by Gen Griffin
“Lose your phone again?” Cal asked as Addy rolled down his own window. Addison had dark circles under his eyes and his uniform shirt was wrinkled beyond repair.
“Never have found it since the last time,” Addison admitted with a shrug of his shoulders. “I need a favor.”
“Figures.” Cal felt better than he had in months. For the first time in years, the weight of Walker Hardware wasn't crushing down on his shoulders. He'd talked it over with his Dad and they had decided that he was going to keep working at the store part-time while he took his college classes. When he graduated he'd be free to do whatever he wanted. It was his life and his life alone. “I need that diamond back.”
“That's nice.” Addison stared at him through bleary eyes and then suddenly seemed to focus on his words. “Wait. No.”
“No?” Cal repeated, more surprised than irritated.
“Yeah. No,” Addison shook his head and leaned heavily against the door frame of his truck. “We don't have time for that shit right now.”
“I'm returning it to the jewelry store,” Cal explained. “I'm going to use the money to get some new tires. I'm thinking either a set of Mud Dawgs or Grapplers.”
“Glad you've come to your senses. We don't have time for that either.” Addison didn't even smile. Cal's heart sank in his chest, and he felt his good mood evaporating into the swampy morning air surrounding them. “But go with the Grapplers. Buy 38's this time. Not 35's.”
“What's wrong?” Cal asked. “Jo Beth and I are over, and you're not even gloating.”
“I'll gloat later,” Addison promised, still clearly distracted. “I need you to go to State University. Now. Find out what the hell David and my sister have gotten themselves in to.”
“Each other’s pants. From what I could tell this weekend,” Cal said. He instantly felt bitter. Losing Gracie burned him like moonshine poured into an open wound.
“No.” Addison was lost in his thoughts. “David lied to us.”
“Yeah. He did.” Cal felt an all too familiar anger bubbling in his own chest. “He tried to tell me all sorts of bullshit about how his relationship with her wasn't what I thought.”
“When did he tell you that?” Addison's head snapped up abruptly.
“Friday night. Saturday morning too, now that I think about it.”
“Shit,” Addy rubbed his stubbly chin. He clearly hadn't shaved in a couple of days. “Dude, you're going to have to sort this mess out on your own. I can't do it. Not when I have Kerry on my heels every second of the day.”
“What mess? Cal asked. “And I'm not going to State. Gracie doesn't want me. She doesn't need me. I'm not going up there like some pathetic, lovesick kicked puppy.”
“I'm not asking you to go up there and profess your undying love for her,” Addison snapped in a rare show of temper. “David's sitting in the goddamned Sheriff's Office facing murder charges. The State University police called me yesterday to verify my sister's whereabouts this weekend. Those two are hiding something and I don't think it’s their sex life. I think it’s worse.”
“Do what?” Cal stared at Addison uncomprehendingly.
“David's been arrested,” Addison clarified.
“How?” Cal was blindsided. “For what?”
“Kerry's trying to get him charged with both murder and a hate crime,” Addison said, leaning heavily against the door of the truck. “He swears up and down that David stabbed that homeless guy and tossed him into Johnson's back pasture last Saturday night.”
“You've got to be kidding me.” Cal shook his head. “Kerry's just got a grudge against David. There's no way he would have killed some guy and then dumped the body with Kerry watching.”
“Yeah, that's what I thought too.” Addy frowned, clearly worried. “Until he threw me off his property when I went to talk to him about it last night.”
“He did what?” Cal stared at him uncomprehendingly.
“Told me to get the fuck off his land.” Addison pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and lit one. “He wouldn't even speak to me when he came into the damn station this morning. He just walked right by me a plopped himself down in Uncle Frank's office to wait for his interrogation.”
“Crap,” Cal scowled. “You really think he killed that guy?”
“Honestly? No.” Addison took a deep drag off the cigarette. “But nothing either one of them has told us since Friday has made any sense, either. Think about it.”
“I have been,” Cal glowered darkly. Addison ignored him.
