“You said Louise and Bruce stole your money, but what if I told you that someone informed me there was a third person?”
He set down his fork, looking at me with an icy stare. “Who?”
“Who was the third person? I don’t know. A couple of names were mentioned, but my source wasn’t sure.”
“Who’s your source?”
“I can’t tell you that, but for the most part, I believe them.”
“For the most part,” he scoffed.
“Would I stake my life on it? No. But their story makes sense.”
“And what’s their story?”
“That it was a three-person job and the third person was someone close to you. Someone you trusted.”
His eyes turned piercing, and if I hadn’t known he loved me and would never hurt me, that look would have scared me. “So why does their story make sense?”
“My source knows things that aren’t publicly known, plus they have access to an important person involved in all of this. They’re in a position to know things.”
Hank didn’t look happy.
“This person . . .” I took a deep breath. “This person wants to know if you’d pay a finder’s fee if their information leads to the recovery of your fortune.”
He shook his fork at me. “That right there, that’s why you can’t trust a damn thing this person says. Cause they want somethin’.”
“But the finder’s fee aside, what if there was someone else working with Louise and Bruce?”
“Someone close to me?” He sneered. “No one would dare.”
We were getting nowhere with this discussion, so I decided to shift to another. “Why did Louise meet with Bart the day Walter was murdered?”
“How would I know?”
“Do you think she took him information about you?”
“Is this one of your interviews?” he asked in disgust.
“I’m tryin’ to help you, Hank,” I said in exasperation.
“I don’t need your help!” he shouted. “I need you to stay out of it!”
I stared at him. agape. He’d never once raised his voice to me.
His eyes were wide, his breathing heavy, and he seemed just as surprised as I was.
“Carly?” Marco called from the front door. “Is everything okay in there?”
“Everything’s fine,” I said, keeping my attention on Hank. “We’re almost done. I’ll be out soon.”
“I’m right out here on the porch if you need me.”
“Okay.”
Hank and I continued looking at one another. He was already pissed, so I decided to ask the big question, but I had to ask it just right. “Were you on Louise Baker’s property when Walter Baker was shot?”
“How can you ask me that?”
“Because Lula remembers seeing you there.”
“She was barely right in the head before her drowning, let alone after.”
“Were you there?”
His jaw clenched, but he didn’t look as angry as I’d expected. “You have no right to ask questions about that day, Carly.”
My heart beat wildly in my chest. “I noticed you didn’t answer the question, Hank. Were you there?”
He pushed out a breath and stared at the wall. “And if I was?”
“I’d ask what happened.”
He turned to look at me. “Do you think I tried to drown that girl?”
“I know that Lula is terrified of you.”
“So you think I did it?” he growled.
“Lula remembers you being there, your clothes soaking wet, when she came to, but no, Hank. You may have been a lot of things, but a child murderer isn’t one of them.”
His shoulders sank. “And what if I told you that I did? What if I told you I used that girl to get her mother to tell me where she’d hidden my gold?”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
My eyes stung with tears. “I’d say you’re lying.”
He slowly shook his head.
“No,” I said in horror.
“I was a desperate man, Carly.”
“You’re gonna have to do better than that, Hank,” I said, my voice breaking. “I need the full story. Now.”
“Just because you want something, doesn’t mean you’re gonna get it.”
“I’ve been living in this house with you for seven months. I think you owe it to me.”
“I don’t owe you shit.”
I started to cry. “I love you, Hank. You’re more of a father to me than my own father ever was, but I need to know whether it’s true.”
He sank back in his chair. After several seconds of heavy silence, he pushed his plate away. “I’d discovered the gold was missing. Like I said, I think it took ’em a few days, maybe a week, to get as much as they did. Louise was working for Mary every day, so she definitely had access. But she wouldn’t have known how to cut the back out of the barrels. That’s where Abernathy came in.” He gave me a pointed look. “He told the guy I sent into the jail.”
I nodded, terrified to hear any more.
“We weren’t sure how Louise got access to the garage, or how she even realized the gold was out there.” He seemed lost in thought. “Mary loved spendin’ time with Louise’s little girl. Mary told her she could bring her with her while she worked. She’d always wanted more kids but could never carry one to term. She saw how Louise never cared much for the girl and loved showering Lula with attention. They used to do all sorts of things together—bake cookies and cupcakes, read, do arts and crafts . . .” His eyes hardened. “We think Louise used her daughter to distract Mary so she could go out to the garage. Then one day, Louise and Walter didn’t show up to work without callin’ in, and I knew something was up. I just didn’t know what. I went out into the garage to look things over, and I gave one of the barrels a shove. It was much lighter. Sure enough, they all were. Most of the gold was gone.” He looked directly at me now with an expression so unguarded and hostile, I flinched. “And I sure knew who did it.”
“So you went to confront her?” I asked in a shaky voice.
“When I got there, Drummond was already there.”
“Why was he there?”
“He was shoutin’ that Lula wasn’t his, while Louise was shoutin’ that she was and Drummond was gonna pay her child support. Then Drummond said he’d take care of that, all right, and he dragged the girl out to the creek and started to drown her. Right about then, Walter showed up and tried to stop him.”
“Louise wasn’t trying to stop him?”
“No.” He frowned. “But I wasn’t either. Walter grabbed his shotgun and shot at Drummond and missed. Drummond rushed him, grabbed the gun, and didn’t miss.”
I gasped.
“Drummond shoved the shotgun at Louise and told her she was takin’ the fall. She cussed him out a blue streak, all while Walter lay bleedin’ out on the ground and Lula was floatin’ downstream. I grabbed the girl and hauled her back up toward the house, wadin’ through the creek. Drummond took off, and Louise saw me holdin’ her girl. I asked her where my gold went, but she told me she didn’t give a shit about the gold. She wanted me to help her get Walter into her car so she could take him to the hospital, but any fool could see he’d never make it to Ewing, let alone Greeneville, so I told her to tell me or I’d finish drownin’ her girl.” He gave me a hard look. “She told me to drown her.”