by Jana DeLeon
I nodded. “First he married Ida Belle and now this.”
He gave me a small smile, probably more because he knew I wanted him to than because he was really in the mood to smile.
I looked out the window and saw Tiny digging a hole the size of a small crater in the backyard but figured in the big scheme of things, it was probably unimportant. Worst case, we could always use it to stash a body.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” I said.
He nodded. “I figured as much. Otherwise, you’d be out scaring people and blowing things up. You might as well lay it on me.”
“We did the DNA test this morning.”
He straightened in his chair. “And?”
“You and Brandon are definitely related,” I said.
“Related how?”
I explained what Dr. Pyers had said about the different relationships and percentages.
“Obviously, most of those aren’t possible. Based on age, the only one besides half brother that is possible is a cousin. But your dad was an only child.”
He cursed. “Jesus, this is not what I expected. And definitely not what I need. How the hell am I supposed to tell my mom?”
“You’re not. At least not yet,” I said. “I’m looking into Brandon, and the Heberts are helping. He might be telling the truth about this one thing, but my gut tells me he’s shady, which means he has something to hide. I’ll figure out what it is and how to get rid of him.”
“Even if you shot him and put him in that hole Tiny is digging, it won’t change the fact that my dad cheated on my mom. And possibly abandoned his own child. Everything I thought I knew about my dad has been called into question.”
His comment about the hole was so close to what I’d been thinking just seconds before that I had a momentary flash of guilt. Fortunately, with my CIA training, it didn’t last long.
“Once I pull the plug on whatever scam Brandon is running, he’ll leave,” I said. “And then Emmaline never has to know. It’s not like any of us are going to say anything. As for you, well, I’ll drink all the beer necessary and listen to all the complaining you want to dish out. I really wish I could change this—for everyone’s sake.”
“It’s all just so pointless. He’s going to accomplish nothing but ruining lives. My mother is no relation to him and neither is Walter. And I might be based on blood, but I don’t want anything to do with him, and he has to know that. If it turns out he’s a decent person somewhere in there, then I’m sorry I feel that way, but it is what it is.”
“I get it. Any relationship with Brandon, no matter how shallow, would feel like you’re handing Emmaline another betrayal. It’s a crap position to be in. The absolute worst. I wish I knew something to do.”
“You’re already doing it. You’ll figure out what he’s after and then we’ll make him go away. Then maybe my mom never has to know. Or at least, I can tell her when she’s in better shape to handle it. You find out anything else?”
“Not really,” I said, not wanting to tell him my theory on St. Ives. Not until I’d worked out more of that angle. My cell phone signaled a text. It was from Mannie.
Got some information for you. Can you meet?
I texted back.
The Heberts’ office in thirty.
10-4.
“I’ve got to go,” I said.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“I’m not sure and even if I was, it’s still better to keep you in the dark. At least for now.”
“Being in the dark seems to be my continued existence at the moment.”
I rose from the table and leaned over to kiss him.
“I’m going to make this right,” I said before I headed out.
I just had no idea how.
Chapter Nineteen
I was quiet for the first ten minutes of the ride to the Heberts. Then Gertie couldn’t stand it any longer.
“If you don’t say something, I’m going to pull out a mirror and check to make sure you’re breathing,” she said.
“I’m alive but that’s the most positive thing I can say at the moment,” I said.
“Did Carter take it badly?” Gertie asked. “Did he yell? Did he shoot things?”
“I think I would have felt better if he’d done either of those,” I said. “I just can’t get the image of him sitting in his recliner, totally defeated, out of my mind.”
“That’s hard,” Ida Belle said. “I would have preferred shooting and yelling, too.”
“We’ve still got to tell Walter,” I said. “Maybe he’ll indulge us.”
“I’ve known him my entire life but never seen him as mad as when he left for the hospital this morning after we told him Brandon’s claims,” Ida Belle said. “And it was that quiet, controlled mad…the kind that you really have to worry about.”
“Then maybe we should hide his guns,” Gertie said. “This whole thing is a mess. I really prefer it when the victims and the suspects are people who aren’t close to us. This is probably all my fault.”
“How is that?” I asked.
“Because when we realized the dead guy was St. Ives, I thought, ‘At least it’s not someone we like.’ It’s karma.”
“I don’t think karma works that way,” I said. “Your thought was normal given the year we’ve had. I think karma only comes into play with our actions, so unless you killed St. Ives, I don’t think you’re on the hook for anything.”
“I hope Mannie’s got something on Brandon,” Gertie said. “Or St. Ives. Heck, I don’t care if he’s implicating the Easter Bunny at this point.”
I nodded. I definitely wanted answers. But selfishly, I wanted those answers to also provide a way to rectify this situation with as little emotional damage as possible. The toll was already ticking up too high.
Big and Little were already in his office and they both looked concerned. I pulled out the report I’d gotten from Dr. Pyers and slid it across Big’s desk before taking a seat.
“I assume this is the report from Pyers,” Big said as he opened the envelope and unfolded the sheet. “He called earlier. He’s quite unhappy with the results.”
