Written in Stone (A Books by the Bay Mystery)

every beating. An X for each time I was locked in the dark—sometimes for the whole day without food or water. That’s
my
name on the wall. Sonny. That’s
my
blood in the dirt. That’s
my
house. It will
always
be my house. I’m a part of it.”
    Though his words held only a trace of emotion, Olivia was able to picture a little boy cowering in the corner of the lightless cellar, his body bruised and sore, tears running down his cheeks. How many times had he incurred his father’s wrath? How often had he been struck for his mother’s mistakes? Had his nose been broken or his ribs cracked because of one parent’s cowardice and the other’s infidelity?
    And now it was too late to offer sympathy. The boy Sonny was gone. He’d grown into a vengeful and tortured adult named Judson Ware. And he was a killer.
    “What happened to your parents?” Millay was still speaking in a hushed tone.
    “Oh, Mama sold our farm to her red-skinned rescuer, but my daddy wasn’t about to leave the land he’d worked his whole life. He loaded his shotgun and told Mama he’d give her a head start, but he was coming after her and her man. He vowed to hunt them down and destroy Calvin’s seed next.” Olivia heard a note of pride in Judson’s voice. “They tried to run, Mama and Calvin, but Daddy tracked them to a cabin in the mountains. Buried them there too. No one ever knew except for Munin. That witch woman. Part gypsy, part Injun. Her kind was lower than animals. No wonder her man choose a white woman over her.”
    Olivia knew this comment would enrage Millay and she dared to open her eyes a crack, hoping to warn her friend with a glance, but the light caused a fresh bout of agony. She fought it, willing her vision to come into focus and, finally, the blurry edges became sharp and she could see a bed, a pair of shoes, the legs of the nightstand.
    She lifted her gaze higher and saw that Millay had been tied to the desk chair. Judson sat on the edge on the bed, one leg crossed casually over the other, a wicked-looking hunting knife resting on the coverlet near his hand.
    “Why would you want to finish the work your dad started? A man who beat you and locked you up? Because of the casino deal?” Millay asked. Olivia thought her friend seemed amazingly calm considering the fact that her wrists and ankles were bound to a chair.
    Neither Judson nor Millay seemed aware that Olivia was coming around. Judson’s attention was fixed on Millay and even Haviland’s persistent scratching didn’t distract him. However, the placid expression on his face changed the moment Millay brought up the casino and now he leaned forward, his hand curling around the knife handle, his body taut with anger.
    “I told you. The house and the land are rightfully mine! It all belonged to Mama and she sold it to her Indian. It was meant to be a payoff for Munin and her bastard son, a consolation prize because her man had left her for another woman. And then Munin left it in trust for Bo. But what was my consolation? What did I get out of all of this?” Judson was so mad that his words shot out of his mouth like bullets. Millay flinched as he sprayed her face with spittle. “Yeah, what about
me
? She just
left
me alone with
him
. She knew what would happen to me, but she didn’t care. That Lumbee devil worked his mumbo-jumbo on her and she never looked back.”
    Olivia winced. She knew all too well how it felt to be abandoned by a parent. A hurricane had claimed her mother’s life. A few years later, she thought that the sea had taken her father’s, only to learn decades afterward that he’d staged his own death and had started his life over again. He’d never contacted her, letting her believe that she was an orphan.
    Again, she pictured Judson as a boy, repeatedly paying the price for his mother’s betrayal and his father’s shame.
    He must have been abused for years,
Olivia thought, her heart aching for the child who paid for others’ mistakes.
    “Because you work for Fletcher, you saw Natalie’s medical records,” Millay murmured, as if she were talking to herself. “You looked up MH and decided to fulfill your dad’s vow to wipe out the rest of Calvin Locklear’s family.”
    Relaxing, Judson resumed his casual posture, took his hand off the knife, and smiled. “I was always very bright. I could have been an incredible attorney if I’d had the money to go to law school. But I took the job with Fletcher because I wanted to get close