I rushed to hug him, but Delilah hung back. We sat across from him in the room where Tucker and I had seen Aunt Lela. I hoped she was doing okay. As the days wore on, I couldn’t imagine how much more dire her situation must have seemed to become to her.
“Are they treating you well, Dad?” I asked, worried to hear the answer.
“As well as can be expected when they’re all but accusing me of murder,” he replied between gritted teeth.
“Have you seen Mom?”
“No. They wouldn’t let us talk. At least I managed to get myself a lawyer. She’s a real tiger. The detectives didn’t get many of their questions answered.”
Delilah said, “Why didn’t you answer their questions? Dodging them only makes you look guilty, Dad.”
“I’ve done nothing wrong,” he said, his eyes flashing at her. “But their evidence says otherwise.”
“Papa Sal mentioned that. What do they have on you?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I have no idea how it got there, but my watch ended up in Esther’s makeshift grave. It also had her blood on it.”
A cold chill ran down my spine. “That’s not good.”
Wiping a hand down his face, Dad said, “No, Quinn. It’s not.”
Delilah seemed to be sizing up his news. “Were you wearing your watch that night?”
“No, and I remember being upset about it. I went to put the watch on when I was getting dressed for graduation, but it was gone. I hadn’t worn it since prom, which was a month prior. The watch had belonged to my father. It was one of the few things I had left to remember him by, so I only wore it for special occasions. Other than that, I kept it stored safely in my sock drawer. I know I put it away after prom, but…it could have disappeared anytime in that month.”
“Yes, but who could have taken it?”
“Practically anyone, unfortunately. My uncle went out of town the weekend before graduation, so like any rebellious high school kid, I threw a party. Half the senior class was there. Anyone could have walked off with it.”
I glanced at Delilah. “Including your friend Brock Sheridan?”
“Yes, I suppose. What are you getting at, Quinn? You keep bringing him up.”
“That’s because I think he could have killed Esther, Dad. I know you want to defend him, but I can’t help but wonder if he’s not the person you think him to be.”
Delilah asked, “Was it only students at your party? No teachers or anything?”
Dad gave her a strange look. “Why would I have invited a teacher to a high school party where there was underage drinking going on?”
“Fair point. Was Esther at your party?”
“No. In fact, none of her little clique showed up. She’d just broken up with Brock, so she said she didn’t want to come to the party and make things awkward for him. Portia was mad at me over something, as per usual, so she didn’t show. And Coralee did whatever the other two said.”
I said, “Let’s talk about Coralee. Why in the world would she want to use her suicide note to implicate you and Mom for murder?”
“I have no idea, darlin’.”
“It’s kind of a big deal. Any guesses?”
“Again, I don’t know.”
He was doing that thing again where he wasn’t telling me the whole truth.
“The note went on to say that Mom was jealous of Esther, so she had you help her kill Esther.”
“That’s simply not true.”
I took off my glasses and rubbed my face. “Dad, we can’t help you if you can’t—or won’t—give us more to go on.”
“I didn’t ask for your help. I have a lawyer.”
Delilah leveled a glare at our father. “Fine. We’ll help Mom.”
As she shoved her chair back to leave, I asked Dad one last question. “Wait. Papa Sal said you’re Mom’s alibi for that night. Where were you two?”
He looked at my sister with wounded eyes. “At the beach. Alone. That was the night we made you.”
Chapter 37
Delilah stormed out of the room with me hot on her heels. She sputtered, “How dare he throw that in my face?”
“D, I don’t think he was throwing anything in your face. I think he was being…”
Now she was glaring at me.
I finished my thought uncertainly. “Um…maybe he was being…nostalgic?”
“He was saying it’s my fault they don’t have a solid alibi!”
“I think you’re reading way too much into what he said.”
A uniformed officer who’d been stationed near our room appeared beside us. “Is everything all right?”
“We’re fine,” I replied. “Just a little upset, that’s all. Thank you for your concern.”
He nodded. “I’ll have you wait in the conference room while we get Ms. Bellandini transferred into a visitation room.”
He ushered us down the hall, into a decidedly larger and nicer room with a big table surrounded by decently comfy chairs. I collapsed into one immediately, but Delilah was too full of vinegar to do anything but pace the room angrily.
“Why does he never let us in? Why can’t he tell the truth for once in his life?” she grumbled.
To be fair, Delilah never let him in, either. But she wasn’t wrong about the truth part. She was of course speaking rhetorically, so I knew better than to try to come up with an answer. It would be neither wanted nor appreciated.
“Mom better tell us more than he did.” She kept up her pacing, muttering quietly to herself.
I finally said, “By now I’m sure Mom is a mess, so she’ll probably tell us anything we want to know, especially if she thinks it could help her get out of here. Did you ever figure out what she meant when she said she was trying to protect us in all this?”
She stopped pacing to shake her head. “No. I—”
The door opened, and the officer stuck his head in. “All ready.”
We followed him to the same room where we’d seen our dad. This time our mom sat at the table, her hair a bird’s nest and her clothing rumpled. When she saw us, she broke down and rushed to hug both of us at the same time. She clung to us as if for life, weeping.
