“Joe!”
“It could help pinpoint how long he’d been dead. It wasn’t that hot last night or even yesterday, so it might be a fair ballpark assessment. How bad did he stink?” he repeated.
I cringed. “Bad.”
“Was his face bloated?”
I shuddered. “Some, but I recognized him from his driver’s license and his resemblance to his brother.”
Joe frowned. “So recent. Kate could have had it done.”
“Wait,” I said, holding up my index finger. “His clothes were wet and there were a bunch of empty plastic bags around him.”
“What?”
“I was too shocked at the time to realize what I’d been lookin’ at, but I think they’d been giant bags of ice.”
Joe’s eyes flew open as he took a step closer. “Someone put ice on him to slow down his decomposition.”
“But who?” I asked. “Kate or Neil Franken?”
Joe stared into the living room for a moment as though focusing on the artwork on the wall. “My gut says Franken.” He turned his gaze to mine. “And it’s not me protectin’ Kate. She’s capable of some truly awful things, as evidenced by the body in your basement and all the disaster she orchestrated back in February.”
“I should have had the presence of mind to get some photos,” I said. “I was just so shocked and Jed was in my ear tellin’ me to close the trunk and get out of there.”
Joe looked stricken. “Tell me you were wearin’ gloves.”
I could have blasted him for accusing me of being such an amateur, but I’d give him this one. “I was. And wearin’ my wig too.”
He pushed out a long breath. “Thank God.”
While Joe grabbed the muffins and cups for the coffee, I didn’t waste time jumping in to study the neatly written notes on the legal pad, which didn’t have much information I didn’t already know. “We’re sure this is Neil Franken’s phone?” I asked. “Jed said the computer is Chad Manchester’s.”
“I’m sure it’s Franken’s,” Joe said. “I looked in the settings. His name and email address are in there. Poke around and see what you can find.”
“And will you share what you find?” I asked.
His gaze held mine. “This is about you, Neely Kate. You deserve to know what I find.”
I started on the photos first. The last photo was of me the night before at the farm, then lots of photos of earlier in the day. I noticed that he hadn’t gotten any photos of me and Jed or our trip to Little Rock. The first photo he’d taken of me had been two days ago. The photos before that were from Ardmore. There were the photos Jed mentioned—Stella’s apartment complex, she and Branson and baby Crystal at the fast-food restaurant. Zelda’s trailer. But there were others. Beasley at work at the hardware store. Photos of the strip club where I’d worked.
Oh. Crap.
I told myself not to freak out. Pearce Manchester was supposed to have been in the audience to watch me dance the night he bought me. If Franken had been following Pearce Manchester’s trail, he would have followed him there. But how had Pearce gotten from the strip club to the house Branson had rented? What had happened to his car?
And why were they looking into me? Someone had talked. Who?
I grabbed my cell phone and called Zelda. Joe looked up from his computer as I put the ringing phone on speaker, but he didn’t question me.
“Hey, Miss Zelda,” I said when she answered. “It’s Neely Kate.”
“I was just thinkin’ about you a few days ago,” she said good-naturedly.
My heart skipped a beat. Had she thought of me because Neil Franken had paid her a visit? “That’s why I’m callin’.”
“You’re psychic now?” she asked with a chuckle.
“No…” I grinned despite my fear. “I was wondering if anyone had been back to ask you any more questions about me.”
She hesitated. “No strangers have been round, but Stella dropped by with her baby.”
I picked up my pen. “Oh, really? What day was that?”
“A couple of days ago. She said she came by so I could see that baby of hers, but I saw right through her when she started askin’ what I knew about you and that handsome man you was with when you saw me.”
“So Wednesday?” I asked.
“Yep. Wednesday afternoon.”
I wrote down Wednesday afternoon. “I hate to be nosy, but what did she say?”
“You’re not bein’ nosy,” she said. “It’s always good to keep up with what Stella’s up to. She wanted to know where you were livin’ now and if I had an address or phone number.”
