by Tonya Kappes
“Poor Audrey.” Millie slowly nodded.
“Poor Audrey nothing. She’ll be just fine. Your very own mama down at the Wallflower has been dying to get her full-time down there. She’s the best cook in all Sugar Creek Gap.”
Harriette always made me laugh. She told it like it was, and I appreciated that, but I was definitely going to ask Mama about Audrey and if she’d said anything.
“Looky here. They finally made it over to see us.”
The mayor and her cronies were coming through Harriette’s gate holding their signs.
“Good day,” Mayor Leah Burch greeted all of us. Following closely behind her were council members Willy Bingham, Ashley Williams, and Zeke Grey. “I’m guessing y’all heard about the country club issue. Well, we’d like to take a stand on it and bring this matter of making it into condominium living to a halt.” Leah put one foot on the step and leaned on the bent knee. “I did see you at the meeting this morning. Shouldn’t you’ve been working?” she asked.
It would be just like her to tell the postmaster how I’d slipped into the meeting when I was technically on the clock.
“I pertnear don’t see that I have a horse in this race.” Harriette pushed off the ground with her toe, rocking back and forth. “If they want to sell it and Mac wants to buy it, it’s none of my business.”
“But you don’t understand,” Ashley said as she moved around Leah. “My family and I live in that neighborhood, and if they make those condominiums, no telling what kind of riffraff will move in. We moved there for a nice community. Surely you of all people understand that, raising your family on this nice street.”
“Then it seems to us”—Harriette gestured to her friends, who were all looking up at the ceiling as if they didn’t like her throwing them under the bus—“and we all have discussed it,” Harriette followed up in a louder tone, “maybe your little fancy country club subdivision should pony up and buy it yourself if you want regulations on who can and can’t move in there. Or pay some sort of yearly or monthly homeowner fee to cover the cost of what Kenneth Simpson did to y’all. Seems to me that he had champagne taste on a beer budget.”
“I never.” Ashley huffed and jerked around.
“So you’re telling me you don’t want a sign in your yard?” Leah was relentless, making me wonder what on earth her beef was with the condos, but it wasn’t my business. “Stand with the community.”
“There’s a commissioners’ meeting tonight at five p.m. at the fairgrounds before the big game.” Ashley was using any angle she could to capitalize on the situation.
“No way. Not in my yard. I happen to really like Mac Tabor, and I think he will make those condos amazing.” Harriette gave Leah a look that made her blush and sent my heart racing.
“You don’t stand with our community?” Zeke Grey spoke up, using Leah’s same question. It seemed as if they were using it as a way of guilting the citizens who didn’t care or didn’t want any part of this entire mess. “That’s not like you, Harriette,” Zeke said.
He was Harriette’s age, and they’d run around with a lot of the same people, so he probably knew her best out of the three council people.
“Zeke, my loyalty is to you and your family. When you ran for office, I sure did support you, and it didn’t matter to me what your views were, but that was an election based on me being loyal to your family. But this here.” She shook her finger at Willy Bingham, the youngest and newest member of the city council, who was holding the signs and not saying a word. “This is harassment to Mac Tabor, who has done a lot of good for the people of our community. It’s now time to let the community rally around him, and that’s what me and the girls are doing.”
Millie, Gertrude, and Ruby all shifted uncomfortably.
“I don’t hear them speaking up.” Leah continued to poke Harriette. “They have voices. They can speak for themselves about their property, because the last time I checked the PVA site, you didn’t own those three houses.” Leah pointed down the street to Millie’s, Gertrude’s, and Ruby’s houses.
“May I help out, Mayor?” Mac’s voice floated across the yard. He was sitting on the brick wall of his porch with his coffee in his hand and a big smile on his face, enjoying the little fiasco taking place on Harriette’s porch.
“Mac,” Leah’s voice softened.
“Come on, Leah.” His smile faltered. “This is not a political gain. This is strictly a business move, and there’s literally nothing you can do about it.”
