The door shot open, and Shandra Burns stared wide eyed at Jason. She held a finger over her mouth. “My boys are inside this house. How dare you!”
“Thacker said she saw you and Braxton groping each other in his office.”
“I’m going to call the police if you don’t leave.”
“And I’m going to start talking very loud about your affair with Dr. Waters if you don’t tell me the truth.”
“Momma?” a tiny voice spoke from behind the door. The boy must have been around seven years old. Behind him was an older boy, who Jason estimated to be twelve.
“What’s it going to be, Ms. Burns?” Jason asked. God forgive me, he thought, glancing at the two kids and then back at Shandra.
She turned to her children. “Jack, take your brother upstairs and watch some TV, OK?”
“Mom, is that the guy on the billboards?” the older one asked.
“Please, Jack. Do as I say.”
“Yes, ma’am.” When the two boys had closed the door, she turned back to Jason with a look of utter disdain on her face.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “My sister is on trial for her life, and—”
“And you think Burns killed Braxton?”
“I already have a witness to your affair with Braxton, ma’am. I don’t need you to confirm it.”
“What do you need?”
“All I need . . . is for you to tell me if Burns knew about it.”
Tears filled her eyes as she frowned and slowly nodded. “It’s why he divorced me.”
76
Forty-five minutes later, Jason was back in the consultation room of the Marshall County Jail. During his drive back, he’d called Izzy. “We got a new alternative theory,” he had said. “I need you to copy the divorce file of Jackson and Shandra Burns first thing in the morning.”
“Why?”
After he filled her in, she let out a whistle. “Jason motherfucking Rich . . . I think you may have a future in criminal defense.”
“Thanks, but there’s a long way to go, and I still have one more bridge to cross.”
Now, squatting next to his sister, he was about to cross it. He spoke in a low, calm voice. “Jana, you said you lied to me about something after the state rested its case. What did you lie about?”
She spoke with no hesitation. “I didn’t pay the fifteen thousand to one of Cade’s goons.”
“What? But Jana, you said you recognized the guy as one of Tyson’s men.”
“I lied. Jason, I took that money out for myself. I thought Braxton was about to cut me off. Put a hold on our bank accounts and cancel my credit cards. He’d told the kids he was going to sue for custody. I needed cash and I needed it quick.”
“For what?” Jason asked, realizing that this was what she’d told him in their first meeting. Then, later, she said she’d paid Cade the fifteen grand. Now, she was back to this again. He wasn’t sure what to believe.
“I had some credit card bills that were past due.” She hesitated. “Some pretty big ones.”
“Are you telling me the truth?”
“Now I am. I swear it.”
“Jana, that’s exactly what you told me in our first encounter. Why’d you change your story into paying Cade with the money?”
“I thought saying that I paid Cade would be the best out. To admit my drug problem. But then, after I told you that story, you said Cade made you promise I wouldn’t testify because he was worried I’d implicate him.” She wrung her hands. “I didn’t want to admit that I lied to you.”
“Why now?”
“Because I have to testify. I have to tell the jury that I didn’t pay Pike.”
“What if Shay asks you if you bought drugs from Tyson Cade? Cade isn’t a man who makes idle threats. Jana, this is Nola and Niecy’s lives we are talking about.”
“Can’t I take the Fifth Amendment to those questions? I don’t have to admit I committed a crime.”
Jason slapped his hands together. Now that paying Cade the fifteen grand wasn’t part of the story, she could take the Fifth Amendment. She didn’t have to incriminate herself.
Or Cade . . .
“Jana, what happened to the money?”
“I think it was in the glove compartment of my car. For all I know, Burns could have stolen it. Or maybe an officer took it.”
“Jana, come on.”
“Look, I don’t know. I was on coke. I’m just telling you where I think I put it.”