by Tonya Kappes
At this point, I’d had my fill of Mr. Shep and I would let him deal with the arguing that Mama and Viola seemed to be involved in on stage left as I dismissed myself and made my way back to the far end of the fairground where I could see rows of trees all tied up to different tomato stakes. Above the trees there were strung twinkling Christmas lights that outlined the entire tree lot.
On the side of the lot, I could see Darnell’s truck pulled up with the lift gate down. There were a few boys hauling freshly cut trees out of the back of it. Kenneth Chalk, the football coach, had his whistle in his mouth and was directing the boys where to go with the firs.
“You’re like a drill sergeant,” I joked when Coach came to greet me after he saw me walking up.
“Gotta be strict with these young men or they jump out of line real quick.” He put his hand out for me to shake. “Sheriff, how are you?” A knit stocking hat covered up his bald head.
“You know. Same old, same old.” I tucked my hands in the pocket of my jacket. “It could be a little warmer though.”
“Oh no,” he shook his head. “Perfect for a white Christmas.”
“You and I both know that weather around here changes with the wind.” I hated to see everyone get their hopes up about this big snow storm that never was going to happen.
“Even so, you better pick you out a nice tree to look at over the next week or so because if we do get that big snow storm, you won’t be leaving your house for days.” His brows furrowed. “I guess you might somehow since you’re the sheriff and could get some calls.”
“I’m not going to need a big tree this year. I’m actually going to take a little vacation.” I watched the boys to see if I recognized them from the dance.
“Vacation? At Christmas?” He acted as if it was the strangest thing he’d ever heard. “I thought your Mama was in the running for Snow Queen.”
“I’m going to go meet Finn’s family in Chicago. I guess I’m going to miss the big crowning.” The girl I’d seen arguing with Manuel had walked up to one of the boys hauling trees out of Coach’s truck. It wasn’t polite to walk away from Coach, so I watched her every move.
“That’ll break your mama’s heart. That’s none of my business. But she’ll make it everyone’s business.” A hint of a smile made the corner of his lip turn up.
“I’m actually here to see you.” I watched the girl hastily talking to the boy. He jerked his arm away from her and she stormed off into the tree lot, leaving him to do his job. “I wanted to know if you knew of anything strange with one of your old and current players.”
“You’re referring to the Libertys.” He rolled his eyes. “At least Sean Graves isn’t here this year to ruin our fundraiser. Is this about the Graves girl?” He asked. “I sure hated to hear that she was found in the river. Do you think an animal ran out in front of her?”
“I’m not sure, but I’d love to get your take on the Liberty home situation,” I said.
“You asking about Manuel turning down his college opportunity?” He asked, and I nodded. “Well, if he were my boy, I’d made him take it, but his mam doesn’t have no control over those boys.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Them two boys of hers run around all night. Take Jonathon for instance. He’s a good player and he might be better than Manuel, but he can’t keep up with his grades or keep his head on straight. I went to Juanita and told her but she’s so distraught over Manuel and the Graves girl, she didn’t want to discuss either of her other two boys.” He leaned in. “Over the past couple of days, I’ve never seen the woman so happy. She’s been here volunteering and singing. She don’t care one bit that her boy is trying to mend a broken heart over his girlfriend’s death. Beats me.” He shrugged.
“Your Mama makes the best fruit cakes.” He pointed to his truck. Mama must’ve been up to her tricks of giving out her famous sweets for a vote for Snow Queen. “She brought me one this morning. Good woman your Mama is. Anyways, for your sake, I hope you get out of here in time for your vacation. You sure do deserve it.” His eyes softened. “Now what about that sheriff’s department donation this year?”
During the year, the sheriff’s department, the three of us (Me, Finn and Betty), always put our spare change in a big ole glass whiskey jar that sat on the ground. At the end of each year we liked to pick a charity to donate the saved money to, and generally we had around five hundred dollars which wasn’t bad for some change.
“You know, I need to check with Betty Murphy on that.”
He dragged his stocking cap off his head and rubbed it.
“Alright. You stop on down to the department and pick up your annual donation,” I told him and took my hands out of my pocket.
I rubbed them vigorously. I swore the air was even ten degrees colder since I’d been standing here.
“Is that the Palmer girl over there with Beka Durst?” I questioned the coach since I knew he knew all the kids in school while I took my phone out of my back pocket and quickly texted Betty to write a check out to Cottonwood High School for our annual donation.
“Yeah. She came back this year to help with the lot while home from college. She’s a sweet girl.” He pinched his lips. “I’m not sure what happened, but she and the Graves girl used to be real close.”
“I’d heard that. It was great talking with you. Good luck.” I gestured to the trees. “I’m gonna pick me out one before I get out of here.”
The carolers had moved around while I’d been shooting the breeze with Coach. At least during our conversation, I’d found out that Juanita had almost completely taken over as the head volunteer over the past couple of days.
I watched Mama as she walked over to the food truck, this time with a big sash diagonal across her body that read “Snow Princess” in gold glitter.
I hurried inside of the trees before Mama could see me because if she did get a minute to corner me, she’d asked all about the Graves and I wasn’t prepared to make a statement just yet.
