Tommy
2001, Fort Lauderdale
Tommy sat behind his desk at Dillon & Davis Architects. He was still a little high from what he’d learned that morning. He wanted to call Ginny but knew she’d be right in the middle of her visit with Sister Mary Katherine, and he didn’t want to interrupt her. Her plane would be getting in tomorrow afternoon, and he decided he’d pick her up from the airport and take her straight to a pricey hotel on Fort Lauderdale beach.
Not for sex, although he wouldn’t say no to that. He wanted to celebrate his news, and he wanted to do it in style. He’d already arranged for Carter to spend tomorrow afternoon and Sunday night at their home and get the kids up and off to school Monday morning so he and Ginny could have a night away.
He looked up from his desk and saw her approaching. Her confident walk sickened him. She still thought she’d won.
He couldn’t hate her more.
“Working on Saturday? What are Gin and the kids up to?” Sarah Jo took the seat in front of Tommy’s desk and crossed her legs after she laid her purse on his desk. She slowly perused his office, finally met his eyes, and yawned.
“Gin is visiting an old friend, Mimi is working, and Jason has games all day.” His voice was cold.
Sarah Jo studied the fingernails on her right hand. “So what do you want? I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t shopping close by. You’re not calling the shots, remember?”
She was surprised to see he was smiling.
“When are you moving?” he asked.
“I’m not moving, and you know that. We discussed this at that shithole diner a couple of months ago. Or did you forget?” Condescension dripped from every word she spoke.
“No. I didn’t forget. What I can’t remember is why you think you don’t have to leave.”
“You know why. I told you—”
“Yeah, I remember. The threat to tell Ginny about the morning sickness remedy. Well, I’ve decided it’s okay if you tell her. She won’t believe you.” He was following Alec’s advice from before Thanksgiving. Advice Alec had offered about a spiteful client who’d surprisingly become useful in Tommy’s secret feud with Sarah Jo—call her bluff, Tom. Call her fucking bluff.
Sarah Jo snorted. “What makes you so sure she won’t believe me?”
“Because it’s your word against mine, and when I show her Moe’s journal, the one I told you about, she’ll read for herself in Moe’s words how it was you who set up her rape. Who’s she going to believe then, Jo?”
He leaned back in his chair and idly tapped his pen on his knee. He was going out on a limb here. He’d thrown Moe’s journal in the garbage months ago, but he never told Jo that. He had one more hunch, and if he was right, he’d be able to see it on her face. It was worth a try.
“And when she finds out it was you, I mean Wendy, who tracked down Matthew Rockman and fed him all that information over the phone about Grizz and his gang and who he should talk to...”
He paused and let the relevance of what he was saying sink in. He was certain by the expression on her face that his intuition was right.
He leaned forward, and stared at her. “You told me you had friends at Ginny’s high school back in 1975. You would’ve heard the rumors about the school’s star running back being tutored by the missing girl. Then, as time passed, you noticed him making headlines with his legal career. You were always worried about Fess getting in trouble, so you kept up with everything. It explains why Fess and I weren’t on their radar immediately. You would never have implicated your father.” His jaw tightened. “And I have to say, I do believe you thought you were helping me out by not implicating me, too. But you would’ve known about Froggy’s love for Willow—and his festering hatred for Grizz. You would’ve known Blue’s marriage was falling apart. You told Rockman who he should go to. He’d probably moved on and forgotten about Ginny, but you stirred it all up again when you saw him in the news winning all his cases.”
She shifted uncomfortably in her chair.
“So I suppose Matthew told you this. That he heard from a Wendy, too? I don’t see how you can be talking to a man you’re supposed to be testifying against.”
“No, Jo. Your face just did. But I’m sure if I ask him if he’d ever been contacted by someone named Wendy, he’d confirm it.”
She stood up. “Fuck you! Fuck you all the way to hell, Tommy.”
She picked up her purse and stomped out of his office. She made her way through the empty and dark lobby, slamming the front door behind her.
Tommy stood up then, too, but he didn’t smile. He didn’t feel victorious. He felt tired. He was glad it was Saturday, and there was nobody in the other offices to witness what just happened.
He also made a decision. One he knew Ginny would agree with. He was supposed to testify in Matthew Rockman’s murder trial. Tommy couldn’t implicate Grizz and Blue, but he was smart enough to figure out a way to answer the questions in a manner that would plant reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors. He might piss off the prosecution, but he was willing to take that chance.
Rockman may have been guilty of being a manipulative, conniving son-of-a-bitch, but he wasn’t a murderer.