“Sure, Mama, what is it?”
“Well, we’ll give you all the details tomorrow night when you come over for dinner. We need you to look through the county marriage records for us. We need to find out if someone got married here, and who she married.”
“That’s easy enough. They’ve got a lot of the records computerized now. How long ago was it, do you know?”
“We’re not sure.” Wanda Nell thought for a moment. Ernie had said Sandra June was several years younger than her brother, who was nineteen at the time. If the girl had married right out of high school, that would put it at twenty-six or twenty-seven years ago. “Twenty-five years ago, give or take a couple of years, most likely. But we really aren’t sure.”
“They haven’t gotten that far back with the computerized records,” T.J. said, “but it’s still not that hard. I’ll be happy to do it for Jack, Mama. Is he working on a new book?
“He is, and we’ll tell you all about it at dinner.”
“Sure,” T.J. said. “Hang on a minute, Tuck wants to talk to you.”
“Wanda Nell,” Tuck said, “about dinner tomorrow. Why don’t y’all come over here instead? It’s our turn. You’ve cooked for us the past three Sundays, and we ought to be doing it for you. I promise I won’t let T.J. burn anything.”
Wanda Nell heard her son’s voice raised in mock protest. “I guess that would be okay. I do love cooking for y’all, though.”
“We know,” Tuck said, “but it means a lot to both of us to have y’all here.”
“Of course. We’ll be happy to come.”
“About six-thirty?”
“We’ll be there,” Wanda Nell said, and hung up the phone.
“Was that T.J. you were talking to?” Jack startled her. She hadn’t heard him come into the kitchen.
“Yes, it was. Tuck wants us to come over there for dinner tomorrow, instead of them coming here.”
“That’s fine. I thought I’d call T.J. and ask him if he would mind looking at the courthouse for records of the marriage. I don’t think he’d mind, do you?
“He already said he wouldn’t,” Wanda Nell said with a grin.
Jack laughed. “Well, I guess it’s like my mama always said. Great minds are like catfish.”
“They swim in the same channels.” Wanda Nell had heard this one before.
“Exactly,” Jack said, and his slow, sexy smile made Wanda Nell shiver just a little bit.
After a long, gentle kiss, Wanda Nell pushed him away. “You’d better get back to work, and I’ll start thinking about something for supper.”
“Yes, ma’am. Whatever you say—for now, at least.” His smile told her that later it would be different.
Wanda Nell stared after him as he left the kitchen. She was having a hard time thinking about food. She shook her head, trying to clear it.
With a sigh she went over to the refrigerator. Maybe actually looking at the food inside it would help her focus on something else.
She stared at the contents of the fridge. There was some hamburger meat and about half a chicken from a previous meal, as well as some broccoli in the vegetable drawer and a pot of leftover peas.
The ringing of the phone brought her out of her reverie. She shut the door of the fridge and walked over to the phone.
“Hello.”
“Mama, it’s me,” Miranda said.
“Hi, sweetie.” Wanda Nell braced herself. She could tell from the tone in those three words that something was wrong. “What’s going on?”
“Oh, Mama, what am I going to do?” Miranda was obviously upset.
“What about? Tell me what the problem is.” Talking to Miranda when she was like this always tried her patience.
“Oh, it’s Teddy. I just want to slap his hard head sometimes.”
“What is it this time?” Wanda Nell suppressed a sigh. Miranda wasn’t adapting as well to marriage as she had hoped. About once a week she called her mother because of some sort of problem she was having with her new husband. Usually it was because Teddy had put his foot down about something, and Miranda didn’t like that, not one little bit.
Wanda Nell’s sympathies lay with her son-in-law most of the time, because she knew all too well just how exasperating Miranda could be. The girl didn’t want to lift her hand to do much of anything, even looking after her son. Now another baby was on the way. What would Miranda do with two children to look after?
“He’s just so mean. Why does he have to be that way?”
“What did he do that was so mean, sweetie?” He probably asked her to clean the house. He worked long hours as a mechanic at a garage in town, and Miranda was at home all day, not doing much of anything. “Did he fuss at you about cleaning the house?”
