by Gen Griffin
“Tomorrow morning I'm going to go get my truck back from the Baker County impound lot. Addison is off work, so I stuck him with running my shop until I get back. You going to work?”
“I need to,” Cal replied. “April Lynne keeps trying to turn Walker Hardware into a pet store. She's selling bunnies right now. If I stay away for too long I'll probably come back to discover we're selling live hogs.”
Gracie giggled and David smirked. “April Lynne should have stuck with her goal of being a veterinarian.”
“Agreed,” Cal said. “But yeah, I guess I'm going to work.”
“Kerry is going to keep trying to prove I murdered that guy he found in Johnson's pasture.”
“You think?”
“I heard him say it. Like I said, Frank's office is a convenient place to eavesdrop from.” David shrugged. “I guess we either need to find the real killer or get rid of Kerry.”
Cal let out a low whistle. “I know a few places to hide the body.”
Chapter 25
“I feel like I'm missing something,” Cal told Gracie as she settled down in the bed beside him with her head on his shoulder.
“Just one thing?” She countered, a wry smile on her face. “I've got so much discombobulated crap running through my mind right now I'm not sure I remember my own name.”
“It's Gracie,” He hesitated for a moment and then decided to go for it. “Gracie Walker.”
She stopped stroking his chest and rolled up onto his chest so that she was looking his eyes, her face only inches from his. She gave him a slow smile. “Is it?”
“If you want it to be.” Cal heard the hesitation in his own voice. He hadn't exactly forgotten his last disastrous proposal, but he had to know where they stood.
She smiled. Her eyes were bright as she nodded at him. “Gracie Walker. It has kind of a nice ring to it.”
“You know it does.” He pulled her down to him and kissed her hard and passionately. Then her words sunk in, and he remembered a certain ring that Addison claimed he'd given to David.
He sat up abruptly, easing her down beside him. “I'll be right back.”
“Where are you going?” Gracie pouted at him.
“Just chill.” He hurried down the hall and into David's bedroom. His friend was sprawled out on the bed. Still wearing a t-shirt and jeans and staring up at the ceiling fan as it made lazy circulations above his head.
“What's wrong?” David sat up as soon as Cal entered the room.
“Where did you put the ring?”
“Ring?” David repeated groggily.
“The diamond ring Addison took out of my glove box.” Cal clarified.
David nodded after a moment.
“Where is it?” Cal asked.
“In the gun safe.” David gestured across the room at a massive steel safe he'd bought last year as a reward to himself for keeping the shop’s finances in the black for five years running.
“Good.” Cal walked over to the safe. He punched the key code into the electronic pad without thinking about it, and a moment later the door creaked open. It took him a minute to spot the tiny black box sitting just inside the door on a shelf between a box of .22 shells and an economy size vat of 12 gauge shells.
“What are you fixing to do with that?” David grumbled. “Don't you know it’s after midnight?”
“What do you think I'm fixing to do?” Cal countered with a grin as he snagged the little box and headed back towards the spare bedroom where he'd left Gracie lying in bed. He heard the bed creak behind him as David stood up and trailed after him into the spare room.
Gracie was sitting up on the bed when Cal walked back in. Her long blonde hair was spread out on the pillow behind her and she blinked as Cal turned on the lamp that sat on the dresser beside the door.
Her mouth opened and then closed abruptly as she caught sight of the jewelry box in his hand. She cast a questioning glance up at David, who had come into the room a couple of steps behind Cal.
Cal took a deep breath and sat down on the edge of the bed, opting to forgo the whole getting down on one knee thing – especially since he would likely have to get David to pick him back up off the ground if his knee locked up, and that would probably make the moment even more awkward than it was already going to be.
Especially if she tells you to go to hell again, a little voice snapped in his mind. He brushed it aside.
“You don't have to tell me that this isn't the best time, or maybe not the ideal place.” Cal smirked as he gestured to the battered wood paneled room. David made a snorting noise.
Gracie rolled her eyes at him. “Hush, Breedlove. This is supposed to be romantic.”
