Trailer Trash (Neely Kate Mystery Book 1)

by Denise Grover Swank

  “I was upset about your decision to go back . . . I was being selfish, and I’m sorry.”

  “Neely Kate,” he groaned.

  “No. Of course you’re going to help find Scooter. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be the man I . . .” I what? Loved? Was falling for? “The man I care about.”

  He was silent.

  “You think you’re irredeemable, Jed Carlisle, and I know you’ve done some bad things. You know I have too. But maybe we buy back pieces of our souls with the good things we do. Calling the authorities about baby Crystal and stayin’ until they got there. Goin’ back to Henryetta to look for Scooter. Shoot, helpin’ me. Don’t you think those good deeds you’ve done help counteract the bad?”

  He shot me a glance. “I didn’t help you out of the kindness of my heart, Neely Kate. I did it for purely selfish reasons.”

  “What are you talkin’ about?” I wasn’t sure my heart could bear someone else betraying me. Especially if that someone was Jed.

  He shook his head in frustration. “I mean, I couldn’t let you go to Ardmore without me because I would have been sick with worry. If you’d cut me loose, I would have tracked you and followed you every step of the way. I wasn’t about to let you do this alone.”

  A lump filled my throat, and I choked out a short laugh. “That’s not selfish, Jed. That’s called caring about someone.”

  He reached out and grabbed my hand. “I’m not sure you know how much you mean to me, Neely Kate.”

  I squeezed his hand back. “You mean a lot to me too.” I considered everything he’d done for me over the last couple of days. Actions spoke louder than words, especially for someone like Jed. “Hey, where’s the bag you dug up?”

  “In the trunk.”

  “What do you plan to do with it?”

  “Look it over for anything useful. I need to find out how close they got to tying you to his death. Maybe it’ll help us figure out whether the guy who showed up at Zelda’s was working for Kate or investigating Manchester’s disappearance.”

  “Do you think I should be worried?” I asked.

  “No. It’s a dead end, and even if someone does trace it to you, there’s absolutely no evidence.”

  “I sure as Hades hope no one gets that far.”

  “If Branson or Beasley talk, I suspect they know what will be waiting for them.”

  I wasn’t so sure they were that smart.

  He paused as if considering something and then turned toward me. “Did you watch the video of the night you buried him?”

  I hesitated. “No.”

  “There was a blank tape in the camera.” He gave me another look.

  I could tell he already knew how that had come to be. I could have lied to him, but I was tired of living with lies. He, of all people, would understand. “I took it last night. When you went to get the tarp.”

  “And put a new tape in the camera?” The disappointment in his voice killed me. We both knew I’d done it to try to trick him.

  “I’m sorry, Jed. I couldn’t let you see it. I’d rather go to jail than let you see what he did to me.”

  “Neely Kate . . .” He pushed out a breath. “You have nothing to be ashamed of. If you just give—”

  “No,” I said, harsher than I’d intended. “If I hadn’t taken it, you would have watched it last night. Otherwise, how did you know it was blank?”

  A guilty look crossed his face.

  I sank back into the seat. “I’m not angry.” And strangely enough, I wasn’t. I understood why he had looked. He was trying to make sure every shred of evidence connecting me to Pearce Manchester was destroyed. “But you can’t see it, Jed. You can’t.” My voice broke.

  He rested a hand on my leg. “I only want to protect you, Neely Kate. I want to make sure this is put to bed forever.”

  “I know,” I said absently, staring out the window. “But I don’t think you need to see it to make sure that happens.”

  “Where is it now?”

  My shoulders stiffened as my head swung around to face him. “Are you gonna take it from me?”

  “No,” he said, sounding sad. He lifted a hand and lightly massaged the back of my neck. “It’s your tape, NK, but I think you should destroy it. I’ll even help you if you’d like.”

  I didn’t answer. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it yet. “What about Kate?” I asked.