“No, it’s not that,” Miranda said, her tone sullen. “I done all that today, and I’m about worn to a frazzle. I wish we had a maid.”
Like you did when you lived with me, Wanda Nell thought, but she didn’t say it. There was no point.
“So what is it, then?” She couldn’t quite keep the sharpness out of her voice.
“I’m trying to tell you, Mama,” Miranda snapped back. “Nobody ever listens to me.”
Wanda Nell gripped the phone hard and willed herself not to respond to that.
After a moment of silence, Miranda went on. “It’s about T.J. He called and invited us to come over for dinner tomorrow night at his house with y’all.”
Wanda Nell’s heart sank. Teddy Bolton was a very nice young man in most respects, despite all those tattoos on his arms. But he was always kind of skittish with T.J. and Tuck. He wasn’t ever rude, but he just never looked too comfortable around them.
“Does he not want to go?”
“Not really. And I swear I could just bang him upside the head with a baseball bat. Not that it would do any good, probably. I told him T.J.’s my brother, and I love him. It don’t matter who he lives with, and Teddy better just get over it.”
“It’s going to take a little time,” Wanda Nell said. “Most of the time he’s okay. You know he was raised in that church, and how conservative they are.” She had gone to church one morning with Miranda and Teddy, and she had been shocked at some of what she had heard there. To her mind, true Christians ought to have more compassion than those people seemed to have.
“I done told him I’m not going back to that church no more,” Miranda said. “I don’t care what he says.”
Wanda Nell couldn’t blame her for that, and she was glad Miranda was standing up for her brother.
“So is he going to come to dinner?”
“I told him he better, but he’s acting real stubborn. I don’t know whether he’ll really go or not, but I’m going to be real upset if he don’t. Will you come get me and Lavon if Teddy won’t come?”
“Of course, sweetie.” Wanda Nell hoped this wouldn’t drive Miranda and Teddy so far apart that it broke up the marriage. Surely Teddy would come around eventually. “But I’m hoping Teddy will change his mind. The more he can see how much T.J. and Tuck care about each other, I think maybe he’ll understand.”
“I sure hope so, Mama. I’m getting awful tired of talking to him about it.”
“Sometimes talking doesn’t do much good,” Wanda Nell said. “It’s what people do that counts. I know Teddy thinks a lot of both me and Jack, and if he sees how we feel about the situation, well, I’m hoping he’ll begin to understand.”
“Maybe,” Miranda said, not sounding too hopeful. “But you’ll come and get me and Lavon, right?”
“We will. Now try not to fret too much, and let up on Teddy. Let him come around on his own. I’m sure he will.” She made that last statement with more confidence than she really felt, but at heart she did believe in Teddy’s fundamental decency.
After a few questions about Lavon and about how Miranda was feeling during her pregnancy, Wanda Nell said goodbye to her older daughter.
She had barely put the phone down when it rang again. She managed to push the Ta
lk button and say hello.
“Wanda Nell, I found out who Sandra June married,” Ernie said. “The game’s afoot.”
Nine
“What?” Wanda Nell said, startled.
“Sorry,” Ernie said. “I’m quoting Sherlock Holmes, couldn’t help myself.”
“It’s okay. I thought I’d heard that somewhere before.” Wanda Nell gave a little laugh. “But how did you find out?”
“I was right about there not being a wedding announcement, though I certainly looked. But it finally dawned on me that there probably would be an obituary for Mrs. Bates in the paper.”
“And the obituary would mention any survivors.”
“Exactly.”
“So did it mention Sandra June?”
“It sure did. Her husband’s name was Pete Havens, and at the time they were living in Water Valley.”
“How long ago was this?”
“Twenty-four years.”
“That’s quite a while ago,” Wanda Nell said. “I wonder if she’s still in Water Valley.”
“I don’t know. I called you right after I found this. I haven’t even looked in the phone book yet. I figured you and Jack would want to take it from here.”
