Southern Comfort - Fern Michaels [107]
The room was stone silent. It took Kate several minutes before she was able to reply. “And Lawrence doesn’t know about this?”
“Nope, and that’s why Staggers was trying to blackmail him. He wanted Lawrence to go to his father to get the big money. The original demands were just the opening act. Not only did Staggers want the money, but apparently he wanted the whole family to suffer. He must have set up the meeting he did to soften Lawrence up some more and get him to agree to go to his father. But for some reason, Lawrence had reached the point where he just didn’t give a damn anymore, and he told Staggers to go to hell.
“That left Staggers in an awkward position. Lawrence knew who the blackmailer was but had no intention of covering up whatever it was the blackmailer had on him and his family. Staggers, of course, had no idea that the governor knew about the blackmail and who the blackmailer was. So Staggers figured that if he got rid of Lawrence, his own son, he was home free. Anticipating the possibility, he had a bomb prepared and ready to be set in place. Why he lied about when it was supposed to go off, I do not know. I suppose it could have been sheer incompetence on his part that it went off almost two hours earlier than it was supposed to. Maybe we’ll find out once he’s in custody.”
“I never thought I would say this, but poor Lawrence. What a shock this will be.”
“The governor and Elizabeth want to be the ones to tell him. The governor knew after he and Elizabeth married that he wouldn’t be able to father a child, so he raised Lawrence as his own. When the time is right, they’ll tell him or not. We all know Lawrence has self-esteem issues. This would kill what little he has left. He’s always been told that Staggers is his godfather. The governor needed an excuse for his popping up all the time.”
“Wow.” For once, Kate was at a loss for words where Tyler was concerned.
“So you understand why we can’t let the media get hold of this. Nancy Grace would eat Lawrence and the entire family for breakfast. So would Larry King and Bill O’Reilly. He’d be the topic of every news story in the world. Then they’d jump on the protecting-your-rapist story. We’d have every do-gooder out there pounding down the governor’s door. I think it’s up to the Tylers to reveal this information. When the time is right or not. The governor was quite clear about that to me on the phone. I feel sorry for him. He said he was going to retire. He’d planned to announce that he was going to seek the nomination of the Republican party for president in 2012, but after this disaster, he wants out of the limelight, and so does the first lady. With Staggers about to be locked away for a very long time, effectively the rest of his life, once he’s apprehended and prosecuted, at least they won’t have to worry about him. They’ve been paying him to keep silent for years. He knew Lawrence was his son because he had somehow learned that the governor wasn’t able to father a child. They’ve been his meal ticket too long.”
“Wow. Poor Lawrence. I hate to change the subject, but what about finding Rosita’s parents? Did Roy and Josh learn anything about their whereabouts? I didn’t think to ask Roy when I was with him.”
Jelly took a deep breath before he spoke. Kate knew this wasn’t going to be good news either. “Mateo was a cousin, though how many times removed I don’t know. When Roy called me after you had left to come back here, he told me Mateo told him that Rosita’s parents never made it to the States. The boat they were on was rickety at best. They, along with eighteen others, drowned in the Gulf of Mexico.”
Kate’s eyes filled with tears. “Oh, Jelly, tell me this isn’t true? She can’t stop talking about her parents. She thinks Tick and I can find them for her. This will devastate her. She’s been through so many nightmares already.”
“I don’t know what to say to the poor