“Will you go or not?”
“Why can't you go, again?” Cal didn't know if he was hoping Addison was right or wrong. A faint flicker of hope had sprung up when Addison said he thought David was lying to them about his relationship with Gracie. It was quickly eclipsed by the realization that if David was lying, the truth was going to be a lot worse than Gracie and David's newly discovered sex life. Cal tightened his grip on his steering wheel and tried not to think about the silver BMW he'd helped dispose of.
“Kerry would be all over me,” Addison said. “Right now, I don't think he realizes that Gracie might be involved. But he'll figure it out if I take off to State University while David is under arrest.”
“You're right. I got a call from the State University PD too. I didn't recognize the number, so I sent 'em straight to voicemail. All it said was they asked me to call them back.”
“Don't do it,” Addy said. “Not until after you talk to Gracie. You will go, right?”
Cal frowned then nodded. “Yeah, I'll go. April Lynne and Terrell should be able to manage by themselves for a day.”
“Thank God,” Addison breathed a sigh of relief. “If Gracie will talk to anyone, it'll be you. Not to mention that I haven't slept in,” he glanced down at the clock in his dashboard, “something like 26 hours.”
“What? Why?” Cal asked. He ignored the comment about Gracie talking to him. All they had done in eight months was yell at one another or ignore one another.
“Danged poaching calls again, the ones that sound like U.F.O. Sightings.” Addison closed his eyes and leaned back against the headrest. “I don't even know if I'm gonna bother to drive home, or I'm just gonna sleep here in this parking lot all day. I spent all night chasing 'brightly colored lights' around the county.”
“You're not going to do either,” Cal said shortly. “I'm fixing to drive up to State University and get Gracie to tell me what the hell is going on. The truth this time. You're going to go back to the Sheriff's Department and find out what the heck is happening with David.”
Addison groaned.
“If there really is something other than sex going on between the two of them, then figuring it out is more important than your beauty rest, Malone.”
“I know. I know.” Addison rubbed his eyes and then turned to Cal. “You got ten bucks on you?”
Cal shrugged, mystified by the change in topic. “Probably, why?”
“I need a couple of Red Bulls to clear my head,” Addison held out his hand. “I have two dollars in my checking account to last me until Friday.”
“It's Wednesday.” Cal pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. “The county pays for your gas and you live with your Granny. Where did all your money go?”
“I don't live with Granny. I live behind her.”
“You live in her garage.” Cal extracted a twenty dollar bill and dangled it in the window. “Why don't you make yourself useful and, just in case David didn't kill that guy, try to find the real murderer while I go to State?”
Addison snatched the bill out of his hand. “What the hell do you think I'm planning on doing?”
Cal rolled his eyes and then slid his truck back into drive and gunned the motor. “Call me if you find anything out.”
Chapter 14
David was counting tiles on the ceiling of Sheriff Frank Chasson's office when Kerry came stumbling into the room, tripping over the metal strip at the bottom of the door and spilling coffee all over the Sher
iff's natural oak desk.
David watched him as he hurriedly and awkwardly tried to use anything in sight, including his own shirt tails, to sop up the spill.
What a loser, David thought. Kerry hadn't really changed much since high school. He was still painfully short. The top of his head was just barely even with David's shoulder when they were both standing. His arms still seemed miles longer than his legs. Even as he cleaned he was knocking things over with his elbows. His military style buzz cut only made his huge ears stick out further behind his glasses.
David could still see a big black-and-blue knot on the back of his head from the transmission he'd landed on the night before. He would have felt sorry for the little prick if he hadn't been trying to send him to jail on a murder rap.
For what seemed like an eternity, the two of them just sat in the office and glared at one another. Then Kerry's right eye began to twitch and Kerry cursed under his breath. “I hate you.”
“It's mutual.” David flexed his muscles and wondered how long it was going to take for Kerry to tip his hand and let him know exactly how much he knew about Brett's murder.
