The room was so quiet after Tessa finished speaking, that a pin could be heard dropping. Judging by the majority of the expressions on the faces of the Whitmore family, they were finding it hard to believe her explanation, as well as her suspicions...and yet, the text messages sent between Hallie and Richard were irrefutable.

"My god, Richard. What have you done?" Stephen rasped as he got to his feet.

"Nothing! I-I didn't...didn't do anything to Hallie!" Richard hissed. "This girl doesn't know what she's talking about!"

"You know, you keep saying that, Senator," Cole put in. "You've been screaming it to high hell since the day Detective Stark walked into the sheriff's office. Why is that, I wonder?"

Richard made a choked sound in the back of his throat. "Why do you think, Dalton!  I mean, fuck me!  This girl is accusing me of murder!  Clearly, she's incapable of doing this job!"

"Incapable?" Cole repeated, handing Hallie's cell over to Tessa. "She nailed you slicker than shit, didn't she? Seems to me, you weren't raising hell because you think Detective Stark can't do her job. You're raising hell because you were worried she could do her job."

"And that, Richard, constitutes exerting outside influence over an official investigation. Not to mention withholding information during an investigation and obstruction of justice," the sheriff stated, holding out his hand toward Richard. "And I'll be taking the cell phone now. In fact, give me any cell phone that you have in your possession."

Reluctantly, and all but fuming, Richard pulled a second cell phone from his jacket pocket and handed both phones over to the sheriff, who then handed them to Tessa, prompting her to set her field notebook aside so that she could remove a small, clear evidence pouch from her bag. Dropping the phones inside, she sealed it shut and began filling out the evidence information printed on the front.

"Ed, I really can't believe you're actually harboring this nonsense even for a second," the senator gritted out.  "I did not kill my niece--"

"Dad, don't say anything else!" Trista warned, her large eyes watery. "You need to call the lawyers"

The senator gave a nod, his expression a mix of anger and...acceptance. "Right. I need to call my lawyers, Ed."

"You mean my lawyers," Ellen said, her voice as taught as a bow string and her eyes flashing with fire. "And no, you won't be calling them. And since you're wife is too well off for you to be given a public defender, I suggest you cooperate with the sheriff."

"Mom, stop!" Trista snapped. "You don't know if this is even dad's fault!"

"Of course its his fault!  Your father has never been able to keep his dick in his pants!" Ellen shot back, whipping her gaze around to her husband.  "So, what did you say to her, Richard? What did you promise her to get her to crawl into your bed! What did you say to your own niece to make her want to fuck you!"

"Ellen, its not...it wasn't like that!" Richard growled at his wife.

"Well, its all out in the open now, Rich," Stephen said from over by the large windows, where he was pacing back and forth. "So, maybe you should tell us what it was like. I'd like to hear what my daughter...I'd like to know the truth, while you have the chance to tell it."

"Yes. And this is your only chance, Rich," Jodie stated. "Because no matter what happens after this, we'll be packing you up and putting you out before nightfall."

"Aunt Jodie, no! You don't know how much of this was Hallie's doing!" Trista defended.

"Trista's right," Cameran agreed somberly. "Hallie wasn't the angel you all like to think she was."

"It doesn't matter what part Hallie had in this!" Ellen bit out. "My husband could have chosen not to put his dick into his own flesh and blood."

"Say what you have to say, Richard," Jodie said, looking straight ahead yet focused on nothing in particular. "And you may as well be truthful. Otherwise, you're only hurting yourself."

There was a moment of silence from Richard, who was all but quivering with rage, and then he sprang up off the sofa and began pacing around the seating area, fisting and unfisting his hands that were held stiffly at his sides.

"Well, go ahead, Rich!" Ellen prodded. "Tell us all about your lurid fling with your niece."

"It wasn't a lurid fling, Ellen!" Richard barked at the woman, his voice filling the room. And then he went still for a few beats, something akin to...malice...wafting over his features before he resumed his pacing. "And if you want to know the truth, then I'll give it to you, dear wife."

"Please, do," Ellen clipped coolly.

Richard chuckled, a sardonic, menacing sort of noise that seemed dredged up from deep in his gut. "Hallie and I have been together for two years. Two years, Ellen, right under your nose, and you didn't have the slightest idea. And they were two of the happiest years I've ever spent--"

"Richard! Two years! What in the name of hell--" Stephen began, but Richard cut him off.

