by Ann Mullen
He folded up the phone and shoved it back under his coat.
“Was that my mother? We haven’t been here...”
“No, that was my mom. She wants us to come up to the house for a few minutes. She has to know everything. You know how mothers are.”
“How did she know we were here?”
“She probably saw us when we came in. Remember, she’s higher up than we are. She can see every car that comes and goes. And believe me, she doesn’t miss much. My father—being a full-blooded Cherokee—can smell us coming a mile away.”
I guess Billy sensed from the look on my face that I believed his every word. He smiled at me and said, “I was just kidding. He can’t smell any farther than half a mile.” He then laughed one of those belly laughs. “God, you’re so gullible, Jesse. What am I going to do with you?”
Sarah Blackhawk greeted us at the door. “Come on in,” she said. She ushered us into the big family living room.
A fire was blazing in the fireplace while Chief Blackhawk was stretched out next to it, asleep in a recliner. He didn’t budge.
Sarah’s an all-American white woman and their marriage is still the talk of the tribe. She raised their family against many obstacles, and has been a good wife to her husband while still managing to keep her own identity. She was very proud of this. She was small in size, but to her family, she was larger than life. Nothing meant more to her than them.
Billy and I took off our coats and sat down on the sofa. We looked like two little kids waiting to be punished for something we knew nothing about. We were the innocent ones.
Sarah didn’t waste any time. She sat down in the overstuffed chair across from us, leaned forward and said, “I got a call from Cole about an hour ago. He said the sheriff was looking for Jesse. She’s wanted for questioning in a murder case. He wanted to know if you two were here.”
“What did you tell him?” Billy asked.
“I told him I hadn’t seen you because at the time I hadn’t. But when I went up to the stables to check on the horses, I saw your truck and that red Jeep of Jesse’s in front of your place.”
“Why didn’t Cole call Billy on his cell phone if he was looking for us?” I asked her. “Did he forget the number?”
Billy looked at me and then back at Sarah. “We talked to the sheriff this morning and he said...”
“There’s been a new development in the case. Cole says they have an eyewitness that puts Jesse with that woman the day she disappeared.”
“That’s crazy! I don’t even know the woman! I’ve never even met her!”
“That’s what you say,” Chief Blackhawk said as he came to life. “But beware, the white man has his own set of rules. You have to live by these rules. You must prove yourself. Your word is but a speckle of dust on a ledge. It means nothing. There is no trust in the white man’s world. There is no honor. It is so sad.”
“What do you mean?” I asked the chief. “Are you saying it doesn’t matter that I’m innocent?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. You must find the truth before the lies find you. It is your only chance.”
I looked at Billy. He seemed to understand exactly what his father was trying to convey. He stood and grabbed my arm, pulling me off the couch.
“Let’s go, Jesse,” he said. He bent down and kissed his mother good-bye. “Thanks for calling me. And before you ask, yes, Jesse’s moving into my house. I hope you’ll welcome her.” That was all he said, and she didn’t ask any questions. She hugged me.
“Things are really getting crazy,” I said as we left the house and headed down the driveway. Billy’s brow was creased and the way he gripped the steering wheel led me to believe that he was really worried.
“We’re going back and put your Jeep in the garage.”
“What garage? I didn’t see a garage.”
“It’s behind the house,” he said. He made the turn onto the road leading back to my new home. He seemed to drift off for a second. “You know, I never did build that breezeway Ruth wanted.” He turned and smiled a sad smile. “She always wanted a breezeway from the garage to the utility room. She said she hated that walk in the winter. It was too cold.”
“I have a garage! That’s so cool!” I tried to make light of the subject. “Maybe this spring you and I could do that breezeway. I know a few things about building. Jack taught me.”
“Yeah, I remember you telling me something to that effect.” He gave me one of his funny looks. “We’ll see.”
“I know a lot more than you give me credit.”
“I’m sure you do,” he laughed. His expression turned serious. “Actually, you’re exactly like I expected you to be. When we met, I knew more about you in the first ten minutes than you do about yourself right now.”
“Oh, bull.”
“For example,” he continued, “I know that you’re tough on the outside, but soft on the inside. You act like you don’t care about anything, yet I saw how you freaked out when Thor was bitten by that copperhead.”
“It wasn’t Thor, it was Athena.”
“You cried for two solid hours.”
“I did not! You’re full of...” I stopped dead. Cole’s olive green Jeep was parked in front of the house. “What’s he doing here?”
As soon as Billy shut the engine off, Cole walked out from behind the house. He was dressed in Army fatigues, sporting that familiar badge pinned to his waist, and a gun strapped to his hip. The first thing I noticed was that he wasn’t wearing a coat.
I leaped out of the truck and ran to him.
“Are you nuts? Where’s your coat?” I cried. “Don’t you know you could freeze to death out here?”
Billy walked up and held out his hand in his usual manner of greeting. “How’s it going, buddy?”
“I’ve had better days,” Cole said. He stared at the two of us. “Come in. We need to talk.”
“Sure, let’s go inside.” Billy turned and led the way.
Cole and I followed.
