Look Again - Lisa Scottoline [104]
“Moore said he was a parking valet there.”
Bill asked, “He said she had gambling debts?”
“Yes.” Ellen could see he didn’t believe her, but something she said had hit home, she just didn’t know what. She continued and told them every detail of what had happened, from Carol’s entering the house to when Moore pulled the gun on them in the dining room. “He said that Carol had used up her trust fund money to pay her gambling debts and that she wanted to use Will’s, er, Timothy’s money.”
Bill’s eyes narrowed. “Who said that?”
“Moore did, and she didn’t deny it. How else would I have known it?”
Bill had no reply, and Officer Halbert remained silent, watching the two of them.
Ellen continued, “She said you didn’t know anything about the plan. She said you were so upset when he kept the baby that it almost killed you, and that it ruined your marriage.”
Bill scoffed. “We have a wonderful marriage.”
Ellen hesitated. “I saw you catch a plane a few days ago, from Miami to Vegas.”
Bill’s eyelids fluttered when he got her meaning, and he raked a hand through his hair. “Okay, well, we did have problems. We tried so hard to have Timothy, and after we did, it was like Carol didn’t want anything to do with him. She had postpartum depression, I guess that’s what it was. She’d always gambled, poker on the computer, but then it got worse. I confronted her, and she told me she was going to casinos. She told me she would stop. I thought she had.” Bill’s eyes glistened, and he hung his head. “I told her if she kept gambling, I’d leave her and take Timothy.”
“Maybe that’s why she kept it from you.”
“I’m sure,” Bill said, suddenly subdued, and Ellen saw a change in him, as if together, they were solving a puzzle, each providing some of the pieces.
She asked, “I’m curious, how would she pay the debts off with the ransom? How did that work?”
Officer Halbert and the other cops seemed to wait for his answer, and Bill rubbed his face.
“Lemme think. The kidnapper, when he phoned—this Moore—said that no FBI or police could be involved, and we went along with it. He also said the mother had to deliver the money. I said no, I was worried about her safety. I didn’t want to send my wife out there to meet a killer.” Bill’s lips flattened. “But Carol said she wanted to do it by herself. She said she felt responsible because she didn’t get Timothy out of the car in time, and I believed her.”
Ellen could see why he’d believed her. She looked like the perfect wife and mother. The Mother Goose outfit; the children’s theater at Charbonneau House. After her scheme had gone awry, Carol must have been expiating the guilt of a lifetime.
Bill shook his head. “We got the money from Timothy’s trust, which was set up by my in-laws. They were very wealthy. The executor is a lawyer in town and he approved it, and before Carol made the delivery, she must have taken some cash off the top. God knows how much or where she hid it. That must be what she used to pay off her debts.”
Ellen considered it, and it made sense. “She skimmed the money before she turned it over, and Moore must have agreed. How did she deliver it?”
“In a gym bag, he specified that.”
“Did you check the bag?”
“No, why would I?” Bill kept shaking his head. “We packed it, she took it, and she left with it.”
Ellen had no answer. It was an ingenious scheme, until it wasn’t.
“If Moore had given Timothy back, the plan would have worked. It would have been fine. But he killed our babysitter and he kept Timothy. God knows why.”
Ellen told him that Amy wanted the baby because she couldn’t have one herself, and Bill’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“So why not keep him then?”
“He got sick, as you know. Carol said she’d read my articles about him.”
“I read them, too.”
“So when I wanted to adopt him from the hospital, Timothy Braverman became Will Gleeson.”
Bill’s upper lip curled in disgust. “Someone can put a baby that isn’t theirs up for adoption and get away with it? You’d think that somebody, the state