I nodded. “Apparently, he knows Emmaline through volunteer work.”
Big shook his head and passed the paperwork to Little. “She’s a remarkable woman. I’m sure we’re all upset over this devastating turn of events. Have you told Carter?”
“I was at his house when I got Mannie’s text,” I said.
“You didn’t have to come right away,” Mannie said. “The information could have waited.”
“No,” I said. “We need answers, and Carter needs us to get those answers. He also needs time alone to process all of this.”
“Hopefully we can help with information and come to a workable solution for this mess,” Little said. “Mannie?”
Mannie gave Little a nod. “I ran down some information on Brandon. The address on his license was real. I talked to the apartment manager and he said that Brandon had been evicted for nonpayment. Didn’t have much else to say about him otherwise except that Brandon was mostly quiet. But since the manager saw him hanging around a lot during the day, he didn’t figure Brandon was good at holding a job.”
“More likely, with a record, he was having trouble getting a job,” Ida Belle said.
“The manager also said that Brandon had a young lady that came around,” Mannie said.
“Midtwenties, shoulder-length brown hair, amber eyes, good muscle tone?” I asked.
“That would fit with what he told me,” Mannie said. “You’ve seen her with him?”
“No,” I said. “She’s a new waitress at Francine’s and we accidentally ran into her when we were coming out of the testing center. She looked surprised to see him but also scared. She gave us a vague story the other day about how she ended up working in Sinful, but we figured she was running or hiding from something or somebody. Now we’re thinking it was Brandon.”
Mannie frowned. “The manager didn’t men
tion any domestic issues, but then he didn’t live on-site, either, and wouldn’t be likely to know unless another resident complained or the cops were called. You think it has anything to do with the rest of this?”
“At this point, it doesn’t seem connected, but then none of this does and it can’t all be coincidence,” I said. “Did the manager see anyone else?”
Mannie nodded. “A couple times the manager was working late, he saw Brandon meet a guy in a car in the parking lot. The car pulled up and Brandon got inside but they never went anywhere.”
“Did he give a description of the driver?” I asked.
“A dude with short hair,” Mannie said. “It was dark and he never parked under the light.”
“What about the car?” I asked.
“An older-model Nissan Maxima,” Mannie said. “White. He didn’t get a plate or even notice where it was from. It’s the kind of place where it’s better not to know things if you get what I mean.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Did you find out anything else?”
Mannie nodded. “For starters, he was telling the truth about his arrest and jail time. Prior to New Orleans, he was raised by his grandmother in Ville Platte. She’s deceased. His mother disappeared some years ago, and I couldn’t find anyone who has seen her since. Their former neighbors said she jetted when Brandon was young and no explanation was ever given. Our policeman friend couldn’t help either. He got as far as a driver’s license change to El Paso. Could be she’s deceased and the records aren’t straight or, for some reason, they didn’t identify the body at passing. Or could be she crossed over into Mexico. Either way, I have doubts that she’ll ever resurface, assuming she’s even alive.”
“Did you find out any background on her prior to Brandon’s birth?” I asked.
“Originally from North Carolina,” Mannie said. “The grandmother moved them to Ville Platte when Brandon was a baby.”
My heart sank a little. North Carolina.
“Is something wrong?” Mannie asked.
“No. It’s just that Carter’s dad was stationed in North Carolina when Brandon was conceived,” I said. “And that’s where his dad was born and lived for a while before his family moved to Sinful.”
Mannie frowned. “So the North Carolina connection is solid.”
“Looks like,” I said. “So far, everything you’ve learned matches what Brandon told us. There has to be something that blows this all apart. I just don’t buy that he came here looking for information on his father and that’s it.”
“I don’t buy it either,” Big said. “If you’d like, Mannie can have a conversation with him. People have a tendency to give him information that they wouldn’t give to others.”
“I appreciate the offer, but I’d like to handle this all,” I said. “Even if Mannie got something out of him—like he was planning to blackmail Emmaline for his silence about her husband’s indiscretions—what would it really tell us? The damning part of all of this has already been proven with some strands of hair.”
Big gave me a grave nod. “This is indeed a great tragedy. Do you know what Carter’s plans are with regard to his mother?”
“Right now, it’s to say nothing,” I said. “He’s hoping I find a way to make Brandon go away and this information with him. So am I.”
Big frowned. “While I understand his desire, I don’t think it’s wise to hide big things like this. They have a way of coming back on you when you least need them to.”
I smiled. “So you don’t believe in keeping secrets?”
Big laughed. “Touché. I certainly have plenty of secrets. But not personal secrets about those I care about. That’s the dividing line.”
I nodded. “Yeah. But she needs to be healthy before that can happen, and we need to know exactly what we’re dealing with before anyone starts a conversation with her. The neighbor who called us about the break-in phoned back with another piece of information, and it got me to thinking.”
I explained about the ‘satellite’ that Maisey saw and the conclusion I’d drawn when I considered it along with the other information we had on St. Ives.
