False Witness
Page 45
Leigh kept her head turned so she could study her sister’s sharp features. Callie had always been pretty. She had none of the guarded, bitchy look that plagued Leigh. All her sister had ever wanted was kindness. That she had found it in such short supply was not Callie’s fault.
“Okay,” Callie finally said. “Tell me.”
Leigh wasn’t going to set this up slowly because there was no way to soften the hard truth. “Buddy tried it with me first.”
Callie stiffened, but she said nothing.
Leigh said, “The first night I started babysitting Andrew, Buddy drove me home. He made me let him drive me home. And then he pulled over in front of the Deguils’ house, and he molested me.”
Callie still did not respond, but Leigh saw her start to rub her arm the way she always did when she was upset.
“It only happened once,” Leigh said. “When he tried it again, I said no, and that was it. He never tried anything else.”
Callie closed her eyes. Tears seeped out at the corners. Leigh wanted nothing more than to hold her, to soothe her, to make everything okay, but she was the cause of her sister’s pain. She had no right to wound her, then offer solace.
Leigh pushed herself to continue. “Afterward, I forgot about it. I don’t know how or why, but it just went out of my mind. And I didn’t warn you. I told you to go work for him. I put you right in his path.”
Callie sucked in her bottom lip. She was crying now, big mournful tears rolling down her face.
Leigh felt her heart breaking into pieces. “I could tell you I’m sorry, but what does that even mean?”
Callie said nothing.
“How does it even make sense that I forgot, that I let you work for them, that I ignored everything when you started to change? Because I did notice that you’d changed, Callie. I saw it happen and I never put it together.” Leigh had to stop for a breath. “I only really remembered the details when I told Walter last night. It all came flooding back. The cigars and cheap whiskey and the song playing on the radio. It was there all along, but I guess I just buried it.”
Callie stuttered out a breath. Her head started to shake in a tight, constricted arc on her frozen spine.
Leigh said, “Cal, please. Tell me what you’re thinking. If you’re mad or you hate me or you never want to—”
“What song was playing?”
Leigh was thrown by the question. She had been expecting recriminations, not trivia.
Callie shifted her body on the couch so that she could look at Leigh. “What song was on the radio?”
“Hall & Oates,” Leigh said. “‘Kiss on My List.’”
“Huh,” Callie said, as if Leigh had made an interesting point.
“I’m sorry,” Leigh said, knowing that the apology was meaningless but unable to stop herself. “I’m so sorry I let this happen to you.”
“Did you?” Callie asked.
Leigh swallowed. She didn’t have an answer.
“I forgot, too.” Callie waited a moment, as if she wanted to give the words room to breathe. “I didn’t forget all of it, but most of it. The bad parts, at least. I forgot those, too.”
Leigh was still without words. All of these years, she’d thought that the heroin was because Callie had remembered everything.
“He was a pedophile.” Callie spoke quietly, still testing the weight of her words. “We were kids. We were pliable. That’s what he wanted—a child he could exploit. It didn’t matter which one of us he got to first. What mattered to him was which one of us he could make come back for more.”
Leigh swallowed so hard again that her throat hurt. Her logical mind told her that Callie was right. Her heart still told her that she had failed to protect her baby sister.
“I wonder who else he did it to?” Callie asked. “You know we weren’t the only ones.”
Leigh was aghast. She had never considered there were other victims, but of course there were other victims. “I don’t—I don’t know.”
“Maybe Minnie what’s-her-name?” Callie said. “She babysat for Andrew when you were in juvie. Do you remember that?”
Leigh didn’t, but she could clearly recall Linda’s exasperation over the number of previous sitters who had abandoned her son for seemingly no reason.
“He convinced you that you were special.” Callie wiped her nose on her sleeve. “That’s what Buddy did. He made it seem like you were the only one. That he was a normal guy until you came along, and now he was in love with you because you were special.”
Leigh pressed together her lips. Buddy had not made her feel special. He had made her feel dirty and ashamed. “I should’ve warned you.”
“No.” Callie’s tone was as firm as it had ever been. “Listen to me, Harleigh. What happened is what happened. We were both his victims. We both forgot how bad it was because that was the only way we could survive.”
“It wasn’t—” Leigh stopped herself, because there was no counter-argument. They had both been children. They had both been victims. All she could do was go back to where she started. “I’m sorry.”
“You can’t be sorry for something that you couldn’t control. Don’t you get that?”
Leigh shook her head, but part of her desperately wanted to believe what Callie was saying was true.
“I want you to hear me,” Callie said. “If this is the guilt you’ve been carrying around for your entire adult life, then set it the fuck down, because it doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to him.”
Leigh was so used to crying that she didn’t notice her own tears. “I’m so sorry.”
“For what?” Callie demanded. “It’s not your fault. It was never your fault.”
The twist on her familiar mantra broke something inside of Leigh. She put her head in her hands. She started to sob so hard that she couldn’t hold herself up.
Callie wrapped her arms around Leigh, taking some of the burden. Her lips pressed into the top of Leigh’s head. Callie had never held her before. Usually, it was the other way around. Usually, it was Leigh providing the comfort, because Walter was right. From the beginning, Phil had never been their mother. It was only Leigh and Callie, back then, and it was only Leigh and Callie right now.
