Page 45 of One Last Night

“Not if you and Luann come forward together.”

He laughs. There’s more anger than bitterness in that laugh. “She doesn’t give a shit about Luann. All she cares about is that damned vineyard. I don’t even know if she cares about that or if she just wants to beat my dad.”

“I understand the two of them have quite the history.”

“Oh, they sure do. Victoria’s never forgiven Dad for buying the Leander wine estate from under Parker Bellamy’s nose.”

I raise an eyebrow. This is something I haven’t heard before. “When did this happen?”

“I don’t know. Before Parker Bellamy died, so long before I was born. Dad said they used to be friends before then, but once he bought the Leander estate, everything got all cold. Then, when Parker died, Victoria started being a real bitch.”

“How so?”

“She would pay for people to say things that weren’t true in the newspaper. Like how we used dangerous pesticides, or our employees didn’t wash their hands. I don’t know, I never read the articles. I just know that the company was almost ruined, and Dad had to take out a bunch of loans. This all happened before I was born.”

“If it happened before you were born, then how do you know it’s true?”

He blinks. “I mean… I don’t get why Dad would lie.”

Many reasons.Then again, Victoria Bellamy isn’t exactly known for her honesty either. “It sounds like your families have good reason to hate each other.”

“I mean… I guess so. That doesn’t mean Dad’s the one who did this, though.”

“Yes, I know that already. But you’re letting the police believe that he is.”

He swallows and looks away from me. “They’ll figure out that it wasn’t him. There’s no evidence.”

“Perhaps not. But as far as the police know, you overheard him say that he needed to take drastic measures. What will happen when the police tell him about that conversation?”

He goes white as a sheet. I press my advantage. “The police will try to keep your name out of their investigation. I’m sure they told you that, just as I’m sure they told you that they couldn’tpromiseto keep your name out of their investigation. What happens when they get frustrated with their lack of progress and try to goad a confession out of him?”

He leans forward and runs his hands through his hair. “Oh man. I hate this. I hate all of this.”

I have shown the stick. Now I will show the carrot. “Talk to him. To Julian as well. If you and Luann can be honest with your parents, then I’m sure that there is a way out of this withoutanyone suffering legal trouble. But you need to come clean. The damage this lie is causing is going to tear both of your families apart. I’m sure you two had your reasons for doing what you did, but it’s gone too far. Put an end to it now. Please. Before it’s too late.”

He bites his lip and rocks back and forth for a minute. I say nothing else. Either he’ll cave, or he won’t.

He doesn’t. He takes a deep breath and gives me a hard look. “I don’t know what you thought you overheard, but Luann and I didn’t do that to Victoria’s vineyard. I don’t know who did. I thought I overheard my dad saying some crap, but maybe I was mistaken too.”

He reaches for the door handle and seems surprised to find it unlocked. He hesitates before stepping outside. “I need to go home now.”

“All right,” I reply. “I hope you think about what I’ve said, though.”

“Yeah. Sure.”

He starts away, walking fast and looking around fearfully. No one stops to ask what he's doing or what I'm doing. I wait until he's out of sight, then sigh and start the engine.

I didn’t achieve the result I wanted, but I’m not losing hope. If I were Kevin, the next thing I would do is try to warn Luann. Maybe if she knows that the walls are closing in, Luann will be more willing to come clean. It’s a step in the right direction.

I can only hope that going about it the way I am won’t cause more harm than good.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

That hope is dashed within minutes of my return to the house. I hear shouting as soon as I walk inside, and when I follow the noise upstairs, I find Nathan and Luann arguing with Sean. Sean has his hands up and is trying to placate the youngsters, both of whom are red-faced and crying. When Sean looks at me and frowns accusingly, there can be no misunderstanding what they're arguing about.

Luann sees me and shrieks, “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Get out of my fucking life!”

I’m too stunned to come up with a better response than, “Pardon?”

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