Big raised one eyebrow. “A PI? That’s a thought that hadn’t crossed my mind but I think it’s a solid idea. In fact, I’d venture so far as to say you’re right. Do you think Brandon hired him to find this girlfriend who appears to be trying to avoid him?”
“Even if he had the funds for a PI, where does Emmaline come into this?” Ida Belle asked.
“What if Brandon hired him before to get information on Emmaline?” I asked. “Then hired him this time to find Amber?”
“But why wait so long to act on the information?” Little asked. “And why kill St. Ives?”
“The simple answer for the first is because he went to jail before he could put a plan into action,” I said. “As for the second, I have no idea.”
“And who broke into Emmaline’s house?” Gertie asked.
“Well, it wasn’t St. Ives,” Mannie said. “My guess is that was Brandon.”
“That would be my guess too,” I said. “But why?”
“To find a picture of Cameron that he could use to doctor up that photo he showed you,” Mannie suggested.
I nodded. “Okay. I’ll buy that. But he couldn’t doctor up the DNA test.”
Mannie shook his head. “Everything comes back down to that, doesn’t it?”
“It’s the one irrefutable thing,” I said.
“I’ll see what else I can run down on our friend Brandon,” Mannie said. “See if he’s in for money with someone or has some other reason for pushing this agenda now. And I’ll revisit the St. Ives thing with a bend toward shady PIs.”
“Why shady?” Gertie asked.
“Because if he was legit, he’d have fingerprints on file with the state,” I said.
“Could be he wasn’t based in Louisiana,” Ida Belle said.
Big nodded. “Well, that’s something to look into, at least. For my part, I’ll make a few calls to some business rivals and see if they know this St. Ives.”
“Will they tell you if they do?” Gertie asked.
“If he was still alive, then I’d be inclined to say yes,” Big said. “We tend to share information on people who might cause trouble in our individual businesses because that trouble tends to leak out onto others. But given that he was murdered, maybe not.”
“Especially if they’re the ones who killed him,” Gertie said.
“Always a possibility,” Big said. “But I still might pick up something from the conversations. And one doesn’t know until they ask. Is there anything else we can help you with?”
“Maybe,” I said. “Brandon said the guy who runs the fair disappeared either the night St. Ives was killed or the next day. I have no idea if it’s related—probably not—but it’s just one more thing.”
Mannie nodded. “I’ll do some checking.”
“Thanks,” I said as I rose. “You don’t know how much we appreciate all the help you’ve given us so far. And I know I speak for Carter when I say that having Mannie at the hospital at night is a real weight off his shoulders.”
My phone signaled and I checked the display and frowned.
“Bad news?” Little asked.
“You could say that,” I said. “The three of us are being summoned to questioning by Palmer.”
“You don’t think he’s figured out that purse-snatching thing, do you?” Gertie asked.
Big started laughing. “I should have known that was you. That might have been your best one yet.”
Gertie shook her head in dismay. “Not really. Unfortunately, my best ones weren’t recorded.”
Big started coughing and his face turned red as he chuckled. “When this is all over, you are going to recount some of your biggest hits for me over caviar and champagne.”
“For caviar and champagne, I’ll pull some new moves,” Gertie said.
“No!” Ida Belle and I both spoke at once and Big started on another round of laughter
.
“Let me know if I need to step in for any reason on this Brandon issue,” Mannie said as he escorted us out.
I knew exactly what he was offering, and while I hoped it wouldn’t come to that, I wasn’t taking it off the menu. Not just yet.
Palmer had requested we meet him at the diner we’d eaten at that morning. It was near the fairgrounds, so that made sense, but I figured the bigger draw was that he wouldn’t have us down at the state police department, on view for everyone to see him questioning us. I couldn’t imagine that he was good at it, and everyone there would probably be watching, just to have something to rag on him about later. And questioning the three of us definitely put him at a disadvantage.
I wasn’t sure how official talking in a diner was by state police policy but since it wasn’t my problem, I didn’t care. I was slightly disappointed that I wouldn’t get to infuriate and embarrass Palmer among his peers, and I was certain that would have been the case, but I was guessing Palmer had seen that one coming as well and that was the reason for the offsite chat.
“He only waited two days to question the people who found the body,” Ida Belle said. “He must be really tearing up the professional ladder with the state police.”
“He’s an idiot,” Gertie said. “So how are we going to play this?”
“I’m not worried about it,” I said. “I seriously doubt Palmer asks us anything that we have to work up a lie about. Except for the purse-grabbing incident, but for that, we just claim we weren’t there. It’s up to him to prove differently. You were wearing gloves and a mask.”
“And those, along with her clothes and shoes, have been taken care of,” Ida Belle said.
Gertie sighed. “I really liked those running shoes. And they don’t make them anymore.”
I gave Ida Belle the side-eye. “I’m convinced you sleep as much as Mannie does.”
She shrugged. “I’m old. It happens.”
“You went boating in the middle of the night to ditch that stuff?” I asked. “Doesn’t Walter notice that you’re gone?”