Gracie hadn't called him, so he assumed they hadn't made the link between State University's missing person and their own newly dead corpse.
How the hell had Kerry found that damned body?
David would have bet his life; hell, in a matter of speaking he had bet his life or at the very least bet his freedom, that the body was gone for good. Now here he was, arrested and waiting on charges.
Addison had told him to ask for a lawyer, but David wanted to know what they had. Information was a two-way street. If he couldn't talk to Kerry, then chances were Kerry wouldn't speak to him.
He sat in the cushy leather office chair and waited for Kerry to speak. Kerry kept flipping through the files he'd brought in with him. He doesn't have anything, David decided. His gut instincts were normally pretty good.
Finally Kerry spoke. “I bet you never expected us to find him, did you?”
David tried to keep his face blank. No, he hadn't, but he wasn't dumb enough to fall for that little trap.
“I sent your truck to the lab. They're processing it right now. Rush order. They're going to find all that blood in the bed no matter how well you washed it. You know that don't you? You know you can't get away with stabbing someone fifty-seven times without leaving behind a ton of evidence?”
“What are you talking about?” David hadn't stabbed anyone. Chopped into chunks with a hacksaw was a far more accurate description.
“What am I talking about?” The question seemed to enrage Kerry, who twitched again, turned another shade of pink, and promptly had a full-blown hissy fit. “I'm talking about Benjamin Gomez. You might remember him as the guy you stabbed fifty-seven times and then wrapped in a tarp and dumped out of the back of your Toyota in Johnson's back pasture! That's what the I'm talking about. An innocent man killed for what? Because he was homeless? Is that why you killed him?” Kerry sucked in a deep breath of air, turned an even brighter shade of red, and kept yelling. “Did you get a kick out of it? Did you enjoy it when the handle of the knife snapped off in his body? You're a sadistic son of a bitch. We probably wouldn't have caught you except your stupid buddy Addison tried to trick me and got my cruiser stuck out there the same night you decided to ditch your body. That's why you're sitting here right now, because I saw what you did.”
Holy shit, they had the wrong body.
David had to be sure, but he felt like the weight of a brand new BMW sedan had been lifted off of his chest. He reached across the table and snatched the file out of Kerry's quivering hands, flipping it open.
“Hey! You can't do that!” He tried to snatch the folder back but David stretched out and held it out of his reach.
A handful of pictures fell out. Gracie had killed a preppy fraternity boy. Kerry's body was a scruffy old man. David couldn't help it; he started laughing as relief flooded his chest. Kerry stared at him like he was the devil incarnate as he let the pictures fall onto the desk.
“I want my lawyer,” David said.
Kerry glared at him. His right eye twitched. “You what?”
“I want my lawyer,” David repeated, a grin on his face. He hadn't had anything to do with this murder. He had nothing to hide. Kerry's case was dissolving into thin air.
Chapter 15
The door to Gracie's dorm room opened just when Cal was deciding to give up and wait in the lounge until Gracie got back from class. Cal found himself looking down at a short, dark-haired girl wearing what appeared to be a very tight black sequined cocktail dress in the middle of the afternoon.
“Hi, is Gracie here?” Cal leaned easily against the door frame and did his best to smile down at the girl who had to be Gracie's roommate.
“Are you her dad or something?” She put her hands on her hips and glared up at him. At first glance, Cal thought she had two black eyes, but then he realized she was wearing multiple layers of very heavy, dark eye make-up. Her lips were painted a shade of burgundy that was so dark, it looked black.
“No.” Cal felt his own smile fade. He didn't look old enough to be mistaken for Gracie's dad. He didn't look 18, but he damn sure didn't look any older than 30.
“You're not her boyfriend. Him, I remember.” She licked her swollen lips. “He's sexy. You're not.”
“Where is Gracie?” Cal crossed his arms over his broad chest, knowing the girl had to be talking about David when she said Gracie's boyfriend was sexy. He wasn't in the mood to hear how sexy David was. He'd spent the three hour drive from Possum Creek to the university trying to figure out how Gracie and David's secret romance was related to the BMW they had buried in the swamp and the murder David was currently being interrogated about by the Callahan County Sheriff's Department.
