“I have questions now.”
Oliver frowned.
She didn’t answer his unspoken question. If Grant was guilty, she would prove it. From what she and Sean had dug up, the case against him was weak, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t killed Victoria. The only thing the prosecution had going for it was his confession coupled with a weak but plausible motive.
A moment later, the bailiff escorted Stanley Grant into the room. He didn’t have leg restraints, but was handcuffed.
Max had met Stanley at Victoria’s wedding many years ago and had seen recent pictures of him in the media. This man looked liked a hollowed-out version of the man she remembered. His suit hung limp on his body, evidence of recent weight loss. Though his dark hair was clean and neatly trimmed, it was thinning with a sprinkling of gray throughout. His pale-blue eyes ignored his attorney and looked right at Max. He waited until the bailiff left before he said, “Is my sister okay?”
“My colleague is with her now. She took her boys to her mother-in-law’s house.”
He sighed in relief. “She should have stayed with them.”
Oliver said, “Mr. Grant, I’m petitioning for bail. I have the paperwork complete, and in light of the fact that until these charges you have been a law-abiding citizen, I think we have a good chance of making bail.”
Stanley barely registered his lawyer’s comments. “Ms. Revere, I didn’t kill Victoria. When I heard you were looking into her murder, I told my attorney I wanted to meet with you, but he never set it up.”
Max glanced at Jones and frowned.
“Longfellow,” Stanley said. “It’s only one of the reasons I fired him. We only met once, but I know your reputation. You don’t stop until you find the truth.”
“Tell me the truth.”
“It’s complicated.”
“Either you killed Victoria or you didn’t,” Max said. “Not complicated.”
“I didn’t kill her.”
“You went to the police a week after her murder and said you did.”
“I had no choice. That’s why I had to make sure Marie was safe. They threatened her to force my confession, and now that I’ve recanted, I’m afraid they’ll go after her. Marie and her boys are all I care about.”
“Who are they?”
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t believe you.”
He stared at her. “So you’re not going to help me?”
“I’m going to find the truth,” Max said, not batting an eye. “If you want to play games, it won’t stop me from finding out who killed Victoria. You or someone else.”
“I didn’t kill Victoria. I swear to God I didn’t.”
She didn’t hold much stock in anyone swearing to God. People committed a lot of violence in His name.
“Who are they?” she pushed.
He looked her in the eye, hesitated a moment, but she didn’t think he was coming up with a lie on the fly. He’d had two months to develop a story she might believe. Instead, she determined that he was trying to figure out if he could trust her.
She stared back. She didn’t trust him, but she wanted to hear what he had to say.
Finally, Grant said, “A man came to me late Tuesday night after Victoria was killed. He told me that I had embezzled two million dollars from our company, Victoria found out, and I killed her in the heat of the moment. The reason? I’d gone back to gambling. After college, I lost a lot of money, went through a rough patch. But I haven’t gambled in years, I swear to God. Yet— They had this evidence that I had lost money. I was enraged, told him no one would believe him and, even if they did, I could prove my innocence. He was so cold—so … hell, I don’t know. But I believed him when he said that if I didn’t do exactly what he told me to do my nephews would be orphans. He had pictures of Marie and the boys—at their house, going to school, the fucking grocery store!”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?” Oliver asked.
“I didn’t know what to do, and I didn’t believe him at first, I couldn’t imagine how they’d have access to MCG funds—two million dollars! But that night, I went through all the records, and there was an odd discrepancy. And I got this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that someone was setting me up. I planned to talk to Mitch, our partner, but when I was on my way over there, Marie called. She’d been in a serious car accident. She and the boys were okay, but her car was totaled. I went to get them and I saw him, the guy who threatened me, in the crowd. And I knew … I just knew they were serious and I was in deep trouble. And I didn’t even know why!”
Truly innocent people couldn’t be so easily manipulated into making a false confession, at least in Max’s experience. Maybe there was some truth to the story. Maybe Stan had a gambling problem … and Victoria was killed because of it, but he didn’t kill her himself.
Or maybe the entire story was a big fat lie. She wasn’t certain yet what was truth and what was fiction.
“You told your sister to leave town before you confessed.”
“I called John, her ex-husband, and asked him to stay with Marie for a few days, keep her out of the media spotlight. But mostly, I wanted her safe.”
“Again,” Max said, “who are they? Who is the man who threatened you?”
“I never saw him before. He’s big, six four at least, Hispanic, broad-shouldered. Dark hair, dark eyes, mustache. His right hand is scarred, like he’d seriously burned it. All wrinkled and discolored, but it looked like an old injury.”
She knew they were tight on time and this whole conspiracy theory was hanging by a very thin thread. “Why would someone you don’t know pressure you into confessing to a murder you didn’t commit?”
“I don’t know.”
And the thread snapped. “You’re lying.”
It had just been a flicker in his eyes as he glanced down, barely discernible, but Max was very good at reading lies and Stanley Grant was bad at telling them.
He hedged. “My sister—”
Max stood. “If you don’t tell me the truth, I can’t help you. And just so we’re clear, I’m not under any obligation to protect your family. I sent my colleague to sit with Marie this morning because I knew you were concerned and I wanted to talk to you. We learned that she already received a threat. A photo of her mother-in-law’s house was left in her mail slot late last night. So someone knows where her kids are.”
Stanley paled even more. “I—I—”
“Good-bye.” She walked to the door. She’d left in the middle of interviews before when someone was bullshitting her; she had no qualms about walking out now.
“Wait!”
She turned but didn’t sit back down.
“I don’t want Victoria’s name dragged through the mud.”
“She’s dead. She doesn’t care.”
“Her parents do. Her brothers. The company we built from the ground up—”
“The company you admitted to embezzling from? The company that is struggling now that Victoria is dead and you are in prison and the two million dollars recovered is in a government trust while the DA tries to figure out exactly what happened? Do you want to go to prison for the rest of your life, possibly be executed, to protect Victoria’s name?”