“Now, Travis Landry, I have known you since you were a boy. I taught your momma’s Sunday school class. You are not going to start telling me what I can and cannot do. No, sir.”
“I just meant…”
“I know you mean well, but this is the right thing. That boy hasn’t done a thing and I think you know it. Now, if it’s all the same to you, I would like to speak to him.”
“Have it your way.”
“Edie?” Mrs. Wheeler said, turning toward her. “Would you like to see Skylar?”
“Yes, ma’am, I would.”
“Then you come along with me.”
Edie rushed through the security door with Mrs. Wheeler. The old woman reached out and touched her elbow gently. “You go on ahead, honey. I just remembered, I’ve got something I need to discuss with your father.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Wheeler.” A crushing sense of humiliation made her hang her head, knowing now how wrong she must have been about Mrs. Wheeler. The woman had just forked over several grand to do the right thing, for God’s sake.
They were interrupted in saying farewell by the blaring of an alarm.
“What is that? What’s wrong?” Mrs. Wheeler demanded.
“Sheriff! They’re telling us to move the prisoners down to the basement. Tornado on the ground about two miles from here.” The deputy was already headed toward the lobby to gather the visitors and usher them to the basement.
“What’s happening?” Edie asked.
“Everybody to the basement. Now!”
There was a blur of activity as the sheriff and the deputy moved everyone downstairs. They made all the visitors go down first and then they went back for the prisoners.
“Randall Harper, you and I need to talk.”
“This really isn’t the time or place, Mrs. Wheeler.”
“It has got to be done with, Randall. I know.” She tilted her head forward, tripling her chin and glaring at Randall over her glasses. For a moment, her cheeks flushed red, but Edie wasn’t sure if it was anger or embarrassment. “I’d hoped to do this apart from Edie, but it is what it is.”
“What are you on about, Mrs. Wheeler?”
“I think you oughtta explain to Travis why these were on your computer.”
She handed Randall the folder and his face went white.
“Who is that young man, Randall? Isn’t it Billy Charlie? Maybe you know more about what happened to him than you might’ve let on.” Mrs. Wheeler scrutinized Randall’s response.
“Yes,” he said, his voice thin. “It’s him.”
“Randall. Not another word. We agreed.” Shelly’s eyes widened as she warned Randall to keep quiet.
“I can’t do this anymore, Shelly. I don’t wanna die down here with this on my conscience.”
“Nobody’s going to die. The storm will pass.” Her hands were twisted into the fabric of her long skirt as she glared at him. “It’s all in your head.”
“Not this time, Shelly. It’s over.”
The pounding of footsteps on the stairs alerted them to the arrival of the others. The basement door was closed and they were divided into two groups, the prisoners being seated at the far end of the basement.
Skylar was the last to come in. He kept his head down and would not meet her gaze. He slid down onto the floor and raised his hands for the sheriff to remove the wire tie that bound him.
“We should be good down here. Last report says the storm is headed northeast, so maybe we’ll get lucky.”
The creeping shadow outside the small basement windows told a different story. Sheets of rain pelted the side of the west side of the building while sun rays speared the clouds on the east. It was a recipe for destruction, she knew.
Edie went to him, hoping that he would talk to her, hoping she could bring him back from wherever he’d gone to.
“Hey, Edie, I think you need to stay over there with your folks.”
“Now, Travis, is that really necessary? He’s going to be a free man once I can get somebody to hear what I have to say.”
“Not now, Mrs. Wheeler. We’re in the middle of a line of tornadoes. It can wait.”
“It most certainly cannot wait. This boy is innocent and you’re killing him by accusing him, can’t you see that? Look at him.”
Outside, the sky was bleeding blue. As was her heart as she felt him slipping farther from her. Skylar would not look at her.
“What is it, Mrs. Wheeler. Tell us,” Edie said, growing impatient.
“Are you sure, child? I hadn’t wanted to do this in front of you.”
“I can take it. I’ve already lost my best friend and now this,” Edie said, motioning toward Sky. “How much worse can it get.”
“Brace yourself, dear. It can get much worse. So much worse.”
“Oh, honey,” her mother said, guiding her away from Mrs. Wheeler. “Don’t you remember how she spoke about the girls at the market that day? Don’t let her corrupt your thinking and make you judge. It is written that there is only one judge.”
“What are you all talking about? Stop treating me like I’m stupid and get to it already. What is it?”
A tiny, forced grin was spreading on her mother’s face and a scowl over Mrs. Wheeler’s.
“Why protect him, Shelly? After all, you had to know. At least suspected.”
“What of it? I am his wife, sworn to honor and obey. No matter what.”
“And kill? Do you think that your marriage vows rank higher than a man’s life? Or is it your adherence to your vanities that motivate you?” Mrs. Wheeler stood her ground.
“I don’t know what you mean,” Shelly said, moving closer to Edie.
“I think you do, and judging from the type of photos that were on Randall’s computer, I’d say that you two know who is responsible for Billy’s death.”
“What photos?” Edie asked.
“These photos.” Mrs. Wheeler shoved the folder into Shelly’s hands.
