by Stacy Green
Matt’s eyes, already dimmed with cataracts, clouded over. “That sent some people over the edge. See, back in them days, the old folks could still remember their war heroes. Lots of ’em had granddads who fought and died for the Confederacy. And the Adams County Historical society was real green then, needing items. Folks felt it weren’t right for a Yankee—”
He looked apologetically at Dani, but she shook her head. “Wasn’t right for a Yankee to have something like that, especially one who’d showed no interest in any of our history.”
“Did he get into any fights about it?”
“Physically? Don’t know. Yelling matches for sure.”
“I understand why people would be upset,” Dani said. “But do you really think someone would attack Lewis over the box?”
“Maybe. Maybe was a fight gone bad.” Matt adjusted his whispering oxygen cord. “But there’s more to the story, and most of it got swept right under the money rug. See, Lewis was a ladies man. Or thought he was. And rumor was he’d pissed off a local guy by taking out his ex-girlfriend. She was staying the summer with her guy’s family, and the two of them had a big fight. Broke up for a time. And then Lewis comes in with all his ideas and good looks.”
“Do you remember the man’s name? Or the girlfriend’s?”
“No, I don’t.” Matt coughed and then turned up his oxygen. Dani noticed his feeble hands shook in a way they hadn’t a few minutes ago. Of course, they were wearing him out. Did he have anyone to help him? Or did he live here alone, dying? The worst thing in this life would be to die alone.
“Excuse me. Lung cancer ain’t the way to go, so if you ladies are smokers, quit now.”
“How long do you have?” Dani asked.
“Few months,” Matt said. “Hospice is hounding me. Wife’s gone. I’ve got a nurse from the old folks’ place who swings in and checks up on me. I suppose I’ll have my own bed there soon enough.”
“I’m sorry for your cancer,” Jaymee said. “I’m being rude, but I’m desperate to find Nick. We think he’d figured out who killed Emery Lewis, and that person knew he was on his way to town. They intercepted him. You’re sure you don’t remember any names?”
Matt’s bony chest heaved up and then down. Slowly, each breath a wheezing hiss that chilled Dani. Finally, he shook his head. She wasn’t sure if his eyes were simply watering or a tear brewed, but she’d spotted moisture. He licked his quivering lips. A fresh round of cool unease struck Dani. He’s not telling us everything. She glanced at Jaymee, and her friend’s narrowed eyes and set jaw meant she was thinking the same thing.
Dani retrieved the axe handle out of the shopping bag she’d brought. She’d had the sense to wrap it in plastic, but the mud-stained wood and signature were still visible. “Do you remember Lewis having this?”
Another long, hard breath. Bone-like hands gripping the chair, Matt pulled himself forward. “Where’d you find that?”
“In a cave behind my property,” Dani said. “It’s signed by Lester Maddux. Story goes—”
“Lewis had it. Never let anyone see it, so we figured he was bullshitting about being in Georgia. Thought it got buried with him.”
“You told Nick all of this, right?” Jaymee said.
“Everything I could.”
“Did he give any indication he’d figured it out?” Dani tucked the handle away.
“I think he believed he was onto something. I wished him good luck. I’d like to see the case solved before I die. Always felt guilty about Lewis.”
“Why?”
Matt leaned back into his chair. His skin was gray, and he looked ready to pass out at any moment. “There’s one thing I told your reporter I haven’t mentioned. The jilted boyfriend—story went that he and his cousin planned to have a talk with Lewis. Heard that just a couple of days before he disappeared.”
“You sure you can’t remember their names?” Jaymee asked.
Matt shook his head, gaze on the wall.
They thanked him for his time. Dani resisted the urge to make sure he was comfortably in bed with something to drink before they left, but Jaymee’s hard tug on her arm left little room to stay. She dragged Dani back to the truck. “He’s not telling us everything. He remembers who the couple was.”
“That’s not the worst of it,” Dani said. “He said buried. I didn’t say the axe was buried. And he says he felt guilty.”
“You think he’s trying to absolve himself of his sins without ruining anyone else’s lives?”
“I don’t know. But he didn’t take Nick. That we can be sure of.”