“Your mom said you decided to move out. What prompted that?” Cole said to me as we made our way up the walkway to the porch. “I thought Claire was going to move in here.”
“Things change,” I said in a hushed tone. “We talked it over and agreed this would be better. Claire’s never been one to be by herself. She likes to have people around. This would be too much for her. I’m different; I love the solitude. I like my privacy, and I like to live alone.”
Billy pulled out his set of keys, fumbled through them until he found the right one, and then stuck it in the keyhole. After unlocking the door, he took the key off the ring and handed it to me. “Here, I guess you might need these.” He shot a look in Cole’s direction and said, “I won’t have to worry about getting a midnight call about a noise in the woods. Jesse doesn’t scare easily like Claire does.”
Billy’s comment made me feel good.
Claire would have probably burned up his phone line with all kinds of crazy stuff while I would have dealt with the problem myself, instead of admitting helplessness. She has always had someone to take care of her and never had to make any kind of decisions on her own, except maybe which dress to wear. She had lived at home with our folks until she married Carl and now that they were getting a divorce, she had to have someone to take his place. So she moved back home with Mom. As I look back, I bet the idea of moving out here to Billy’s house must have scared her half to death. She would be alone and might actually have to do chores, like shovel snow, or do her own yard work in the summer, or change a light bulb. Me; I could do all that. I’ve been on my own since I graduated from high school. I was the rebel in the family. Mom says I took after my dad. I was proud of that. He was a good man!
“I think Claire just wants the man to be in charge. Some women do. Besides, isn’t that the way it should be?” Cole asked. “The man takes care of the woman. He’s her protector, lover, and friend.”
So that’s it! That’s been our problem all along. I knew there was
something hiding beneath Cole’s charming facade. He was one of those men who said one thing, but wanted just the opposite. He wanted to be the boss. That’s why he deserted me when I needed him. He knew I would never succumb to being just an ordinary housewife or lover who would try to satisfy his every need, above all else. He also knew I would stand up for myself. I would never sit back and let someone push me around. I had too much power over my life for his comfort. I actually had a brain. I made my own decisions. I didn’t depend on a man for everything.
“Maybe you and Claire should hook up. You’d be perfect together. She’s needy, and you’re the protector. It would be a match made in heaven!”
“What?” Cole was stunned. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” I said, walking into the house and taking off my coat, “if you want a woman who is never going to stand up to you, I ain’t the one. If you think Claire’s such a perfect candidate for that position, then why don’t you go have a talk with her?”
“Kids, stop fighting,” Billy said, stepping in between us.
I was quickly getting agitated and Billy was trying to head off any kind of lovers’ quarrel.
The house had warmed up nicely and the fire in the fireplace had taken on a soft glow through the glass doors. A nice bed of coals had developed. I walked over and picked up a log out of the carrier and lay it on the embers.
“I hope there’s some more firewood.”
“There’s plenty out back,” Billy said. “I just hope it’s not rotten.”
“It’ll still burn, won’t it?”
“Yeah, it’ll burn, but it’ll burn up fast and it doesn’t make good wood for an all-nighter. I’ll check it out. If the wood is rotten, we may need to get some more. You never know when you’ll lose power out here. The gas heat has to have electricity to operate so you need a backup. We don’t want to freeze this winter, do we?” He smiled at me in an overdone, loving way, and then winked.
What was that all about? We weren’t living together. Then it hit me; he was trying to make Cole jealous. Suddenly, my devilish alter ego took over. I played along. “I think between the two of us, we can keep this place warm.”
Cole stared in disbelief, but didn’t say anything. He was at a loss for words. I had struck home. I let him know right then and there that I could move on. I wasn’t going to die without his love. I was a real person. I had a life! I didn’t need him as much as he thought!
All three of us had crossed the line. Billy pushed Cole; I lied; and Cole had shown his true colors. Things were definitely going to be different.
“Time out,” Cole barked. “I came here to tell you something. I didn’t come here to fight with you.”
He walked toward the sofa with his head bent down. When he looked back up at us, he had an odd look on his face.
“I got a call from my boss a little while ago. I don’t go on duty until midnight, but he wanted to let me know in advance that they were looking for you, Jesse. Because of our relationship, he wanted to make sure I didn’t lose sight of what my job was. He wanted me to go to your mom’s house and bring you in for questioning. When I called him back and reported that you weren’t there, he insisted that I find you. He said he would give me a couple of hours before he sent his men out. I told him I would take care of it. In the meantime, I called one of my buddies on the force and found out they’ve come up with an eyewitness that places someone who fits your description with Mary Keen on the last day that anyone saw her alive. They didn’t say you were with her, but that you were waiting in a car parked across the street. The woman gave a description of your Jeep, and described you right down to your long, red ponytail. The only thing she didn’t get was the license plate number. She said Mary was in a hurry and wanted to borrow some money, but she didn’t have any to spare and was on her way to Florida. Her daughter had just had a baby and she was going for a visit. And that was it. She left, and didn’t know anything about Mary’s death until she got home this morning. She immediately called the police. And, of course, there’s the watch. It looks pretty bad, Jesse.”
“Where do we go from here?” I asked.
