by Jackson, Jay
Before he showed up, though, the sisters had time to themselves.
“I’m happy you found it, so happy you found it. I knew you could.”
Claudia was puzzled.
She’s happy I found it? Found what?
“Found it? What do you mean, Jewel? What are you happy I found?”
Her sister smiled and took her hand.
“Your name, Claudia. You found your name. You were William, and now you’re Claudia. That’s your real name, but you had to find it. I could tell you were looking, and it took a long time. It’s a good name, a real good name. I’m glad you found that name, because it’s yours. I love you, Claudia.”
It went that way the whole time, Jewel making sure her sister knew she loved her. Claudia was happy to hear her talk. She needed those words, ached for them.
Now, lying there with pain stalking her every move, Claudia needed her sister again. What she wouldn’t give to see Jewel come through the door, her knife raised and ready to slay the devil. She was about to see that devil kill a child before her eyes. There was nothing she could do about it. Then she heard the knock.
It sounded like Jewel’s knock, furious and powerful. It was telling her something. When her sister knocked on her door, so many years before, she gave her the miracle of love. She brought it with her, loud and sincere, love that wouldn’t stay away.
Now was the time for another miracle. Again, it was knocking on the door.
I’m glad you found that name, because it’s yours. I love you, Claudia.
Benny put the syringe down and went to the window to see who was knocking. Now was Claudia’s chance.
She hoisted herself from the bed, the pain shooting through her and trying to knock her down. She wouldn’t fall though, not now. Her sister carried her.
Jewel walked miles to see me, to come to my door and make me good again. I can go a few feet. It’s only a few feet, and then this child will be good again, too.
Claudia whisked her pillow out of its case. She placed the case under her swollen ankle, making a sling, and readied herself.
I’m glad you found it. I’m glad you found your name. I love you, Claudia.
I’m glad I found it, too, Jewel. More than that, I’m glad you found me. I was lost and you looked for me. I was alone and you knocked on my door. I love you.
At that, Claudia hopped on one leg toward Benny. The pain screamed, angry at her for ignoring it. Benny’s full attention was at the window, looking down at the stranger knocking at his door. His back was to Claudia, sure that severing one tendon was enough to keep her down. Benny was wrong.
Walking the county roads, pushing the toy baby carriage through ruts and mud, strengthened her legs every day. In and out of ditches, running to get across bridges, her legs carried her, mile after mile. Today, though, she didn’t have to go miles. Today, she only needed a few feet to save a child. One leg would be enough.
Hearing something behind him, Benny turned. By then Claudia was upon him. She grabbed him with both arms, dropping the pillowcase. With one last hop, she took them both through the window, breaking it into a thousand shards. They fell two stories, thudding onto the ground beneath.
After knocking, Racey had backed away from the door. He was standing only feet away from where they landed. He stopped, not sure what he was seeing. A voice came down the driveway, shouting words he couldn’t make out. Seconds later, Delroy ran up beside him and stopped, too. The men looked at the bodies in front of them.
They both stood there a few moments, frozen. Neither man knew it, but they had just witnessed a miracle. It was a miracle born of love and pain, carried for years in a toy baby carriage and the hearts of two sisters. All this time, it was just waiting for a knock at the door. Now it was right in front of them, at their feet, covered in glass and blood.
63.
Things happened in a blur after that. Delroy called an ambulance. One came quickly, trailed by a fleet of sheriff’s cars. One of those cars rammed the gate, and soon the privacy Benny yearned for was forever gone. Deputies went into the house and there found the embalmed bodies of Dad, Mom, and Sister.
Their real names were Tim Akins, Marie Felker, and Laura Helton. Each was an unfortunate client of Parker and Sons Funeral Home, snuck out of their coffins by Benny before their respective burials. He replaced each body with bags of sand, simulating their weights for their pallbearers. They were thereafter returned, finally laid to rest where their families intended.
Ted started crying when Claudia and Benny went through the window. Deputies later found him upstairs, in Racey’s arms. They carried him out, and Mary Alice was reunited with her son that day. Except for the cold house and the loud crash at the end, Ted was just fine. Mary Alice noticed that he was heavier when she got him back. His cheeks were rounder than before.
Benny did not fare as well as his intended little brother. The fall broke his back and paralyzed his legs. When he awoke in the hospital, he asked the nurse why deputies were at his door and why his family wasn’t there. Feeling sorry for him, she called one of the deputies in to explain things to him. That deputy was Pinky Winters.
He explained to Benny, in detail, everything that had happened. When he got to the part about the embalmed corpses being returned to their families and buried, Benny cried. Pinky turned a nasty shade of blood-orange and repeated the part about the burial. He added details about how the bodies were dropped several times in transit. None of it was true. Pinky always was a small man, whether on the road or in a hospital room.
