by Kym Roberts
The pressure on my chest threatened to push my heart out the backside of my rib cage. I had to force the air through my lungs in order to get my question out. “Is that how Ava was killed?”
Scarlet shrugged. “No one is saying a word. It’s the best-kept secret in town.”
Not for long. I was determined to find out the truth. “Was Ava in court?”
“Nope. Reba Sue said she was a no-show for work yesterday.”
“How would Reba Sue know if Ava was a no-show, or if she was sick, or on vacation, or just took the day off?”
Scarlett shrugged, then saw the tremor in my hands as I placed napkins out next to the tray of treats. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” I grabbed another turtle. This was a two-turtle day if I ever had one. “Want one?” I held out the tray, but Scarlet declined. “What was Reba Sue doing in court?”
“You don’t know?” Scarlet’s eyes grew wide when I shook my head. She grabbed a turtle and shoved the whole thing in her mouth. I suppose her disbelief was an appropriate response since gossip spreads through Hazel Rock faster than any wildfire ever could. Her hesitation to spill everything she knew combined with her eating a sweet she never went near had me more discombobulated than ever.
I stopped mid-bite. My curiosity was exploding through the barn roof. I knew my next question put me in the category of too stupid to live, but I asked it anyway. “What’d she do, Scarlet?”
Scarlet continued to chew, her mouth so full of delicious goodness she could barely keep her lips sealed. She couldn’t possibly be enjoying the rare treat in her attempt to avoid my question. I handed her a napkin and she closed her eyes like she was going to choke as she tried to get it down. After a moment, it was clear she was trying to think of a way not to answer, and my hand went on my hip. It wasn’t like Scarlet to keep things from me.
She glanced up at my jutted-out hip and impatient stare. “Cade will have to tell you,” she responded through her napkin.
“I’m not going to ask Cade! We’re barely talking.”
She swallowed hard. “It’s not my story to tell. Can I get some tea?”
I retrieved a glass and filled it with ice before pouring the freshly brewed sweet tea. “It’s somebody’s story to tell, and if I can’t ask my best friend, who can I ask?”
“You need to talk to Cade. Not me.”
I huffed. I couldn’t believe Scarlet was protecting Reba Sue. “Fine. I’ll ask Mateo.” If Reba Sue had been arrested, it was public record. Mateo might not give me the details, but he’d tell me what Reba Sue had been charged with and how Cade was involved.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Scarlet warned.
“Why not?”
I watched as my best friend took a drink of tea like it was liquid courage before she answered. “I don’t think Mateo would appreciate your interest in what happens between Reba Sue and Cade.”
My mind immediately went to the two of them being caught in a compromising position in a public place. Maybe I didn’t want to know. The images popping in my head were turning my stomach.
“Forget it. I don’t want to know.”
Scarlet nodded and finished her tea. “I think I’ll be skipping lunch today.”
I rolled my eyes. “It was one turtle, it won’t put an ounce of fat on you.”
“It had more than enough calories to get me through to late afternoon.” She glanced at the time on her phone. “I’ve got an appointment in five minutes. I just thought you should know about Isla. What time are you leaving tonight?” she asked as she headed toward the front door.
“We’re not.”
She stopped and turned around. “What? Mateo couldn’t have been that upset about last night.”
I shook my head. “No, he needs to stay to work the case. We’re leaving tomorrow morning.”
“Forget about everyone else and enjoy your weekend. You deserve it.”
There was one problem with her advice. My daddy and Isla were still in the hot seat, and I wasn’t about to go off gallivanting with Mateo while either one of them got branded a murderer.
Chapter Six
My daddy came in a few minutes after Scarlet left and had been at the Barn for an hour but hadn’t said a word beyond “Hello.” When I asked if he’d slept in, he grunted something about being up at the crack of dawn fishing down by the river and then went to work sorting boxes of books for the literacy drive. I wasn’t sure if his mind was elsewhere, if he just didn’t want to talk to me, or if he was afraid I’d bring up the topic of conversation he didn’t want to discuss.