“We need to find out who those people were,” Jaymee said as Dani pulled back onto the highway. “And there’s one person in town who’ll know for sure.”
Dani immediately caught her meaning. “We can’t bother Grace. She’s mourning her son.”
“I know it’s an asshole thing to do. But Nick is missing, and if Ben’s murder is tied to this, she’d want to help.”
33
Dani felt like a giant horse’s ass following Charlotte to Grace’s private quarters. The pall in Oak Lynn was nearly unbearable, settling into her chest as soon as she walked in the front door. The usually gleaming family antiques looked dull and tired. It was almost as if the house itself, laden with the energy of Ben’s ancestors, was in mourning.
“She’s holing herself up in there. Have to beg her to eat.” Charlotte knocked on the door and then opened it.
Grace sat in front of a bay window overlooking the sweeping, spring-colored landscape. Ever the lady, her hair was fresh and her makeup done. But she wore a housecoat, the kind Dani’s mother wore in her last days, and her expression looked fixed in a mixture of pain and disbelief. Dani’s throat closed up.
“What’s this about, girls?” Grace’s voice was short, tired. “If you’re here to pay your respects, please consider them paid. I’d really like to be alone.”
Dani’s stomach turned. This husk of a person was not the loving woman she knew. Jaymee nudged her forward, and Dani crossed the large room to sit down on the window seat, wanting to reach for Grace’s hand but afraid to upset the invisible shield around her. If she touched Grace, the woman might break down. Dani didn’t want to be responsible for that.
“I’m really sorry about Ben.” Jaymee stood behind Dani. “And we’ve got no right to bother you now, but I’m desperate. Nick is still missing, and you might be our only hope.”
“I hardly see how I can help. I haven’t seen Nick since you two had dinner here over a month ago.”
“We need your memory, Grace,” Dani said. No use in drawing it out. Let Grace get back to her grief, at least for a little while. Dani wasn’t going to let her wallow forever. “You know of everyone who’s come and gone with any significance in this town. Tell us about Emery Lewis.”
“The civil rights kid?”
Dani nodded.
Grace sighed. “He disappeared in 1964. What a horrible summer. I was afraid we’d have a riot just like the other cities. Far as I know, he’s never been found. Is that all?”
“No, we just came from Matt Hastings’s place, and he told us a story about how Lewis started seeing a local girl and upset the ex-boyfriend. Some people thought that’s what got him into trouble.”
The wrinkles in Grace’s forehead deepened. “What does this have to do with Nick’s disappearance?”
“Remember the cartridge box Emery Lewis found? The one he wouldn’t give to the historical society?”
“Yes.”
“That’s the same one Nick left hidden in his car when he disappeared. We think he found out who the murderer was.”
The old Grace would have jumped onto that story. She loved a mystery almost as much as she loved chatting history. But she simply said, “I don’t understand, but honestly, I’m not sure I care for the details. I didn’t know Lewis well. He came around here trying to talk to us about equal rights. I was willing to listen, but Daddy ran him off. Most of our hired men were too afraid to talk
to him. I don’t think Daddy would’ve minded. He just didn’t want it going on at the house.”
“But what about the ex-boyfriend who got mad at Lewis for dating his girl?” Jaymee asked. “Do you remember who any of them were?”
“Of course I remember that girl.” A bit of life flared in Grace’s eyes. “Snobbiest person I’d ever met. She’d come down to stay in the boyfriend’s parents’ guest home and work at the library for the summer. I’d heard she was from a poor family and latched onto his. Bringing her to stay, even in the guesthouse, would have been scandalous for any family but theirs. But when you’re the richest people in the county, you get away with some things. You both know the woman.”
Jaymee kicked Dani in the shin. Dani bit back a curse. “Are you talking about the Ashers?”