“Thank you so much, Ernie. I can’t wait to tell Jack.”
“You go on ahead and do that. Y’all just call me and let me know what you find out.”
“We sure will. Talk to you soon.”
Wanda Nell hung up the phone, ready to run down the hall to share the news with her husband. But she decided to look in the phone book first. She pulled it out of a drawer and began flipping through the pages. The book covered all of Tullahoma County, plus some of the small towns in a couple of neighboring counties. Even so, it wasn’t a very thick book.
Wanda Nell found the section for Water Valley and began scanning the names. Her finger trailed down the appropriate page, and she frowned. There was only one Havens listed, but the initials were T.M. That sure didn’t sound like a Pete Havens or a Sandra June Havens, unless Pete was only a nickname. That didn’t seem too likely, however.
In twenty-four years, the couple could have moved away from Water Valley. “I knew it wouldn’t be that easy,” Wanda Nell muttered. As quickly as she could, she started going through each section of the book. She found three more listings for Havens, but not one of them for a P or an S.J.
Frowning, she stuck the phone book back in the drawer. She’d better go tell Jack.
Down the hall, she paused in the doorway to watch her husband at the computer for a moment. He was sitting and staring at the screen. He didn’t look like he was reading anything, so he was probably lost in thought.
“Honey, Ernie called.” For the moment Wanda Nell wasn’t going to bring up the subject of Miranda and Teddy. That could wait.
“I thought I heard the phone ring a couple of times,” Jack said, turning to her. “What did Ernie have to say?”
Wanda Nell shared Ernie’s information with her husband. “That’s great. Now at least we have something to go on. Did you look in the phone book already?”
“I did.” Wanda Nell shook her head. “No luck. I found only one Havens in Water Valley, and the initials didn’t match. I went through the rest of the book, and no luck there, either.”
Jack grinned. “It’s okay, honey. We’ll let the Internet do its magic, and we’ll see if we can find them another way.”
“How?” Wanda Nell asked.
“Pull up that chair over there, and come sit beside me. I’ll show you,” Jack said. He was already tapping at the keyboard, and Wanda Nell dragged the chair over next to him. As she sat, she watched the computer screen change.
“This is a Web site called Anywho.com. You can look up people all over the country here, as long as they have a listed phone number.”
“Goodness. So someone could use that and find us?” Wanda Nell wasn’t sure she liked that idea.
“They could, but let’s not worry about that for the moment. I want to see if we can track down Mr. and Mrs. Pete Havens.”
Wanda Nell watched as he typed. He put the name Havens in one box and Pete in another. Then he chose Mississippi for the state and clicked a button labeled Search.
The screen changed, and Wanda Nell squinted to read it.
“No Pete Havens in Mississippi,” Jack said, disappointed. “Let’s try it again with just the last name.”
This time when the screen changed, they had results, eighty-four of them. Wanda Nell watched as Jack scrolled through the pages.
On about the seventh screen, they saw a couple of P. Havenses with different middle initials listed, and Jack paused to note their names and addresses on a pad of paper beside the computer. There was no Sandra or S. Havens.
“There’s the only one I found in Water Valley.” Wanda Nell pointed to the screen.
Jack made a note of that one, too. “Probably related in some way, so if these other two don’t pan out, we can try calling this T.M. Havens.” He thought a moment. “Or just show up on his or her doorstep, since it’s not that far away. Sometimes that works better.”
“If you say so.”
Jack reached for his cell phone. “I tell you what, let’s go ahead and call these two P. Havenses, and see what happens.”
“Okay.” Wanda Nell was curious to hear how he was going to handle this. She pushed her chair back slightly and watched while Jack punched in the first number.
Someone answered after a moment, and Jack spoke. “Hi, there. I’m sorry to bother you, ma’am, but I’m trying to track down a high school classmate of mine, Pete Havens. We’re going to have our twenty-fifth reunion this summer, and we’ve all kinda lost track of ol’ Pete. But we sure would like to see him, if he can come. Is this his house, by any chance?”