All morning long we received boxes of books from the local businesses that had been collecting for the literacy drive. It seemed everyone who came by wanted to do something for Ava but didn’t know how. Their gifts and the work it brought took away some of the pressure between my daddy and me, but sooner or later, we were going to have to discuss how we were going to proceed with the drive. Without Ava, we would have to establish new connections with the Department of Family and Protective Services.
“Do you want me to call to find out how to proceed with the drop-off of the books?” I asked.
My dad stood up from the box he was unpacking. He winced as he stretched with his hands on his lower back. “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d really appreciate it.”
“Do you know who she was working with?”
“No. Ava said she’d handle it, and I knew she had a contact. I thought we would meet when we dropped off the books.”
I nodded sympathetically, even though I wanted to roll my eyes. This was why the Barn had almost gone under before I’d returned to Hazel Rock. My daddy gave and gave but didn’t keep records for tax time. “I’ll make some calls and see what I can do.”
“Aren’t you supposed to leave in a couple hours?”
I paused before answering. I was probably going to end up with the man with red horns downstairs for lying, but I needed time to see what I could find out about Ava’s case. Mateo wasn’t talking. Daddy certainly wasn’t going to open his mouth, and suddenly I wasn’t sure Scarlet was going to give me all the answers I needed either.
“We’re leaving a little later than we expected. Probably tomorrow morning.”
Daddy nodded and turned back to his box. “I was thinking about having a candlelight vigil for Ava tonight.”
“Oh.” Fuzz buckets. I should have thought of that.
“I’ve had them before.”
“You have?” I asked.
“We had one a few years ago for Marilyn Scott when she died of cancer and one about ten years ago for Kathy Buttrum when she died in a traffic accident.”
My heart nearly broke for the man in front of me who had lost so much and still gave back. My voice cracked as I walked up and hugged him from behind. “That was very nice of you, Daddy. You have a heart of gold.”
He patted my hands wrapped around his chest. “I know what you’re thinking, Princess. You’ve got it all wrong.” He took a deep breath, and I got the distinct impression he felt compelled to tell me everything. I let him off the hook. The last thing I wanted between us was anything forced.
“When you’re ready to talk, I’ll be here for you. In the meantime, I’ll call the Department of Family and Protective Services and set up a contact for the book drive. Then I’ll spread the word that we’re going to have a vigil at eight o’clock in the courtyard.”
“Sounds good.”
Daddy continued sorting the books by genre and age while I called Scarlet.
Her sweet Southern twang filtered through my cell as she answered the phone at the beauty shop. “Beaus and Beauties, may I help you?”
“Hey Scarlet, it’s me.”
“O.M.W. Charli. You should be packing for your trip.”
I smiled. Everyone thought I should be packing for my trip. What would they thi
nk if they knew I’d packed on Tuesday? “We’re leaving tomorrow morning, and Daddy would like to have a candlelight vigil for Ava tonight, in the courtyard at eight. Could you help spread the word?”
“We’ll do more than that. Leave the whole thing to me and the girls. We’ll take care of it. You just worry about getting yourself ready for your trip.”
“Thank you, Scarlet. I knew I could count on you.” We hung up after a short discussion about the vigil. I told Scarlet I would contact the courts and DFPS while she made sure the rest of the town knew about the vigil.
Next, I called Sugar. She worked for us part-time, and although she normally worked at the local Tool Shed Tavern on Friday nights, I was hoping I could enlist her to help before she had to report to work later in the evening. She was more than happy to pick up a few more hours since she didn’t go to work until ten o’clock.
With Sugar lined up to come into work for a couple hours, I started making plans for my afternoon. The hardest part would be notifying the Judge of the time we were planning to have the vigil. I saw how broken up he was over Ava’s death. That, however, was not going to deter me from what I had to do. I needed to question the man and find out if he was a suspect or not. He was mixed up in it somehow, and I was determined to find out how.
