“I’m not really hungry right now,” Wanda Nell said. “But I could use something to drink.”
“Okay, love.” A couple of blocks after they turned, Jack pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store and parked, leaving the car running. “I’ll be right back. What would you rather have, a bottle of water or a Diet Coke?”
“How about both?” Wanda Nell managed a brief smile.
“Sure thing.” Jack closed the door, and Wanda Nell sat, the cool air making her shiver suddenly.
Jack returned in a couple of minutes, carrying a plastic bag. Back behind the wheel, he opened the bag and extracted a bottle of water and then a Diet Coke. Wanda Nell took them both, tucking the soda in the pocket on the door. She twisted the cap off the water and drank deeply while Jack did the same.
“That’s better. I was pretty parched.”
“Me, too,” Jack said. “This heat really takes it out of you, and fast.” He set his bottle in one of the two cupholders between his seat and Wanda Nell’s. He backed the car out of the parking lot and headed toward the highway that would take them home.
“I wonder how many Bakers there are in Tullahoma,” Wanda Nell mused after they had been out of Water Valley and on the highway for several minutes.
“It’s a pretty common name,” Jack said, “but there shouldn’t be too many in a town the size of Tullahoma.”
“If she’s even still in town.”
“Yeah.” Jack sighed. “Tracking her down could take a while, unless we get a break and actually find her in town.”
“I bet we will,” Wanda Nell said with a confidence she didn’t entirely feel. “I tell you what, why don’t we stop for a bite to eat when we get back to town? Maybe some pizza, or a hamburger. One of those fast-food places on the highway. Then we can hunt up a phone book and just see how many Bakers there are.”
“Sounds fine to me,” Jack said. “Thanks again, love, for being with me on this.”
Wanda Nell smiled at him. They were silent for a few miles before she spoke again. “You know, seeing that house reminded me of Miz Culpepper. We’re going to have to talk to her again at some point. From the way she reacted yesterday, she must know something.” She shook her head. “But I’m wondering if it’ll be too much for her.”
“We do need to talk to her,” Jack said. “But I don’t want to upset her too much. I’m a little worried about her heart condition. I’d hate to be the cause of her having a stroke.”
“Yeah, me, too. Maybe we should talk to Belle first, see what she thinks.”
“Good plan,” Jack said.
They drove the rest of the way to Tullahoma in silence. Jack turned off the highway, into the parking lot of the pizza place. By this time the after-church lunch crowd was gone, and only a few of the tables and booths had occupants. Jack guided Wanda Nell to an empty booth.
Moments later a young waitress took their drink orders while they looked over the menu. By the time the waitress was back with their iced tea, they were ready to order.
“You think they might have a phone book we could look at?” Jack asked.
“Most places do,” Wanda Nell said, “even if they’re not out somewhere. Do they still have a pay phone here?”
“I’ll look.” Jack slid out of the booth. “I’m going to the restroom, and I’ll check it out.”
“Good idea. I’ll go, too.” Wanda Nell slid out, taking her purse with her.
When Wanda Nell came back to their booth, she found her husband poring over the phone book. “Where did you find it?” she asked as she sat down. “There wasn’t one by the pay phone.”
“I asked the waitress, and she brought it to me. There are eleven Bakers here in Tullahoma. I haven’t looked in the other sections yet.”
“Might as well start there,” Wanda Nell said.
“Do you mind if I start calling now?” Jack asked. “There aren’t many people around. And as long as we’re waiting for our food . . .” His voice trailed off.
Wanda Nell nodded. “Go ahead. I’m as curious as you are.”
Jack withdrew his cell phone from his jacket pocket. Consulting the phone book, he punched in the first number. When someone answered, Jack gave a spiel similar to the one he had used when looking for Pete Havens. Only this time he was looking for Sandra June Bates to invite to the reunion.
He had called the first four Bakers in the book, with no success, by the time the waitress brought their mini-pizzas. Wanda Nell loved pepperoni on a thick crust, and Jack loved Italian sausage on a thin crust.
