Beach Wedding(68)

“Oh, maybe she didn’t pull the trigger,” I said. “But she did it. With Disenzo. You interviewed Ross yourself.”

“No, Terry. Ross works with us. His confession was a setup, as well. He’ll say whatever he’s paid to say. That was a school play just for your benefit.”

I remembered the interview room. Watching Courtney with Ross through the one-way mirror.

I closed my eyes.

“No,” I said.

“Oh, yes, Terry. When that asshole Father Holm put you on to Cold Springs Chemical, we had to do something to throw you off the scent. That’s why we set up the fake arrest of Ross. He was ready to falsely testify, too. We were going to finally resolve the whole thing by finishing the frame job on Hailey that was arranged all those years ago. It was working like clockwork, especially after you found and then gave us the bloody hoodie.

“But you screwed it up at the very last second, didn’t you, Terry? You were going to get what you wanted. We were going to get what we wanted. It was a win-win. Then you had to go and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory right at the buzzer.”

“So, you’re saying what?” I said.

“Henry Sutton killed his brother Noah. Not Hailey. It was Henry all along.”

I let that sink in.

“Henry? So, Henry framed Hailey?”

“Yes. Smart, huh?” Courtney said. “Deflecting suspicion away from himself like that. But as it turns out, her lawyer was actually his lawyer. So, they could both manipulate the shit out of her. He was only pretending to support her, Terry. He was staying in her six so he could get the knife in deeper.”

“But why?” I said. “Because of the company? The fight for the controlling shares?”

“No. It was just a grudge. A deep old family grudge. A Cain and Abel sort of thing. Some families aren’t as nice as yours, Terry.”

What?

“In his sophomore year of college at Columbia University, Henry brought home a girlfriend, the love of his life, a vivacious and very beautiful young woman he’d met in New York. They’d been living together for a month in his apartment. Her name was Melissa, and she was an aspiring actress, a lively dark-haired beauty from small-town Texas. Everybody was shocked because Henry was so quiet, but the two seemed made for each other.

“Noah reacted to this new addition to the family by seducing her. Though he had slept with half the actresses in Hollywood and could have had pretty much any woman he wanted, on a cruel whim he decided to set his sights on Henry’s first love. While Henry was abroad at Oxford, Noah worked on Melissa all semester, had flowers delivered to her classes.

“Henry found out about the affair when he got back. He said he forgave her, and he even tried to win her back for a while. But it was over. Melissa moved back to Texas. Noah had ruined Henry’s life just for the hell of it.”

I sighed as I recalled my recent PhD-level studies in Sutton family history. I didn’t know much about Noah Sutton’s brother Henry. There wasn’t even a separate folder for him in Xavier Kelsey’s files.

“But that’s when they were kids in college. Noah was thirty-six when he was murdered,” I said, confused.

“Henry never said a word after Noah demolished his only real chance at a happy life. Took it amazingly well. But he was planning. Planning and waiting until the precise moment when Noah found some real and lasting happiness. And it looked like Noah really was happy when he found Hailey. Then when Henry heard Brooke was working to get Noah’s shares, he couldn’t risk Noah changing his will. He knew it was go time.”

“Go time?”

“Henry knew that upon Noah’s death, his shares would go to Hailey. If Hailey were convicted, the shares would go to the secondary beneficiary. Only Henry knew who that was.”

“Who?” I said.

“The three siblings each got an equal cut of Noah’s shares.”

“Coup attempt over,” I said. “Henry and Nelson would retain control of the company. I see. Revenge and keeping power. So Henry blew Noah away?”

“Of course not,” Courtney said, rolling her eyes. “These are very wealthy people, Terry. They can afford to leave the dirty work to experts.”

“I see. That charming guy I just met? That scumbag outside. He did it,” I said.

“That he did, Terry. He works for Cold Springs Chemical. He’s been the Sutton family fixer for years. But with Noah, he made one mistake. The gun he used had been used on another Sutton matter in Maryland.”

“The whistleblowing researcher.”

She nodded.

“Should have tossed the gun, huh? Or used a different one,” I said.

“In retrospect, of course. It was definitely a screwup. But back then, different municipalities didn’t share ballistic reports, so the NIBIN system wasn’t a concern to link things up.”

“So the family panicked when they heard I was poking into things, fearing that I would somehow find the bullets and have them cross-referenced?”

“Bingo. Cold Springs Chemical is now one of the largest chemical companies in the world. This matter cannot be brought to light. Not even close. There’s just way too much money and power involved. It’s always about the money, Terry. And money is power, of course.”



94

“But what about the other evidence?” I said. “The gun in Hailey’s bedroom that the maid saw? And Noah’s blood splatter on the hoodie?”