by Danni Roan
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:24-25
Susan stood from the uncomfortable chair next to David’s bed, stretching her back. She had been typing notes hunched over her phone for what seemed like hours.
“I’m going to get some coffee,” she smiled. “Want some?”
“Sure,” David’s lunch sat on his table almost untouched. “I hope they let me out of here soon. I’d like to go back to the scene of the accident. I’m sure it was just that, probably a drunk driver who fled, but maybe we’ll see something.”
Susan knew that he was hoping to find his journal somewhere in the area, but something told her it wasn’t there. There was far more to the missing journal if only she could figure it out.
“What if someone really was trying to take you out?” She nibbled her lower lip, not willing to meet the man’s eyes. “What if you are getting to close to the truth?”
“Surely anyone who was involved in my grandfather’s disappearance is long gone,” David insisted. “It was more than fifty years ago.”
“What do you think really happened?” Susan looked up falling into the warm rich brown of David’s eyes.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “All I know is that the godly woman he was married to would never have put up with a grubby, lawless, moonshiner as a husband.”
The conviction in the young man’s eyes struck deep into Susan’s heart, like an arrow hitting its mark, and she nodded, something intangible putting truth to his words.
“As soon as I get us some coffee, you are going to tell me everything you ever found from the beginning. Every thought, suspicious, or inkling you have ever had.”
The sun was turning the blue of day to the purple haze of night when a doctor in a white coat stepped into the room. “We’re letting you go,” the tall man grinned, shifting a hard candy from one side of his mouth to the other. “You need to take it easy for a few days, and if your headaches get worse, get checked out.” The man’s dark eyes twinkled under wire rimmed glasses and a cheerful spirit seemed to emanate from him. “It would be best if you weren’t alone for a day or two,” he grinned again. “Maybe stay with a friend.” His eyes met Susan’s as he gave her a wink.
Susan choked back a laugh at the wink the doctor shot her, waited until he had answered David’s questions before she spoke.
“I don’t even know how I’m going to get home,” David sighed eyeing his clothing stacked neatly on the night stand beside his bed.
“Why don’t you come and stay with me and Gram for a couple of days,” Susan suggested. “It’s just the two of us in that big old house anyway while mom and dad are doing a train tour of Alaska. We can go over the case and see what we are missing.”
“I’ll be fine,” David refused to meet her eyes as she reached for his clothing, handing it to him. “I’m used to being on my own.”
“Maybe you are, but you have a concussion, and if someone really did try to take you out, how are you supposed to look after yourself?” Susan’s blue eyes flashed as she glared at the stubborn man. “What can it hurt for you to stay with us for a day or two? Who knows maybe we’ll find your journal. At least I can drive you around until you get some wheels.”
David felt his resolve melt under the weight of her logic, and he nodded. “Okay, okay,” he waved her back to the chair. “Can I at least get dressed in peace?”
A bright giggle bubbled from Susan’s lips as she remembered his cute green and white shamrock shorts, but she quickly hurried from the room as the dividing curtain zipped shut.
“Where do you live?” Susan asked as she zipped out of the college entrance that was shared by the hospital. “We can run over there and grab some clean clothes, or whatever you need and then I’m taking you for dinner. I’m starving.” As if to punctuate her current state of hunger, her stomach rumbled and David laughed.
“I could eat,” the young man grinned. “What they served me today doesn’t really fit my idea of grub. How about food first,” he looked down at his rumpled clothing and cringed, “unless you’re ashamed to be seen with me.”
“Food, works.” Again Susan’s stomach growled protesting the demise of the single muffin and bland coffee she had as her only sustenance for the day.
“How long have you been working on this mystery?” Susan asked as she sank her teeth into a humongous burger a half hour later. “You certainly remember a lot of what was in that journal.”
David shook his head, dipping a fry into ketchup and lifting it toward his mouth. He wasn’t sure if it was the fresh air of a Georgia evening, or the company, but his head was already feeling better. “Since I was about nine,” he answered shoving the fry into his mouth and savoring the salty crunch. “My grandmother would talk about Pap-pap, and nothing she said matched with the man who had disappeared without a trace. The police insisted he was an old bootlegger bandit, but grandma spoke of a man who feared God, taught his children to work hard, and treated her with loving kindness.”
He waved Susan to silence as he continued, seeing the protest in her eyes. “I know, I know, there are books filled with cases of men who deceived their families, but something never seemed to click.” The young man grinned as he lifted his burger and met Susan’s eyes. “I guess I picked up the thread and grew a little obsessed. I lost my mother when I was six, so Grandma Watkins helped raise me. She was the best. Honest, loving, kind. No matter what anyone said about Pap-pap, she never believed it. She was steadfast in her love for him even after he was gone.” David’s eyes grew soft as he smiled. “She loved him and believed he never would have left her.”
