Only Andrew would ever know the truth.
The backyard was roughly half a football field. Leigh stopped in the middle, equidistant to the pool and the back fence. The sun was already beating down. The turf was getting hot under her feet. She told Andrew, “Hold up your hands.”
He kept smiling, but he did as he was told.
Leigh patted his pockets the same way she had patted Buddy’s in the kitchen. She found a tube of ChapStick, but no wallet, keys or phone.
Andrew explained, “I was getting dressed for work.”
“You didn’t take the week off to prepare for your trial?”
“My lawyer’s got that all in hand.” His smile was unsettling, as fake as the grass under their feet. “Did you read Tammy’s medical records?”
Leigh knew what he was looking for. “She has a history of alcohol abuse. She drank two and a half martinis the night that she was with you.”
“Yes.” His tone of voice had turned intimate. “And she said she was raped before. Don’t forget that. I imagine a jury of my peers won’t take too kindly to her abortion, either.”
“It’s funny that you think you’ll be judged by your peers.” Leigh didn’t give him time to respond. “How old were you when I started babysitting you?”
“I—” The question had obviously thrown him. He laughed to cover his discomfort. “Six? Seven? You would know better than I.”
“You were five and I was thirteen,” Leigh said. “I remember because I’d just gotten out of juvie. Do you know why I was in juvie that time?”
Andrew looked back at the house. He seemed to realize that Leigh had set the terms of this conversation and he had blindly followed along. “Enlighten me.”
“A girl was teasing Callie about her haircut,” Leigh said, though haircut was a nice way to say that Phil had gotten drunk and cut off most of Callie’s hair. “So I found a piece of broken glass, and I followed the girl out to recess, and I held her down and hacked off her hair until her scalp was bleeding.”
He looked fascinated. “And?”
“I did that to a stranger who pissed me off. What do you think I’m going to do to you?”
Andrew paused a moment, then laughed. “You’re not going to do anything to me, Harleigh. You think you have some agency here, but you really don’t.”
“Buddy made you put a camera in the attic.”
His face registered surprise.
She said, “There’s no way he could’ve wedged his fat ass up into that small space. So he made you do it for him.”
Andrew said nothing, but she could tell that she had finally gotten to him.
Leigh kept punching. “Linda listed the house for sale with Re/Max in May of 2019, one month before you found your first rape victim at the CinéBistro.”
His jaw worked as he clenched it.
“I’m guessing that’s when you remembered putting the camera in the attic for Buddy.” Leigh raised one shoulder in a shrug. “You wanted to relive that father/son bonding experience. And now you’re a rapist just like he was.”
Andrew loosened his jaw. He looked back at the house. When he turned to Leigh, the darkness had returned to his eyes. “You and I both know that Callie understood exactly what she was doing.”
“Callie was twelve years old when it started,” Leigh said. “Buddy was almost fifty. She had no idea what—”
“She loved it,” Andrew said. “Did she tell you that part, Harleigh? She loved what Dad did to her. And I know because, every night, I would lie in bed and listen to her moaning his name.”
Leigh struggled to keep her emotions in check. With very little effort, her memory summoned Callie’s raspy whisper begging Leigh to check on Buddy, to make sure he was okay, that he wouldn’t be mad if they got him help.
He loves me, Harleigh. He’ll forgive me.
Andrew said, “You’re right about the attic. Dad had me go up there a few weeks before you murdered him.”
Leigh felt sweat break out on her skin. This was why she had brought him back here away from cameras and recorders and prying eyes. She was sick of dancing around the subject, performing a show for Reggie’s clueless benefit. “Did he tell you why?”
“There were some break-ins in the neighborhood.” Andrew let out a sharp laugh, as if he regretted his childhood innocence. “Dad said it was for security in case someone broke in. Pretty stupid that I believed him, I suppose.”