After eating one of the four slices of his pizza, Jack picked up his phone again. He glanced at Wanda Nell.
“Go ahead,” she said. “Just don’t let your pizza get too cold.”
“I like cold pizza.” Jack smiled before he looked for the next number.
While Wanda Nell slowly ate the rest of her pizza, Jack alternated between phone calls and bites of pizza. He had called four more Bakers, two of them with no answer, when, on the next call, his body stiffened. Wanda Nell put down her last bite of pizza to watch.
“So you’re Sandra June Bates?” Jack said. “You won’t remember me, but I’d like to talk to you about the reunion and a few other things. Would you have time to talk to me and my wife today?” He listened for a moment. “Why, sure, we can come on by right now, if it’s convenient for you. Let me just double-check your address.” He read out of the phone book. “Right. Good, I know where that is. We’ll be there in less than ten minutes.” He ended the call and stuck his phone back in his pocket.
“We’ve found her,” Jack said, his eyes alight with excitement. “Let’s go.”
Eleven
Jack paid the bill, his fingers drumming impatiently on the counter while he waited for their waitress to count out his change. “Thank you,” he said, pushing a couple of dollars back to her for a tip. She smiled.
“Where does she live?” Wanda Nell asked when they were in the car. Jack had been in such a hurry to get out of the restaurant, she hadn’t asked him before.
“In that new development, just off the highway, on the east side of town.” Jack pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward town. After a few blocks he took a cutoff that would save them a few minutes and take them to the east-west highway that cut through the middle of Tullahoma.
Traffic was light, and they made it to the entrance to the subdivision in about ten minutes. On the way, Wanda Nell had asked what the woman sounded like.
“Very quiet voice, not much intonation. Almost like she was drugged.”
“Or drunk?” Wanda Nell asked, remembering what Mrs. Havens had told them.
Jack shrugged. “Maybe, but she wasn’t slurring her words. Her voice just sounded flat.”
“Was she very curious?”
“Not really,” Jack admitted. “I thought it was a bit strange, but I wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity.”
The house where Sandra June Baker lived stood at the end of a cul-de-sac on one of the side streets a few blocks from the subdivision entrance. The houses here were modest, Wanda Nell noticed, and most of them looked pretty much alike. The yards were clean, and there were some trees. A few children were playing outside, but most of them were probably inside, where it was much cooler.
Jack stopped the car in front of the Baker house, checking the number he’d written down. A bungalow surrounded on three sides by young trees, it appeared well-maintained, with a neatly manicured lawn and white walls. There were a few flower beds, their contents drooping in the heat.
Wanda Nell stepped out of the car before Jack could open her door. She shut the door and followed him to the front of the house.
Jack punched the doorbell and held it for two seconds. Moments later the door opened, and a thin woman who appeared to be in her sixties gazed blankly at them. “Pardon me, ma’am,” Jack said, “we’re here to see Miz Sandra Baker.” He exchanged a quick glance with Wanda Nell. This woman appeared too old to be the woman they were trying to find.<
br />
Maybe she’s Sandra June’s mother-in-law, Wanda Nell thought.
“Come on in,” she said, her voice dull. She turned and walked away from the door, leaving them to enter and then shut the door behind them.
The front door opened directly into what appeared to be the living room. The woman had gone from the door to flop down in worn armchair whose threadbare fabric spoke for the condition of every stick of furniture in the room. Wanda Nell found it depressing. The outside of the house looked so nice, but inside, it was pitiful.
At least it appeared to be clean, she was glad to note. She followed Jack to a sofa near the woman’s chair, and they both sat down. Wanda Nell shifted slightly, because she had sat on a spring. Her new position wasn’t much better, so she resigned herself to being uncomfortable.
The woman still hadn’t spoken again. She regarded them with blank, incurious eyes.
Jack introduced himself. “And this is my wife, Wanda Nell. I believe it was you I spoke to on the phone. Like I told you, we’re looking for Sandra June Bates.”
The woman stirred, a small, listless movement. “I’m Sandra June Bates. Baker now, that is.”
