Dark Horse

45

The assistant state's attorney seemed unperturbed by the fact that Erin Seabright had not seen the faces of her captors. As Elena had said, they had enough evidence to hold him on the charges, to arraign him and make a strong argument for high bail or no bail. They would then, by Florida law, have 175 days to bring Jade before a jury. Ample time to put the case together, provided the additional evidence was there to find.

The blood that had been found in the stall where Jill Morone had died had been typed. If they could match it to Jade, they were on their way to a murder indictment to add to the kidnapping charge. They had put Jade's alibi for the night of Jill's death in doubt. He had no alibi for the night the horse had been killed, the event Estes believed had kicked everything into motion.

Landry thought of Elena as he left the prosecutor's office. He didn't like that she had doubts about Jade's involvement, and he didn't like that it mattered to him what she thought. She had dragged him into this mess, and he wanted it to lay out as simply as her original theory had. Most crimes were like that: straightforward. The average murder was about money or sex, and didn't require Sherlock Holmes to solve. Kidnapping for ransom-the same. Good basic police work led to arrests and convictions. He didn't want this case to be any different.

And maybe the reason Estes' doubts bothered him so much was that some of those same doubts were chewing at the back of his mind. He tried to shake them off as he walked down the hall. Weiss came out of the squad room to meet him.

"Paris Montgomery is here. Asking for you," he added with an eye roll.

"Did you find anything at the Seabright house?"

"Jackpot," Weiss said. "We found a videotape stashed on a shelf in Seabright's home office. You won't believe it. It actually shows the girl being raped. We've got Seabright in the conference room. I'm on my way now."

"Wait for me," Landry said, fury burning in his gut. "I want a crack at that son of a bitch."

"There'll be a line," Weiss assured him.

Paris Montgomery was pacing behind the table as Landry walked into the interview room. She looked upset and nervous, though her emotional state had not prevented her from putting on makeup or styling her hair.

"Ms. Montgomery. Thank you for coming in," Landry said. "Have a seat. Can I get you anything? Coffee?"

"God, no," she said, sitting down. "If I have any more caffeine I'm going to start spinning around the room like a top. I can't believe any of this is happening. Don in jail. Erin kidnapped. My God. Is she all right? I just tried calling the hospital, but they wouldn't tell me anything."

"She's been roughed up," Landry said. "But she'll recover."

"Will they let me see her?"

"Immediate family only, for the time being. Maybe later today."

"I feel terrible about what happened. I mean, she worked for me. I should have looked out for her." Tears filled the big brown eyes. "I should have done something. When Don said she'd quit and gone- I should have tried harder to contact her. I should have known something was wrong."

"Why is that? Did you have reason to be suspicious?"

She glanced away; her expression seemed to have the kind of glazed look people get when they are watching memories run through their minds.

"Erin had seemed happy with the job. I mean, I knew she was having boyfriend trouble, but what girl her age doesn't? I just- I should have questioned her leaving so suddenly. But you have to understand, grooms come and go during the season. There's too much opportunity. Someone offers more money or health insurance or an extra day off and they're gone."

Landry offered no platitudes, no absolution. Someone sure as hell should have been paying closer attention to what was going on with Erin Seabright. He wasn't inclined to let anyone off the hook.

"Were you aware of any relationship between Erin and Don?" he asked.

"Erin had a crush on him."

"To your knowledge, did he act on it?"

"I-well-Don is very charismatic."

"Is that a yes or a no?"

"He's a magnetic kind of person. Women are drawn to him. He enjoys that. He likes to flirt."

"With Erin?"

"Well… sure… but I didn't think he would take advantage of her. I don't want to believe that he did."

"But he might have."

She looked uncertain, which was answer enough.

"Did Erin say anything to you about the death of the horse?"

"She was upset. We all were."

"Did she hint that she knew something about what happened?"

She looked away again and pressed two fingers against the small crease digging in between her eyebrows. "She didn't believe it was an accident."

"She took care of the horse, right?"

"Yes. She was very good with him-with all the horses. She put in extra time with them. She would come and check on them after hours sometimes."

"Had she checked on them that night?"

"Around eleven. Everything was fine."

"Why did she think it wasn't an accident?"

Paris Montgomery began to cry. She looked around the room as if looking for a crevice to disappear into.

"Ms. Montgomery, if Don Jade did what we believe he did, you don't owe him any loyalty."

"I didn't believe he'd done anything bad," she said in a small voice, making the excuse for herself, not for Jade.

"What happened?"

"Erin told me Don was at the barn already when she got there that morning. Early. Really early. We had horses showing that day, and Erin had to get there early to braid manes and get the horses ready. She told me she saw Don in Stellar's stall, doing something with the cord of the electric fan. She went over to the stall to ask him why he was there so early."

She stopped and tried to compose herself, her breath catching. Landry waited.

"She saw Stellar was down. Don told her the horse had bitten through the cord of the fan, and he held the cord up. But Erin said he had something in his other hand. Some kind of a tool."

"You think he cut the cord to make it look like an accident."

"I don't know!" she sobbed, covering her face with her hands. "I don't want to believe he could have killed that poor animal!"

"And now that might be the least of what he's done," Landry said.

He sipped his coffee impassively while Paris Montgomery cried for her sin of omission. He turned the new facts over in his mind. Erin could have fingered Jade for staging the accident. That might logically have led to her death, he thought, as it may have led to Jill Morone's death. But the evidence regarding the cell phone purchase indicated the kidnapping had been planned in advance of the horse murder. Therefore, the one thing had nothing to do with the other.

"What did you do when Erin came to you with this information?" he asked.

Paris dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. "I got angry. I told her of course it was an accident. Don wouldn't-"

"Despite the fact that Don had on several occasions previous."

"I never believed that was true," she said adamantly. "No one ever proved anything."

"Except that he's clever and adept at evading the consequences of his actions."

Even now, she rose to Jade's defense. "In three years I have never known Don to do one cruel thing to a horse in his care."

"What was Erin's reaction when you didn't believe her?"

"She was upset at first. We talked some more. I told her what I just told you about my experience working for Don. I asked her if she could believe him capable of hurting anyone. I made her feel ashamed for even thinking it."

"So, when Jade told you she had quit later that day-"

"I wasn't that surprised."

"But you didn't try to call her."

"I tried to call her, she didn't answer. I left a message on her voice mail. I went to her apartment a couple of days later, but it looked like she had moved out."

She sighed dramatically and looked at Landry with the big eyes, looking for forgiveness. "I would give anything if I could go back to that day and change what happened."

"Yeah," Landry said. "I'll bet Erin Seabright would too."