I quickly made a list of things to do before I left town:
1. Make contact with DFPS for book drive and notify
them about the candlelight vigil
2. Tell the Judge about the vigil
3. Talk to the Judge’s neighbors
4. Go see Isla and make sure she was at the nursing home
at the time of the murder
Please let me be able to wipe her off the list of potential suspects.
My list may have only had four things on it, but they were time consuming, and I wasn’t sure I could accomplish all of them prior to the vigil. After that it would have to wait until after my weekend with Mateo. I grabbed my purse from under the counter, and Princess looked up from her bed. I couldn’t tell if she narrowed her eyes because I woke her up, or if she thought I was being underhanded looking into Ava’s murder against the wishes of Mateo and my dad. Either way, she didn’t appreciate my actions.
“I’m sorry, but you know I can’t take a chance of losing him again,” I whispered.
Princess blinked and laid her head back down. I got the distinct impression she understood and wasn’t going to stand in my way. I didn’t think she was going to help me this time, though. She liked Mateo too much.
“Did you say something, Princess?”
My daddy startled me and I nearly took a swing in his direction. I think my reaction stunned him almost as much as it did me.
“Sorry. I’m a little on edge.” He nodded with understanding and I didn’t wait for him to say anything further. “I’ve got to run some errands before I leave tomorrow. I called Sugar and she said she’d be in at two to help. Are you going to be okay here by yourself until then?” I felt guilty leaving him, knowing how much he was hurting.
His smile was a bit sad, but his voice held the strength of a man who had seen his fair share of tragedies. “I’m fine. Go. You need this weekend off.”
I wasn’t sure a weekend getaway was what I needed. The time to make sure my daddy didn’t spend the rest of his life in jail was more pressing to me at the moment, but I didn’t argue. I grabbed my keys and cell phone and kissed Daddy on the cheek before heading out.
The drive to the county building where the Department of Family and Protective Services had a floor of offices took me to neighboring Oak Grove, where most of the government buildings were located. The town was bigger than Hazel Rock by about eighteen thousand residents and held everything from the license bureau to the jail, to the biggest department store in a hundred-mile radius, which wasn’t saying a whole lot. Coleman County was one of the smallest counties in the state.
As the county seat, Oak Grove had been a grand little town at one time, with a quaint downtown encircling the courthouse. Thanks to a fire in early 1950s, however, the only thing left standing was the courthouse/jail and the county building. The rest of the buildings along the square had never been rebuilt, and the road was rerouted to eliminate the square altogether.
A few years back, a new jail had been constructed across the four-lane street from both buildings. The effect set the area a bit off-kilter from the original street that had formed a square around the courthouse. It was now curved more like the shape of an S. The changes had forced the side of county building to become the front, and the front facade, which had more character than any another building in town, to face the driveway to the parking lot around the back of the building. It was a bit confusing, but I supposed the design, or lack thereof, marked a piece of Oak Grove’s history.
I parked around back and spared a quick glance toward the jail, hoping Mateo wasn’t doing some sheriffy duty inside and spot me. He’d want to know why I was at DFPS, which I had a very valid reason for, but he would then stand around and wait for me to finish and make sure I didn’t press for more information.
I needed more information.
I checked in with the security desk, went through the metal detector, and made my way to the third floor in the creaky old elevator built for four to six people if everyone was under a hundred pounds.
The doors opened with a groan and a screech and I approached the receptionist, grateful to be alive.
The heavyset lady in her forties smiled. “Everyone feels that way after getting off that old contraption,” she said, noting my relieved expression. “How can I help you?”
I returned her smile and got straight to it. “I’m Charli Rae Warren. I’m one of the owners of the Book Barn Princess—”
“The pink bookstore in Hazel Rock! I love that store,” she gushed. Literally gushed with her hands clasped together next to her cheek.
