The Last Invitation (89)
“She was my best friend. I loved her more than anyone.”
Retta snorted. “You had an odd way of showing it.”
“I told you from the beginning Jessa didn’t belong in the Foundation. I begged you to listen to me because I feared this would happen. Not exactly this, but a bad ending.” Faith’s firm voice faltered for a second before regaining strength. “She didn’t have a strict internal code. She was a survivor but not a believer.”
“The entire group made the decision to begin the membership process, not just me.”
“I voted against her membership twice and only relented on the third and final vote because you asked me to, as a favor.” Faith shook her head. “Lie to Earl, to yourself, but not to me. You wanted her in the group. You liked how much she worshipped you. You knew you could control her. That she would have given you a guaranteed vote. You wanted her to trust you more than she trusted me.”
“Your memory is very selective. Your vote was your choice, unless you’re saying you worshipped me and wanted to please me, too.”
“Is this really what you want to talk about?” Faith asked. “Because I can think of—”
“No.” Retta rushed on before Faith could launch into an argument that would eat up all their spare time before the other women arrived. “It’s the ease with which you ignored the vote of the group and sent Trent after Jessa.”
Faith rolled her eyes. “And, being your lapdog, Trent immediately called you to tattle on me.”
Retta was ready for that move. “But not before he killed her. On your order. You didn’t have the authority. You overstepped the will of the group.”
Faith leaned back in the chair, clearly not intimidated by Retta’s stature. “Funny you should argue that, since I got the idea to use Foundation assets and resources to solve a problem from you.”
Retta noticed Faith wouldn’t deal with her decision about Jessa head-on. She’d compartmentalized her order, separating it out from her love for her friend. Retta worried that mix of deflection and denial would backfire on Faith at some point. Sentencing a man based on his heinous acts was a very different thing from ordering a murder of someone you loved.
“You might remember we also had a vote about Baines Fielding. Months ago, but we did, and you lost. You couldn’t prove your accusations about him killing his sister and being a possible danger to Gabby and the brother-in-law,” Faith said. “The group’s decision was to watch him but do nothing.”
“I remember.”
“But then he killed himself, which we both know is not what really happened.” Faith stopped, as if waiting for a longer rebuttal that never came. “That choice started all of this, Retta.”
Retta didn’t regret that decision. Maybe that the timing had threatened Gabby’s financial future, but not that it was done. Baines needed to be stopped. No one threatened her family. She and Earl had agreed on that and cut a few corners by using group assets to make it happen.
She refused to plead her case to Faith and went with a simple explanation instead. “Baines was a wild card. He had started paying someone to follow my sons. Stolen medical and academic records. Invaded their privacy, and if the photographs we saw were any indication, his investigator got far too close to my boys.” That was the piece that had tipped Earl over into action. He could handle being stalked but refused to let anyone near his sons. “Baines, out of whatever mixed-up business hatred he had for Earl, also hired someone to dig around for dirt on Earl and on me.”
Faith shrugged. “These are personal problems.”
Retta saw the danger as far more pervasive. “The investigation could have led back to the group. Look what happened with the reporters.”
“Okay, but your guy killed Baines with a witness in the room, and then that witness—the ever-present and determined Gabby Fielding—went on a rampage that could ruin everything.”
Retta couldn’t argue with the timeline, so she pivoted to the more obvious point. “Gabby isn’t that powerful.”
“You should tell her that, because she’s acting like she is. Thanks to her, a reporter and Jessa are dead.” Faith poured a cup of tea. “Which makes me wonder why Gabby is still alive. Enlighten me.”
“We’ve had too much collateral damage. We’ve failed to keep a low profile and follow our own rules. Both of us. If this continues, someone will start poking around, and we won’t be able to pivot out of it.”
“You mean someone else. Gabby is already poking.” Faith stared at Retta over the rim of her teacup. “I told you about our confrontation at the funeral.”
One more thing to keep Retta’s anger in the almost unmanageable range. “She’s not going to talk. She has too much to lose. Too many family secrets she wants to keep buried.”
“You exposed the biggest one. The one about her daughter’s real father.” Faith snorted. “It didn’t even slow her down.”
“I was trying to do damage control when I had my man contact the daughter at school.”
Faith rose in her chair before settling in again. “You created the damage!”
“You’re lashing out. We had been tracking Jessa, but she’d almost snuck away. She wanted to hide and thought she could, but you gave her a phone that let us track her one last time. And then you sent Trent.” Retta admitted lulling Jessa into thinking she could have privacy then exploiting that trust had been brilliant. “You set her up then knocked her down.”