Grace nodded. “Margaret and Beau had a big fight right out on Ashland’s front lawn.” She paused a moment. “Margaret dropped him in front of his family and the hired help, and come to think of it, that fight was over Emery Lewis. He’d come to Ashland with his handouts, and Margaret let him in. Beau’s parents were furious, and so was he. Jealous, I suppose.” Grace looked out the window, her eyes empty. “Anyway, they broke up, and she was going to stay at the boarding house. But Mrs. Asher insisted she stay on at the guesthouse, as they’d promised to be responsible for her over the summer. So she did, but she went out on a few dates with Lewis before he disappeared. Then she and Beau reconciled and that was that.”
“Did Beau go after Lewis?” Jaymee asked.
Grace heaved a sigh as though she’d emptied her lungs for the last time. “I really don’t know. You girls should go see Jeb. I think he’s home. He and Mayor Asher are cousins, you know. Used to run around together a lot. He probably remembers.” She turned away to stare back out the window. “I’d like to be alone now.”
Dani careened onto the dirt road, and for once, Jaymee didn’t yell at her about her driving. They were both still trying to put the pieces together. “I guess I didn’t realize the Riley farm bordered Ashland,” Dani said. The dirt road was slippery from the earlier rain, and she clutched the wheel. She couldn’t be more opposite from Cage on Mississippi’s dirt roads. No matter how hard she tried, she didn’t find them enchanting. They were narrow, dusty, and led to places loaded with bugs and, usually, poison ivy that viciously attacked.
Jaymee sat impatiently next to her, bouncing in the seat. Seatbelt straining around her neck, she perched on the edge of her seat, gripping the dashboard as though she could will the truck to move faster. “I knew it, but I’d forgotten they were cousins. Jeb never mentions him.”
“I bet they had a falling out, since Mayor Asher is a whipped jackass,” Dani said. “But what I don’t get is this: if Beau Asher was one of the men people thought attacked Emery Lewis, why has everyone forgotten? I get that it was pushed away back in the 60s, given Lewis’s civil rights stance, but why didn’t it come up during Asher’s run for Mayor?”
Jaymee cut her a derisive glance. “Because he’s been Mayor for twenty years, and this is the South. We don’t like change, and let’s face it. The racial divide is still there. People don’t want to think about it, so they don’t.”
“And money talks.”
“That too.”
Jeb’s home sat on a small lot surrounded by cornfields, with White Creek cutting directly between them. Someone else farmed the land, but he’d told Dani he’d planned to die right there in the house he’d been born in. Dani had never been asked to visit, and she was glad.
As creepy as any rambling Victorian in a B horror movie, the modest two-story home had too many windows, the shutters stark black and giving the impression of haunted eyes watching the entrance. The paint on the upper floor peeled in jagged strips, and the house looked worn and tough, much like Jeb, but without the approachable smile. This house looked like it wanted everyone to run away screaming.
An addition jutting out from the north side looked slightly less aged than the rest, its overhanging carport covering a second driveway. From the looks of it, that side of the house hadn’t been used in a while.
“What a strange-looking house,” Dani said. “It’s almost like it’s in two parts.”
“Because it’s an old funeral home. That’s what Jeb’s family did for years.”
Dani shuddered before she could stop herself. She’d never understood how anyone could live in the same place where the dead waited to be laid to rest.
“Needs to cut his grass,” Jaymee said. “He’s usually good about keeping the place up.”
“He’s getting older. Cage keeps saying he’s going to come over here and help Jeb out, but between work, Ironwood, and taking care of his parents, he hasn’t had time.”
Dani realized that despite the time Jeb had spent in her home over the last several months, she didn’t know that much about him. “He’s a widower, but what about kids? Doesn’t he have any other family around here?”
Jaymee’s hurried strides were hard to keep up with. “He’s got a daughter, but she lives in California, I think. Doesn’t come home much. Grace is the closest thing he’s got to family.”
“I guess that’s why he was so broken up about Ben. And he’s totally in love with Grace.” Dani climbed the steps, wiping the red mud off her shoe. Like Ironwood, Jeb’s driveway was full of it.
She knocked on the door. The sound echoed through the porch, and she shivered. Maybe it wasn’t that the house didn’t want visitors. The closer Dani looked, the more she realized Jeb’s place had a lonely feeling, unloved and unwanted. Forgotten was the best adjective. Elderly people were supposed to be revered and appreciated for all they’d given, but so many of them lived like Jeb, going home to an empty house. Especially one that used to be a funeral home. That and the silence would drive me crazy.