I couldn’t help the pride that snuck into my posture. I loved that store too. “Thank you. I’m actually here on behalf of the store.”
Her penciled eyebrows rose in question and I continued, “We are in the middle of our first annual drive for a literacy campaign . . .”
She began nodding as I spoke, her smile growing with each word. I knew she was being an attentive listener, but her animation was throwing me off so much, I wasn’t sure whether I should continue with my questions. When she remained silent, I carried on with my quest. “Ava James was our original contact, but with her death last night—”
Her eyes rounded and her mouth dropped open.
Uh-oh.
They didn’t know. Or at least this woman in front of me, with a name plate on her desk that said Shirley Rishard, hadn’t known prior to me wrongly entering her office and unwittingly dropping a bomb in her lap. She seemed to crumble before my very eyes. Her shoulders drooped. Her facial features sagged as the pencil she’d been unconsciously twirling, stilled and dropped to the scarred surface of her desk. Her gray eyes slipped from an expression of shock to disbelief to grief as they slowly filled with tears. It was as if I could see each tear form as they threatened to create rivers that would breach the banks at any moment.
“I’m s-sorry,” I stuttered. “I thought you knew. I just thought everyone . . .” I waved toward the office of cubicles. I could hear voices traipsing through the air, but couldn’t see a soul. “Would know.”
When her body began to tremble, I looked down the hallway leading to more offices, hoping for a lifeline that would save me from my horrible mistake. When nothing appeared, I reached forward and squeezed her fingers, hoping to instill a bit of the comfort I had stolen.
“I wouldn’t have broken the news to you so heartlessly,” I whispered.
Tears finally spilled from her eyes, breaking the spell of grief I’d cast. She pulled her hand away and patted her eyes with the back of her sleeve at her wrist. “What happened . . . to Ava?�
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“I’m not really sure,” I lied, but saying she was murdered seemed pretty cruel after what I’d already done.
“Was it her boyfriend?” Shirley dabbed at her eyes again as her back stiffened. “Did he finally beat her to death?”
It was my turn to be caught off guard. Did Shirley know about my daddy’s relationship with Ava? Or was she talking about the Judge? “Her boyfriend?” I asked.
“I warned her to be careful. She was going to leave him, but a man in his position . . . he would never let her go.” Shirley struggled to keep her eyes dry as spots of mascara began to riddle her sleeves and she slowly shook her head. “I tried to warn her.”
I waited for her to fill in the blanks. Answer the questions I needed answers to.
She didn’t.
Instead, she dug in her desk drawer and pulled out a napkin. I saw a box of Kleenex sitting on the table to my left and grabbed it. Shirley nodded her thanks and began to blow her nose. A delicate noise that didn’t carry back to the voices in the cubicles. It seemed they were still completely oblivious to the torment I’d put Shirley through.
I knew I shouldn’t question her further. It was wrong. I should say I was sorry and get back on that death trap of an elevator and call Mateo to interview her.
But I still didn’t know what boyfriend she was referring to, and I hadn’t talked about the literacy drive . . . plus there were two people I cared about who weren’t above suspicion in the eyes of the law at that moment.
I needed answers. I asked the questions I shouldn’t.
“Who was her boyfriend?”
“You don’t know?”
I was pretty sure I knew who one of them was, but I wasn’t sure if I knew who all of them were. I lied and shook my head while trying to keep my face as blank as possible. “No. She never said a word.”
Shirley gave another delicate blow of her nose before continuing. “She’s been living with John Luke for the past year. He’s a real piece of work. He started beating her on a regular basis about a month after he moved into her place.”
John Luke. I recognized the name from the letter Ava had written the Judge and let out the air I was holding in a gentle sigh of relief. My daddy wasn’t the type to raise his hand to anyone, but he was the type to take a woman under his arm and protect her from that type of man. I was also surprised to realize that I was relieved Shirley hadn’t pointed the finger in the direction of the Judge. “Did you see her with injuries?” I asked.