“Let’s go.” Leah turned to her three cronies after giving Mac a few long seconds of her cold stare.
“Just because you have money and can buy whatever land you want doesn’t mean it’s good for Sugar Creek Gap,” Ashley Williams said through gritted teeth. “If I have to lay over the threshold of the lawyer’s office tomorrow, you’ll have to stomp on my body to get in there to sign those papers. And even if you do get them signed, we’re going to find a loophole.”
“Ashley, I’d sure hate to mess up that fancy suit you have on.” Mac just couldn’t let it go like I wished he would. “But it’s pretty much a done deal.” He held his coffee mug up in the air as if making a toast before he brought it to his lips and took a drink.
“You think you’re something, but you’re not!” Ashley’s hands balled into fists at her sides. “I swear I will find a way that will stop you or put this whole thing on hold for a long, long, time. Mark my words.” She shook a fist at him.
“Your threats today and from last night against me and Chuck Shilling were duly taken into consideration, and we decided to move forward.” The more Mac addressed Ashley, the madder she got.
“Come on. We don’t need to waste our breath on him when we can be talking to the people.” Zeke Grey encouraged Ashley to join him, Leah, and Willy on the sidewalk outside Harriette’s gate.
“I hate that man.” Ashley stomped over to them, her voice clearly louder than normal. She definitely wanted us to hear. “Mark my words, one day he will get what is coming to him.”
The sheriff’s car drove up and parked at the curb between Harriette’s and Mac’s houses. We turned and watched as Sheriff Angela Hafley got out and stuck her big round brown hat on top of her head. Her eyes shifted between Mac’s porch and Harriette’s porch.
“Sheriff.” Leah greeted Angela and took her foot off the step to stand tall. “We are leaving.”
“Excuse me?” Angela seemed a bit confused.
“Someone call you?” Leah looked back at me and the front porch ladies.
“No.” She shook her head. “I’m here to see Mac.”
Mac walked to the steps of his porch and watched Angela come through his gate.
“What can I do for you?” he asked Angela. “Is this about last night?”
“What can you tell me about that?” Angela and Mac were doing some sort of back-and-forth conversation that left me in the dark.
“What’s she saying?” Millie asked Gertrude.
“Shush.” Gertrude glared at Millie.
“Why don’t you tell me what you want to know, because there’s nothing about last night that warranted the law being called.” He crossed his arms across his chest.
Angela stood at the bottom of the steps. “It seems like someone spray-painted the golf course in orange spray paint.” She took her hat off her head. “There’s lines in the shape of buildings that have ‘condos’ written on them.”
Mac’s eyelids lowered, and his jaw slightly dropped.
“Where were you last night?” she asked him. “Where you at the golf course proving a point?”
“I had company last night. Chuck Shilling stopped by, and I had a female friend here.” His eyes shifted to the side, and I could tell he was trying to look over my way.
“Mmhhhmmm,” Harriette spoke up. “He did. But you did leave after the fight you had with both of them.”
Mac jerked his head and gave Harriette a hard look.
“Where did you go?” Angela asked.
/> “I went to Madame’s.”
He went where? I tried like heck not to look at him. Madame’s was a pub that had been a brothel when our little town was first founded. It was still a pretty seedy place, and I’d never even known he went there.
This entire morning was turning out to be something of an eye-opener. Ten years ago had been a relationship changer for me and Mac. His loss of friendship with Richard and my loss of a husband had brought the two of us closer. I’d considered him my best guy friend these past ten years. Clearly, he had a lot more secrets than I knew or he cared for me to know.
“You have eyewitnesses?” she asked. “If you don’t, you better tell me, because I’ve got Judge Mason filling out some paperwork so I can get the security cameras of the homes around the club. The club isn’t yours yet, and that would be vandalism.”
“Chuck Shilling was there, along with my lady friend.” Mac’s chest heaved up and down. “I’ll be more than happy to have them call you.”