Wanda Nell had figured that Sandra June must be in her late forties by now, from what they knew about her, but this woman looked at least twenty years older. The skin around her eyes was puffy, and her complexion was sallow. Her hair had been bleached too many times, and it looked dry enough for kindling, as Wanda Nell’s mama would have said. The shapeless dress she wore appeared clean enough, though it had faded from many washings.
“Miz Baker,” Jack said. He hid his surprise pretty well, Wanda Nell noted. “When we spoke on the phone just a little while ago, I told you I wanted to talk to you about a high school reunion. I’m afraid I misled you a little.”
No expression of outrage appeared on Sandra June Baker’s face. Her expression didn’t change at all. She just stared at Jack.
“Do you remember, thirty-one years ago, a girl being found dead on the football field at the high school?” Jack spoke gently.
For the first time a spark of interest appeared in the woman’s face, but it quickly faded. “I guess so.” Her tone hadn’t changed.
“I’m writing a book about it,” Jack said, “and my wife is helping me. We’re trying to find out what really happened.”
Still the woman didn’t react. Wanda Nell watched her, puzzled. She wasn’t drunk; Wanda Nell had seen enough drunks to know the signs. She was probably taking some kind of pill that made her this way. Maybe some kind of antidepressant or a tranquilizer.
Jack persevered, despite the lack of response. “We know your brother was questioned by the Sheriff’s Department, but he disappeared before he could be charged with anything.”
“Roscoe’s gone,” Mrs. Baker said. She stirred for a moment in the chair, then went still again.
Wanda Nell glanced at Jack. He raised his eyebrows. Wanda Nell decided to step in for a moment.
“When you say he’s gone,” she said, her voice gentle but firm, “do you mean just gone away? Or has he died?”
Mrs. Baker regarded her for a moment. “Just gone.” “Do you have any idea where he is now?” Wanda Nell asked.
“Why do you want to know?” The woman’s voice grew stronger for a moment.
“We want to talk to him, find out whether he knew anything about the girl,” Jack said. “Nobody even knows her name, or where she came from.”
“We don’t think your brother killed her,” Wanda Nell added. “We think it’s possible somebody else killed her and tried to blame your brother.”
“He didn’t kill her, I don’t care what anybody said.”
“Do you know where he is?” Jack asked. “We’d sure like to talk to him, and I promise you we wouldn’t tell anybody where he is now.”
“If we can prove somebody else did it, he could come home again,” Wanda Nell said. For some reason, she really believed that Roscoe Bates was innocent, despite what Mrs. Havens had said. Mrs. Bates heard the sincerity in her voice, and for the first time, she smiled.
The smile fled, however, when she heard the sound of a car pulling into the driveway.
“You’ll have to go,” she said, becoming agitated. “My husband.” Alarm shone in her eyes. “I can’t talk to you anymore.”
Wanda Nell and Jack stood. Mrs. Baker was obviously distressed. She flinched when she heard a door open and close, and heavy footsteps approaching. Jack pulled his notebook and a pen out of his pocket and scribbled something. He tore the paper out and pressed it into Mrs. Baker’s hand.
“Sandra June,” a deep voice called out. “Have you got company in the house?”
Mrs. Baker clutched the paper for a moment, staring at them almost wildly. She stuffed the paper into the bosom of her dress. When her husband came into the room, she was calm again. She turned to him, her head down. “These folks stopped by. I didn’t invite anybody.” Her voice had gone flat again, and Wanda Nell could feel the fear emanating from her.
Mr. Baker was a tall man, several inches over six feet, and massively built. He wore a dark suit and tie, and his face had a grim, mean look to it that made Wanda Nell want to grab Mrs. Baker and carry her out of the house. “What do you folks want? Can’t you see my wife is ill? She don’t need strangers here pestering her.”
“We’re sorry,” Jack said, standing his ground. “We didn’t mean to impose on your wife.”
Wanda Nell stared the man right in the face. “We’re just visiting people in the neighborhood around here on behalf of our church and our pastor.” She hoped the Lord would forgive her such a lie, but she would have said anything it took right then to protect the poor woman trembling in front of her.
