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“No, but that was how Virgil did things. We always had to be together.” Walton scratched his neck until there was blood.

“I’ll tell you why he wanted me there. I was his Get Out of Jail Free card.

If things went sideways, he was going to kill me and make it look like he’d saved the day.

That’s how smart Virgil was. Always strategizing. ”

Emmy had no problem believing that was Virgil’s intention. He’d always had the uncanny ability to think dozens of steps ahead.

Walton continued, “Virgil told me that he would make Cheyenne look like a hit-and-run. He was going to work the scene of the accident so that nothing traced back to either of us. He was good at altering evidence.”

Cole cleared his throat for Emmy’s attention. “That’s why they only found one pair of boot prints. The GBI eliminated the impressions from the sheriff’s department.”

Her teeth gritted. She couldn’t imagine all the other cases Virgil had tainted. They would be going back through them for years.

Walton said, “Cheyenne was on her bike when we reached the backroad. Virgil didn’t slow down.

She panicked, started pedaling as fast as she could, weaving back and forth.

Virgil tapped the back wheel of her bike with the bumper.

We weren’t going fast, but the poor thing just flew through the air.

He was going to finish the job, but then I realized that the memory card wasn’t in the phone. ”

“The miniSD?” Jude asked.

“Yes,” Walton said. “Cheyenne wouldn’t tell us where it was. We took her back to my house. We put her in the shed.”

Emmy felt a burning inside her chest. Another detail explained. Another question answered. Virgil had put himself in charge of processing the shed for evidence. He’d told them there was no trace of either girl.

“Cheyenne was so tough.” Walton sounded impressed. “It took hours for her to give up Madison. Any man would’ve cracked, but she held on to the bitter end. Except for Virgil, she was the strongest person I’d ever known.”

Emmy hated his tone of reverence. Cheyenne Baker had been a fifteen-year-old girl. She didn’t need to be strong. She needed to be safe.

Jude asked, “You didn’t suspect Madison had the miniSD?”

“I totally did,” Walton said. “Virgil wouldn’t hear it.

I reminded him how she cut up the SIM card but wouldn’t hand it over.

Mad could do that sometimes, just turn obstinate for no reason.

In the beginning, she would never disobey us.

That’s how Virgil still thought of her, as an innocent little angel.

He couldn’t accept that Cheyenne had corrupted her. ”

Emmy could only think about the photos she had found in Cheyenne’s locker. One girl wearing a set of white, slinky underwear. The other in black. Good and bad. Madonna/whore.

Jude asked, “What made Virgil accept that Madison had the miniSD card?”

“Cheyenne eventually convinced him, but not without a fight. That girl was hardened steel.” Walton still had the tinge of admiration in his voice.

“For hours, she took whatever Virgil doled out. One minute she said her father had the memory card. The next she said she’d hidden it in her mother’s purse.

You didn’t know the girls, but Cheyenne protected Madison from a lot of things.

She took the brunt of Virgil’s interests.

She was out there selling her services for money, dealing drugs, doing everything she could to get away. ”

“Why did she want to get away?”

“Her parents were assholes.” Walton sounded like a petulant teenager.

“Ruth was cold and violent. Felix was never home. They were both religious freaks. The kind that showed up at the church every time the doors opened. Cheyenne was sick of their bullshit. She wasn’t really a child.

She was a young woman with needs. They never let her have any fun. ”

Emmy wasn’t a fan of the Bakers, but she wouldn’t call two grown men gang raping a child any kind of fun.

Jude asked, “What did Cheyenne tell you in the shed?”

“It took a while. I told you she always tried to protect Madison. But Virgil found a way to get it out of her. She told us Madison was at the park. Cheyenne was supposed to meet her at eight o’clock under a specific tree.”

Emmy took no joy in hearing her theory confirmed.

She could still remember that lost moment under the oak.

The irritated look on Madison’s face. The sudden swing of emotions when the girl had looked as if she might start crying.

Then there was Madison’s anxiety at the top of the hill.

Emmy’s not now that sent the damaged fifteen-year-old looking for Cheyenne on her own.

Seth said, “Cheyenne told you and Virgil where to find Madison and the miniSD card. Then what?”

“We couldn’t leave Cheyenne in the shed because I had no idea where Adam was. He could come home any minute.”

Jude asked, “Why didn’t you kill Cheyenne?”