"Shut up, Stevie! You all wanted to know, so let me tell you!" Richard snarled, his pacing quickening. "My wife is a cold, distant, unfeeling shrew! And if it hadn't been for her money, I never would have looked twice at her! My life with her has been nothing but unbearable!"

"Dad! Stop it!" Trista commanded, but Richard waved his daughter's words away.

"My life was unbearable...but then Hallie and I bumped into each other out at the vineyard one day...and suddenly I was born again," he went on, his tone softening. "I don't even know how it happened. But, when it did, it felt as if it should have been us, together, for all these years. And once we came together, we meant to stay together. We'd meet out in the desert whenever we could, where no one could find us, and we'd talk about leaving this damned place. We made plans to leave..."

"Leave with Hallie!" Ellen scoffed. "Was this about money, Rich! Because the trustees would never have allowed Hallie to inherit if she'd run off with her own uncle! She'd be waiting for that trust until she was fifty!"

"It wasn't about money," Richard replied easily, slowing his steps. "Not with Hallie. We just wanted to go away and...live. Finally, really live."

"Then why didn't you?" Ellen questioned. "Why stay? Trista's grown. There's nothing holding you here. Apparently."

"I wanted Hallie to be sure that I was what she really wanted," Richard stated. "I knew if we left together, we probably wouldn't ever come back here and I didn't want her to regret leaving her family behind for me."

"But, you didn't leave," Tessa decided to enter the conversation. "Hallie decided to marry Nathan Rutherford so she could inherit."

"I don't know what her reasoning was," came the quiet response. "She loved me. We were making plans...we were going to pick a date and just...go away. She was my starry sky...mon ciel étoilé. We picked that term up from the vintner's wife and I thought it fit Hallie so well."  He paused, his features crumpling a fraction.  "And then she...stopped taking my calls and the next thing I knew, she was engaged to that pre-pubescent boy! And then she was...gone. And I have no idea why or what I did wrong!  And I have no idea who took her away from me!"

A sudden derisive burst of laughter exploded through the room, bringing all eyes around to Cameran. "Oh my god! Uncle Rich! I know what happened!"

Richard, along with probably everyone else, stiffened. "What do you mean? How can you know anything!" he demanded.

"I know everything!" Cameran jeered.

Jodie gaped at her daughter. "Cameran? You knew what was happening--"

"Of course not!" Cameran cut her mother off. "But, I know Hallie! I know her stupid little games! And this sounds exactly like the bullshit she was always pulling! I'm betting that fucking around with her aunt's husband was a thrill for her! All the hiding and the drama and the pining for each other...its her drug! She gets a rush out of it! And if she cut you off without an explanation then it was because she didn't want to go away with you! She'd actually have you to herself then and all the drama would be over! And then she couldn't get her fix!"

The room stared at Cameran, mouths open, realization sinking in, which seemed to amuse the girl so that she let out another peal of laughter.

"Hallie used you the same way she used everybody! She got what she wanted from you in the moment and then she was done with you!" she all but snorted. "And you fell for it! I mean...look! You just ruined your entire life! And Hallie probably wouldn't have wiped her feet on you, when it came down to it!"

Those words hung in the air for a few seconds before falling to the floor with such finality, they might as well have been pebbles dropping onto the plush rug beneath their feet.

And Richard Whitmore suddenly looked so addled, it seemed as if some of those stones had physically struck him. "No...no. She...it wasn't like that. We loved each other..." he whispered.

"You poor bastard," Cameran huffed out the words on a sigh. "She used you and then tossed you away like so much garbage. And now..."

"Now you've lost everything," Ellen finished, monotone and unblinking. "And I couldn't be happier."

Sheriff Gonzalez cleared his throat and cast Tessa a look, pulling her back into the fray. "Mrs. Whitmore--"

"Its Ms. Autry. Just Ms. Autry," Ellen corrected.

"Ms. Autry, you had no idea your husband was carrying on with your niece?" Tessa asked, putting the evidence pouch into her bag and getting started on trying to catch up with her notes.

"I had not a clue," Ellen responded, lifting her shoulders. "I knew he was having yet another fling, but I...I never would have guessed that it was with my niece."

"Then you can finish telling me where you were during the time that Hallie was killed," she said to the woman.