“Well shit,” Jaymee pounded on the door. “I thought Grace said he was at home.”
“Let’s check the shed.” Dani pointed to the long, metal building behind the house. “Maybe he’s tinkering.”
The shed wasn’t locked, and the big door slid open easily, its metal base dragging in the dirt. Dani blinked, trying to get accustomed to the change in light. Dust motes flittered by, en route to her nose, and she furiously waved them off. A jumble of rusted machinery and tossed out junk, the shed didn’t look like a fun place to hang out.
An old, blue pickup trunk took up most of the space. She saw a lawnmower wedged into a corner, along with a weed whacker and various digging equipment. Tools hung on one wall, dilapidated boxes piled against the other. Various piles of scrap metal hugged the metal sides, along with a peculiar looking pump, complete with a rotting rubber hose. Next to the pump were six rusted handles, and Dani had no idea what they would have attached to.
Jaymee’s nails dug into her forearm, pulling her away from the odd assortment. “Jesus Christ, you’re breaking the skin. What’s wrong?”
“His truck. It’s blue. And the fender.” Jaymee sounded like she was choking on the words. She took a step forward, then stopped short, fists clenched, shoulders ramrod straight. “It’s dented.”
34
“It’s got to be a coincidence.” Dani stood rooted to the spot while Jaymee examined the fender’s dent. Cobwebs cluttered her thoughts while Jaymee kept a running commentary. Even as she said it, she thought about the red mud still clinging to her shoe.
“He’s cleaned it off. I can’t tell if the other vehicle was silver.”
“He could have hit anything. You’re reaching.”
“Am I?” Jaymee stalked around the truck, shading her eyes to peer in the grimy windows. “The vehicle that hit Nick’s was blue. A local—we all agree on that. Nick had the very cartridge case that disappeared with Emery Lewis, who may have been killed by Beau Asher and his friends. Jeb is his cousin, and they all ran around together then.”
“Can’t be.” Dani could just not wrap her head around all of this.
“Why not? Hastings said the boyfriend and his cousin planned t
o have a talk with Lewis. You think Nick couldn’t find this out? I bet he called Jeb, thinking he was safe, wanting to get his side of the story. You still got mud on your shoe. Red mud.”
“Jeb couldn’t hurt anyone.” Dani scraped the shoe in the dirt. For some reason, she couldn’t stop looking at those six handles. They bothered her nearly as much as the idea of Jeb being behind all of this. What the hell were they for? “Maybe back then, but now? He’s older and not strong. He just…he wouldn’t.”
“If Nick exposing the truth meant him going to jail? People do crazy shit when they’re desperate, Dani. Believe me.”
“We need to call Cage.” Dani struggled to comprehend the idea of Jeb attacking Nick. She couldn’t, but she’d been fooled before.
“Call him, but I’m searching this place. If Nick’s here, I’m not waiting around for Cage to get a warrant.”
Cage’s phone went straight to voicemail, sinking Dani’s heart. Hoping she wasn’t talking too fast, she rattled off everything they’d found out and the conclusion that scared the hell out of her. “Jaymee wants to look around for Nick. I’ll try to keep her from breaking into the house, but you know how she is. You guys need to get out here now.”
Jaymee dug through the boxes and crates, flinging stuff without thinking. Dani picked up bits and pieces, trying to make it look as though things hadn’t been disturbed. She purposely avoided the rusting handles. She should know what those were. At times, the answer tormented her, but then slipped away leaving her with a feeling of icy dread. Which is stupid. They’re just handles. “What are you looking for?”
“Nick’s stuff. It’s not in the truck. But Jeb could have stuck it somewhere in here.”
She kept searching, and Dani kept picking up after her, hoping Jaymee would get it out of her system before Jeb showed up and they had to explain themselves. Not because she was afraid of him. Was she? Fear whispered the taunt in her ear. She ignored it and tried to pull Jaymee out of the shed, but the other woman shook free of her grip and sprinted for the house.