Page 188 of The Woman By the Lake

“How’s Jefferson?” Harry asked, doing the same, as did everyone else, with Rus on Truman’s side, the other three men across from them.

“He’ll live,” Truman answered, like he didn’t care either way.

And there might be something behind that indifference coming from the good doctor, seeing as Jefferson was the youngest Whitaker child, and he’d been arrested, then taken to the hospital after Gia did a number on his leg.

“I’d like to video this conversation if you don’t mind,” Harry put in.

Without hesitation, another surprise, Truman jerked up his chin.

Harry reached out and hit a button in a console in the middle of the conference table and a red light came on. Riggs looked to the corner to see the camera there had a red light illuminated.

“Record to reflect, Dr. Whitaker agreed to be videoed for this interview,” Harry announced to the room, and to Truman, “Right, Dr. Whitaker, please tell us why you’re here.”

“You can all me Tru. I don’t even let the nurses call me Dr. Whitaker, not even in front of patients. Dad taught me no man or woman is above another, to the point he felt it was at the root of society’s ills. Even over money, though it’s usually having money that makes people think they’re better than others. I understand my patients need to feel I have the respect of the staff, but they also need to feel comfortable sharing candidly with me. In that scenario, the latter is preferrable.”

Cade shifted in his chair, his interest even more piqued, and yeah.

Tru hadn’t said much, but what he said was seriously telling.

“All right, Tru,” Harry replied. “And you’re here because…?”

“I’m here because Kennedy is a mess. She’s hysterical. She had to be sedated. She was in no place to make a considered decision about what I’m about to do, but I think her screeching at me, ‘Enough with the secrets, Tru!’ fifty times, I get the gist. However, I agree with her. Because Dad deserves it. So does Mom. But mostly…Lincoln.”

It was Riggs shifting at that, Harry, Rus nor Cade gave away that Cade had called it about their family situation.

“Dad” was Roosevelt to Truman Whitaker, the eldest Whitaker child. And Lincoln was “Lincoln.”

“Do you know what happened that night outside your father’s cabin?” Harry asked.

“I know what Lincoln told me. I think part of it he figured out. Part of it, Jeff told him. And the last of it, he knew, because he was there,” Tru replied.

“And what did your uncle tell you?” Harry asked.

“Do you know that from what I said? That Lincoln was my uncle. Or do you know it because Sharon told you?” Tru asked back.

“It was our working theory that your parents had an open marriage of sorts, from Cade Bohannan, who was an FBI profiler,” Harry told him.

Tru looked to Cade. “That’s always fascinated me. I was going to get into psychiatry with an emphasis on the criminal mind. After what happened, I changed course and went into emergency medicine.”

There was something off about this guy, Riggs just couldn’t put his finger on it. He didn’t know if the man was emotionless, or keeping a lock on it so he wouldn’t fly apart or give anything away.

Tru returned to Harry. “Your working theory?”

“With the persistent issues that have been happening at the lake, we’ve reopened the case on your mother’s and father’s murders. We’d just begun reinvestigating, but I’ll share, we had some concerns with the veracity of your uncle’s confession,” Harry informed him.

“Seems you’re a lot sharper tack than the imbecile who used to have your job,” Tru remarked.

Harry just dipped his head at the understatement.

“You probably want to know from the start,” Tru announced.

“If it’ll fill in the whole picture,” Harry replied. “Yes. Please.”

And that was when Tru put the puzzle pieces in place for all of them.

“As you now know, my dad was Roosevelt. He was also my sister’s, Kennedy.”

So Cade got one thing wrong.

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