“Did you give it to her?”
“I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck, young lady. I knew she was up to no good. I told her I didn’t know.”
“Did she say anything else?”
“She told me that a social worker had been comin’ round to check on the baby. She thinks you had something to do with it.”
I sure wasn’t confessin’ Jed had been responsible. “How did Crystal look? Was she clean?”
“Clean enough,” Zelda said with a sigh. “But Stella’s been usin’ again. I could tell. I have no idea how she’s gettin’ that past the social worker, but then maybe she works at pretendin’ more with the social worker than she does with me. She knows I’ll tolerate crap I wouldn’t tolerate before on account of that poor baby.”
“Did she say anything about Crystal’s father?”
“As a matter of fact, she did. She said he’d come back from wherever he’d gone, and they were about to come into some money.”
My gaze lifted to Joe’s concerned face. That didn’t sound good. “Did Stella mention where that money was comin’ from?”
“She said the two of them had some deal in the works.”
“Did she say how soon this deal would go through?”
“Just soon.”
I felt the blood rush from my head. “Did she say anything else?”
“She complained that her mother’s not helpin’ with the baby. And that her sister won’t have anything to do with her. She asked me to watch her baby so she could do a few bartender shifts.”
“She got a job bartendin’?”
Zelda let out a loud snort. “She ain’t bartendin’. She’s strippin’, although I asked her why she’s takin’ on a new job if her ship’s comin’ in. She said it had something to do with the deal.”
What would stripping or bartending have to do with Chad Manchester or Neil Franken looking for me? “So are you watchin’ Crystal for her?”
“Of course I am. I wouldn’t put it past that fool to leave that sweet baby alone in that apartment while she takes her clothes off for dollar bills.”
I couldn’t help cringing. I’d taken my clothes off for dollar bills. “If I was closer, I’d help take care of her.”
“I know you would, sweet girl, and I could use your help. She dropped her baby off last night, and she won’t answer her phone today,” she grumbled. “She’s probably gettin’ high somewhere.”
Sadly, I suspected Zelda was right.
“Is everything okay?” she asked. “You in some kind of trouble?”
I forced a laugh. “I’m not in any more trouble than usual, Miss Zelda.”
She laughed too. “And that handsome young man who was with you… how’s he doin’?”
“Jed’s great.”
Crystal started crying in the background. “This baby girl is ready for her bottle, and after this one, I ain’t got any more formula,” Zelda said. “I guess I’ll have to go buy some if that fool doesn’t come back soon.”
“I’m sorry. I really wish I could help.”
The baby’s cries became more insistent. “That child has a set of lungs on her like her mother. I gotta go, Neely Kate. It was great talkin’ to you, girl. Be sure to keep in touch.”
The baby’s cries ripped up my insides. Stella didn’t deserve that sweet baby, but when I did a quick examination of my own life, I wondered if I did eit
her. Maybe God knew what he was doin’ when he took my babies from me.
Tears filled my eyes, but I blinked them back and forced myself to sound cheerful. “I will, Miss Zelda. You too.”
Chapter 15
Joe studied me, and I knew he had to have a dozen questions, so I answered the less personal ones before he could ask.
“I suspect Stella’s strippin’ at the place we worked at together, although she can’t be makin’ much based on how awful she looked when I saw her over a month ago. She’s a meth addict and she looks the part.”
“You called family services on her when you saw her?” he asked.
“No. Jed did. Crystal was filthy, and Stella was in no hurry to clean her or feed her. Jed could see that it was killin’ me to leave her there, but he told me Stella could and would have me arrested for kidnappin’ if I tried to take the baby. I knew he was right. So as soon as we walked out the door, he called them. Then we sat out front, watchin’ her door until the social worker showed up.” I frowned. “Not that it did much good… obviously. Stella still has her.”
“Carlisle called family services to appease you?” he asked in a neutral voice.
