by Tonya Kappes
“I’ll be in touch.” I nodded and patted my leg for Duke to follow.
“You’ve got my cell number, right?” He questioned as I walked towards my Jeep.
“I sure do.” I opened the door and Duke jumped in.
“Good. That big winter storm is coming, and I imagine I’ll be out in it pulling out idiots who get out in that stuff. Do you have an emergency kit in your Jeep?” He asked and walked up to the driver’s door.
“I’ve got what I need,” I assured him.
“Everyone needs an emergency kit in their car at all times. I made sure Jilly has one and Leighann has one in her car. So if Leighann’s in some sort of emergency right now,” his voice cracked, “I know she’s got food, water and first aid kit.” He sniffed. “I even got her a kit from Lulu’s boutique with her initials on it.” He let out a little laugh. “Leighann is so girly. She loves all that initial stuff.”
“I’m sure we’ll find her,” I assured him. My words met his blank face.
“Nonetheless, be careful in the storm.” He slammed the door.
“There’s not going to be a winter storm,” I confidently yelled back to their front door.
Chapter Three
If I was going to drive out to the Liberty house, I figured I was going to need to get a fresh, hot coffee because just like Manuel, his mother wasn’t one to mess with. Juanita Liberty let people know that Manuel was to go to college on a football scholarship. She didn’t hold back when Manuel had told them he wasn’t going to go to college, turning down the scholarship and staying in Cottonwood. It was a dispatch call that I dreaded and could still feel that sick gut feeling.
The call had actually come from Jonathan, Manuel’s brother. Juanita had gotten Manuel in a choke hold, demanding she wasn’t going to let go until he signed the scholarship, but Manuel insisted he wasn’t going. It took a while for me to pry her hands from around the poor kid, but it did end peacefully.
Heading south, on my way back into town, I took a right next to Lulu’s Boutique. Duke danced back and forth between the front seat and back seat of the Wagoneer in delight.
The boutique was a really old, small, yellow clapboard house that Lulu McClain had turned into a cozy knick-knack shop that sold local arts, candles, some clothing items and accessories for the home. In the back she’d host different arts and crafts for the various groups, like knitting, pottery, crocheting, and whatever else the Auxilary Women could find to fill their days and nights.
It wasn’t the boutique that Duke was so excited to see, it was Jolee Fischer’s food truck, On the Run. Jolee pulled the truck up to the curb next to Lulu’s every morning so she could caffeinate all the Cottonwood people who got up early. The food she cooked and served was straight homecookin’ that made our mouths water. Duke was a recipient of some of her treats and his tail nearly knocked me over as he jumped out of the Jeep after I opened the door. This was why I knew he’d be just fine while I was gone to Chicago.
It was too cold to eat outside, and Jolee knew when she opened the food truck that everyone needed a place to commune if they wanted to. Lulu and Jolee had made an agreement that Lulu would open the craft room in the back of the boutique for people to eat and enjoy. Cottonwood was about community and being together.
“Kenni, really?” Lulu came out of nowhere and wiped her hand across the front pocket of my brown sheriff’s jacket. “You could use a little monogram on this to make it pop a little. Or make it a little more feminine.”
She pulled away and her fingernails racked the edge of her short, twiggy styled black hair. There was some jingling going on under the faux fur coat she had snuggled around her. No doubt the jingling was the armful of bangles she had from her wrist to her elbow.
“Lulu, it’s monogramed with the sheriff’s symbol.” My eyes lowered, “Have you been talking to Mama?” I asked.
“Have I?” She squealed with delight. “I just have to show you that fur coat she’s going to look fabulous in when she’s sitting on the back of a fancy car in a parade.”
“Lulu, you aren’t feeding Mama a line of bullarky about this silly notion of her wanting to run for Snow Queen, are you?” I gave her a sideways look.
“Well, she mentioned something about you going to Chicago and she’s got to have something to fill up her broken heart. But I did tell her that you’d be a beautiful bride. If you insist on going, we would like you to have something come out of it. After all,” She cozied up to me, “a fall wedding in Cottonwood is beautiful.” Her nails dug into me.