Benny later told the sheriff that he was trying to buy the sisters’ land for his family. He wanted to surround them with enough space to keep them safe. He’d already lost them once, when they got too far away from home. Maybe, with enough land, he’d never lose them again.
Benny was later transferred to Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, the court accepting his plea of guilty but mentally ill. He would stay there for years, unable to let the idea of his family die. Attendants would hear him, all times of day or night, arguing with himself in four distinctly different voices. When asked what he was doing, he shut down. The attendants would leave and the voices would start again, sometimes yelling. Always, the conversation was the same. Always, the voices would say, “You let us down, Mister Brother. We knew you would.”
Delroy visited Claudia in the hospital a week after he found her, bloody and cut. Her Achilles was surgically reattached and two pins placed in her arm where it broke in the fall. She was also severely concussed, but she would recover. Tommy was already there with Kero. JoJo had just left, needing to get over to the sisters’ house to take care of Jewel. He was the only one who kept her calm. She would need him while Claudia was in the hospital. JoJo didn’t mind. Taking care of others came naturally to him. When he later started at Georgia Southern in the fall, he went into their nursing program.
“Well, Delroy, glad to see you here.” Tommy smiled, standing at the doorway of the room. Kero was across the room, sitting in a chair beside Claudia. They were smiling as well.
“Glad to be here myself, Sheriff. What’s everybody all giddy about? Usually, a lawman in a hospital isn’t there because he’s got good news.”
“Well, today ain’t a usual day. I came to tell your client that the charges against her sister were being dropped. My deputy told the district attorney he wanted them dropped, saying he didn’t think she was trying to hurt him.”
“That’s good and all, Tommy, but what did the DA say? Seems to me he doesn’t always do what y’all want him to do.”
“Yep, I know. This time, though, he agreed quick-like, almost said okay before I could tell him. Look, let’s not ask why. Let’s just be glad. Anyway, it wouldn’t do, having the sister of the newest detective in our Crimes Against Children Division under indictment.”
Delroy looked at Tommy, and then at the other two.
Claudia spoke. “I’m not going to be able to walk as far, not with my leg all messed up, even after it heals.
The truth is that I’m tired of walking. It’s wearing me out. The sheriff asked me to help him with looking after children, and I said yes. It’s just that simple.”
She looked over at Tommy.
“And it comes with a car, right?”
“That’s right—a car and a badge. Just keep doing what you’re doing.”
When the sheriff left, Delroy followed. They got into the elevator. Delroy spoke first.
“I’ve never heard of any Crimes Against Children Division. When did you come up with that?”
“I came up with it that day in court, when I heard about how many children Claudia has saved over the years. I checked that against all of our child victim crimes, and she accounted for a full sixty-five percent of those reported. I’m not brilliant, but I know a good investigator when I see one. We need her. I think she’ll do a good job. Nope, I think she’ll do a great job.”
“What about the things folks say, about her dressing like . . . well, like her?”
By this time they were outside the hospital, in the parking lot. Tommy stopped and turned to face Delroy.
“I don’t give a red hot damn if she wears high heels and farts ABBA songs. In the end, knowing what she’s done to help, I don’t think others will, either. Truthfully, when everyone knows who she really is, how much she cares, I believe she’ll only help me, politically speaking. Just as truthfully, though, if it doesn’t help me, I just don’t give a rip.”
Tommy got in his car. Before he left, he rolled down his window to say one last thing.
“Counselor, you need to stop worrying over what folks think about Claudia. Hell, if I worried about what every asshole with an opinion thought of me, I wouldn’t have time to turn around. You need to have the courage of your convictions. Claudia sure as hell does . . . Oh yeah, one more thing. Come by Sunday for dinner at Anna’s. She told me to invite you. The kids need to see their uncle. I hear that, when he takes his head out of his ass, he’s not such a bad guy.”
Later that evening, Toots called out to Delroy as she left the office, “Delroy, why don’t you stay in and eat something healthy tonight? I left you a chicken casserole and a little pot of green beans. It’s better for you than all that barbecue you eat all the time. I also left you some sweet tea. You need something to drink that doesn’t come in a six-pack.”
With that she left, the front screen door to the office swinging shut behind her. Delroy went to the couch and sat down beside T-Bone. The little black dog curled up on his lap, his head resting on Delroy’s knee. They stayed that way for half an hour. Delroy didn’t know whether to go to Daddy Jack’s or to take Toots’s advice.
The phone buzzed with a text. He looked down and read it.
Coming to town tomorrow morning. Let’s get breakfast. Your treat.
It was from Amy.
Delroy smiled and returned her text. He would follow Toots’s advice and stay home. That night, he slept downstairs on the couch, T-Bone curled up in the crook of his knee. Amy might come early. Delroy didn’t want to miss her. This time, when she knocked, he would make sure to answer. All he had to do was listen. If he was lucky and stayed out of his own way, life could be good.
