“He tossed his dirty underwear on the closet floor. We’re not lookin’ at a neat freak,” Jed countered.
“Maybe he was hidin’ something from housekeeping.”
“Maybe.” He moved over to the desk and leaned over the laptop. “Jackpot. The laptop has fingerprint recognition. We need to take it with us.” He opened the desk drawer, then glanced over his shoulder at me. “There’s an extra pair of gloves in my back pocket. Put ’em on and search the nightstand.”
I reached into his back pocket to retrieve the gloves, my fingers lingering longer than was appropriate.
Jed released a low groan. “You drive a man to distraction, Neely Kate.”
“Do I?” I asked with a hint of attitude as I tugged them out the rest of the way.
He glanced back at me in surprise. “You think you don’t?”
I walked over to the nightstand. “Now is not the time to have this discussion, Jed.”
“Neely Kate.” He turned fully around to face me.
I shook my head. “Not now.”
There was nothing on top of the nightstand, so I opened the drawer. “I found his car key fob.”
“He didn’t have one on him,” Jed said. “Anything else?”
I noticed a piece of paper in the nightstand drawer underneath the fob. I gasped when I realized it was a note and who it was from.
“What did you find?”
I picked up the paper and read, “Following the breadcrumbs. Be sure to find your prize and remember what happened to Gretel.” My gaze lifted to his. “Love, Kate.”
“She signed this one?”
I nodded.
“She wanted you to come here. What prize?” He spun at the waist, glancing around the room. “She’s hidden something here for you.” He returned to the suitcase. “Search everything.”
“What do you think we’re lookin’ for?”
“I have no fuckin’ idea,” he growled, but I knew he wasn’t upset with me, at least not directly. This particular frustration was directed toward my sister.
I searched the nightstand then the bathroom as Jed took everything out of the suitcase and searched the pockets of both the bag and the clothing.
“Nothing in the bathroom,” I said a minute later. “I even searched the inside of the back of the toilet.”
I checked the pockets of the clothes in the closet; then we both checked all the drawers and behind the artwork and mirror on the wall, then under the TV. When that didn’t turn up anything, we tugged back the bedding and the pillows, leaving nothing but the mattress.
“Surely it’s not the panties,” I said in disgust, although I wouldn’t put it past her.
Jed stared at the bed for a second, then grabbed the side of the mattress and lifted up.
There in the middle of the bed frame was a large manila envelope with my name written in Kate’s scrolling script.
I snatched up the thick packet and Jed lowered the mattress.
“There must be fifty pages in here,” I said as I opened the flap and pulled out the contents. On top was another handwritten note in Kate’s script.
Since what happened on a bed is what got us both here, it seemed fitting to hide this under Chad’s. I think you’ll particularly like the tabbed section. ;)
“Who’s Chad?” I asked.
Jed hesitated a moment. “Pearce Manchester’s brother.”
My gaze jerked up to his. “So Chad Manchester is who’s really in my basement?”
His expression was dark. “I don’t know. It seems more likely that Manchester hired the guy in your basement.”
My blood ran cold as I flipped to the next page—it was a private investigator’s report from a firm in Little Rock, who according to the documents, had been hired by Kate to look into the activities of Neely Kate Rivers in Ardmore, Oklahoma, seven years prior.
I sat on the mattress, and Jed sat next to me and watched in silence as I started flipping through pages. Interviews with Beasley, Branson, and Stella. None of them had told the investigator anything about Pearce Manchester, but they had told the investigator that I’d slept with a lot of men for money while working at a strip club. And that I’d abruptly left town and they’d never heard from me again. The investigator had even tried to talk to Zelda, but she’d told them to go to hell. The date listed suggested it was the guy who had come to ask her questions a few months prior. There was a separate document, not part of the investigator’s report, detailing Kate’s visit to Beasley in prison last fall. She’d asked about my involvement in his accident, and he’d been cagey with his response, then told her to ask me about the azaleas. While he didn’t confirm I’d been part of something more damning than his DUI, he also didn’t deny it.
Next was a page with a plastic sticky tab on top. It was another private investigator’s summary, this one from a firm in Virginia, hired to investigate Jenny Lynn Rivers.
My mother.
In the pages that followed were multiple photos of my mother over the past two decades—some including photos of me when I was a child—and a list of her whereabouts covering from the time she’d been in Ardmore to dumping me off, and her five-year-long cross-country trip to the East Coast until she’d settled in West Virginia.
The last pages were a transcript of my mother’s conversation with Kate last fall, which had apparently been recorded. The lines of the bottom of the last page caught my eye.
Kate: Neely Kate’s pregnant, what do you think of that? You’re gonna be a grandmother, Jenny Lynn.
Jenny Lynn Rivers: Tell her to get rid of it while she still can. It’s a hell of a lot harder to ditch ’em after they’re born.
Kate: Any other message you want me to tell her?
Jenny Lynn Rivers: Tell her… (Long, tearful pause.) I know she’ll never get rid of it. She’s got more love in her pinky toe than I’ve got in my whole damn body. (Long pause while she lights another cigarette.) She’ll be a better mother than I ever will, but don’t tell her that. She needs to be free of me for good. Don’t tell her where I am. Just let her live her life. (Another pause.) Unless she comes into some Simmons money… if she does, let me know and I’ll ask her for a payoff to leave her alone.