Ellen paused for a space, her brows crinkling together...and then she just seemed to crumble, her shoulders drooping and her expression falling slack. And then she sighed, a deep, heartfelt sound that made it seem as if she was finally laying down a heavy burden that she'd been carrying for miles and miles.

"As I said, I had my hair appointment, which ran late. But, I didn't have dinner at Le Vin. I had dinner at the Danforthe," she picked up her explanation where she'd left off. "And I wasn't alone, if that's what you're going to ask next. I was with Peter Lansing."

"The manager of the Danforthe?" Jodie asked weakly.

"Yes. We had dinner in his suite, we had sex in his bed...and his bathtub...then we had chocolate strawberries and a glass of Burgundy and then we kissed good night and I left. That was about nine. I was back here before ten," Ellen said frankly. "You can call him now if you need to."

"Mom! Oh my god! What is wrong with you people!" Trista cringed, looking as if she was going to be ill.

"I'll take his number now and give him a ring when we're through here," Tessa said and then jotting down the number that Ellen supplied.

"So, Detective, I couldn't have killed my niece. I was indisposed that entire evening," Ellen stated easily. "And thanks to you bringing this situation to light, I'll be free to spend time with Peter whenever I want."

"Ellen, how will you explain all this to daddy?" Jodie asked, clutching at her heart. "You know how he feels about divorce! He'll be so upset!"

"I know," Ellen said plainly. "But, he'll get over it. And if he wants to put me back on an allowance or cut me off altogether, then let him go ahead and do it! Knowing that my ex-husband will be walking away with barely enough to pay off his credit cards will make it worth it!"

"And that brings us back around to you, Senator," the sheriff put in, steering the conversation back to center. "We're going to need to know your whereabouts during the time Hallie was killed. And I need to know how you made a three hour drive in an hour flat."

Richard, standing frozen, his face twisted with a mixture of horror and disbelief, had to shake himself before he answered. "I told you, I was with my intern, Valerie. We went to the Omni Austin on Congress Street--"

"You said your intern's name was Vanessa," Cole interjected.

"Vanessa! Or Valerie! They're all the same!" Richard shouted, jolting into motion so that he could resume his pacing. "I was with her at the Omni! We checked in after lunch and when we were done, I left there and then..."

"Then you headed back to Santa Maria?" Tessa offered. "What time did you head this way?"

"I don't know! Some time in the afternoon! I just...left Austin and came home!" the man snapped.

"Were you already in town when you got the call about Hallie?" she asked him.

"And answer carefully, Richard," the sheriff warned. "You're already in deep shit. You don't want to dig yourself in any deeper."

A nerve in Richard's jaw ticked for a few seconds as he weighed the sheriff's statement. "Yes. I was already back in Santa Maria when I got the phone call about Hallie. I don't know what time I made it back, but when I did, I just...drove around. I didn't want to come home and I knew Hallie wouldn't answer me if I called, so I just...drove. I didn't want to be anywhere! So, I kept driving!"

"Why did it take you an hour to get home after your family called you?" Tessa asked him, curious herself. Hallie had been long dead by that time...affording him plenty of opportunity to ditch any evidence and find a way to clean up.

"I don't know! I don't even remember how I got back here! I'd just found out the love of my life was dead! And I didn't even get to talk to her one last time! I'm surprised I managed to make it back here at all!" Richard was growling his answers, his rough voice reaching the rafters.

"So, what you're telling us is that you left Austin sometime in the afternoon and after that, you can't prove where you were?" the sheriff quantified.

Richard rolled his eyes. "No. I can't!"

Tessa regarded the man for a minute, taking in his heaving shoulders and the mix of emotions that were rolling off him in tangible waves. "Senator Whitmore, did you kill Hallie?" she asked him plainly, causing his gaze to lock with hers.

"No, I did not kill Hallie!" he bit out. "Why would I kill the love of my life?"

"Maybe because the love your life stopped loving you back?" she replied.

Richard squeezed his eyes closed and pulled in a breath, as if her statement caused him physical pain. "You're wasting time trying to put Hallie's death on me. You need to be out there, looking for the person who actually took her from me!"

"You mean the person who took her from us?" Cameran amended his statement. "You didn't have Hallie in the first place, Uncle Rich. She might have had you, but you never had her."