“It’s okay,” Callie said, kissing the top of her head the same way she did with her cat. “We’re going to get through this, all right?”
Leigh sat back up. Her nose was running. Her eyes stung with tears.
Callie got up from the couch. She found a tissue pack in Dr. Jerry’s desk. She took a few for herself, then passed the rest to Leigh. “What’s next?”
Leigh blew her nose. “What do you mean?”
“The plan,” Callie said. “You always have a plan.”
“It’s Walter’s plan,” Leigh said. “He’s taking care of everything.”
Callie sat back down. “Walter’s always been tougher than he looks.”
Leigh wasn’t so sure that was a good thing. She found a fresh tissue and wiped under her eyes. “I’m going to FaceTime with Maddy in a few hours. I wanted to do it in person, but we can’t risk Andrew somehow following us to Maddy’s location.”
“Through the satellites, you mean?”
“Yes.” Leigh was surprised Callie knew even that much about tracking devices. “Walter already had his mother stop at a gas station. They checked under the RV to make sure there weren’t any trackers. I found one on my car, but I got rid of it.”
Callie said, “I thought Andrew would use the GPS in Sidney’s BMW to find me.”
“You wanted him to find you?”
“I told you—I told Sidney to tell Andrew I had the knife if he wants it back.”
Leigh didn’t press her on the suicide mission. The burn-the-motherfucker-down trait was a dominant gene in their family. “We’ve scheduled a meeting with my lawyer at seven. He’s a friend of Walter’s. I’ve already talked to him a little over the phone. He’s aggressive, which is what I need.”
“Can he get you out of this?”
“Don’t you have privilege or something?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m never going to practice law again.” Leigh felt the weight of her words threatening to bog her down. She pushed through, saying, “Technically, I can break privilege if I think my client is committing crimes or if he becomes a threat to other people. Andrew definitely meets both criteria.”
“What will happen to you?”
“I’ll go to prison,” Leigh said, because even the aggressive lawyer had agreed that there was no way around serving time. “If I’m lucky, it will be five to seven years, which means four with good behavior.”
“That seems harsh.”
“It’s the video, Cal. Andrew is going to release it. I can’t stop that.” Leigh wiped her nose. “Once it’s out there, once people see what I did, it’ll become too political. The DA will be expected to do a full court press.”
“But what about what happened?” Callie asked. “What Buddy did to me. What he did to you. Doesn’t that matter?”
“Who knows?” Leigh said, but she had been in enough courtrooms to understand that prosecutors and judges cared more about optics than justice. “I’m going to prepare myself for the worst, and if the worst doesn’t happen, then I’m luckier than most.”
“Will they let you out on parole?”
“I can’t answer that, Callie.” Leigh needed her to see the bigger picture. “It’s not just the murder video that’s going to be out there. It’s the rest. The fourteen videos that Buddy made of the two of you together.”
Callie’s response wasn’t the one she’d expected. “Do you think Sidney is in on it?”
Leigh felt a giant lightbulb turning on inside of her head, because Sidney being in on it made obvious sense.
Andrew had a well-documented alibi for Ruby Heyer’s murder. If Reggie’s surveillance logs were to be believed, he’d been parked outside of Phil’s house the night of the attack. That left one person who could commit the crime. Andrew had left the clue in plain sight. There were no wedding photos of Sidney on his phone. He’d hinted at the fact that she hadn’t arrived until it was time to walk down the aisle. She’d had plenty of time to murder Ruby Heyer, then slip into her wedding gown and be ready for the ceremony at eight.
Leigh told Callie, “Ruby left her husband for another man. She was staying at a hotel. Reggie admitted to me that he told Andrew her location. Andrew’s wedding photos give him a solid alibi, which leaves Sidney.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” Leigh said. “The way that Ruby was killed—Andrew would’ve had to tell Sidney the details. There’s no other way that she would’ve known what to do. How to do it. And it was clear that Sidney enjoyed it.”
“She really enjoyed fucking with me. Both ways, if I’m being honest,” Callie said. “Which means we’re not just dealing with one psycho. We’re dealing with two.”
Leigh nodded, but none of this changed what needed to happen right now. “I’ve got ten thousand dollars in the car. Walter and I want you to leave town. You can’t be here for this. I mean it. We’ll drive you back to Phil’s. You can pack up Binx. We’ll take you to the bus stop. I can’t do this if I know you’re not safe.”
Callie asked, “Could Maddy watch him instead?”
“Of course. She would love that.” Leigh tried not to read too much into the request. She wanted nothing more than for her sister to know her daughter. “Walter will take him home tonight, okay? He’ll be waiting for Maddy when she gets back.”
Callie chewed her lip. “You should know he keeps all of his money in Bitcoin.”
“Fucking taxes.”
Callie smiled.
Leigh smiled back.
She offered, “I could always send you back to rehab.”
“I said no, no no.”
Leigh laughed at the Amy Winehouse impersonation. She would have to tell Walter that Callie had made a pop-culture reference that took place after 2003.
Callie said, “I guess we should go.”
