“She’d done none of the work,” he continued. “She hadn’t researched the path of the stolen gold. She hadn’t read account after account or studied historic maps. She’d never used a metal detector in her life. Yet she wasn’t satisfied when we divided the gold three ways. She was greedy and wanted more.”

He was conveniently overlooking the fact that none of them had a rightful claim to the gold.

“Ed loved her, in his way.” He pinched his thumb with the fingers of his opposite hand. “When Carla turned on us, she betrayed Ed. She cared more about that treasure than she did about my brother.”

“What did you do when she said she wanted half?”

“I tried to calm her down. I couldn’t see how we’d be able to live with giving her half. On the other hand, I couldn’t see what we’d do if she went public and told everyone about our discovery. I hoped we could reason with her and figure it out.”

“How did Dad respond?”

“He went silent, which is how I knew he was boiling inside. The more I tried to get Carla to speak with us, the more agitated she became. She reached over and pulled a gun out of a drawer. Then she tugged a blanket off one of those old-fashioned cassette tape recorders. The spokes were moving. She’d been recording us. She told us that if we didn’t go down and bring up more gold until she had half of everything we’d found, she’d dial 9-1-1. At that point, Ed called her bluff. He told her that he’d rather dial 9-1-1 himself than let her have half.”

“And?”

“She started yelling. She pointed the gun at us with one hand and grabbed her phone with the other. Her hands were shaking. She was punching numbers into her phone and demanding that we go and get more gold. I admit, I panicked. When she looked at her phone, I rushed her. I grabbed the hand holding the gun. I tried to point it upward and take it from her. She had a death grip on it. Ed pushed his way between us. He took hold of the gun, too, then shoved me to the side. Ed and Carla struggled over the gun. One or both of them ended up pulling the trigger. The bullet went through her chest.”

For nine years, Finley had believed that her dad had killed Carla while cleaning her gun. She’d believed it because that’s what he’d told his attorneys, his jury, his judge.

Purposely, he’d misled them all.

Was Robbie misleading her now?

“Is that really what happened?” Finley asked. “If Dad killed Carla in cold blood so you two could keep all the gold . . . just tell me. Don’t sugarcoat it.”