Edie waited for some sign of shock, for she knew what Mrs. Wheeler was driving at. After having seen Billy’s video, Edie gathered what went on between them.
“How’d you get these?” Edie asked.
Her mother slunk up to her and slid her hand up her arm to her shoulder. “Honey, you do not want to do this.”
“If it means what I think it means, you’ve left me no choice. What about Skylar? Do you think he should go to prison for something Randall did?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Edie.” Her mother moved her hand away from Edie’s shoulder, a venomous grin blooming on her face.
There was a great roar of wind that brought tree limbs and trash cans crashing into the building. A swing from a neighbor’s swingset had been ripped loose and twisted past the window like some long chain serpent. There was a loud slap against the glass when it twisted and flung into the window, making everyone jump.
She grabbed the folder from her mother’s grasp and backed herself into a corner. Flipping it open, she found the first photo was more than enough to confirm her suspicions about the affair.
“I was curious as to what Edie was looking at on her father’s computer and spent some time browsing it after she left. At first, I didn’t know what to think about what I’d found, but then I knew I had to confront Randall. And of course, you, Shelly.”
“I didn’t want our daughters to grow up with everybody knowing that their father was a deviant and a fraud,” Shelly answered, her eyes turning to inky black pools.
Oh, God, no, no. It can’t be true. She could not have…
Loud sobs erupted from her when she realized what had happened and that both her parents had Billy Charlie’s blood on their hands.
The alarm blared in and out of hearing, off and on again growing in its insistence with each new eruption causing them to draw nearer to one another. The three prisoners shifted next to one another, looking cautiously at the windows and then towards the door.
A black shadow slipped past a window, a thing drudged up
by the storm, drawn to the darkness her parents had created. It hovered by the window nearest the prisoners, all eyes watching as it remained still even in the midst of the high winds.
Skylar’s gaze was upon Edie.
The sky was bleeding blue, as was her heart as she felt him slipping farther from her.
“Save him! For God’s sake, tell the truth for once in your life!” she screamed so loudly she thought her head would burst. “If you love me, then save him.”
“I did break Edie’s phone and I’m the one guilty of Billy’s murder,” Randall covered his face with blood stained hands and sobbed, “God help me.”
Her mother stared, stunned at the words that were coming from her husband’s mouth.
“No, he isn’t. It was her,” Edie said, pointing at her mother. “It was you all along.”
The shadow seeped into the basement through a small crack in the window. At first, a small thread of black slunk down the wall toward them and then it bloomed into a shadow that filled half the room. Curling tentacles writhed from its center, seeking out the source of the stain, enveloping Shelly in an icy embrace.
“No, no! Take him, not me. Not me! I did the right thing! I did it for you, Edie! Tell them!”
The shadow’s thin tendrils began to seep into the cracks of the basement floor, pulling Shelly down with it. For a moment, she lay wrapped in ribbons of black against the concrete. And then, she was gone.
Stunned, they waited silently and listened as the roar of the storm grew louder. The basement darkened as the power failed and they sat in the tomb, waiting. Hoping.
The lights flickered and she saw, there in the corner, a single black finger of shadow winding around Randall’s legs. His eyes were wide with terror, but he never moved nor made any sound.
Randall Harper went quietly when it came for him, as he knew it would.
24
“That’s the last of it,” Skylar called from the front door of his house. He packed a cardboard box to the faded blue truck and slid it into the scratched up bed. “Now, we gotta get your stuff. Are you ready?”
“As I’ll ever be. Mrs. Wheeler agreed to meet us after. I want to say goodbye to Sara Beth and Rosemary one more time before we head out.”
“It’s gonna be okay. We’re gonna be okay.” He came up behind her and put both arms around her, cradling her and planting a kiss in her hair.
“I know. I’m just ready to get this over with.”
“Just breathe. Tonight, we’ll be in Valley Springs.”
“Are you excited?”
“You know it,” he said, pressing himself into her. “I’m ready to love you as hard as I can.”
She couldn’t help but laugh and blamed it on her nerves.
Rix and Wendy were standing in the front yard, waving. Skylar rented the house to them instead of selling it. He was shocked that they wanted to stay. “Crazy thing, they like it here.”
“They can have it,” she said, waving back as Skylar steered the truck away from the curb.
The brown brick ranch seemed so small and far away from her somehow, like something you remember from a long time before. She had detached herself from it and the things that happened there in the past few months. And now, she could finally look forward without being dogged with guilt over what she could have done.
She agreed to go with Skylar to Valley Springs, Colorado, only if he agreed to find a therapist. He promised to try.
That was all either of them could promise, was to try. She knew how deeply she loved him and she tried everyday to show him that without expectations. He always gave more than he should.
They drove down highway 408, toward the sun and the hazy afternoon sky. As they cruised, the sky cleared and became a sapphire blue like it did on the crisp clear days of autumn.
Skylar pulled the truck off into the emergency lane.
“What are we doing?” she asked, thinking the truck was broke down.
“You’re driving.”
She smiled and slid into the driver’s seat and for the first time in her life, knew where she was going.
**
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The Color of My Native Sky Page 12