“You and my Mama can get any notion of me getting engaged while I’m in Chicago out of your head.” Though the image of me being Finn’s bride might’ve popped in my head a time or two, it wasn’t something I figured on right now.
Come on? What girl didn’t start dreaming of her wedding at age three?
Lulu let out a long sigh.
“Fancy nails you got there.” I pulled her hand away from my arm and noticed the red and gold tips with a smidgen of glitter on them. “Shimmery.”
“Oh honey, I’m one of Tina Bower’s Guinea pigs down at Tiny Tina’s.” She curled her nose. “All that shines makes my heart sing.”
“It’s cold. I’m going to grab a coffee.” I patted her on the back. “You’re dressed for Antarctica.”
“I’m getting out all my furs due to the storm of the century coming.” She shimmied proudly and ran her hand down the front of her coat with a twinkle in her eye. “Not just your Mama wants one of my fine furs.”
“Don’t tell me that you’re believing this weather forecast?” I questioned because Lulu McClain was one that didn’t let anyone pull the wool over her eyes. “Of all people in this town, I didn’t figure you’d fall for it.”
“Honey,” her Southern accent made her response so much more charming, “I’ll give it to you that the weather people on the television are probably about ninety-nine percent wrong, but I do believe with the way the clouds are shifting and the wind is breezing, they might’ve gotten that one percent right this time.” She shivered and wiggled her shoulders. “Can’t you feel it?”
“Nope. Not one bit.” I shrugged and wasn’t about to give into the fact that she had her faith in the one percent.
“Put your nose in the air and smell it.” She jutted her chin out and up, taking the biggest inhale. “Agggghhhhhh,” she released it. “I can smell it and I can see it.” She dragged her hands out in front of her. “The freshly fallen snow that blankets Cottonwood in all its sparkling splendor. The real thick snow that the kiddos can pack into the tallest snowmen you’ve ever seen.” She elbowed me. “We haven’t had a snow like that since you were a youngin’.”
“I remember.” It wasn’t a fond memory either. “Mama decided she needed to go to Dixon’s Foodtown when Daddy told her not to. She threw me in the back of the family station wagon and backed out of the driveway and before she even got going the wagon slid back and hit a fire hydrant.”
Lulu’s brows furrowed.
“That’s when Graves’s Tow company came and got us out. I can hear daddy now,” I continued in my best dad voice, “‘Viv, I told you not to go out in this stuff, but you had to be nosy.’ Mama said, ‘no I wanted to get bread.’ Dad said back to her that she was wanting to make sure she wasn’t missing out on any gossip in the baking aisle. Then they fought over the big bill from Graves’s towing. Right here at Christmas time.” I shook my head. “I’m hoping the weather is still ninety-nine percent wrong.”
“We’ll see,” Lulu ho-hummed and gave me a wink as she walked away.
The line to the front of On the Run food truck was about five people deep. Each one greeted me with the typical nod and “mornin’ sheriff”. Of course, I was kind and asked how they were doing. Before I knew it, I’d gotten caught up on their lives and I made sure to ask them if they’d seen Leighann Graves. No one had and before you knew it, I was up to t
he front of the line where Jolee had my coffee poured and ready to go.
“You haven’t seen Leighann Graves around have you?” I asked.
Not that I’d expected Jolee to say yes or even that Leighann had stopped by the food truck. No stone unturned was the motto I liked to live by and you just never knew.
“I haven’t. I don’t even remember her ever coming here, but not that she wouldn’t today. It’s been a weird morning.” Jolee leaned over and out the window of the food truck. She turned her head right and left. “None of my regulars are here. I swear it’s this whole snow thing. Damn storm of the century.”
“There’s not going to be a storm.” I looked at her up under my brows. “You’re my best friend. You can at least agree with me.”
