Chapters (97)
- Cover
- Back Cover Text
- Praise
- Booklist
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Sixty-Six
- Sixty-Seven
- Sixty-Eight
- Sixty-Nine
- Seventy
- Seventy-One
- Seventy-Two
- Seventy-Three
- Seventy-Four
- Seventy-Five
- Seventy-Six
- Seventy-Seven
- Seventy-Eight
- Seventy-Nine
- Eighty
- Eighty-One
- Eighty-Two
- Eighty-Three
- Eighty-Four
- Eighty-Five
- Eighty-Six
- Eighty-Seven
- Eighty-Eight
- Eighty-Nine
- Acknowledgments & A Personal Note
- Excerpt
“You were involved and were a party to the plan to enter the house and steal money?”
“Yes.”
“As part of the plan you left a basement window unlocked?”
“Yes.”
“And you participated?”
Janie didn’t say anything, but Tracy knew she held an answer because he had all the forensic and police reports.
“Janie?”
“Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was fear, or anger, or my life, but I let myself get caught up in the moment because I had to stop the screaming. I had to stop it. Yes, I participated in the murders. I set it all in motion so everything that happened was my fault.”
Tracy recapped his fountain pen and slowly screwed it closed while staring at Janie in silence, carefully absorbing, weighing and processing everything he knew so far; everything he’d read and everything his client had just admitted.
It left him ambivalent, contending with opposing feelings about his client and the case ahead.
In Winkler, a short distance down the highway from Morden, Nicola Hope Gorman sat across from her lawyer, Belinda Walker, a former prosecutor who worked for Legal Aid.
Walker was in her forties. Her auburn hair was tied in a ponytail. She had thin, straight eyebrows behind her glasses. Her mouth pressed closed, giving her a poker face, while she listened to Nikki giving her account of that night on Old Pioneer Road.
“It was Janie’s idea to sneak into the house and take the money she said the Tullocks owed her.”
“Janie’s idea? Not yours?”
“Yes.” Nikki’s cuffs jingled as she corralled the hair from her face. “She left the window open so we could get in but we couldn’t find any money, which really pissed her off because she hated the Tullocks, especially Connie.”
“Because—” Walker glanced at her notes “—Janie claimed that the Tullocks owed her babysitting money?”
“Not only that, Janie said Connie treated her like crap. She loathed that woman.”
“You admit that alcohol was involved that night. That you brought the vodka?”
“Yes, because I was scared. We were drinking but we weren’t really drunk. We were kind of feeling like we could do anything.”
“What happened when you got inside?”
“Like I said, we looked everywhere, couldn’t find any money. Then the Tullocks came home. They weren’t supposed to get home for days so it just freaked us out. We thought Roy Tullock had guns so we got knives.”
“Then what?”
“We had to defend ourselves. When it was finished, we talked about our pact, our blood oath never to tell anyone a word and just went home like nothing happened.”
Walker’s eyes widened slightly, she pursed her lips, then made notes. Then she took a moment, removed her glasses, pinched the bridge of her nose, replaced them and continued making notes.
But her mind strobed with images police had shared of the murder scene and she saw the blood, heard the screams.