Page 149 of We Are All Guilty Here

Walton rubbed his mouth. “As I said, Virgil had an attachment. The fact that she’d resisted him for so long was an aphrodisiac. He wasn’t ready to let her go.”

Emmy’s hand went to her heart. She could feel Cole struggling to keep his composure.

Jude told Walton, “Continue.”

“Virgil put Cheyenne in the trunk, then he put her bicycle on top of her. The lid wouldn’t close. He told me to tie it down with a rope, but I’m better at slip-knotting a suture. It kept bouncing every time we hit a bump in the road.” Walton’s smile was fleeting. The detail was only humorous to him. “We drove to the park to find Madison. Virgil was going to text her on Cheyenne’s burner phone to meet us up in the parking lot away from the crowd, but Madison was already there when we pulled in. It felt like fate.”

Jude prompted, “And then?”

“I foolishly thought we could salvage the situation. I was going to talk to Madison, put some sense into her. I told you, she was a good girl. Without Cheyenne, her entire life would’ve taken a different course.”

Emmy’s head started to shake. Walton’s facade was slipping back into place. There was no way that either of them were going to let the girls live. They were both unrepentant killers.

Jude had picked up on it, too. She told him, “Stick to the facts.”

Walton shrugged, but said, “Virgil pulled onto the soccer field to lure Madison farther away from the crowd. The fireworks had just started. I got out of the car, but Madison was already looking inside the trunk. She was trying to help Cheyenne out. I was scared she was going to scream.”

“What did you do?”

“It’s not what I did. It’s what Madison did. She turned around and looked at me. I felt paralyzed. I didn’t know how to respond. But then Virgil hit her on the back of the head with the hammer.”

Emmy closed her eyes again, praying that the image of Madison being struck wouldn’t haunt her dreams.

Jude asked, “And then?”

Walton heaved out a sigh. “Madison wouldn’t fit in the trunk with Cheyenne and the bike, so Virgil carried her around the car to put her in the back seat. The next thing I know, Cheyenne’s running toward the trees. Everybody from North Falls was down the hill. I don’t remember how the pistol got into my hand, but somehow it went off, and Cheyenne was dead.”

Emmy didn’t need the autopsy report to know that he was lying. She had seen the gunshot wound in Cheyenne’s forehead when she’d first seen the girl in the water.

Jude asked, “This was the .22 rimfire pistol?”

“Yes,” Walton said. “Virgil told me to bring a gun. It was the only one I had lying around. My father liked to shoot for sport. I don’t like guns.”

“Yeah.” Cole sounded furious. “He likes hammers.”

Emmy resisted the urge to soothe him.

“You shot Cheyenne,” Jude said. “Then what did you do?”

“I followed Virgil’s orders like I always did.” Walton shrugged. “He said we had to leave the bikes. They wouldn’t both fit in the trunk, and with Cheyenne bleeding so profusely, we couldn’t put her inside the car. Virgil told me to leave one bike in the middle of the field. He threw the other one toward the trees. Then we shut the trunk and left.”

Emmy resisted the urge to close her eyes again, but her mind still flashed up the image of Madison trapped inside the trunk with Cheyenne’s lifeless body.

Jude asked Walton, “Where did you go?”

He stared down at his glasses. “To the barn. Peggy was out of town. She was due home by the weekend. That gave us time to … to plan.”

Emmy knew exactly what it had given them time to do.

Jude asked, “Did you find the miniSD card?”

“It was in Madison’s pocket. Virgil put it back in the Nokia.I asked if I could see the video, maybe get a copy, but he wouldn’t let me. Said it was too dangerous, but I know he watched the video. Who could resist?”

Jude didn’t answer. “Did you have sexual intercourse with Madison Dalrymple?”

Walton paused, but said, “Yes.”

“And Cheyenne Baker?”

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