“Unn-hun, no way.” She shook her head. “You’re trying to bail out on our annual White Christmas girl’s night. I don’t want you leaving me for Christmas. Who cares about you leaving your Mama behind. It’s me you’re leaving behind.”
“Whatever. You’ve got Ben,” I said.
She wasn’t fooling me any, though she’d never bailed on a girlfriend night since she started dating Ben Harrison.
“Anyways, if you see Leighann let me know. She didn’t come home last night after she got into that fight with Manuel at the dance. She’ll turn up.” I was sure of it.
“I’m sure she will.” Jolee’s eyes moved past me and onto the next customer.
“Let’s go, Duke,” I called after my trusty sidekick.
There was just something about going to see someone early in the morning. It always felt like an intrusion. Was I waking them up? Catching them at a bad time? Were they going to work? Still in their pjs?”
As the sheriff, I had to put those feelings and silly notions aside and rely on intuition when I got there. I’d have Duke and my other trusty sidekick, my pistol.
The Libertys lived on the outskirts of the south side of town. I had to take interstate sixty-eight and take a left on Keene Road. Not that Keene was a bad area to live in, it was just a small community that stuck together. They were a tight-knit group of neighbors. The houses needed a lot of work, but they didn’t care. Most days you’d drive through Keene and everyone would be outside talking to the neighbors.
The Libertys’ home was a small brick home with a poured concrete front porch slab. The Christmas lights hung around the door were barren and missing a couple of twinkles every couple of bulbs. The doorbell hung out from the brick and barely hung on by the wires that attached it. I knocked a few times since getting electrocuted wasn’t on my Christmas list.
“What you want?” Juanita Liberty stood at the door. Her massive head of black hair was piled up on the top of her head and falling down on the sides. There were bags underneath her eyes.
“Sheriff,” Manual pushed past his Mama and out the front door. Beka Durst, Angela’s daughter was standing in the background with Juanita’s other son, Jonathan. Manuel tugged on his Cottonwood high school sweat shirt. “Did you go look for Leighann?”
“Leighann?” Juanita’s nose turned up like she smelled a fart. “What’s she done now? Not that getting you to quit football and stay in this god-forsaken town your whole life after I uprooted our family to give you a better life was enough.”
“Leighann Graves?” Beka asked with a concerned look. “Is she okay?”
“Who cares?” Juanita said over her shoulder.
“Don’t mind her.” Manual pulled the door shut behind him with Juanita still fussing about how much she disliked Leighann to Beka and Jonathon.
This was the exact reason I didn’t want to come here this morning, but I was elected to do a job.
“I’m guessing you haven’t seen her?” I asked. By the looks of him, he’d been up all night.
“No. And it’s unlike her when we have a fight for her not to come running back or at least give me more of a piece of her mind until we make up.” He blinked his big brown eyes. His lips turned down. “I love her, sheriff, I do.”
“I’m not sure what your fight was about last night, but publicly fighting or fighting at all wasn’t the brightest idea.” It was my opportunity to mother him a smidgen since it appeared his mother hadn’t. “What was the fight about?” I asked.
“Just stuff. Mean girl stuff.” He shrugged.
“Your Mama really doesn’t like Leighann?” I asked and nodded towards the only front window where Juanita was watching us and yammering on a mile a minute about what I could guess was still Leighann.
“She’s mad that I’ve decided to stay here in Cottonwood and not go play college football, but that’s not Leighann’s fault. Leighann told me to go. Encouraged me. But I just don’t want to. Even her parents have finally gotten to the point where they can tolerate me.” He gave a weak smile. “Now this,” he swallowed hard and choked back the lump that seemed to have gotten in his throat.
“Do you have any idea where she might’ve gone?” I gave suggestions only to get head shakes. “Friends? Old flame? Family member?”
“None of those that I know of. I went through her phone before I gave it to her parents to see if she got any calls, but she didn’t. No messages. Me and her are inseparable.” He let out a long sigh.
“What about Chimney Rock?” I asked, wondering if she were sitting down there right now with her heat on, Christmas tunes cranked and just waiting them out for a few hours.