“She really loved him?”
“She did,” David took a bite of his burger, letting the juices pool in his mouth as his eyes closed in bliss. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was, and now that he wasn’t feeling seasick, he was enjoying his food.
“Do you have anything else at your place that might shed light on this whole mess? We can pick that up when we swing by your place. Tomorrow, we’ll try to piece everything together. Something tells me that we are very close to an answer.”
David walked down the hall toward his tiny apartment, Susan on his heels. “It won’t take me long to get everything I need,” he called over his shoulder. His stomach was gently chiding him for his large dinner, but he pushed the feeling to the back of his mind.
Susan gazed around her at the old apartment building on main. She had driven past it her entire life but being inside it was a whole different story. Generations of college students had resided here, and though newly renovated the place still had that old 1920s feel. The Alexander had started life as a hotel, and was popular with soldiers during training at Currahee Mountain. After a fire in the 1950s, it had been restored and became a perfect location for off campus student housing.
“Huh?” She huffed, walking into Mr. Watkins’ outstretched arm. “What?”
“Shh,” the man whispered looking down at the door before him which stood slightly ajar. “Someone’s been here,”
Susan reached into the waistband of her jeans, and then shoved past David pushing the door wide.
“What in the world are you doing with that?” David’s eyes were huge as he noted the tiny pistol in the woman’s beautifully manicured hands.
“I always carry this,” she smiled gazing around her for any indication of an intruder.
“Oh no,” David groaned.
“Someone has tossed the place.” Susan sighed, making her way into the two-room flat. “It looks like they are long gone.” Slowly she slipped the little gun back into its holster at the small of her back and began scanning the overturned apartment.
Clothing, dishes, and papers were scattered everywhere. “Do you need to sit down?” She asked turning and taking in the ashen face of her companion.
“No,” Davi
d shook his head. “It just feels so, so wrong.”
Susan wrapped her arm in his, feeling the shiver run down his torso. “Come on let’s get your things and get out of here.”
“Shouldn’t we call the police?”
“I guess so,” Susan agreed, biting her bottom lip, something David was coming to understand indicated worry. “What if they come back?”
“David Watkins!” A shrill voice echoed down the hall, followed by a portly woman in a bright pink house dress. “What on earth is going on here? I heard the worst racket earlier. Don’t make me report you for having a loud party.”
“Everything’s fine, Mrs. Dodds,” David ducked into the hall. “Nothing to worry about. I just had a little accident is all.” He tapped the spot on his head where the large bruise stood out bright against his pale skin.
“Who’s that with you?” the woman poked her head into the apartment, her fuzzy curlers peeking out from under a silk scarf. “Oh, a girl.” The older woman grinned. “It’s about time,” she added, “but really don’t you think you should have cleaned up before entertaining? Young men these days,” she waved, turning and heading back the way she had come with a shake of her head. “You two keep the noise down now.”
Susan attempted to choke back the laugh that crept into her throat, but only succeeded in turning it into a snort. “Oh, my!” she gasped turning bright red as she covered her mouth this her hands. “Do you still want to call the police?”
“No, I’m tired. I’ll get my things, and we can go.” His voice sounded so weary and defeated that Susan barely resisted the urge to pull him into a hug.
A few moments later, he stood at the door a gym bag in one hand and a small metal box in the other. “Pictures,” he said sadly as he followed Susan back down the hall to her Jeep. “At least they didn’t take these.”
Susan Holmes was seething. She was so angry she could have spit, an expression that had never made any sense to her before this moment. Someone was targeting David Watkins for his investigation, and it convinced her, more than ever, that they were on to something. The question was, what?
She had doubted his insistence that his grandfather had been more than an old reprobate moonshiner. Everyone in the city had heard the rumors for years about old Harcourt Watkins and his moonshine still, but now she had her doubts. There was more to this cold case than either she or David had ever realized, and she was more determined than ever to solve it.
Susan’s very own grandmother had reported seeing the old man walking through the college, shotgun in hand. Now, she wasn’t so sure. She couldn’t believe that a feud over rot gut liquor would have led to someone stalking David all these years later.
They were missing something. Something important was just there out of reach, but they would track it down. Determination cemented in her soul, and Susan wouldn’t let it go until she had all of the answers.
“Susan, is that you?” Gram called from the living room where she was watching reruns of her favorite show, Matlock. “Did you eat?”
“Hi Gram,” Susan called dragging David with her. “I brought a friend.”
David turned, taking in the lovely profile of the woman next to him. Friend, the word echoed in his brain, smoothing over the constant drumming that had plagued him all day. “Friend?”