If she hadn’t been looking right at him, Wanda Nell would have sworn it was somebody besides Jack on the phone. His voice was different. He had made it a little deeper and rougher-sounding, and his drawl was much more pronounced. She shook her head. This was a side of her husband she hadn’t seen before.
Jack listened for a moment. “Well, thank you kindly, ma’am. I knew it was kind of a long shot, but ol’ Pete was such a great guy, we really do want to find him.” He listened for a moment, said “thank you” one more time, and ended the call.
“I’ve never heard you talk like that before. Where did that come from?”
Jack grinned at her. “Did I ever tell you about the plays I did when I was in college?”
Smiling, Wanda Nell shook her head. “No, you didn’t.”
“Does it bother you, honey?”
“Well, it surprised me a bit. It seems a little dishonest.”
“I suppose it is. But it’s basically harmless. I’m not trying to scam somebody into buying something, or anything like that. Just looking for a little information.”
“Okay, but if I get any calls like that from now on, I can tell you I’m gonna be real careful about what I say.”
“That’s a very good idea. If you don’t want me to make another call like that, I won’t.”
“No, it’s okay, honey. We’re doing this for an important reason, and I don’t reckon it’s gonna hurt anybody. At least anybody that doesn’t deserve it.”
Jack smiled his thanks. Consulting his notes, he punched in the number for the second P. Havens. When someone answered, Jack went through the same routine. He received the same answer, and after a couple more remarks, he thanked the person and ended the call.
“Well, no luck with either of them,” he said, his shoulders drooping a bit. “So I guess we’d better try talking to this Havens in Water Valley. If we’re lucky, he or she’ll be related to Pete and know where he is now.”
“So do you want to go over to Water Valley and try to talk to them in person? Or call them instead?”
“I think we should go to Water Valley,” Jack said. “We know that Havens lived there, at least twenty-four years ago. So maybe if we ask around, someone will know him and maybe w
here he went—and Sandra June, too. That is, if T.M. Havens can’t help.”
“Or won’t,” Wanda Nell said.
“That’s a possibility. Not everybody wants to talk, but we’ll just have to try.”
“When do you want to go?”
“Tomorrow, after lunch. People will be home from church, probably relaxing, and that’s a good time. And if we don’t have any luck tomorrow, I can always go back on Monday.”
“But without me,” Wanda Nell said. “I have to go back to work on Monday.”
“I know, honey, and I’d sure rather you were with me,” Jack replied. “We need to keep moving forward, though, and I doubt Melvin would be all that happy about you asking for more time off.” Melvin Arbuckle owned the Kountry Kitchen, where Wanda Nell worked.
“Especially since he gave me two weeks off with pay for our honeymoon. That was real sweet of him, and I don’t want to impose on him if I don’t have to.”
“We’ll just have to see how it goes tomorrow,” Jack said. “But I have a feeling that solving this whole thing will probably mean a bit of traveling. Especially if we’re lucky enough to find Roscoe Bates somewhere. I just hope it’s not at the other end of the country.”
Wanda Nell and Jack spent a quiet evening without any family around. They listened to music while they read, Jack absorbed in a historical mystery and Wanda Nell in a new book by a Southern writer, Mary Saums. She loved the two older women in the book and their relationship. It made her think of Mayrene, and she wondered how Mayrene was doing. She wasn’t home this evening, and Wanda Nell hoped her best friend had been able to patch things up with Dixon Vance. Mainly, she hoped Dixon had had the sense to apologize to Mayrene for what he had said. Men could be so dumb sometimes.
Sunday morning dawned quiet and hot. Wanda Nell slipped out of bed without waking Jack and padded into the kitchen to put on some coffee. Once the coffeemaker was going, she stood at the sink, gazing out the window. This was the time of day she had always liked best, especially when her grandson would come into the kitchen, his stuffed bunny dragging behind him. She missed his bright chatter, but it was good that Miranda had her own home now. Wanda Nell just prayed that everything would work out between Teddy and Miranda.
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