“See, this is exactly the kind of thing Mac does to our country club and town.” Ashley held up the sign over her head. “Sheriff, you need to arrest this man right now!”
“That’s one way to make good on her promise of stopping him from signing the paperwork tomorrow without her laying over the lawyer’s threshold,” Ruby joked, snickering under her breath.
Angela and Mac had already gone into his house.
“Now more than ever, we need to get the word out while Mac is detained. We can cover more ground if we each take a different street.” Leah bobbed her head and smiled when the others seemed to agree with her.
Leah, Willy, and Zeke went back down Little Creek Road toward town, while Ashley finished off the rest of the houses on the cul-de-sac
“I don’t want to watch her come back down here.” Harriette kept one eye on Ashley as she passed Ruby’s, Gertrude’s, and Millie’s houses before she went to the rest of the neighbors on the dead-end street.
“That was something.” Millie wrung her hands.
“It sure was.” Gertrude was still watching the four of them walk back down the street.
“Mmmhhhh.” Ruby rubbernecked around the porch columns to watch them too.
“This has been a big day already for Little Creek Road.” Harriette was giddy with excitement. “I reckon I might go to that commissioner meeting tonight.”
“As usual, I’d love to stay and chat, but I must be on my way.” I turned to leave but felt a hand on my arm.
“Honey.” Harriette handed me a little bag with tissue paper sticking out of it. “Did you think me and the girls forgot?”
My eyes stung with tears, and my heart felt a sudden emptiness that was hard to explain.
“We just want you to know we are thinking of you and little Grady.” Millie stood up and hugged me tight.
“He ain’t little no more.”
Ruby groaned and took her turn to hug me.
“No, but we watched him grow up these past ten years into the man behind the Grizzlies!” Gertrude pumped her hands in the air before giving me a high five.
“Thank you.” I pulled the tissue paper out of the bag and found a little guardian angel pin inside. “I will wear it every day.”
I handed it to Harriette and let her place it on my shirt. I wasn’t sure if she meant to put it right over my heart, but she did.
I felt all warm and loved inside even though it was a bitter day.
With a livelier pace, I quickly delivered the rest of Little Creek Road’s mail.
All but one house—the last house on the cul-de-sac.
Mr. Macum. Boy…was he a pill. I’d never seen him with visitors, and he hated getting mail.
“Buster,” I called out to Mr. Macum’s dog, which normally greeted me at the gate. I always liked to announce my arrival when I knew an animal lived there, because I didn’t want to get bitten if they weren’t expecting me. Plus, it helped that I carried dog treats with me.
“Buster!” I hollered again. I heard him barking from inside the house, which gave me the go-ahead to walk into the yard and deliver Mr. Macum’s mail.
I knocked on the door, because I had a special delivery to him from me: a stamp. He loved and collected stamps. Most of them weren’t worth anything, but when I did come across a neat stamp, I’d ask the recipient if I could have it off their letter.
“What do you want?” He answered the door in his usual gruff manner. There were no mums or even a hint of autumn at his house, just dried-up annual flowers that had been planted for years.
“I have some new stamps I’ve never seen before and collected on my route the past week.” I handed him his mail first then pulled out the baggie full of stamps I’d collected from the past week.
“Thanks.” He grabbed the baggie and shut the door in my face.
“Can’t make everyone happy with mail.” I grunted and headed over the bridge that connected me back to Main Street from this end of Little Creek Road.
The sound of the duck quacking underneath the bridge brought me out of my thoughts about Mac. I couldn’t help but smile knowing my duck friend was waiting patiently for me to throw him the last little piece of bread I’d saved for him.
I grabbed the other piece of bread from my mailbag and took out the thermos of sweet tea Harriette had prepared for me. I had a minute to enjoy watching my duck buddy eat his biscuit while I took a break to drink some tea before I headed back to Main Street and delivered the mail to the businesses on the mill side of the street.
I dropped my mailbag on the ground and took out the other half of the biscuit. I rolled my head one way and then the other to help ease the tension caused by the heavy bag before I rose onto my toes and leaned over the bridge to see my duck friend.