Mr. Baker regarded her, his hostility undiminished. “We already belong to a church, and we got no mind to change to another one. I think y’all had best go on about your business and do the Lord’s work somewhere else.”
“We surely will,” Wanda Nell said, not flinching.
Mr. Baker’s face darkened, but before he could say anything else, Jack took Wanda Nell’s arm. “We’ll be going now. Goodbye, Mrs. Baker. We’re sorry for bothering you.”
Mrs. Baker didn’t appear to have heard him. She hadn’t moved since her husband came into the room. Wanda Nell hated to leave her in that house, but she didn’t see any other option.
She and Jack walked to the front door. Jack opened it, and once they were both outside, he closed it firmly.
Neither of them said a word until they were in the car and on their way out of the subdivision.
“What a horrible man,” Wanda Nell said. “Do you think he’ll beat her because she let us in the house?”
“The Lord only knows.” Jack’s voice was as grim as the look on his face. “Men like that ought to be horsewhipped. Even if he’s not abusing her physically, he’s sure doing it mentally. I bet he makes her take whatever pills have got her like she is.”
Wanda Nell shivered. “What can we do for her?”
“I don’t know. I guess we could tell Elmer Lee about the situation. We need to tell him we found her, anyway. Maybe he can do something.”
“I sure hope so,” Wanda Nell said. After a moment, she reached in her purse for her cell phone.
“Are you going to call him right now?” Jack asked. By now they were passing through the center of town, and they’d soon be taking the turn toward the reservoir and the trailer park.
“No. I’m calling T.J. and Tuck. I want to see if they’ll invite Elmer Lee to have dinner with us tonight.”
“You really think he’ll come?”
“He gets along just fine with Tuck and T.J. now.” Wanda Nell held up her free hand.
“Hey, sweetie, it’s your mama. Yes, we’re still planning to be there for dinner. Have you heard back from Miranda yet?”
She slumped against the seat. “I was afraid of that. I hope Teddy will stop some of this foolishness before too long.” She listened for a moment. “I know, sweetie, I
know. Look, since they aren’t coming, would you mind inviting someone else instead?” She mentioned Elmer Lee.
“Thanks, honey. Will one of y’all call him? It’s because of this case, the one Jack wants to write about. We’ll explain it all when we see you tonight.” After a brief pause she said, “Love you, too,” and ended the call.
“So they’re going to invite Elmer Lee?” Jack asked.
“Yes. T.J. said he thought it would be pretty interesting to have Elmer Lee sit down at their table with all of us. According to T.J., he’s practically a part of the family anyway.”
“Kind of like an annoying big brother, huh?” Jack teased.
“Annoying is right,” Wanda Nell said. “But he has his uses, thank goodness.”
“That he does,” Jack said. “And I hope he can do something about Miz Baker.”
“Do you think she knows where her brother is?”
“I think she does. And I think she might have told us if her husband hadn’t turned up when he did. I’m afraid we may not get another chance to talk to her now.”
“Well, if we can’t, maybe Elmer Lee can,” Wanda Nell said.
“Yes, but I promised her we wouldn’t tell anybody else where her brother is.” Jack turned the car off the highway onto the reservoir road. They would be home in less than five minutes.
“We may not have a choice,” Wanda Nell said. “I’m worried about her. You know, I don’t think I’m going to wait until tonight to talk to Elmer Lee. The minute we get home, I’m going to call him.”
“Okay, honey,” Jack said. “I think you’re right. That’s one of the reasons I love you so much. You have the biggest heart of anybody I know.” He turned his head to give her a brief smile.
Wanda Nell couldn’t speak for a moment because of the big lump in her throat. She pulled off her sunglasses and let her eyes speak for her.
As they came down the drive into the trailer park, Wanda Nell looked ahead to their trailer, the first one on the right. The next one belonged to Mayrene, and Wanda Nell spotted a pickup in front of it. “Looks like Dixon is here,” she said. “I hope he’s apologizing to Mayrene.”
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