**End Interview**
Jed wrapped an arm around my upper back, cupping my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Neely Kate.”
I brushed a tear from my cheek with the back of my wrist. “That was sixty seconds we didn’t have time to waste.” I got to my feet, leaving Jed’s arm to fall to his side. “We need to get the laptop back to the farm and get it opened so we can see what Neil Franken found and hopefully find out Chad Manchester’s connection to all of this.”
“But what you read about your mother… you can’t just sweep that under the rug.”
I turned back to him with a glare. “My mother is a worthless parasite. As far as I’m concerned, she’s dead.”
If only I could get my heart to agree.
“Okay,” he said as he stood. “Let’s take the key fob and try to figure out which car this belongs to, then do a quick search.” He snatched it from the drawer and slid it into his pocket.
The hall was empty when we left the room. Jed carried the laptop under his arm, and I held on to the envelope. We took off our gloves and stuck them in our pockets, then headed down the long hall to the stairwell by the back door we’d come in through, not encountering anyone the entire way.
When we walked outside, I held out my hand. “Give me the key. I should be the one to search his car. No one will recognize me in this wig.”
The look on Jed’s face suggested he wanted to disagree but couldn’t. “Fine, but call me when you get inside.”
I nodded and put my glove back on my right hand. He pulled out the key fob with a glove and placed it in my hand. “We’ll talk about that report later.”
I responded in a chilly tone. “I’ve wasted years pining over that woman, and she doesn’t want anything to do with me. What’s there to discuss?”
Sympathy fill
ed his eyes. “Neely Kate.”
I straightened my back. “We have much bigger fish to fry. I’m gonna check out his car.”
I clicked the lock button on the key fob several times, glancing around, and searched out the car’s beeping response. There it was, a sedan parked at the opposite end of the lot from where we’d parked.
“Start inside, then check the trunk,” he said, still looking concerned.
I nodded and started to walk away, but he grabbed my wrist and hauled me back, staring down at my face. “You deserve better than what your mother has given you.”
I shook my head, turning away. “I’m not doin’ this right now.”
Or ever. But if I tacked that one on, he’d likely try to continue the conversation.
I tugged free and walked over to the car. A quick click on the key fob unlocked the door, but as I reached for the driver’s door handle, I stopped short. Glancing back at Jed who was striding toward his car, I pulled out my phone and called him.
“I think this was where Neil Franken was taken. There’s blood on the ground and on the car door.”
“Take photos, then go around to the other side.”
“Are you sure?”
“We need to check out his car. He could have notes inside. We don’t want to leave anything that could tie this to you behind.”
I grimaced. “Okay.”
“Let me do it, NK.”
“No,” I said more forcefully than I’d intended. “It’s my mess, I’ll clean it up.” I switched over to my photo app and snapped a few pics, then walked around the front of the car and got inside the passenger side, keeping Jed on the line as I pulled on my other glove. “I don’t see anything out in the open.” I opened the glove compartment and pulled out the registration paperwork. “The car belongs to Chad Manchester. Why would this guy be driving his client’s car?”
“Good question. Get photos of that too. Anything else?”
I moved the car manual to the side. “The glove box is clean.” I snapped photos of the registration, then folded down the sun visors. “I found some convenience store receipts.”
“Do they give locations?” Jed said.
“Ardmore. Texarkana. Both for gas and snacks.”
“We can set up locations and times he was there. Get photos of those too. Anything else?”
The edge of a small white card was tucked into a pocket in the driver’s visor, which had been hidden by the receipts. “There’s something in the visor pocket.” I reached up and tugged it out. “Oh crap. It’s a driver’s license.”
“Whose?”
I leaned closer. “Chad Manchester.”
“Does the photo look like the guy in the basement? He could have multiple identities.”
I stared at the license, fear racing through my blood. This guy looked nothing like the man in my basement and a whole lot like the man I’d killed in Ardmore.
“Neely Kate?”
I shuddered and tried to get myself together. “No. He’s not in my basement. Chad Manchester is younger and thinner than that guy.” I paused. “Chad Manchester looks a lot like his brother.”
“Shit,” Jed muttered. “I’ve got a really bad feelin’ about this. Get photos of the receipts and license, then get out of there.”
“Let me check the rest of the car.”
“Fuck the rest of the car. Get the photos and get out, Neely Kate.”
There was no way I was leaving behind anything that could tie me to this. I felt under both seats and glanced in the backseat. “I’m already done checking. Nothing else.”
“Then get your photos and come back to my car.”
“What about the trunk?”
“Skip the trunk.”
I switched on the camera app and snapped the photos. After I put everything back, I held the phone up to my ear. “I got it.”
“Good. Get back here and let’s go.”
I slid out of the passenger seat and pressed the lock button on the key fob, but as I started to head toward the front of the car, I had second thoughts. “I’m already here, Jed. I’m gonna check the trunk.”