The uniformed officer said, “Ma’am, let’s keep the contact to a minimum. We talked about this.”
Still whimpering, Mom pulled back and obediently went to her chair. But the moment he shut the door, she reached out and grabbed one of each of our hands.
“You two are a sight for sore eyes. My girls.” She let out a sob.
I squeezed her hand, willing my own tears to stay put. This wasn’t drama for drama’s sake. Our poor mom was scared out of her wits. “It’s going to be okay, Mom. We’re going to do our best to get you out of here.”
Delilah nodded. “That’s right.” Her voice sounded funny. When I glanced over at her, I saw tears glistening in her eyes. For all her disagreements with our mother, she cared deeply for her.
“What did the police say about when they’re going to release you?” I asked.
“They won’t tell me anything straight.”
“Okay, well…Did they mention to you what evidence they might have that makes them suspect you and Dad?”
Mom frowned. “Aside from that snitch Coralee’s suicide note?”
I got an uneasy feeling. “Yes. Why do you say she’s a snitch?” I could see in her eyes that she was starting to wall herself off from us. I said sharply, “Mom, I don’t know what you’re hiding, but I can tell you it has to stop now. If you don’t want to get arrested for something you didn’t do, you’d better start talking.”
She shook her head, and the tears welling in her eyes fell down her cheeks. “No. I—I can’t.”
Delilah snapped, “Are you protecting Dad? Because I don’t think you owe him anything.”
Mom didn’t repl
y.
“I guess that answers my question.”
I said, “Mom, you knew we were looking into Esther’s murder because Tucker’s aunt had been wrongly accused. Then you left town without a word and wouldn’t return our calls. We could only assume that you didn’t want to talk about anything pertaining to Esther, which didn’t make a lot of sense because you love to gossip. We’ve talked to a lot of people since then—a lot of people you know—who’ve been infinitely more helpful to us than our own parents. Now all of a sudden you and Dad are being held by the police in connection with the murder. Understand that you could be the key to figuring this out and getting everyone released. Why in the world won’t you help us help you?”
“Quinn, I can’t.”
Delilah growled, “No, you won’t.”
I put my hand on my sister’s arm and studied our mother for a moment. She wasn’t being defensive. What I saw in her eyes was fear. I said slowly, “Mom, do you believe that Dad could have killed Esther?”
She sucked in a breath and started shaking.
My heart sank. I watched as the color drained out of my sister’s face.
Delilah said shakily, “Is that what you were talking about when you warned us we were going to find out a lot more than we bargained for, and that we weren’t going to like it?”
Mom nodded, tears cascading in rivers down her ashen face.
I choked out, “Mom, you have to tell the police. There’s no reason for you both to go down for this.”
She shook her head. “There’s…I—I have no proof that he did anything. I just—” She blew out a breath. “I’ve played that night over and over in my head, and I can’t for the life of me account for where he was for a couple of hours.”
“That’s all?” I asked, my spirits lifting. That didn’t mean my father was a killer.
“Well…”
“Is there something else?”
“It’s my fault the police can tie a certain piece of evidence to your dad.”
“The watch?” Delilah asked.
“Yes.” She cleared her throat. “When they showed it to me, I blurted out that it was your dad’s.”
I shrugged. “You told the truth. That’s what you’re supposed to do.”
“I would rather have protected our family.”
Delilah said quietly, “Mom, Dad hasn’t been part of our family in a long time. I’m not going to lose you because of him.”
My throat tightened as I watched my mother grab hold of both my sister’s hands. They shared a real moment of connection; something I hadn’t seen pass between them in ages. I hated that it took Mom being in jail to make the two of them regain their bond, but I was grateful for the outcome, nonetheless.
When everyone was sufficiently calmed, I said, “Dad said his watch went missing before graduation. There’s a good possibility someone took it from his house during a party he threw. And if that’s the case, then maybe there’s no reason to think he’s capable of ending someone’s life. Tell us about that night.”
Mom smiled at Delilah. “Regardless of anything that happened, I wouldn’t trade that night for the world. It was the night you were conceived.”
Delilah tried to smile back, but didn’t quite make it. “You can feel free to skip that part. Where were you and Dad that night? Did you go to any of the graduation parties?”
“No. As soon as graduation was over, your father whisked me away to a little cottage on the beach.” She cast her eyes down. “I wasn’t terribly popular, so I hadn’t been invited to any of the parties. Even as your dad’s date, I wouldn’t have been welcome.”
“We know the Magnolias kicked you to the curb and that you’d been BFFs with Esther for a while.”
Blinking at us, she said, “You two certainly have done your homework. I’d been friends with Esther for years, so she included me in their group. But Portia and Coralee never liked me, and eventually they won out. Not only did they drop me like a hot potato, they made sure I didn’t have any other friends left. Esther, for all of her other faults, never turned her back on me. We remained close, but I knew better than to try to hang around her at school events.”
Delilah studied Mom for a moment. “How close? Close enough for you to know she was pregnant?”