“I’m sure he would have done it anyway. He was furious Stella was treatin’ her baby that way, but he knows about my babies. He knows how much I wanted them. So yeah, part of it was to help me deal with the guilt of leavin’ her with Stella.”
Joe was quiet for a moment. “So Stella and Branson think they’re comin’ into some money. Did they make a deal with Franken, or do they know you and Carlisle dug up the bag with money?”
“I’m not sure how they’d know…” A new fear hit me. “Unless Beasley found where we buried the body.”
“He forgot?”
“He was drunk, so I drove us there. He was passed out but roused around enough to help me dig the hole and move the body. While we were diggin’, he saw the nearby light pole that had a cross made out of silver nails. If they drove around the country roads long enough, he might have found it. We buried the guy behind some wild azalea bushes. If they found them, they’d see that it had been recently dug up.” Dread sank deep into my bones. “They’d think we have the money.”
“The good news,” Joe said, “is if they think you have the money, they won’t tell anyone else who might be lookin’ for it. They’ll keep it to themselves.”
“Unless they were threatened,” I said.
“True, but Stella thinks they’re comin’ into money.” He was quiet for a moment. “What if Stella wasn’t strippin’ last night?”
I narrowed my eyes.
He leaned forward. “What if Branson and Stella told Franken just enough to get him off their backs, but they found out you were in Henryetta? Stella hasn’t picked her baby up because she and Branson are on their way here.”
My chest tightened, and I struggled to take a breath.
“I’ll have Randy watch the farm. Kate bein’ on the loose is reason enough, and he can report directly to me what he sees.”
“You think they’ll figure out I live with Rose?”
“Someone told Franken to come to Fenton County to look for you, so that someone could have told Branson and Stella.”
I nodded. It made sense, but who?
Joe got to his feet and began to pace. “So if Branson and Stella come lookin’ for you, it stands to reason they’ll look for you in one of three places. Your granny’s farm, Rose’s farm, or the landscaping office. I suspect your granny can take care of them if they show up there.” He gave me an ornery smile.
He wasn’t wrong. Granny was one tough lady.
“We’ll warn your granny they might come lookin’ for you, and she can tell us if they show up. Randy can watch the farm, and you and I can sit in the landscapin’ office.”
“You think they’ll just waltz in?” I asked.
“They’re desperate for the ten grand, and if they think Franken suspects you have it, they’re gonna want to get it before he does, and based on what Stella told Zelda about movin’ away, they’re plannin’ on gettin’ the money and runnin’.”
“What about her baby?” I asked. “She left her with Miss Zelda.”
Joe gave me a grave look. “How much does she love that baby?”
From what little I’d seen, Crystal’s only purpose in Stella’s life was to collect welfare and try to hook Branson. If Stella was runnin’ off—with Branson, to boot—I wouldn’t be surprised if she left her baby behind too. My gaze drifted to my notepad. “Not near enough.”
He nodded and seemed to realize how hard that had been for me to admit. “I’ve scoured both PI reports, the one Pearce Manchester’s father hired and Kate’s, and neither of them mention you. Manchester Senior’s PI was following a loose lead in Ardmore, which he quickly dismissed within a day. He mostly focused on Manchester’s nefarious activities in Dallas. The report concluded that Pearce Manchester met his end by pissing off the wrong people, and while Hardshaw wasn’t mentioned by name, they would fit with the PI’s conclusion.”
“So why are they interested in me?”
Joe shook his head. “I’m still diggin’, but I’ve also done some low-level searches for Neil Franken and I suspect it’s an alias. There’s nothing on him. It’s gonna take fingerprints to ID him, and that’s if he has a record.”
“So we know a little more, but not enough to help.”
“We’re chippin’ away at it,” Joe said. “And there’s a mountain of information here. I may pull some of it off and have you start searchin’ when you finish with the phone, but I also really think we should head over to the landscaping office. I’d sure hate to miss the opportunity of meetin’ your ex.” The dark look in his eyes hinted that things wouldn’t go well for Branson if he did.