He laughed out loud.
“Y'all are not making this easy on me,” Cal scowled at them.
“Like you ever make anything easy on us,” David grumbled back. “My nose is broken, remember?” He poked tentatively at the tip of his own nose.
“Beside the point,” Cal replied. “I'm trying to not be, what is y'all keep saying about me, an overbearing hardheaded stubborn bastard?”
“Something like that.”
“Yeah, well, I'm working on not being that way.” He was beginning to get frustrated. “But y'all-”
“Okay. Okay. I'll shut up.” David held up his hands. “Go on with your sappy, sensitive, lousy attempt at romantic.”
“Oh just shut it already,” Cal didn't mean to laugh but he did anyway. “Why are you in here anyway?”
“You just told me to shut it,” David pointed out with a smirk on his face. Cal had forgotten how uncharacteristically talkative David got when he passed tired and went into the range of completely exhausted.
“You can answer that one.”
“Fine. You woke me up to-,” David gestured at the box in Cal's hand, “-do whatever it is people do with overpriced jewelry in the middle of the night, in my house, and I'm going to watch. I know y'all think I'm pretty cold-hearted, but I'm not that cold.”
“You're here for moral support?” Gracie interpreted. David nodded.
Cal grinned. “Okay then. Be quiet and stand there being supportive.”
David stuck his tongue out at him but otherwise zipped it up. Cal turned his attention back to Gracie but then decided that maybe there was a point to David being here after all. He focused his attention on his best friend for a minute. “You know, you were right Saturday morning when you called me out and said the way I was acting was bullshit,” Cal told him. “I damn near did drive away from both of y'all. Y'all are without question two of the people who mean the most to me in life, and yet I damn near drove the fuck off and never looked back because I didn't hear you when you were trying to tell me the truth about what was going on.”
“Is this an apology?” David asked, surprised.
“Yes. It is. You should shut up and listen to it because of all people, you ought to know I don't like to apologize, and it doesn't happen often.”
David shut up with a grin on his face. Gracie laughed and scooted closer to Cal on the bed. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” He reached out and took her hand. She leaned against his side with her head on his shoulder.
He glanced up at David to see if he was going to come up with some kind of smart ass remark, but his best friend had indeed shut up. A sure sign that things were getting strange around here.
“What I'm trying to say to y'all, I guess to both of y'all even though I was just planning on telling Gracie, is that the last week has opened my eyes in a lot of ways. I realized I've made some bad choices and let some even worse choices be made for me.” Cal took a deep breath, unsure if he was doing even a half-way decent job of getting his point across. “Working in the hardware store, for example. I let Dad and Pappy bully me into doing what they wanted, and then when I wasn't happy with the way my life was going I took my anger and frustration out on everyone else. Including y'all. Especially y'all, because y'all are closest to me.”
“It's okay,” Gracie
stroked the top of his hand.
“No, it’s not. David tried to tell me I was being an idiot. Addison called me a whole lot worse words than 'idiot.' I blew them off and chose not to hear what they were telling me. Then I saw you with David on the same night that Jo Beth decided to bluntly inform me that I've never done anything for myself because everything I have in life has been handed to me because of Pappy.”
“Do what?”
“You never told me she'd said that,” David said.
“You are absolutely the last person I wanted to admit it to,” Cal admitted.
“Did you really never notice until Jo Beth told you?” David asked disbelievingly. He seemed far more amused than irritated as he and Gracie swapped a conspiratorial look.
“Didn't I tell you to shut up?” Cal was smiling as he said it.
David shrugged. “How about you just get on with whatever point it is you're trying to make.”
“Fine,” Cal took a deep breath. “I guess what I'm trying to say is that I screwed up, and I'm sorry. I'm doing my damnedest to change things.”
“Sounds good.”
“I'm holding you to holding me to it,” he informed David.
“I hope that job comes with a full-time salary,” David replied sarcastically. Cal seriously considered throwing something at him but, other than the ring, he was out of ammunition. He turned to Gracie.
