed Karen Hernandez, and Cam, and Lloyd Wilson—and you forced her to go along with it.”
“I didn’t kill Karen.” Ragsdale’s mumbled words were barely audible.
This was the first statement of any substance that Ragsdale had made since coming out of surgery two days before. “Were you there when she was killed?”
Ragsdale stared out the window at the brilliant blue sky for so long that Tom was tempted to prompt him for an answer, but at last he turned his head on the pillow and met Tom’s eyes. “Yeah. I was there. I didn’t kill her, but I saw her die.”
“Tell me the whole story, Scotty, from the beginning.”
“I loved her,” Ragsdale said, his voice thick with emotion. He swallowed hard and went on. “I loved Meredith for a long time before—I was just a friend to her for a long time.”
Ragsdale fell silent, as if he were lost in thought or memories. In the corridor outside the room, a cart rattled past and the intercom alerted a doctor to a waiting phone call. Tom prodded Ragsdale, “But things changed? You became more than friends? Did that happen recently?”
“Couple of years ago. She thought Cam was fooling around with other women. I don’t know if it was true, but Meredith believed it. She was fed up. We started talking about leaving, going somewhere together.”
“San Francisco?” Tom asked, remembering Scotty’s incoherent rambling when he was high on meth.
“Yeah. We had this picture of ourselves living near the water, writing and having a lot of writer friends.” Ragsdale gave a bitter little laugh. “A big stupid fantasy.”
“Why didn’t you go?”
“Money. Meredith was afraid to take off without much money, and no idea how to support ourselves.”
“Why didn’t she sell the jewelry her aunt left her?”
Ragsdale’s eyes snapped toward Tom. “What jewelry?”
So he hadn’t known. Tom almost felt sorry for the poor bastard. “We found it in her safe deposit box. If she’d sold it, she would have had enough money to live comfortably for a long time.”
Ragsdale’s face contorted with anger. “God damn her and her lies!”
He struggled to sit up in the bed, but Tom pushed him back against the pillow. “Take it easy now. Get hold of yourself. Just tell me what happened.”
For a couple of minutes Ragsdale stewed in his fury, his fists clenched on the blanket and his breath coming in ragged gulps. Tom waited for him to calm down.
When he spoke again, Ragsdale got to the point without any further nostalgic glimpses of the past. “She got upset when she heard Karen was here to see her son. I didn’t know why she cared. I thought maybe she was ashamed to have Karen see how she was living, her and Cam, because Karen was this rich successful lawyer. But she didn’t have to see Karen. She didn’t have to invite her over for a visit. Just knowing Karen was around really had her on edge, though. Then Karen showed up at the house that morning.”
“You were already there when she arrived?”
Ragsdale nodded. “Meredith tried hard to get me to leave, but I could see she was upset, and I wasn’t going to leave her in that state. She tried to act cool, but she was just about to fall apart. I didn’t get it. Karen was being nice, all smiles. She said she came to see Cam, but it was okay, she’d deal with Meredith instead. She said her son was being pigheaded, and he didn’t know she was coming over there, but she just wanted to give Cam what he needed and be done with it. Then Karen pulled out a check, already made out, and said, I hope this will be enough to put an end to it. I don’t want my son to be bothered again.”
“What did Meredith do?”
“She looked like she just wanted to drop through the floor and disappear. Her face turned red and she started shaking, trembling. Then she grabbed the check and tore it up and threw it in Karen’s face. She told her they weren’t beggars and they didn’t want her money. And Karen just blew up. She said, Well, you’d better talk to Cam about that, because he’s been begging me for money and trying to blackmail my son, and we’re not going to put up with it anymore.”
“Do you think Meredith knew about the blackmail?”
“No, she didn’t have any idea Cam had gone that far.”
“What happened then? After Meredith tore up the check?”
“They started yelling at each other and Karen said Meredith was a fake, acting like she was so pure-hearted. I didn’t know what she was talking about, but she said there was something Meredith did when they were VISTAs that she always wondered about, and she wanted Meredith to explain it in front of me, since I’d be interested too. I didn’t know what she meant at the time. But I know now.”
“She never got to the point of spelling it out?”
“No. Meredith started screaming at her to shut up, and everything went nuts, I remember the dog was barking, and—Next thing I knew, Meredith had Cam’s gun in her hand, and she shot Karen.”
Ragsdale paused, closed his eyes, and released a long breath.
Tom let him rest for a moment, then asked, “What happened then?”
When Ragsdale continued, he sounded weary, defeated. “After she shot Karen, Meredith fell apart. She couldn’t stop crying.”
“Did you ask her why she did it?”
“Sure I did. She lied to me, I know that now, but I believed her then. She seemed so broken up about it. She said she had an illegal abortion when she was a VISTA, and Karen suspected something but never knew for sure. She said she felt guilty all those years…haunted by it, she said, knowing she killed her first baby. She begged me not to hate her. But I didn’t care. Why would I? But the way she was carrying on, I believed it was eating at her and she just snapped because Karen was about to make her own up to it.”
“How did the two of you decide what to do next?” Tom asked.
“She wanted to leave, dump Karen’s body somewhere, ditch her car, and keep on going. But there was some blood on the floor and probably hairs and fibers. She knew a lot about that kind of stuff from Lindsay, and she said we’d never be able to get rid of it all, and the police might come there asking questions when Karen was reported missing. I thought this was our chance, Meredith was finally willing to go away with me, and I wanted that to happen. I came up with the idea of putting Meredith’s ring on Karen’s finger, then setting the house on fire so everybody would think Meredith was dead. She could hide somewhere, and after a few days we could take off.”
“Why did you kill Cam?”
“He knew about Meredith and me. I think he even knew we were talking about leaving together, but he never thought Meredith would do it. He never believed she was capable of doing anything without him. We were afraid he’d figure out what happened if he heard Karen had disappeared and I took off too. We knew it wouldn’t be long before Karen was missed, because she had people expecting her to be at work, and her son would be trying to get in touch with her.”
“So you decided on the spur of the moment to kill Cam too?” Tom could imagine Meredith and Scotty in the little house, facing the reality of what she had done, running out of options, desperately groping for a way to save themselves. “Did Meredith shoot him?”
“No. I did. I did it for her, like the fool I am. She helped me so much, she was always there when I needed her, and I thought, finally, this was something I could do for her.”
Murdering her husband. Quite a gift. It took some effort for Tom to keep his expression neutral.
“Everything started moving so fast,” Scotty went on. “I think back on it now, and it’s just a blur. Meredith called Cam on his cell phone and found out where he was and when he’d be heading back to town, and I went over there and waited for him to come along. I flagged him down and made him get out of the car and go in the woods. And I shot him. He was laughing at me when I pulled the trigger.”
“Did you see Rachel Goddard at the edge of the woods?”
“I saw somebody standing there looking straight at us. I didn’t know who it was until later.”
“What happened after you shot Cam?”
“I went back to the house. While I was gone, Meredith—Jesus, she took a hammer and smashed Karen’s face in, she said she had to break the teeth so Karen couldn’t be identified. We dragged the body into the kitchen by the door so we could get out fast when the fire started. Meredith poured kerosene right on Karen’s face and her body, just doused her with it. We took Meredith’s medicine and some food for her and the dog, and we got rid of the Jaguar before I drove her out to the McClure house to hide.”
Broken Places Page 28