The young girl I wanted to talk to was out sitting at the card table with Beka. A metal money box that I’d seen at many of the gates of the Cottonwood High School home football games was on top of the table.
“Hi, Beka,” I greeted her. “How’s your Mama doing?”
“She’s fine,” she answered. Her hair was pulled up in a high ponytail like the other little cheerleaders running around. “She’s busy running the tow company while the Graves take off a few days. You know, for the memorial and all.” She looked at Rachel and frowned.
“Are you going to the memorial?” Rachel asked Beka.
“If mom gets the work done. She’s got to log the mileage on the tows and keep them filled with gas, which takes up a lot of time.”
Mileage? Her word circled my brain when it flicked my gut.
“You’re thinking now.” Poppa ghosted next to a small fir tree that stood up next to the girl’s table. “This is perfect for your house this year. Plus, I know mileage could tell if one of the Graves’s tow trucks was used the night of Leighann’s murder.” Poppa’s thoughts were all over the place.
He took the words right out of my mouth, on both, and I tucked that thought in the back of my head.
“She’s doing a good thing.” I confirmed. I turned my eyes upon the girl with her. “Are you Rachel Palmer?” I asked the girl.
“Yes.” She looked at Beka and they both shrugged at each other.
“I’m Sheriff Lowry and I wanted to know if I could talk to you about Leighann Graves.” Both girls’ eyes grew big.
“Sure.” She and Beka could pass as twins. Both had on the varsity letter jacket that had “cheerleader” sewn on the back. “I’ll be right back.”
I couldn’t help but notice Beka grab her phone and start texting. I was sure she was letting all the kids in high school know I was going to talk to Rachel.
They even had on the same eye shadow, lipstick and hair pulled back as tight as bark on a tree in a high ponytail.
“Would you like a hot chocolate?” I asked after we walked out of the tree lot and I noticed Mama was no long at the food truck. One of Jolee Fischer’s homemade fudgy hot chocolates with mini-marshmallows sounded really good about right now.
“I’d love one if you’re paying because I have no cash whatsoever. If I didn’t have to work this stupid tree lot for the team, I’d be home in my warm bed. Poor college kid.” Rachel Palmer was no different than Leighann Graves. No wonder they were friends.
“I thought you were volunteering?” I asked.
“I am, but Coach usually gives out a little gift card at the end. I sure could use it,” she said.
“Sheriff,” Jolee’s eyes skimmed over me and focused on the girl. “Hi, Rachel. I’m sorry to hear about Leighann.”
“Yeah, me too,” The girl replied. “I’ll have a hot chocolate on her.”
“Okay.” Jolee’s eyes got big and when she directed her attention to me, I nodded. “Two?”
“Two and extra marshmallows.” I held my fingers in the air. “Why don’t we go sit under the shelter where they are holding the Snow Queen pageant?”
Rachel shrugged.
“Do you mind bringing us the drinks?” I asked Jolee.
“Nope. It’ll be a second. My fudge is in the oven.” She looked behind me. “Can I help you?” she asked the next person in line behind me and Rachel.
We headed over to the shelter where there were picnic tables in the back. The front was already filled with folding chairs in anticipation of the tree lighting.
“There’s the tree.” Rachel pointed to the truck hauling a hitched trailer with a big pine tree on it. “We also get to decorate it.”
“The team?” I asked, and we sat down on the very far right picnic table closest to the food truck.
“Yeah. Leighann loved doing that when we were cheerleaders.” She gave a slight grin as if she was having the memory play in her head. Her arms propped up on the table.
“I saw the two of you arguing at the Hunt Club dance.” She stared at me with blank eyes as I talked. “Can you tell me about it?”
“I’m so upset that she’s dead, but she’s the one who changed everything.” Rachel sat back and put her hands in the letter jacket front pockets.
“How so?” I asked.
“She and I were going to go to Bluegrass College together last year. We had it all planned out. The sorority we were going to join. The dorm where we were going to live. Matching bedding and all the fun monogramed stuff. Then,” she rolled her eyes, “Manuel Liberty got buff and decided he could be the football star and steal her heart.” Her words held a real bitter tone.
“Is that a problem?” I asked.
“It is when my boyfriend was the head football star and supposed to get a full scholarship to Bluegrass College. Then Bluegrass College decided to look at Manuel instead. That became a real problem. Neither of our boyfriends could stand the other. It didn’t help that Manuel is a bit of a bully.” She rambled on and stopped when Jolee walked over with the steaming cups of hot chocolate.
“Here you go.” She sat down a baggie full of marshmallows. “Extra goodness.”
“Thanks,” I said and handed Rachel the bag first. Jolee walked back to her truck. “What does this have to do with you and Leighann?”
“She decided that she wanted to go with Manuel since she started dating him.” Slowly she stirred the hot chocolate with the wooden stir and blew on the steamy goodiness.
“Both decided not to go to college. Why?” I asked about the new name she threw in.
“Whatever Manuel wanted, Leighann wanted too.” She said it in that duh kind of way that made me thank god I wasn’t a teenager. She pulled out her phone. “How long is this little talk of ours going to take? Beka needs me.”