“Well we know you aren’t the enemy,” Susan smiled. “David is going to stay with us for a few days,” she continued, walking over and placing a kiss on her grandmother’s cheek. “He had an accident last night, and the doctor doesn’t want him to be alone.”
“Put him in the blue room,” Gram grinned. “It will be nice to have a man around the house again, even for a bit.”
“Thank you,” David sighed. He was tired, shaken, and worried, but determined to see this through to the end.
David dropped head first into the large mahogany bed, sinking into the soft mattress with a welcome sigh.
His head was spinning, and the dull ache that had been there all day threatened to grow into a crescendo of epic proportions.
So much had happened in the past twenty-four hours that he couldn’t begin to put all the pieces together. He had confronted a family who had looked at his ancestor askew for eons, had been nearly killed by a crazy driver, lost his life’s work, and found his apartment ransacked. None of it made sense even as it pointed toward some sinister plot.
Rolling onto his back, David stared up at the antique four-poster in the elegant room. Pushing himself to the edge of the bed, he stripped out of his dirty clothing and headed for the bathroom that made up the on-suite of his room. A hot shower and a good night’s sleep would go a long way to clearing his head.
Flipping on a light, David Watkins studied the bathroom with wide eyes. This whole house was far beyond anything he had ever been in. Elegant only began to touch the well appointed realms of each room. The bathroom adjoining his room was picked out in blues and whites, with masculine sailboat print wallpaper that set him at ease. A huge claw foot tub that looked like it had been conjured from a by-gone age, sat on a white tile floor facing a clear glass enclosed shower at the end of the room. Over all, the old fashioned, high-end space fit the house perfectly, and though everything was modern, it looked like it belonged in the old Victorian home.
Moments later the hot water pounding on his shoulders began to soak away, the fear, doubts, and worries of an exceptionally long day.
Chapter 6
And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
Luke 6:31
Susan yawned, padding across the floor to the coffee maker and pushing buttons until a dark brew began to pour into the largest mug she could find.
She had been up late into the night, her mind turning over the events of the past two days. All she wanted now was to understand where the two horses her grandmother had rescued had come from, but now something darker and more dangerous filled the horizon like a wild summer storm.
“You have another one of those?” David Watkins sauntered into the kitchen in a pair of dark blue jeans and a plaid button up. “I could use about twice that much.”
Susan chuckled, rising and opening a cupboard door. “I got the biggest mug,” she teased pushing buttons again and waiting for the hot black brew to fill an only slightly smaller mug. “Gram claims she hates these things, but I see her using them sometimes.”
David took the mug from her hand touching his lips to the rim as his eyes met hers. “Ah, I may survive after all.”
“How’s the head?” Susan gestured to the table inviting the young man to join her.
“Not bad,” David replied, touching gingerly at his face. “How’s it look?”
“Not bad,” Susan’s voice was hushed as she studied his handsome face. He was a very attractive man, even with the dark bruise coloring his cheek. “Breakfast?”
“Are you cooking?” Gram walked into the kitchen, neatly dressed in a pale blue T-shirt dress, every hair in place. “That will be a treat,” the old woman smiled. “Don’t let her fool you, she can cook. She just doesn’t do it often. She’s always too busy.”
“Gram,” Susan shook her head but grinned. “I’ll throw together a couple of omelets. Anything you don’t eat?” her blue eyes turned to David’s, and a soft shiver ran through her as his eyes met hers.
“Nope, I’m not picky. I eat almost anything, even my own cooking.”
“So what are you two young people doing today?” Gram pushed her empty plate a way a short time later. “Any clues you need to track down?”
“I don’t know?” Susan replied, turning to look at David. “Do you want to go back to your place and have a look around?”
“I probably should,” the young man admitted. “We should have called the police last night but I just couldn’t deal with it.”
“We’ll head over there now,” Susan stood taking the plates and heading for the dish washer. “If you still want to call the police or make a report we can do it then.”
“I’ll h
ave dinner ready at six tonight.” Gram grinned. “We’ll expect you to stay at least one more night while all this gets sorted out.”
“That isn’t necessary,” David began, only to stop at the hard look in the old woman’s eyes. “Yes ma’am,” he hastened.
“That’s better,” Mrs. Holmes smiled. “I knew you were a good Georgia boy at heart.”
“Is she always like that?” David asked as he climbed into the vibrant blue Jeep. “I think your grandmother scared me as much as finding my apartment sacked.”
Susan laughed. “Gram doesn’t insist on much,” she said, roaring out onto the main road. “When she does, though, everyone listens.”
David grinned grabbing the hold bar as the young woman whipped the vehicle around a turn. “Is she a good cook?”