“Okay,” he said, not sounding happy about it. “But don’t snoop around the space. Just do a quick glance, take a photo if you see something, then get over here. I’m tellin’ you, something feels off. We need to go.”
“Do you think someone’s watchin’ us?”
“No, and I’ve been lookin’.”
I took a deep breath as I pushed the trunk button, eager to be done with this, but I instantly regretted it as something putrid hit my nose.
“Oh, my stars and garters.” I’d encountered that smell at Granny’s after a cat had died in the barn. That was not a good sign.
“What’s wrong?” Jed asked.
I steeled myself as I rounded the back end of the car.
There in the trunk was a man with his ankles bound and his wrists tied behind his back with zip ties. There were at least a dozen large clear plastic bags covering his damp short-sleeved dress shirt and jeans. If I had any doubt he was dead, the bullet hole in the middle of his forehead convinced me otherwise. But it was his face that made me shudder. It was ashy gray and slightly bloated, but it was still like looking at a ghost.
“There’s good news and bad news,” I said. “I found Chad Manchester, but he’s definitely dead.”
Chapter 13
“Close the trunk and get over here,” Jed said, his voice tense. “Now.”
I did as he said, mostly because I didn’t want to be here either.
As soon as I got in the car, he held out a gloved hand. “Key.”
I handed it to him and he pulled the glove inside out, with the fob still inside, then tossed it into the already-open glove compartment. I was still fumbling with my seat belt as he pulled out of the space.
We rode for nearly a minute in silence. I had no idea what Jed was thinking about, but I couldn’t get that smell or that image of dead Chad Manchester out of my head.
It took me a second to realize Jed had said something. “What?”
“Call Joe.”
Oh. Lord. That was gonna be a difficult call. “He’s gonna blow a gasket.”
“I need to talk to him.” He sounded nervous, which made me even more nervous. “Put it on speaker.”
I pulled out my phone and called my brother. The phone rang and as soon as Joe answered, he said, “Everything okay?”
“We found more than we bargained for,” Jed said before I could respond.
Joe waited a second, then said, “I take it that it wasn’t all good.”
“The laptop has fingerprint recognition. We brought it with us.”
“Were you seen?”
Jed gave me a quick glance, then said, “No. There were signs that Kate had been in the room… or at least that she had someone play errand runner for her.”
“What did she leave?”
“Another note,” I said. “And a present.”
“Shit, it wasn’t a body, was it?”
I sucked in a breath.
“Neely Kate?” he asked when I remained quiet, his worry coming through loud and clear.
“No,” I said. “Kate left me a package under the mattress—the PI reports from her search in Ardmore and tracking down my mother in West Virginia.”
“That’s good, I guess,” Joe said in a hopeful tone. “Why do I think there’s something else you haven’t told me yet?”
Jed piped up. “We found his car key in the room and searched his car in the parking lot.”
“And?”
“The car belongs to Chad Manchester. Pearce Manchester’s brother.”
“So the guy in Neely Kate’s basement is Chad Manchester?”
“No,” I said. “Chad Manchester is currently dead in the trunk of his car.”
Joe let out a long list of obscenities, some used in creative ways I’d never heard before. “You’re positive no one saw you?”
“I was the one who searched the car,” I said.
“I was wearing my wig.”
“That didn’t answer my question, now did it?”
“She wasn’t seen,” Jed said. “I was watching. No one walked out, and I didn’t see anyone lookin’ out the windows. It was parked in the back, so no one on the street saw us. This hotel is known for its faulty security cameras, so I’ll make sure there was a glitch while we were back there.”
“Somehow that doesn’t make me feel much better,” he said sarcastically.
“We still have the key,” Jed said. “We’re bringin’ it back with us.”
Joe was silent for so long I thought he’d hung up, but he finally said, “I’ve got to think this through.”
“We need to find out who owned that laptop,” Jed said. “It could have been Manchester’s.”
“Yeah,” Joe said. “Get back here and we’ll go through it. I’ve found a few things from the phone, but I still don’t know who Franken’s supposed to meet at noon.”
“We’ve still got a few hours to figure it out,” I said. “If nothing else, we go and see if we recognize who shows up.”
“You won’t be goin’ anywhere,” Joe said in an authoritative tone. “Not with Kate on the loose.”
“We’ll discuss it when I get back.” I hung up.
Jed shot me a dark look. “You’ll pay for that.”
“And I’ll likely be payin’ for a lot more before this is all said and done.”
His hand covered mine. “Not if I can help it.”
Jed drove out of town and turned onto the county road that led to the farm. As I watched the scenery go by, I said, “If only we could contact Kate.”
He was quiet for a second, then sat up straighter. “Wait. We can.”
I turned to face him. “How?”
“The burner phone we brought her. I wrote down the number in case she tried to call and harass you. We’d know it was her.” He handed me his phone. “It’s in a note.” He used his thumbprint to open it, then handed it to me. “But don’t call her yet. Let’s give this some thought before we do anything. Kate does everything for a reason, and calling her might play right into her hands… or set her off.”
In High Cotton: Neely Kate Mystery #2 Page 12