“Someone give you something to eat?” I questioned when I noticed he was pecking at something.
“Quack, quack,” the duck vocalized and looked up at me.
My eyes glanced past the duck. He certainly was pecking on something someone had thrown over the bridge. But it wasn’t food.
It was a body.
FOUR
“Let’s go over this again.” Sheriff Angela Hafley had me sitting on the sidewalk across the street, where the row of houses was located. “You came to feed the duck here; that’s when you found the body.”
I nodded, still a bit in shock.
“It’s all right.” Millie rubbed my back.
The front porch ladies had heard my screams, and I’d like to say they came running. They weren’t able to run, exactly, but they did come humping it down the road as fast as they could to see what I was hollering about. Ruby had gone back up to Mac’s house and grabbed Angela.
“Take a drink of the sweet tea.” Harriette somehow had the thermos she’d given me earlier. The time from her house to now was completely a blur. “See, your guardian angel pin already saved you.”
“Yep. You could’ve been lying dead down there.” Ruby nodded with great big eyes.
“Ladies, I know Bernadette appreciates all your support, but right now, I’ve got to ask her some questions. Do you mind giving us a little space?” Angela asked them.
“I certainly do.” Harriette’s nose curled, and her eyes narrowed.
“Do you want me to stay?” Mac had also come down with Angela.
“I’m okay.” I lifted my hand and took the thermos.
“If you’re sure.” Harriette had suddenly become a mother hen to me, which I truly appreciated. She looked at Mac with a threat in her eyes.
“I’m good. Thank you.” I took a sip of my tea.
“She said she’s fine.” Mac shrugged and took the group of ladies a few feet away.
Barron Long, the county coroner, pulled the hearse tight up to the curb next to the bridge. I tried not to watch him as I answered any questions Angela asked me.
“Did you see anyone out of the ordinary on your route?” she asked.
“No. Leah Burch, Willy Bingham, Ashley Williams, and Zeke Grey putting out those
signs is unusual, but you saw them.” I recalled the mayor and the city council members. “But nothing other than that. I stopped to talk to Mac for a few minutes and then stopped at Harriette’s, but as far as anyone driving or walking down here, nothing.”
“What about any gossip that might make you think about a crime?”
“Crime?” I asked. Angela’s question struck me as peculiar.
“The man we found in the creek—he’s been shot.” Angela plopped down on the curb next to me. “There’s no weapon, and I’m worried this is a homicide. So if there’s anything you can recall, I’d be so grateful if you’d tell me.”
Baffled and dismayed, I took a few more drinks of the sweet tea.
“Do you know who it is?” I questioned.
“No. The body is facedown. We’ll let the coroner look at it before we turn it over, so we don’t have an ID just yet.” Angela had always been a good sheriff, and she always played by the book. That was something I appreciated.
The wheels of the church cart squeaked, catching my attention. I looked up and across the street. Barron and another Sheriff officer were pushing the gurney up the embankment of the creek. The white sheet fell off the body.
Harriette Pearl let out a gasp that I was sure could be heard all across Sugar Creek Gap.
“It’s Chuck Shilling,” Harriette said in disbelief. “He left Mac’s house last night, but not on his own recognizance. Mac pushed him out the door and down the front steps, leaving him lying in the front yard.” Harriette shrugged. “Not that I was looking, but when you hear yelling, you tend to see where it’s coming from.”
“Harriette?” Mac questioned Harriette’s outburst.
Angela and the other uniformed officer gave each other a look.
Before Richard died, I hadn’t really paid attention to people’s body language. After he died was when I started to not only pick up on others’ body language but feel it. Literally feel it. All the sad faces, their words, their touches, their restraint not to touch…I felt it all deep in my bones.
Just like the chill Harriette’s words had put in my bones. I shivered. There were so many things I had learned about Mac today. I wasn’t sure I even knew him at all.