Leigh stood up. She reached for Callie’s hand to help her up from the couch. Her sister didn’t let go as they left the office. Their shoulders bumped in the narrow hall. Callie still didn’t let go when they reached the waiting room. They used to walk to school like this. Even when they were older and it looked strange, Callie had always held on tight to Leigh’s hand.
“BMW is still here.” Callie sounded disappointed to find the car parked outside.
“Andrew’s a control freak,” Leigh said. “He’s making us wait because he knows it’s killing us.”
“Then take away his control,” Callie said. “Let’s drive over to his house right now and get the tapes.”
“No,” Leigh said. She had already gone down this road with Walter. “We’re not criminals. We don’t know how to break into houses and threaten people and crack safes.”
“Speak for yourself.” Callie pushed open the door.
Leigh felt her heart trip.
Walter was not inside the Audi.
She looked left, then right.
Callie was doing the same. She called, “Walter?”
They both listened in the silence.
“Walter?” Callie tried again.
This time, Leigh didn’t wait for a response. She took off. Her heels stabbed into the broken concrete as she jogged past the barbershop. She rounded the corner. Picnic table. Empty beer cans. Piles of trash. Behind the building showed more of the same. She took off again, making a full loop around to the front. She didn’t stop until she saw Callie leaning past the open door of the Audi.
Callie stood back up. She was holding a torn piece of paper in her hand.
“No …” Leigh whispered, her feet moving again, arms pumping, as she ran toward her car. She grabbed the note out of Callie’s hand. Her eyes wouldn’t focus. Light blue lines. Dark red blood seeping in from the torn corner. One sentence scribbled across the middle.
Andrew’s handwriting hadn’t changed since he’d doodled in Leigh’s textbooks. Back then, he’d drawn dinosaurs and motorcycles with thought bubbles filled with nonsensical things. Now, he had written a threat that mirrored the one Callie had passed on through Sidney.
If you want your husband back, come and get him.
20
Callie stepped back as Leigh’s vomit splattered at their feet. Her sister was doubled over, wracked by terror. An almost animal wail came out of her mouth.
Callie looked around the parking lot. The BMW was still there. The road was dark, absent any cars. Andrew had come and gone.
“Oh, God!” Leigh dropped to her knees. Her head was in her hands. “What have I done?”
Andrew’s note had fluttered to the ground. Instead of trying to comfort Leigh, Callie leaned down to pick it up. His sloppy handwriting was as familiar to Callie as her own.
“Callie!” Leigh was keening, and then her head was pressing against the asphalt. Another horrible wail came out of her mouth. “What am I going to do?”
Callie felt as removed from Leigh’s agony as she’d been the last time her sister had been bowled over by despair. They were in Linda and Buddy Waleski’s master bedroom. Leigh had come to save Callie and ended up ruining her life.
Again.
The night they had killed and butchered Buddy Waleski was not the first or last time that Callie had brought her sister to her knees. It went as far back as their early childhood. Callie had come home whining about the girl who’d teased her on the playground. Leigh had ended up in juvie for nearly scalping the child with a broken piece of glass.
Leigh’s second stint in juvie was Callie’s fault, too. Leigh’s sleazy boss had said something about
the way Callie’s nipples pressed against her T-shirt. That night, Leigh had been arrested for slashing his tires.
There were more examples, both large and small, but they ranged from Leigh risking her career by paying off a junkie to take the fall for Callie’s crimes to Leigh losing her husband to a psychopath Callie had openly taunted.
She took another long look at Sidney’s BMW. Andrew hadn’t taken the car because he had been patiently waiting for better leverage. It was sheer coincidence that Walter had been made available instead of Maddy.
“No!” Leigh sobbed. “I can’t lose him. I can’t.”
Callie wadded up the note into a ball inside of her fist. Her knee cracked as she knelt down beside her sister. She pressed her palm to Leigh’s back. She let the agony roll unabated because there was no other choice. After a lifetime of Callie only looking at what was directly in front of her, she had suddenly found herself charmed with the ability to look ahead.
“What are we going to do?” Leigh cried. “Oh, God, Callie. What are we going to do?”
“What we should’ve done before.” Callie pulled at Leigh’s shoulders, making her sit up. This was how it worked. Only one of them could fall apart at a time. “Harleigh, get your shit together. You can freak out later when Walter is okay.”
Leigh wiped her mouth with the back of her arm. She was trembling. “I can’t lose him, Callie. I can’t.”
“You’re not going to lose anyone,” Callie said. “We’re going to Andrew’s house right now and we’re going to end this.”
“What?” Leigh started shaking her head. “We can’t just—”
“Listen to me.” Callie tightened her hands around Leigh’s shoulders. “We’ll go to Andrew’s. We’ll do what we have to do to get Walter back. We’ll find a way to open that safe. We’ll get the tapes and we’ll leave.”
“I …” Leigh seemed to regain some of her usual resolve. When lightning struck, she was always going to stand in Callie’s way. “I can’t take you into that. I won’t.”
“You don’t have a choice.” Callie knew how to ramp her panic back up. “Andrew has Walter. How long before he goes after Maddy?”