“No. We always made plans to go down there, but not during the winter and certainly not with this big blizzard coming.” His words made me glare at him.
There’s not going to be a blizzard, were the words that formed a bitter taste in my mouth, but instead of saying them out loud, I said, “Sean did say that she’d stopped going on tow runs with you.” Not that I suspected he knew where she was, but it would give an indication if she was mad and staying away for a little. “And it’s not unlike her to not to come home.”
“When she didn’t come home, she was with me.” He was getting fidgety. “We’d tell them if she wasn’t coming home so they wouldn’t worry, even though we didn’t have to anymore since she is an adult.”
“There wasn’t a place that the two of you went that you’re not remembering?” I asked.
“No. No. No.” He looked down and shuffled his feet. “As for work, just recently she started to say that it wasn’t good for us to work together all the time. I didn’t know what that meant. She said something about how she didn’t want us to be like her parents. I didn’t know what that meant either. I figured her parents got in a fight and her mom said something about putting up with Sean all her life, like she always throws that in his face and Leighann would open up when she was ready to.” He paused, “Maybe she’s getting sick of me,” his voice cracked.
“If you remember anything or any place she might’ve gone, please call me. Or stop by the station.” I suggested.
He clearly needed someone to lean on, but I wasn’t a therapist. I barely got my own relationship going a year or so ago, no way could I help out anyone else.
“You better be careful out there, Sheriff,” he said. “The news just said that storm of the century is headed right towards us.”
“I’ll be fine,” I smiled but silently cursed the weather person, “I can guarantee that storm will shift right before it’s due to hit and we won’t see nary a flake.”
“Huh.” Manuel scratched his head. “You’re the authority, I guess you should know.”
“Let me know if you hear from Leighann.” I tugged the Wagoneer door open a little harder than normal. The last time I had to do that was when my Poppa had come to get me during that snow storm Lulu had mentioned earlier.
Poppa told me to tug because the chill lingering in the air made the old Wagoneer door stick a little. He also told me that’s how he knew the storm was coming.
“Good boy,” I ran my hand down Duke because he stayed
on his side of the Jeep when I got in and didn’t try to jump out.
I looked up to the sky. My jaw tensed.
“Okay,” I said my prayer out loud, “Poppa, if you can hear me, right now is the time.” Most times, I’d summon him when I was trying to solve a murder and he’d conveniently disappear. This time I needed that storm to shift. “Blow on that storm. Don’t let that storm hit here.”
Duke leaned over and gave me a big lick across my cheek, bringing me back to my senses.
“You’re right.” I laughed. “I’m acting nuts. There’s not a storm coming,” I assured myself.
If only I believed myself.
Chapter Four
“Something smells good today.” I stepped into Cowboy’s Catfish after parking the Wagoneer in front of the restaurant on Main Street. “I could smell it as soon as I got out of my car.” I patted my stomach.
“Mornin’ Sheriff,” Bartleby Fry, owner of Cowboy’s Catfish, was busy wiping off one of the tables next to the door. “That’ll be the special this mornin’. Kentucky round steak and scrambled eggs.” He threw the damp cloth over his shoulder and reached down to pat Duke. “I’ve got you something special.”
“Just a nibble,” I warned Bartleby. “We are both getting fat with all this cooking.” I patted my stomach and teased on my way back to the department. Though I do love me some Kentucky round steak and eggs, which was just a fancy name for fried bologna. “You send Duke back to the department when he starts to get on your nerves.”
The back room in Cowboy’s Catfish restaurant was where the Cottonwood Sheriff’s department was located. To some that might be strange, but not for a small town in Kentucky. After all, we had a movie theatre in Luke Jones’s basement along with the town hall meetings. Our entire town seemed weird, but it was quaint to us.
“Good morning,” I chirped when I walked into the office with my cup of coffee in one hand and my bag in the other.
There was a man lounging in Finn’s chair. He looked super comfortable all leaned back with his hands folded together across his belly.