  “It sounds like she knows nothing beyond what she’s already told you. You’re safe as far as she’s concerned. Your past is locked up. Even so, I’m going to look into Pearce Manchester and find out everything I can.”

  While I knew that was the smart thing to do, part of me wanted to forget it had ever happened. It didn’t fit with my life in Henryetta. It didn’t fit with Rose and Joe and my job at the landscaping business.

  What about me and Jed? Did we fit together outside of Ardmore?

  “What happens with the two of us?” I asked. “You’re goin’ back to Skeeter. I’m still married.”

  “I’m not going back to Skeeter. I’m helping him find Scooter. And while you’re still technically married, the guy”—he said it with so much disdain, it might as well have been a swear—“abandoned you. He’s not even worth considering when we look at you and me.”

  “What do you want to do about us when we get back?” I asked.

  “I still want to keep seeing you. I care about you. I can’t turn that off, and I don’t want to.” He turned and offered me a warm smile. “You’re probably the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

  I leaned my head on his shoulder and wrapped my hand around his right arm. “You’re one of the best things that’s ever happened to me too.”

  He leaned over and kissed the top of my head.

  “So we just tell people we’re seeing each other?” I asked.

  He was quiet for a moment. “No. I think we need to keep this under wraps.”

  While his answer wasn’t a total surprise, it still stung. I slowly sat up. “Because you’re ashamed of my past?”

  “No,” was his harsh reply; then he relaxed and said, “God, no. Because once people know I care about you, you can be used as a weapon to get to me.”

  I considered arguing with him, but he had a point. I’d seen that very thing happen with Rose and Skeeter.

  We fell into silence for a few minutes.

  “There’s one thing I’m still confused about,” Jed said. “How did Beasley get a DUI?”

  “After we buried the body, we headed back to town. I’d handled everything just fine up until that point, but it all came crashing down on me. So I was almost to town when I started crying so hard I couldn’t see. I plowed through several mailboxes and hit a parked car. I was driving Branson’s car, so I freaked out. Beasley said he’d tell them he was driving and told me to leave town. Only, I hadn’t counted on him still being so drunk. I sure never thought he’d get fifteen years, but he already had a few DUI convictions.”

  “He deserved every second of it,” Jed grunted. “Don’t you feel one ounce of guilt over it.”

  I wasn’t so sure.

  Chapter 24

  It was well after lunchtime by the time Jed pulled into the Henryetta town square. He parked in a space on the side street next to the building that housed the RBW Landscaping office and left the engine idling. He’d offered to drop me off at the farmhouse, but I’d already missed two and a half days of work. Rose needed me.

  “Why do I feel like I’m losin’ you?” I asked quietly. I couldn’t look at him when I said it. The whole ride home it had felt like the string tying us together was growing tauter, reaching a breaking point.

  He tilted my head up to face him. “You’re not, Neely Kate.”

  “But we’re keepin’ this a secret. How’s it gonna work?”

  “I don’t know yet, but we’ll figure out a way.” A sexy grin spread across his face. “Besides, we’re both great at keeping secrets.”

  My stomach cartwheeled. When he smiled like th
at, I practically melted.

  Still, we were back home, and Jed was known for his extremely short-term relationships. If I was reading this wrong, I needed to know before I got hurt. “Are you sure this isn’t your way of giving me the brush-off?” I asked. “Because I’m a big girl, and I can—”

  His mouth was on mine, his tongue parting my lips. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back. This was a kiss of promise and hope, not a goodbye.

  He lifted his head with a warm smile. “We’ll make it work.”

  I smiled back. “Yeah.”

  Lifting a hand to my face, he brushed the hair off my cheek as he looked into my eyes. “If you need me for anything, call straightaway.”

  “Okay.”

  His smile faded. “I’m serious, Neely Kate. With Scooter missing . . . Skeeter’s not sure if he’s just wandered off or if it’s foul play. With the recent trouble around the necklace . . . just be careful, okay?” Worry filled his eyes.

  “You’re in a lot more danger than I am,” I said. “You’re not only lookin’ for Scooter, but you’re at odds with his brother.”