Cal could kick himself for being so gullible. David knew exactly what buttons to push to keep him from thinking clearly. With a murder investigation in full force it was obvious to Cal that his best friend had used his emotions to play his ass like a fiddle.
“You aren't much fun, are you?” The girl ran her hands over her mostly exposed and very pushed-up breasts.
“No fun whatsoever,” Cal confirmed with a frown.
“She's at class. You can wait for her in the lobby.” The girl gestured towards a room with a couch that was across the hall.
“I was thinking I'd just wait for Gracie in her room,” Cal said.
“And I'm thinking not.” The roommate shook her head at him. “You're not interesting enough for me to want to spend the next half hour alone with. Besides, it’s starting to look like your girl is a murderer. I'm not about to ruin my reputation by hanging around with a murderer's friends.”
“Murderer?” Cal focused on the only word that mattered.
The dark-haired girl hiked one over-plucked eyebrow at Cal. “Murderer. Last Friday, Gracie went out on a date with one of the most desirable guys on campus. No one has seen or heard from him since. She says he left her on the side of the road, but I don't believe a word out of her mouth. The police have been questioning her. I'm hoping they arrest her soon. I can't wait to have the room back to myself.”
“Arrest Gracie?” Cal had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that had everything to do with the shiny BMW he'd helped David destroy. “You really think she had something to do with this guy disappearing?”
“She was the last one to see him alive,” the girl said with a shrug. “If I were you, I'd be real careful about being alone with Gracie.”
“I'll keep that in mind,” Cal didn't know what to say.
“You should. Now leave. Your cologne is giving me a headache.” She started to slam the door in Cal's face. He blocked it with his boot.
“One more question,” he said as she glared at him.
“What?”
“What class is Gracie in right now?”
“Now?” The girl shrugged her shoulders as she took one step backwards into the room and glanced at some
thing written on a whiteboard that was hanging on the wall. “Algebra.”
“Where's the classroom at?” Cal asked.
“Math and Sciences Building. I couldn't tell you the room, but it’s that big brick building back towards the main entrance. Laverne Math and Sciences Hall. You can't miss the sign.” She made a huffy noise. “You really can leave now.”
“Consider me gone,” Cal moved his boot out of the doorway. Gracie's roommate immediately slammed the door shut. It made a resounding thud as it closed.
Chapter 16
Gracie was making a genuine effort to find out how the hell x could ever equal y when Cal's Chevy pulled up directly in front of the main entrance to the Math and Science Hall. She leaned closer to the window, certain she had to be mistaken. Or hallucinating.
She quickly ran through a laundry list of details. Eighteen-year old-truck, check. Four-wheel drive, check. Oversize tires, check. Possum Creek Hunting Club decals on the windows, check. A massive dent in the passenger side door from where Gracie had accidentally backed across a telephone pole, check. Definitely Cal's truck. No mistaking it.
Gracie stood up and grabbed her backpack without even thinking about it.
“Miss Malone?” The professor stopped speaking and stared at her.
“I have to go.” Gracie glanced back down at the parking area below. Cal's truck was definitely still sitting there. “Sorry.”
“Miss Malone, you can't just get up and walk out of a lecture anytime you feel like it. You are disrupting our class and being very disrespectful of both myself and your peers.”
“Sorry.” The apology sounded as hollow as it was. Gracie didn't care. She began walking towards the door of the classroom. It was all she could do not to break into a run as she headed out the classroom door and down the stairs.
Chapter 17
“Y'all making any progress on saving your buddy's ass?” Officer Richard Perkins asked Addison and Ian as he lumbered into the Sheriff's Department five minutes after his afternoon shift was supposed to have started. He jerked his thumb towards the sheriff's private office where David was still stewing and awaiting a lawyer that might or might not show up before they were legally required to charge him or release him.