“You and Beka close?” I asked.
“We’re friends. I didn’t hang with her much in high school since she’s a year younger.” She threw some more marshmallows in the cup.
“It looks like there’s a lot of boys that can help her manage.” I wanted to ask her some more questions. “Can you tell me what you and Leighann were arguing about at the dance?”
“Last year when she worked up the nerve to tell her parents, who by the way are head cases,” she put her hands in the air to get her point across, “that she wasn’t going to college. She was going to take a gap year. That’s when I realized she was leaving me high and dry to go to Bluegrass by myself. It was too late to get a roommate at that point, so I had to go with an unknown. The worst.”
“What was the fight about the other night?” I couldn’t understand how she could lose me so fast. I’d ask her a question and she’d circle it back to nothing I needed to know.
“I’m trying to forget about that. Especially since it was the last time I’d talked to her,” Rachel’s voice cracked. “I ran into Leighann in the bathroom and when I ignored her, she got up in my business. I told her I had nothing to say to her since she ruined our plans. When I left the bathroom and saw her and Manuel making out by the punch bowl, I about barfed.” Her head was moving back and forth as she told the story as if she were right back in the situation. “I marched right back up to her and told her that I actually wanted to thank her for dumping me because I’d met a bunch of new friends and she didn’t have any because Manuel made sure she didn’t.” She shrugged and pressed her lips together, which evidently had a direct line to quirk her right brow, because she did this a lot when she talked. “I regret it.”
“You had no way of knowing that she was going to pass away.” I wanted to offer some sort of comfort, though I still had more questions. “He made her stop having friends?” I asked to clarify my thoughts. Before now, I thought Leighann had chosen to dump her friends.
“He’s a loser. After they started dating, she’d cancel our plans because Manuel didn’t want her to go or didn’t think she should do whatever it was we were going to do. I can’t believe she wasted what time on earth she had with him. I can’t even believe I was friends with her. When friends make promises, they keep them.” She brought her hand up to her head to push back a stray piece of hair that’d fallen out of the ponytail, exposing a tattoo heart on the fatty part of her thumb. Just like the one Leighann had.
“Tell me about your tattoo.” I pointed to her hand.
“It was a big mistake I’d made with Leighann. Now,” she spoke softly and ran her finger over it. “I will treasure it because we got it when we were the best of friends and before all this happened.” She gulped. “’Friends forever tattoos’ was what we called them.” She rubbed the tattoo like she was trying to rub it away. “After she ended our friendship, I wanted to get it removed. Actually,” She folded her hands between her knees, “Manuel is the one who ended our friendship.”
“Clearly, you’re still very hurt by it.” I watched her body language as she struggled with being upset and trying to hide it.
“How do you think you’d feel after you made all these plans and suddenly they were changed?” She asked. “While I was at school, I’d forgotten all about her. Now that I’d seen her and now that she’s dead, it’s all come back.” She stood up. “I’m super sad she’s dead because I’ll never ever get to make it right with her. I’m not sure I can live with that.”
“After your fight at the Christmas Cantata, where did you go?” I asked.
“That’s a whole nuther thing. I went home.” Her country accent deepened. “If I’d known my parents made me have a curfew when I came home after having freedom while away at college, I might not’ve come home for Christmas.”
“What time is your curfew?” I asked.
“Midnight,” she replied with a sarcastic tone. “Ridiculous. Like I’m some baby. Even Beka’s curfew is later and she’
s still in high school.”
“Before you go, how is your roommate in college now?” I asked.
“Great.” She frowned. “I’m not sure I’d have so many new friends if Leighann had gone with me. She’s a one-friend person and with my new roommate, we joined a sorority and we’ve met all sorts of people not from around here.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it. Bye, Rachel.” I waved, knowing in my heart that she didn’t kill Leighann even though I knew I’d be able to confirm where she was by tracking her phone that never left her hand and talking with her parents.
The tree fit the perfect length of the roof of the Wagoneer. Not too tall and not too short. Perfect for a little Christmas cheer while I was here. It was tied down nicely by Jonathon Liberty and Beka Durst.
“Thanks.” I gave them both a couple of ones for a tip. “It’s not much, but it’s something.”
“Man, every little bit helps with college.” Jonathon seemed grateful and stuck it in his pocket.
“I’ve been saving up for some new lipstick for my Mama for Christmas. This helps.” Beka stuck it in her pocket and walked away.
“Jonathan, I wanted to talk to you,” I said.
“Yeah. My mom told me you were going to question me about when we went all loaded up on old man Graves. We didn’t have any bullets.” He tried not to grin as he told the story. “That man is a jerk. I swear it was the guns that made him change his mind about my bro and Leighann.”
“How so?” I asked, restraining from reprimanding him.
“That’s the same week that Leighann told them she wasn’t going to college and she and Manuel had decided to stay in Cottonwood.” His eyes slid over to his mama’s. She was standing with a customer but looking at us. “Mom was so mad though.”
Jonathon gnawed on the side of his cheek as though he was trying to hold back something.
“Jonathan.” I reached out and touched his arm to bring him back to the present. “If there’s something you need to tell me, it’s safe with me.”