  “I can handle it.” He kissed me again, a leisurely kiss that quickly warmed into a raging inferno. He put his hands on my arms and pushed back. “We need to take this slow.”

  I blinked. “What?”

  “After . . . everything . . . I want you to know I want you for the right reasons.”

  Part of me wanted to protest, but outside of high school, I couldn’t think of a single man I hadn’t slept with soon after getting involved. Maybe there was something to his idea. “Okay.”

  A frown crossed his face. I wondered if he was upset with me for agreeing, but he pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked the screen. “I’m going to walk you to the office door.”

  He moved to get out, but I grabbed his arm. “Jed. Stop.”

  He turned back to face me.

  “If we’re keeping this secret, then we should say goodbye here. I’m not sure I’ll be able to let you go without kissing you goodbye.”

  His grin was back. The one that lit up his eyes and made me glow with the knowledge that his smile was for me.

  I lifted my hand to his cheek, my thumb brushing his skin. “I love your smiles. I’ve become addicted to them. You should smile more, although I suspect it wouldn’t be as intimidating when you’re trying to stare down a bad guy.”

  His grin spread. “You might have a point. I’ll save them for you.”

  His promise warmed me more than it probably should have. “Go find Scooter. Then, as soon as he’s back, I’m expecting you to take me to Colorado to feed the chipmunks. Maybe I’ll get some cute outfits to put on ’em too. Like I do with Muffy.”

  Jed released a full-on belly laugh. “I really want to see that, so it’s a deal.”

  My smile faded. “Why is this so hard?”

  “It’s not goodbye. I promise.”

  “I know. But it’s hard anyway.” I leaned over and gave him a quick kiss. Then I forced myself to open the door and climbed out into the Arkansas July heat.

  I opened the back door and grabbed my bag and walked toward the sidewalk. I gave Jed a little wave, waggling my fingers with the hand I’d used to hold my bag.

  He lifted his palm, his smile gone. Something rumbled in my guts, and it wasn’t the greasy burger we’d stopped to get in Lewisville about an hour ago.

  Disconcerted, I turned away and headed toward the street corner, spotting my dead car still parked in a spot on the end with a few parking tickets under the windshield wiper.

  Great. I was stuck with a bunch of fines and car repair bills.

  I turned back toward the office. As I approached the door, I saw Rose inside, talking on the phone as she sat at her computer. The feeling of disquiet grew, and I finally recognized it for what it was, the all-too-familiar feeling of being on the outside looking in.

  I sighed as bitter disappointment washed over me. I had believed that confronting my past would make that feeling go away, but Pearce Manchester’s body had been reduced to dust and that feeling still held sway over me. Nevertheless, I felt like the chains holding me back from feeling like I truly belonged had lost a few chinks over the last couple of days. Maybe it just took time.

  Rose looked up and saw me staring through the glass. Her eyes widened, and she said something into her phone before dropping it onto the desk and running for me.

  “Neely Kate!” she cried out as she burst through the door and enveloped me into a tight hug. “Oh, my God. You’re really home.”

  Home. I’d been searching for it my whole life, and now I’d destroyed the secret that could have stolen it from me. So why did I still feel on edge?

  I glanced down at my purse and knew why. The tape. I had a powerful urge to make a roaring fire in the alley behind the building and destroy the awful thing right away. It was what Jed thought I should do. But something held me back. Beasley still knew my secret, Branson wasn’t to be trusted, and some unknown man had been searching for me. Right or wrong, that tape was the only record of what had really happened that night, and I needed to keep it. First chance I got, I was walking to the Henryetta Bank and putting it in a safety deposit box.

  My rainy-day insurance policy.

  But today I was basking in the sun of my new life. Family who loved me. My best friend who stood by me no matter what. And the man who put everything on the line to help me.

  I had a lot to be thankful for, and I wasn’t about to squander any of it. Because I never knew when it might be snatched away.