Walton rubbed his mouth. “As I said, Virgil had an attachment. The fact that she’d resisted him for so long was an aphrodisiac. He wasn’t ready to let her go.”

Emmy’s hand went to her heart. She could feel Cole struggling to keep his composure.

Jude told Walton, “Continue.”

“Virgil put Cheyenne in the trunk, then he put her bicycle on top of her. The lid wouldn’t close.

He told me to tie it down with a rope, but I’m better at slip-knotting a suture.

It kept bouncing every time we hit a bump in the road.

” Walton’s smile was fleeting. The detail was only humorous to him.

“We drove to the park to find Madison. Virgil was going to text her on Cheyenne’s burner phone to meet us up in the parking lot away from the crowd, but Madison was already there when we pulled in. It felt like fate.”

Jude prompted, “And then?”

“I foolishly thought we could salvage the situation. I was going to talk to Madison, put some sense into her. I told you, she was a good girl. Without Cheyenne, her entire life would’ve taken a different course.”

Emmy’s head started to shake. Walton’s facade was slipping back into place. There was no way that either of them were going to let the girls live. They were both unrepentant killers.

Jude had picked up on it, too. She told him, “Stick to the facts.”

Walton shrugged, but said, “Virgil pulled onto the soccer field to lure Madison farther away from the crowd. The fireworks had just started. I got out of the car, but Madison was already looking inside the trunk. She was trying to help Cheyenne out. I was scared she was going to scream.”

“What did you do?”

“It’s not what I did. It’s what Madison did. She turned around and looked at me. I felt paralyzed. I didn’t know how to respond. But then Virgil hit her on the back of the head with the hammer.”

Emmy closed her eyes again, praying that the image of Madison being struck wouldn’t haunt her dreams.

Jude asked, “And then?”

Walton heaved out a sigh. “Madison wouldn’t fit in the trunk with Cheyenne and the bike, so Virgil carried her around the car to put her in the back seat.

The next thing I know, Cheyenne’s running toward the trees.

Everybody from North Falls was down the hill.

I don’t remember how the pistol got into my hand, but somehow it went off, and Cheyenne was dead. ”

Emmy didn’t need the autopsy report to know that he was lying. She had seen the gunshot wound in Cheyenne’s forehead when she’d first seen the girl in the water.

Jude asked, “This was the .22 rimfire pistol?”

“Yes,” Walton said. “Virgil told me to bring a gun. It was the only one I had lying around. My father liked to shoot for sport. I don’t like guns.”

“Yeah.” Cole sounded furious. “He likes hammers.”

Emmy resisted the urge to soothe him.

“You shot Cheyenne,” Jude said. “Then what did you do?”

“I followed Virgil’s orders like I always did.

” Walton shrugged. “He said we had to leave the bikes. They wouldn’t both fit in the trunk, and with Cheyenne bleeding so profusely, we couldn’t put her inside the car.

Virgil told me to leave one bike in the middle of the field.

He threw the other one toward the trees. Then we shut the trunk and left.”

Emmy resisted the urge to close her eyes again, but her mind still flashed up the image of Madison trapped inside the trunk with Cheyenne’s lifeless body.

Jude asked Walton, “Where did you go?”

He stared down at his glasses. “To the barn. Peggy was out of town. She was due home by the weekend. That gave us time to … to plan.”

Emmy knew exactly what it had given them time to do.

Jude asked, “Did you find the miniSD card?”

“It was in Madison’s pocket. Virgil put it back in the Nokia. I asked if I could see the video, maybe get a copy, but he wouldn’t let me. Said it was too dangerous, but I know he watched the video. Who could resist?”

Jude didn’t answer. “Did you have sexual intercourse with Madison Dalrymple?”

Walton paused, but said, “Yes.”

“And Cheyenne Baker?”

“Before, yes.” Walton hesitated. “Not after. That was Virgil’s thing.”

Cole grabbed Emmy’s injured hand. She held onto him, ignoring the pain.

Jude asked, “What about the damage to Madison’s feet and hands?”

“That was—” Walton hesitated again. “We both liked that. We took turns. The way the breaks reverberate into the wooden handle, it’s such a tiny vibration. Almost like a little death with every snap.”

Emmy parted her lips to breathe. Her only consolation was that a jury would hear Walton’s sick, twisted admission and have absolutely no qualms about putting him on death row.

Jude asked, “Who disposed of the bodies?”