Rebecca was sobbing now. “Nothing we did was ever right. He was always riding Abby, trying to get her to mess up. He kept telling her it was only a matter of time before some man came along and gave her what she deserved.”

“Chip.” Terri spat out the name. “He did the same thing with me. Put Adam in my way.”

Jeffrey asked, “Paul set up Abby with Chip?”

“All he had to do was make sure they were together a lot. Men are stupid that way.” She blushed, as if remembering that Jeffrey was a man. “I mean-”

“It’s okay,” Jeffrey told her, not pointing out that women could be just as stupid. He would be out of a job if they weren’t.

Terri said, “He just liked to see bad things happen. He likes to control things, set people up and then take them down hard.” She chewed her bottom lip, a trickle of blood coming from the broken skin. Obviously, the years that had passed hadn’t lessened her anger. “Nobody ever questions him. They all just assume he’s telling the truth. They worship him.”

Rebecca had been quiet, but Terri’s words seemed to be making her stronger. She looked up and said, “Uncle Paul put Chip in the office with Abby. Chip didn’t know anything about that kind of work, but Paul made sure they were together enough so that things happened.”

“What kind of things?” Lena asked.

Terri said, “What do you think? She was going to have a baby.”

Rebecca gasped at this, turning stunned eyes to her cousin.

Terri apologized quickly. “I’m sorry, Becca. I shouldn’t have told you.”

“The baby,” Rebecca whispered, hand clutched to her chest. “Her baby is dead.” Tears came streaming down her cheeks. “Oh, my Lord. He murdered her baby, too.”

Lena went deadly quiet, and Jeffrey watched her closely, wondering why Rebecca’s words had such an impact on her. Terri had gone just as blank, staring at the refrigerator, the colorful drawings her children had made. Lion. Tiger. Bear. Predators, all of them. Like Paul.

Jeffrey didn’t know what the hell was going on, but he did know that Lena had dropped a serious question. He stepped in, asking, “Who killed her baby?”

Rebecca looked up at Terri, and they both looked at Jeffrey.

“Cole,” Terri said, as if it was obvious. “Cole killed her.”

Jeffrey clarified, “He poisoned Abby?”

“Poison?” Terri echoed, mystified. “She suffocated.”

“No she didn’t, Terri. Abby was poisoned.” Jeffrey explained, “Someone gave her cyanide.”

Terri sank back in her chair, her expression revealing she finally understood what had happened. “Dale has cyanide in his garage.”

“That’s right,” Jeffrey agreed.

“Paul was in there,” she said. “He was in there all the time.”

Jeffrey kept his attention on Terri, hoping to God Lena saw how much she had fucked this up by not getting Terri to answer this simple question two days ago. He asked it now. “Did Paul know about the cyanide?”

She nodded. “I walked in on them once. Dale was plating some chrome for one of Paul’s cars.”

“When was this?”

“Four, five months ago,” she said. “His mama called and I went out to tell him. Dale got mad at me because I wasn’t supposed to be in there. Paul didn’t like me there. Didn’t even like to look at me.” Her expression darkened, and Jeffrey could tell she didn’t want to say all of this in front of her cousin. “Dale made some joke about the cyanide. Just showing off to Paul, letting him know how stupid I was.”

Jeffrey could imagine, but he needed to hear it. “What did Dale say, Terri?”

She gnawed her lip, and a fresh trickle of blood appeared. “Dale told me he was going to put the cyanide in my coffee one of these days, that I wouldn’t even know it until it hit my stomach and the acids activated the poison.” Her lip quivered, but this time it was from disgust. “He told me it’d kill me slow, that I’d know exactly what was happening, and he’d just watch me there, thrashing on the floor, shitting in my pants. He told me he’d look me in the eye till the last minute so I’d know he was the one who did it to me.”

Jeffrey asked, “What did Paul do when Dale said this?”

Terri looked at Rebecca, reached over to stroke her hair. She was still having trouble saying bad things about Dale, and Jeffrey wondered what she was trying to protect the young girl from.

Jeffrey asked his question again. “What did Paul do when he said that, Terri?”

Terri dropped her hand to Rebecca’s shoulder. “Nothing,” she said. “I thought he would laugh, but he did absolutely nothing.”

Jeffrey looked at his watch for the third time, then back up at the secretary posted sentinel in front of Paul’s office at the farm. She was less chatty than the one in Savannah, but just as protective of her boss. The door behind her was open, and Jeffrey could see rich leather chairs and two huge chunks of marble with a glass top that served for a desk. Shelves lined the room, leather law books and golfing memorabilia scattered around. Terri Stanley was right: her uncle certainly liked to have his toys.

Paul’s secretary looked up from her computer, saying, “Paul should be back soon.”

“I could wait inside the office,” Jeffrey suggested, thinking he could go through Paul’s things.

The secretary chuckled at the idea. “Paul doesn’t even like me in there when he’s gone,” she said, still typing on her computer. “Better you should wait out here. He’ll be back in a jiff.”

Jeffrey crossed his arms, sitting back in the chair. He had only been waiting five minutes, but he was beginning to think he should go find the lawyer himself. The secretary hadn’t called her boss to announce the fact that the chief of police was here, but his white Town Car with government plates was pretty easy to pick out in a crowd. Jeffrey had parked it right in front of the building’s main doors.

He looked at his watch again, marking another minute gone by. He had left Lena at the Stanley place so she could keep an eye on the two women. He didn’t want Terri’s guilt to make her do something stupid, like call her aunt Esther or, worse, her uncle Lev. Jeffrey had told them Lena was there to protect them, and neither of the girls had questioned this. Brad had run Dale in on a resisting charge, but that wouldn’t stick more than a day. Jeffrey doubted very seriously Terri would help with the prosecution. She was barely thirty, trapped with two sick kids and no discernible job skills. The best thing he could do was call Pat Stanley and tell him to get his brother’s house in order. If it were up to Jeffrey, Dale would be lying at the bottom of a quarry right now.

The secretary said, “Reverend Ward?” and Lev stuck his head in the room. “Do you know where Paul is? He has a visitor.”

“Chief Tolliver,” Lev said, entering the room. He was drying his hands on a paper towel and Jeffrey assumed he’d been in the bathroom. “Is something wrong?”

Jeffrey sized up the man, still not completely certain Lev didn’t know exactly what was going on. Rebecca and Terri had insisted he was oblivious, but it was clear to Jeffrey that Lev Ward was the leader of this family. He couldn’t imagine Paul getting away with this kind of thing right under his older brother’s nose.

Jeffrey said, “I’m looking for your brother.”

Lev looked at his watch. “We’ve got a meeting in twenty minutes. I don’t imagine he’s gone far.”

“I need to talk to him now.”

Lev offered, “May I help you with something?”

Jeffrey was glad he was making this easy. He said, “Let’s go to your office.”

“Is this about Abby?” Lev asked, walking down the hallway toward the back of the building. He was wearing faded jeans, a flannel shirt, and scuffed cowboy boots that looked as if the soles had been replaced about a dozen times since they were made. Clipped onto his belt was a leather sheath containing a retractable carpet knife.