“Well, it’s my job to take you in for questioning. However, something strange happened on my way over here. I picked up a tail as soon as I got out onto Rt. 33. An unmarked car followed me until I turned off onto Bear Mountain Road. He’s parked down by the mailboxes. That’s why you saw me coming up from behind the house when you arrived. I’ve been out back on that hill behind the garage, watching him through binoculars. He’s such an idiot. The least he could do would be to pull off into the woods out of sight. Kind of makes me wonder if his intention was for me to see him.”
Billy collected his thoughts. “This ain’t right, Cole. You know it’s not right. You know Jesse isn’t capable of killing anyone or anything. For Pete’s sake, you’ve had intimate relations with this woman. You’ve seen her inner soul.”
“That’s why I’m telling you this. There’s more to it than we know about. The whole thing smells funny and I don’t like it. I have a job to do, but I refuse to deliberately compromise people that I know are innocent. I know neither one of you would commit murder.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear you say that,” I replied. “I was beginning to think you didn’t care about anything but your job. You might actually have feelings after all. Wow, I’m surprised.”
“How can you say that?” Cole asked. His face contorted and he looked like he was about to go off. He glanced over at Billy and said, “Can I have a few minutes alone with Jesse, please?”
“Sure,” Billy said. “But make it quick. We have to get our heads straight and do something about this mess.”
Billy turned, walked out of the living room, and mumbled something about checking the attic upstairs.
Cole jumped on me the second Billy was out of the room.
“What’s your problem?” he asked. “Oh, I know you’re angry about the other day, but I was telling the truth. I’m a cop and I love my job. I’m not going to apologize for that. So if my boss tells me I can’t see you, then I can’t see you. I would think that you would understand. If you really love me like you say you do, then you should support me. This situation will be over soon, and then we can go back to the way it was, unless, of course, you don’t want us to have a relationship.”
“What relationship?” I hissed. “Sex doesn’t qualify as one.”
“We had more than just sex, and you know it.”
“We might have in the beginning, but now it’s purely sex. Have you noticed that in the past few weeks we hardly ever saw each other?”
“Excuse me, but aren’t you the one who was busy with your job the last couple of times when I called? You’re the one who kept putting me off.” Cole stepped closer to me. I could smell the sweet scent of his after-shave. “Let’s quit fighting, Jesse. I want you in my life.” He leaned over and pressed his lips to mine.
I could feel my emotions rising. I wanted him. I wanted to feel the way he made me feel, but I knew this wouldn’t last. Our time had come and gone. I wanted more than he was willing to give.
“Stop,” I said, stepping back. “It won’t work, Cole. I need a man who’s going to be by my side all the time, not someone who’ll be there at his convenience. You can’t give me what I need. I see that now. It’s over.”
“That’s a load of crap, Jesse. There’s someone else, isn’t there? Tell me who it is. I know it’s Billy!” He grabbed me by the arm; his grip firm.
“Let go of my arm, Cole. You’re hurting me.”
He stepped back and said, “I’m sorry, Jesse. I don’t know what came over me. I guess I’m just afraid that I’m losing you.”
“After that little display, I don’t think I can handle your anger.”
“It’s just as much your fault as it is mine. I wouldn’t have grabbed you if you hadn’t made me so mad.”
“You’re full of...”
“Shut up, both of you,” Billy shouted. He walked back
into the room. “We need to figure out what to do about this situation.”
Cole and I quit arguing and looked at Billy. He was pacing the floor and running his hand through his loose, long locks of hair.
“We have to come up with a plan. We need more time.”
“More time for what?” I asked, putting my thoughts of Cole aside. “The cops want my butt.”
“Remember what the chief said? The only way to prove you’re innocent is to find the one who’s guilty. That’s what we have to do.”
“Why should I have to prove that I’m innocent? I thought it was their job to prove guilt, not the other way around.”
“Wake up, girl,” Billy said, looking at me in bewilderment. “Smell the coffee.”
Chapter 8
By the time it got dark outside, we had come up with a plan. Cole would take me in for questioning while Billy followed us in his truck. An attorney friend of Billy’s, Russell Shank, agreed to meet us at the police station. He would be my lawyer, if I needed one, thus keeping me from running off at the mouth. I called Mom to make sure everyone was all right and to check on the flood situation. The eight inches of snow was melting at an alarming rate. The freeze at night that normally occurs in the mountains this time of year didn’t appear to be happening. It was still forty-two degrees outside. That meant, if the temperature didn’t drop soon and stop the thaw, the South River would overflow, flooding everyone in its path. The ground at the top of the mountain, made soft from the melting snow, would turn into mud slides. Everyone would be in trouble.
“Don’t worry,” Mom assured me. “The wind is blowing like crazy, and the temperature has dropped down to thirty-eight degrees. We’re going to be fine. You just do what you have to do and we’ll see you tomorrow.”
Her calmness disturbed me, but I didn’t have time to analyze the situation. She appeared to have herself together. That gave me one less thing to worry about. We had stuff to do. Once we got the house locked up and my Jeep put in the garage, the three of us headed out to the Greene County Sheriff’s Department back in Stanardsville.