Mom’s eyes widened, and she got deathly still.
“Mom!” Delilah exploded. “To have known that at the beginning of our investigation would have saved us…I can’t even tell you how much of our time you’ve wasted by—”
I held my hands out. “D, what’s done is done. Mom, do you know who the father was?”
“Her latest boyfriend. She never told me his name.”
“Could it have been Dennis Griffin?”
Her jaw dropped. “Our teacher?”
“That’s who we think it was. Do you have any other ideas of who it might have been?”
She closed her eyes, her brows furrowing in consternation. “Honestly, it makes sense. The two of them bickered like cats and dogs all year. But…there was this…electricity between them. I guess I thought it was fiery hatred. Suddenly, though, on the last day of school, it was like they’d made a truce. At graduation, I’d gone up to her parents to say hello, and Esther came walking up with Mr. Griffin. She was all smiles—and blushing, come to think of it—when she introduced him to her folks. He stayed around and talked for so long…he practically gave them his life history. I got bored and wandered off. I never saw Esther again after that.” She wiped an errant tear.
Delilah ignored our mom’s last heartfelt statement, musing, “That could have been their way of letting her mom and dad meet him before they ran off together.”
Mom sniffed. “Oh. Does that mean you think he left his teaching job so he could whisk Esther away?”
“Yes, only something went wrong.”
“That’s where I’m no help. Right after the ceremony, your father and I drove straight to Tybee. Brock Sheridan had given Jack the keys to his family’s beach house for the night as a graduation gift.”
I shifted my gaze to Delilah. “Brock Sheridan, huh?”
“I heard,” she muttered.
I was reframing my theory about Brock Sheridan, and it wasn’t a pretty one. But we didn’t need to discuss it in front of Mom. She had enough to deal with.
“Never mind. Mom, you said you can’t account for where Dad was for a couple of hours that evening. When was that?”
“It was in the middle of the night, but I can’t recall the exact time. I woke up and his side of the bed was empty. I thought maybe he’d just gone to use the commode, so I drifted back asleep. I woke up again, and he was still gone. That time, I got up and went looking for him. I found him out on the beach, staring at the ocean.” Her eyes got dreamy. “Then we made love there in the sand—”
I stopped her. “Okay, that’s enough detail. Did you return to town in the morning?”
“Sure did.”
Delilah said, “Wait a second—Grandmama Hattie and Papa Sal were fine with you spending the night with your boyfriend after graduation? Doesn’t sound like them.”
Mom’s cheeks turned rosy. “Well…I told them I was staying at a friend’s house. They didn’t know.”
“Ah.”
I said, “Let’s talk about Coralee. You said she never liked you, but how did that translate into her trying to pin a murder on you?”
“I wish I knew. I haven’t seen hide nor hair of the woman in years, but then out of the blue, she showed up at the shop where I was doing my aura cleansings and paid for a session. Let me tell you—her aura was a hot mess. I should have known something was up. Before I could even get started, she was in my face, telling me she had proof I had something to do with Esther’s death, and that your dad did, too. She said she knew about you girls investigating the case for Lela. And she also said if I didn’t get y
ou to stop, she’d go straight to the cops with her information and ruin me.” She turned watery eyes on me. “I tried to get you to quit with the investigation, Quinnie. But when I saw the determination on your pretty face, I knew nothing I could say would change your mind.”
“You could have told us the truth.”
She shrugged. “You know me. When the going gets tough, I run. I figured if no one could find me, then I couldn’t get in trouble.”
“But the police found you.”
“They did. I figured it was one thing to hide under the guise of being out on the road, but I didn’t think it wise to flat out ignore a call from the police.” She let her eyes roam around the tiny room. “Maybe I should have ignored it. See what being a good citizen got me?”
Delilah had taken all this in, and I could see her mulling it over in her mind. “Um…Mom, when did Coralee threaten you? What day?”
“Late Sunday afternoon, just before the drum circle.”
D turned to me. “When did you first talk to Coralee?”
“The following Tuesday.”
“Then how did she know on Sunday that we were doing any investigating? We barely knew ourselves. Only a couple of people knew we’d decided to do some digging.”
I scrunched up my face, trying to remember the events of that day. “That’s true…the only people we talked to that day were Aunt Lela and her ex-husband, Beau. Do you think Beau went to Coralee and said something?”
She frowned. “Either that or someone was listening in at the police station. Or worse, Lela’s lawyer has loose lips.”
“Oh.” It could have been any number of people, which was frightening.
Suddenly seeming uneasy, Delilah cast a meaningful glance at the door. “Who knows who is in the pockets of whom around here?”
“Huh?” Mom asked. “Honey, you’re not making sense.”
D lowered her voice. “I mean, maybe our conversations around here aren’t as confidential as we think.”
Mom’s eyes bulged. “Then we’d better zip our lips.” A tear cascaded down her cheek as she reached for our hands. “You girls…as much as I want you to get me out of here, I don’t want you to do it at the expense of your safety. Promise me you’ll be careful.”
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