Maybe it was Billy Dee’s breath, or maybe simply because my mind was no longer able to sustain such heights of terror, but I felt a sort of awakening. A tap had been turned back on, and energy that had been temporarily dammed up was flowing back through me. I no longer had to command each foot to move, remember to take each breath.
As soon as the kitchen door closed behind us, Billy Dee let go of my hair. With his left hand, he pushed me toward the center of the room.
“Now turn around,” he ordered.
I turned.
“Don’t even think of running, Miss Yoder. I can hit a stump at fifty yards with this thing.”
I just looked at him.
He seemed almost embarrassed. “You know, I kinda liked you, Miss Yoder. It’s a pity you had to go and get yourself involved.”
I thought of one or two smart things to say, but bit my tongue.
“Course, now that you are involved, I ain’t left with any choice, am I?”
I tried to look motherly, but apparently Billy Dee was beyond guilt. “And it was such a damn good plan, too, Miss Yoder. Letting Jeanette feel just what it’s like losing a daughter. Much better than killing her, herself, don’t you think?”
Thankfully, after what seemed like an interminable pause, even Billy Dee decided it must have been a rhetorical question. “I didn’t mean to kill my only kid,” he said quietly. “I sure as hell didn’t deserve to go to jail for it. And I sure as hell ain’t going again.
“You know, I ain’t much of a thinker, but this was one hell of a thought-out plan. Ever since that bitch told me six weeks ago that we was coming down here to protest the Congressman, I knew I had me my chance. We can’t afford to let chances pass us up, now can we, Miss Yoder?”
I shook my head. Anything to encourage him to keep on talking. His knife was a lot sharper than his tongue.
“And I’ve been doing my homework the whole time, too. When I found out that the Congressman had taken him a trip to Morocco, I knew just what I was going to do. You see, they have this wildflower there. Kind of a strange-looking green thing they call—oh, what the hell, I can’t remember the name of that damn thing. Some damn Arab word like—”
“Gouza," I said.
"Yeah, that’s right.” He seemed almost to welcome my interruption. “Anyway, I got me a buddy, still in the merchant marines, who puts into Tangiers every now and then. He owed me a favor. A big one. And he’s got connections, the kind you wouldn’t know anything about. So I had him send me some of the stuff. Of course it ain’t as potent when it’s been dried, but as you can see,” he chuckled morbidly, “it’s still strong enough to do the job.”
“It sounds like you went to an awful lot of trouble,” I said. I tried to sound admiring, not critical.
Billy stared at me.
“I mean,” I hurried to explain, “there are probably a whole lot of poisons you could have gotten closer to home. Without sending off to Morocco.”
He burst out laughing. “But don’t you see? That’s what I mean about it being one hell of an idea. I knew Jeanette and the Congressman had it in for each other. No siree Bob, that was no secret. Not on Jeanette’s part, anyway. She was always making out how she’d been wronged by him. Called him a sleaze. Right in front of Linda.” He tapped his forehead with a finger. “Didn’t take no genius to figure out that she had been blackmailing him neither.”
“Blackmail?”
“Yes, ma’am. Even poor Linda knew about it, and she hated her old mama.”
“Linda told you that?”
“A little sweet-talking goes a long way, if you know what I mean.”
I wanted to slap the smirk off his face. “That’s absolutely disgusting, Billy Dee. Linda was just a child.”
“Anyway, once I knew the Congressman was being blackmailed, I knew I had me the perfect scapegoat. What with his drug habit and all, he couldn’t afford no blackmail. Coming up with the Moroccan thing was the easy part.”
“You knew about the Congressman’s drug abuse too?”
“Like I said, Miss Yoder, I did my homework. Then I made sure that another interested party knew just as much as I did. Kinda gave her a motive to match her husband’s.”
“Not Lydia!”
“Hell, yes. And that’s a damn shame too. Pretty woman like that shouldn’t have to hear such things.”
“But why would Lydia go after Linda? You’d think it would be Jeanette or Garrett she’d want to punish.”
“And what better way to punish them both, Miss Yoder?”
“But what about the baby, Billy Dee? You knew Linda was pregnant, didn’t you? How could you kill your baby? Especially after having lost Jennifer Mae?”