A half hour later, Joe pulled into a parking space around the corner from the landscaping office. He’d called Randy to have him watch the farm, while I called Granny and warned her that some people I’d known in Oklahoma might come looking for me.
“They might be a little rough,” I said. “Maybe we should have Randy Jackson or Witt come over and help.”
“Pft,” she spit out, obviously insulted. “I can take care of my own ding-dang self.”
I grinned. “I know you can, Granny, but I don’t want you getting hurt on account of me.”
“And I appreciate it, girl, but I’ll be fine. And besides, Witt’s been makin’ himself scarce the last few weeks.”
“What’s he been up to?” Come to think about it, I hadn’t seen much of him either.
“He’s probably sulkin’ since he couldn’t get the finances together to open that garage.”
That was the first I’d heard he’d given up on his dream of opening his car repair shop. “I’ll give him a call to check on him, but that means he’s free to come over and help watch the farm.”
“I don’t need no damn babysitter. Now I’ve gotta go—Dolly Parton just showed up with Big Bill’s wings.”
If my cousin was bringing our grandmother wings, she wanted something. But Granny was pretty sly. She had to be onto her. “You be careful with those wings, Granny,” I warned. “I don’t have time to take you to the ER when you think your heartburn is a heart attack.”
“That’s why I’m makin’ Dolly Parton stick around and help me can some tomaters. And if you’re so worried about someone helpin’ keep guard over me, she can hold a shotgun as good as the next fool.”
“It’s not the carryin’ part I’m worried about, Granny. It’s the shootin’ part. Dolly’s liable to shoot her own daggum foot off.”
“You let me worry about that. You just be safe, girl. You hear me?”
That was the closest I’d get to concern from my grandmother, and it brought tears to my eyes even as I grinned. “Yes, ma’am. Call me if they show up.”
“I’ll hold ’em here if they do.” Then she hung up.
Joe chuckled as he turned off the engine. “Sounds like your granny is as ornery as ever.”
; “You don’t know the half of it.”
During the drive into town, we discussed whether he should go through the back door and make it look like I was alone, but in the end he decided if Kate was watchin’, he wanted her to know he was around. Plus, it was a little after eleven. He planned to leave by eleven thirty to get to the diner early. We’d argued about it during the drive into town, but ultimately he’d agreed to let me go with him, if for no other reason because it would mean leaving me alone if he didn’t.
“You will stay in the car,” Joe had said in a stern voice. “I will deal with whoever it is.”
I’d been cagey and hadn’t agreed, but the side-eye he’d given me let me know he was onto me.
“We won’t have time to get much done before we need to leave,” I’d said, standing to the side and holding Muffy with one arm and Joe’s laptop under the other.
Joe unlocked the front door, his backpack slung over his shoulder with the other laptop.
“You were makin’ great progress in the car,” Joe said as he pushed the door open. I’d spent most of the drive poring over Franken’s emails, the few that were there. His email account was less than a month old, and the only correspondence had been between Franken and Chad Manchester. Chad had been the one to reach out, asking Franken to meet him a week ago to discuss his brother’s disappearance. But there was nothing to tell us how Chad had gotten his number and why he thought Franken would know anything.
“Again, it’s not enough to tell us anything. It only leaves more questions.”
He shot me a grin. “If you’re the detective you declare yourself to be, you should know that’s par for the course.”
I rolled my eyes as I slipped past him and put Muffy down. “This time it’s a bit more personal.”
His smile fell. “That it is.”
Muffy ran straight to Rose’s desk and hopped into her dog bed, looking a little lost without Rose.
“I know we discussed leavin’ Muffy here when we go to stake out the diner,” Joe said as he shut the door behind us, “but I’m havin’ second thoughts. I’m worried if someone comes lookin’ for you, they’ll take their frustration out on her. Maybe we should take her to Maeve at the nursery.”
In High Cotton: Neely Kate Mystery #2 Page 15