  Read the Jed bonus material on the next page

  For the Birds

  Rose Gardner Investigations #2

  July 11, 2017

  Subscribe to Denise Grover Swank’s newsletter and keep up with her newest releases, sales, and free content.

  BONUS CONTENT

  Note from Denise:

  When I started writing Trailer Trash, I had decided to include a few chapters in Jed’s point of view. But after my editor, Angela, read the first half of the book, she told me that she thought this was Neely Kate’s story to tell. Not Jed’s. After a little convincing, I decided she was right.

  At that point, I had two Jed chapters, so I pulled them both and rewrote the chapters from Neely Kate’s point of view. The first chapter was chapter eight (the drive from Little Rock to Texarkana), and Angela and I ultimately decided it didn’t necessarily contribute much more in Jed’s POV. Keeping it as bonus material felt redundant. The chapter did feature the phone call between Skeeter and Jed at the gas station in Texarkana, but Angela suggested it might be more effective if the reader didn’t know what was said during the call. We liked doling that information out slowly, letting the reader know as Neely Kate found out. Still, after I read that phone call again, I decided to break it out from the chapter and only keep Jed and Skeeter’s conversation.

  But we both agreed to keep Jed’s chapter eleven.

  Jed’s version of chapter eleven is a mirror image of the chapter eleven in the book—with mostly matching dialogue. (Some may have been tweaked in the editing process.) It takes place immediately after the scene in Slick Willy’s parking lot when Neely Kate walks out of the strip club. She’s terrified over what Jed could be thinking about her, and she falls to pieces. Chapter eleven shows how Jed handles Neely Kate’s reaction. It’s a glimpse into his soul—the pain of losing his sister. His complicated relationship to Skeeter. The utter confusion he feels in regard to Neely Kate. It’s a powerful chapter, and I was dig-in-my-heels reluctant to cut it until we decided to keep it as bonus material.

  Bonus Scene from Chapter Eight, Jed’s POV

  I stopped at a truck stop in Texarkana, and while I pumped gas, Neely Kate went inside to use the bathroom. I was slightly worried she’d take off—she hadn’t tried to bring her bag, and she seemed resigned to accepting my help, but she’d become more despondent after our talk about her miscarriage, and I couldn’t shake the feeling she was trying to push me
away. I wanted to figure out a way to make her feel better, but first I needed to face Skeeter’s wrath.

  He answered on the first ring, angry as a bear poked with a stick. “You better have a damn good explanation for ignoring my calls. Where are you?”

  “Texarkana.”

  “What the hell are you doin’ in Texarkana?”

  Wasn’t that the million-dollar question . . . Should I confess what I was up to? I realized I was running the risk of Skeeter sending someone to fetch me, but I was no longer that eight-year-old kid looking up to the fourteen-year-old boy who’d taken him under his protection. I didn’t need his permission. “I’m takin’ Neely Kate to Oklahoma.”

  He was quiet for several seconds, long enough that I checked the screen to make sure we were still connected. “I told you to be back for our six o’clock meeting.”

  “Obviously I’m not going to make it.”

  “You’re willfully disobeying a direct order?”

  “For the first time in my goddamned life I’m making a decision independent of you and what you want,” I snarled through gritted teeth.

  “Then you’re fired!”

  “You would fire me after everything I’ve done for you?” I asked in a tone so cold it would have frozen water within seconds.

  “You have a choice,” he said in an equally cold tone. “Me or her.”

  “No, you’re the one forcing the choice on me. I can choose both. Just like you can choose both.”

  “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” he growled.

  “It means you screwed Rose over, and you know it. The sooner you suck it up and apologize to her, the better off we’ll all be.”

  “It will be a cold day in hell before I apologize to her or anyone else.”

  Since I was already hanging out on a limb, I figured I might as well shimmy out the rest of the way. “You need her.”

  “Let’s make one thing perfectly clear,” he said, his voice sharp as the edge of a blade. “I don’t need anyone. Not even you.”