“I talked with Pappy the other night and told him I'm going back to school. Probably for drafting and design or something similar.”
“You're quitting your job?” She was stunned, and it showed on her face.
“Not quitting completely right now, but I'm not managing the store forever either. I'll be working part time until I get my degree and decide what the hell it is that I actually want to do with my own life.” He looked at her uncertainly. He didn't know how she was going to take the news. “I'll be taking a pay cut.”
“I'm so proud of you.” She flung her arms around him, grinning. “Wow. I'm just stunned. I never thought you would leave the hardware store but I think it’s great.” The broad smile on her face lifted some of the heavy weight off his chest.
“Thanks. I was hoping you would be happy with it, but I did it for me. I can't spend the next 50 years bored out of my mind selling couplings and hacksaws. Life is too short to spend every day wishing I'd done everything differently.”
“I'm proud of you,” Gracie repeated, smiling from ear to ear.
“Good. Maybe that will make this next part a little easier.” Cal took a deep breath and flipped open the jewelry box in his hand, revealing a fat square white gold diamond ring with tiers of smaller stones surrounding the big one. Gracie gasped when she saw it. The band was twisted with an intricate swirling design.
“Oh my God, it’s gorgeous!”
“I thought you would like it,” Cal shrugged his shoulders, a bit chagrined. “I was in the jewelry store buying a necklace to give Momma on her birthday when I saw this ring and thought of you. It was so perfect for you. I bought it without thinking about it. Even though I was dating Jo Beth. I guess deep down I never really thought Jo Beth and I were anything more than a way to pass the time. Unfortunately, I didn't realize the girl who sold it to me was one of Addison's numerous girlfriends. Next thing I know the entire county thinks I'm planning on proposing to Jo Beth.” Cal rolled his eyes. “I hate this town sometimes. Addison really thought he was slick when he got the ring out of my truck and hid it here. He didn't realize he was doing me a favor.”
“You bought me an engagement ring while you were dating Jo Beth?” Gracie reached out her hand for the ring almost without realizing it. Cal plucked it out of the box and laid it in her hand, along with his heart and soul. He hoped she wasn't about to hand the whole tangled mess right back to him.
“It sounds really bad when you put it that way,” he said, feeling more than a little guilty. “Until I saw you with David the other night, I was always almost completely sure we would get back together. I figured-.”
“Don't. I never thought the break up would last either.” Gracie held up the hand that wasn't holding the diamond. He was relieved to see she was smiling even though there were tears in her eyes. She paused and took a deep breath. “Why did you take so long to come after me?”
Cal took a deep breath. “You know how much I hate admitting I'm wrong.”
“Well, I hated being broken up with you worse.”
“Why didn't you come tell me that?”
“Because-Oh.” She laughed and examined her left ring finger. She took the ring he'd handed her and slipped it onto her hand. “Fits perfect. You did buy this for me. Jo Beth couldn't even wear a size six ring on her pinky.”
Cal burst out laughing. It was such a typical Gracie comment. “You like it then?”
She grinned, holding the sparkly rocks up in the dim light. “I love it. And I love you. And even though you still haven't technically asked me to marry you, the answer is yes.”
“Thank God,” Cal said, sending a silent prayer of thanks up into the heavens as he wrapped his arms around the only girl he'd ever been in love with.
Chapter 26
“I don't feel real great about this,” Addison admitted as he tossed the report he had stayed up all night finishing on to Frank Chasson's desk. He was out of uniform and off duty for the day, but he'd made it a point to come by the CCSD building on his way to open David's shop this morning.
Addison was a man of action, and he'd made his mind up. Kerry was going down.
Frank picked the paperwork up in his left hand and scanned through the preliminary report without speaking. Addison leaned against the wall, picking at threads that were coming loose on the sleeve of his turquoise Breedlove Automotive t-shirt. The shirts had been custom ordered because the color matched his eyes, and David wasn't exactly opposed to using Addison's reputation as a ladies man to drum up business.