64.
Racey sat at the bar, the martini glass shimmering in front of him.
The crowd at the Highland Tap was mostly afternoon regulars, serious drinkers more interested in booze than conversation. That suited him just fine. He was parsing through the Gratis case. Racey would never take on a money loser like that again. He did have the satisfaction of getting one over on the small-town district attorney, though. The call he made, that day at Delroy’s office, was to a friend who threatened Broyles with incriminating photos from their law school graduation party. The DA was more than willing to dismiss Jewel’s case after that. There are some things a political career simply will not survive. Broyles was caught on camera doing at least six of them.
I may have gotten one over on the DA, but I didn’t do myself any favors, that’s for damn sure.
The case wasn’t just a money loser. He almost burned a needed connection, too. He spent the rest of the retainer on Flip and Paulie’s Mexican holiday, and then he owed more after they left his friend’s resort. According to his friend the owner, they left their rooms in shambles, a couple of real cerdos de los Estados Unidos.
“Look, Racey, my place isn’t as fancy as some others, but next time you send anyone like those two, you might have a problem with the policia. Seriously, that Flip guy kept relieving himself beside the pool. There were families out there, and that’s not gonna help my Expedia rating.”
Racey apologized and sent his friend a check for another $2,000. He didn’t have to, but he knew might need to hide someone south of the border again one day.
You got a little soft there, Racey. A little sentimental for a woman in trouble. The things you do for those in need.
Racey made a mental note to call some of his old high school buddies to meet up at Clay’s the following night. He needed beers and wings and lies told well. Hopefully, these things would help him recalibrate from his recent, overly charitable lapse in judgment.
Damn Gratis.
His mind flashed to the bodies that had lain before him that day. They were bathed in shards of glass, the blood of the two mingling in a crimson dew. He and Delroy stood there, neither sure whether to help. They didn’t want to cause further harm. Benny had looked especially wrong, his upper torso at an odd angle to his abdomen.
Both Benny and Claudia were quiet at first, after the shock of the fall. Finally Claudia rolled over and spoke.
“Dead people are downstairs, and Baby Ted’s upstairs. He’s alive—help him.”
She barely rasped the words. Racey rushed into the home and found the child holding the syringe bursting with propofol. He took the deadly spike from the child and held him until the deputies arrived. It was cold in the house, barely fifty degrees. Racey wrapped Ted in his own shirt. Looking around, he saw at least fifty pictures hung on the wall and sitting on the table. Half of them showed Benny’s family while they were alive. He noticed that the older couple, surely Mom and Dad, always held hands.
The other pictures were of the bodies downstairs. They were posed, copying the pictures of Benny’s family in life. In each photo, the two older-looking corpses always held hands. Racey shivered.
Creepy.
The deputies found them before he got the chance to take Ted out. He was shivering and shirtless, holding the child tightly and trying to keep him warm.
Racey picked up the martini glass and sipped his drink. His thoughts turned to Jewel and Claudia. The Peters sisters were like no one he’d ever met.
Maybe folks like them only exist in small towns, empty places that let people grow wild.
He loved Atlanta, but sometimes folks crowded each other too much in a big city. They corrupted each other by mere contact. Places like Gratis gave the unique flowers a place to grow, where those like Claudia and Jewel could become themselves.
Racey shook his head.
Dude, what the hell are you doing? “Empty places that let people grow wild?” Might as well turn in your man card now.
Racey grimaced at his sentimental faltering, but then he smiled. Money was lost, but Gratis hadn’t been a total wash. He was able to find what Deputy White needed.
The deputy’s little sister, Lisa, was looking for a job in Atlanta. She had just broken up with her boyfriend at Georgia Southern and decided to take a break from school. Lisa either had to move in with her brother or find a job. Deputy White was a newlywed. The last thing he needed was another woman in the marital home. Racey found little sister a receptionist position with a divorce law firm on Peachtree Street. They played dirty and used Racey’s services all the time. It paid well enough for her to afford a small studio apartment off Saint Charles Avenue, only a few blocks from Racey’s condo.
He was going to meet Lisa on the deck at Neighbors in an hour. Being new to Atlanta, she needed someone to show h
er the city. Racey volunteered. She was a beautiful young lady, after all, first runner-up in the Gratis High homecoming queen pageant.
Yep, Racey, you’re an old softie. And a kind, kind man. The things you’ll do for those in need. Especially yourself.
Finishing his martini, he paid his tab and headed up the steps to leave. A walk in the late-afternoon sun, on a broken Atlanta sidewalk in spring, sounded like a good idea.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jay Jackson lives with his family in Sandy Springs, Georgia. He currently practices criminal law in Metro Atlanta.
ABOUT THE SERIES
Walking Woman is the second book in the Gratis series. The first book, The Killing King of Gratis, is available on Amazon.