Who Killed Jenny Schecter? Ch. 29

"The Double Whammy," Carmen said. "Gabe came and took Shay away, and Shane and Paige broke up and Paige got pissed and torched the skateboard shop where Shane worked and was a business partner. Basically Shane lost everything, and it took a couple years for the insurance settlement to come through, because Shane was one of the suspects in the arson."

"Did they ever prosecute Paige for the arson?"

"No. In defense of the police department, they had no good evidence, and the list of suspects included Shane, her business partner, and a couple of other people who stood to gain. Shane and her partner, a guy name Chase -- he turns out to be a really good guy, by the way -- were the two owners, and in a business arson, they are always the top two suspects, just like the spouse is always the top suspect in a domestic murder. Shane was sure Paige had done it, but she had no proof, any more than anyone else did, and she was reluctant even to tell the police that much. So, short answer, she lost everything and took it pretty hard. And you don't have to guess very hard how she dealt with it."

"Drugs, booze, sex," Carla said. "Been there, done that, own the T-shirt. But Shane got cleaned up?"

"She had some more ups and downs, and Jenny's murder was really hard on her. They were in a relationship at the time, which is a whole other horror story, but basically yes, she seems to have come through it. Like the arson, Shane was the major suspect in Jenny's murder. There's people still think she did it."

Carla couldn't help but glance at Lauren.

Lauren smiled. "Yes, at first, I thought so, too, and my boss really did. But we've both changed our minds."

"What does she think about Gabe being the one who killed Jenny?"

"She's processing it," Carmen said. "We only just came to suspect Gabe a week or so ago, and it's new to all of us. He was never on anybody's radar before now. She has a lot of guilt over it, and it's always there in the back of her mind."

"How so?"

"Well, first and foremost, Jenny's killer is her own father. Then, it was Shane who reconnected with him at the time of the wedding, so indirectly she's the one who put Helena and all the rest of us on Gabe's radar. If she hadn't visited you guys, Gabe would never gone to Whistler, he would never have scammed Helena, and he would never have come back to take a second bite out of the group. He'd have never gone after Jenny and Niki. Jenny would be alive today. Max, too, plus two other people. She's carrying all that around. Trouble is, she's basically right, none of that would have happened if it hadn't been for Whistler."

"And you two would still be married," Carla said.

"Well, that's problematic," Carmen said. "Maybe we would, maybe not, who knows. But in any case it's irrelevant to everything else."

"Did she ever tell you what happened that night? At Whistler?"

"No. Until we started this investigation a month ago, the last time I saw Shane or spoke to her was the night before the wedding, in the hallway, remember? We met, and then Gabe and Shane went off to the bar for a drink and a cigarette. That was the last time I set eyes on her until a month ago."

"I guess she never told Alice or anybody else what happened."

"I guess not. Alice and Jenny never said anything, I guess because they don't know. All I know is Shane called Alice just a few minutes before the wedding was supposed to start, told her it was off, and got on a bus and went back to LA. Then she got blasted on drugs and booze, and didn't come out of it for four days, and when she did you and Shay were waiting for her on her porch. I didn't even learn that or that Helena had been scammed out of the ten grand until, like, a year later. It took that long for me to even talk about any of it to Alice or Jenny. Even now, Shane and I don't ever talk about it. She apologized, said it was all her fault, blah blah. I accepted the apology, but we never discussed details."

"I don't want to butt into this," Lauren said, "but the cop in me says I need to hear what happened. Carmen, if you don't want to hear it, I understand. But I think whatever it is, you should hear it, but it's up to you. I'd like to hear from both of you whether Shane should be here to here it."

"I'm staying," Carmen said. "End of that discussion. If Shane already knows about what you're going to tell us, I'd say we don't make her go through it again."

"I think I agree with you," Carla said.

"Okay, so tell us about Whistler that night."

"That day and that night," Carla said. "Carmen, as you remember, we ran into most of you guys at breakfast and we were introduced to everybody who was there. You and your family, Alice, Bette and her partner, I forget her name--"

"Tina."

"Tina. Helena, her mother, and whats-her-name, Bette's sister, the black woman."

"Kit."

"Kit. I don't think Jenny and Max were there, but I could be wrong. It seemed like we met ten or fifteen people, you know how that is, and I was never great with names anyway. So then an hour or so later, some of us were out on the patio, and you and your family came by and went skiing, and Alice went off somewhere, and Helena came by and said, you know, if you need anything, let me know."

Carla paused to take a sip of coffee.

"So we're at lunch, and Helena was at the other side of the room going out the door, and Gabe jumps up and follows her out. I follow to the door, and they are talking just outside in the lobby. Gabe is telling her about how we were going to give you guys a wedding gift of ten thousand dollars for the down payment on the house you guys told us you wanted to buy, but we had forgotten the cashier's check. And Helena jumped on the bait without thinking, and says oh, that's too bad, I'll loan you the money, and next thing you know we're neck-deep in the scam. They go off together to the bank and I'm left high and dry, waiting in the restaurant, and finally I pay the check and go for a walk. I'm really pissed. When I got back to the hotel room Gabe's taking a nap. We have an argument, I tell him he shouldn't do this, not to his own daughter on her wedding day. The motherfucker actually laughed. Sure I can, he says. He said fuck it, it's Helena's money and Shane won't find out until after the wedding, she and Carmen will be fucking their brains out after they say 'I do,' and won't find out until days or weeks later, and maybe Helena will never even tell them at all. He was counting on Helena to be too embarrassed to say anything, and you and Shane had no clue about any house or down payment, anyway, right? And we'd be gone before the ceremony and you guys wouldn't miss us until afterward, if at all."

She shrugged. "I didn't know what to do. I took a nap. A little while later Gabe gets up and goes out, I go back to sleep. When I wake up he's still not back. I go looking for him but I don't find him. I go back to the room and he's packed up all his stuff and snuck out. I realize he's run out on me. Big surprise, right? So I yell and scream and cry. Then I call the bus company and find out when the next bus is going down to Portland. I'm packing and there's a knock on the door. It's Shane, and she's upset and pissed, too. She wants to know what's going on. I tell her Gabe has run off. Anyway, I go to leave to walk to the bus station, and Shane insists on coming along. So she walked me to the terminal. We're sitting there, I tell her she doesn't have to wait with me, but she does. And then ... and then I told her about the money. About scamming the ten grand from Helena. She tells me she saw Gabe in the bar with some bimbo. She says he didn't even know her name, he has to ask her what it is. Then he walks out with the slut, but first he tells Shane he's not proud of what he's doing, it's just who he is. And then he drops the blockbuster on her. He says, 'You know what I mean.' Something like that."

"I'm not sure I understand," Carmen said.

"He was telling Shane that she was like him. That he's unfaithful, a cheater, just like Shane was going to be. He meant Shane was going to run out on you one day. It's the McCutcheon genes. He was telling her she's no good, just like him. On her wedding day, he tells her that. She's a cheater and her marriage is going to fail."

"Motherfucker," Carmen whispered. A tear ran down her cheek.

"Yeah. Tell me about it. So then we talk about what bastards men are, and why we fall for bad boys, and like that, and how we can't change them and we can't fix them. Actually, I did the talking. Shane didn't say much. Then my bus comes, and I get on it and I go back to Oregon."

"What time was this, at the bus station?" Lauren asked.

"The bus left at 5:45 p.m.," Carla said.

Carmen was crying quietly. Nobody said anything.