Neither of them spoke while Frank read the report from page one through page six. When he was finished with it, he looked up at Addison and sighed.
“There ain't no way you believe this bullshit,” he said flatly.
“I don't have to believe it,” Addison replied. “It's evidence, right?”
“It’s a total lack of evidence.” Frank spat in the trash can next to his desk. “Was it David's harebrained idea to accuse Kerry of murder as some kind of payback?”
“No.” Addison rubbed his eyes tiredly. Between whatever the hell Gracie and David had gotten themselves into and Kerry, he was tempted to crawl into the front seat of his truck and die. “It was Perkins who suggested it.”
Frank choked so hard he nearly ate the toothpick he'd been gnawing on. “Perkins.”
“He had a point. It'll tie everything up in one neat little package, right?” Addison shrugged, his exhaustion was evident in his slumped posture and the dark circles under his eyes.
“How you figure?”
“It clears David of any wrongdoing and gets rid of Kerry. Ian will have the job.”
“David will be cleared anyway. Even I'm not dumb enough to think David would be stupid enough to kill somebody and throw the body out where it will be found within 24 hours.” Frank thumbed through the pages. “You can't accuse Kerry of murder just to get Ian a job.”
“I'm taking care of my people,” Addison explained flatly. “Did Ian tell you he got Katie knocked up?”
Frank spat the toothpick onto the desk. The surprise was evident in his expression. “Tell me you’re making that up.”
Addison shook his head no. “You're fixing to be a grandpa. I told him he needed to tell you.”
“Fuck.” Frank leaned heavily against his desk, glaring at Addison's report. “You're sure?”
“Ian told me.”
“He should have told me.” Frank scowled. “Dammit. I love that boy like he's my own son. Why didn't he come to me?”
Addison nudged the report back towards Frank. “Now do you understand?”
Frank picked up th
e packet of lies and considered it carefully. “Kerry's trial period has another week left. I want you to do everything in your power to solve this damned murder before then.”
“And if I can't?”
“Then we'll do things your way,” Frank cursed again under his breath as he dropped the report into the in-basket on the corner of his desk.
Chapter 27
“The DA wasn't too pleased with the case you assembled against David Breedlove,” Frank Chasson had called Kerry into his office for a chat. Kerry shifted uncomfortably in the hard seat of the chair directly across from the Sheriff.
“I really think I have the right suspect.” Kerry swallowed a lump of bile that had welled up in his throat.
“I don't,” Frank said. “Close the door. I want the rest of this conversation to be private.”
Kerry stood up and pushed the heavy wooden door closed. It shut with a miserable thunk. Kerry wondered if Frank was firing him now instead of waiting for the end of the trial period. After yesterday he wouldn't be surprised.
“Why are you here?” Frank was watching Kerry intently as he toyed with several items on his desk and chewed on a wooden toothpick.
“To serve and protect.” Kerry delivered his standard police mantra without thinking about it.
Frank rolled his eyes. “Kerry, I can't help you unless you help me. Just a little bit.”
“What do you mean?” Kerry was tired of trying to play the hero. His bank account was $3,000 lighter and his murderer's bank account was 3K heavier. If there had been any evidence in David's Toyota, it was most certainly long gone by now.
“I've been in charge of keeping people in Callahan County safe for more than 30 years. I've seen a fair number of new officers. I've hired men who served as uniformed officers for less than a year before they decided that law enforcement wasn't for them and I've hired men who I never thought would survive 10 minutes on the street only to watch them go on to become captains in far larger towns than Possum Creek.”
Kerry swallowed nervously, unsure of where the sheriff was going with this speech. “I want to be a lawyer. I had less than a year of law school left when Dad got plastered and slammed his Corvette into a bridge. I had to come home because my mother is severely brain damaged and can't care for herself. Can't even feed herself. Can't go to the bathroom by herself. Can't walk. I buy her coloring books for Christmas.” Kerry knew he sounded bitter but didn't care. “I thought maybe I could make a difference here. I thought I could help people if I became a cop.”