“He finally agreed to meet us there when we—Ross—pointed out that with half the law enforcement in the state looking into this case, they’re going to find her eventually. Talking to us first will prepare her for that interrogation. So Parker agreed to meet us. He wants to help her.”
“Does she know he’s...uh...”
“Dead?” Charley finished for her. “You can’t say the word? You have no trouble using that word to me, telling me our wedding vows don’t count anymore because I’m that word.”
“She heard about Parker’s death on the news,” Teresa said.
“And she’s okay with us coming to talk to her about him?” Amanda asked.
“She was a little reluctant at first.”
“She was a lot reluctant at first.” Ross stared straight ahead as he spoke. “She said she was grieving and didn’t want to talk to anybody. I appealed to her as Parker’s brother. I told her if I’d found out about her relationship with Parker, the sheriff would too so maybe we should talk about it first.”
“I see,” Amanda said. “Where does she live? Where are we going?”
“South of town. South of Duncanville, actually.”
“So she’s sort of on the way to the place where we found Parker’s body? That’s a coincidence.”
“Are we going back to that place?” Charley complained. “I changed my mind about going with you if that’s where we’re headed. I didn’t like that place.”
Teresa turned to him and lowered her brows.
“Don’t know why you’d want to go back there either.”
“Yes, it’s a coincidence,” Ross said. “But it’s nothing definitive. A lot of people live down that way. I just want to talk to her in an unofficial capacity, find out what her relationship with my brother was. Anything I find out that relates to solving the case, of course I’ll turn it over to the proper authorities.”
“Of course,” Teresa repeated.
“Of course,” Amanda said.
Charley laughed.
They rode in silence for a few minutes.
“Maybe she killed him,” Charley said. He never had been good at the quiet game. “I don’t want to talk to a murderess. What if she tries to kill us? Amanda, did you bring your Smith and Wesson?”
Lila Stone would have a tough time killing Charley. If it was that easy, Amanda would have done it herself when he first came back into her life after he died.
“We need to ask Parker,” Charley continued. “Why isn’t he here? Why is he meeting us there? Does he just go wherever he wants? I guess some ghosts aren’t on a leash. Must be nice.”
What if Parker didn’t show up? What would Ross think of Teresa’s ability then? He’d probably think she’d been lying the whole time. This visit had the potential to be a total disaster. Charley wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to go.
They drove a few more miles down the highway then exited onto a side road where the residences were farther apart and individual mailboxes sat at the end of gravel driveways. Ross turned down one of the driveways. A brown mobile home squatted in the middle of a desolate but tidy yard. A mid-size white sedan sat under a carport on one side of the house. No old cars, no tractor parts like the yards of some of the neighbors. A couple of gnarled mesquite trees near the house provided neither shade nor the feeling of serenity that came from Amanda’s big oak in her parking lot next to her apartment. Tufts of grass dotted the barren ground. In spite of the row of bright yellow chrysanthemums blooming in front of the house, it felt lonely and sad.
“This place is creepy,” Charley said.
“How old is this woman?” Amanda asked. “This doesn’t look like someplace a young person lives.”
“Twenty-six.” Ross put the car in park and got out.
“Ross knows all about her. He ran a complete background check on her,” Teresa said. “She dropped out of high school in her junior year. Been picked up a couple of times for drugs and once for prostitution. Her mother died a year ago and left this place to her.”
There was the drug thing again. Drug usage had become a big problem everywhere so it could be just a coincidence.
Or not.
The screen door of the house opened. A short, slim woman with medium length blond hair stepped onto the porch. In her faded jeans—probably a size zero—and her white blouse with ruffles down the front and on the sleeves, she could have been a child until Amanda got close enough to see her face. She looked older than twenty-six years. Tiny wrinkles creased her eyes and upper lip. Her nose and chin pinched into sharp edges.
“That woman’s using,” Charley said.
And Charley would know. He’d been involved with drugs and drug users more than a few times.
“Lila?” Ross paused at the edge of the porch. “I’m Ross Minatelli, Parker’s brother. I spoke to you on the phone.”
“Yeah, I’m Lila Stone. Who are these people? I thought you were coming alone.” Her wary gaze darted from Ross to Amanda to Teresa.
Ross introduced them. “Teresa and Amanda were with me when we found Parker. They wanted to come today to offer their condolences.”
Lila regarded the three of them for a moment then finally shrugged, stepped back and held the door open, inviting them in.
They walked into the smell of stale cigarette smoke and some kind of overpowering floral air freshener. That would explain Lila’s wrinkles. Well, the cigarette smoke would, not necessarily the air freshener, though at that potency, it couldn’t be ruled out.
“Y’all have a seat,” she invited. “I’ll get some iced tea.” She spoke the conventional words of hospitality but her tone was wooden.
Grief over Parker’s death? Distress at having two strange women suddenly appear at her door? Drugs?
The three of them sank onto the sofa, huddling together in a group, leaving the matching chair for Lila.
“I’m going to make sure she doesn’t put anything in that tea.” Charley followed her to the kitchen.
He was being melodramatic.
Amanda hoped he was.
She looked around the room. Off-white paint covered the living room walls in a pristine way that appeared to be fresh. The brown leather sofa and glass-topped coffee table with a bowl of colorful balls looked new. The pictures on the wall, the two matching lamps sitting on matching tables, the vase on an occasional table...everything was perfect, as if it had come straight off a furniture showroom floor, no personal touches. The neat, tidy interior of the house felt as barren as the outside.
Amanda bit her lip and tried not to be judgmental. Just because her own furnishings ran to mismatched, eclectic pieces didn’t mean other people had that same taste.
Lila came back into the room with four matching glasses of iced tea. Again with the matching.
“Nice place,” Amanda said. Perhaps her kind words would make up for her tacky thoughts.
“Thank you.” Lila handed out the glasses then sat in the arm chair and sipped from her own drink. “I grew up in this house. After Mama died, I tried to spiffy it up a little.”
“Very nice.” Teresa sounded as phony as Amanda felt. She nudged Amanda’s arm and nodded toward the flat screen television in the corner of the room.
“Parker!” Charley darted in that direction. “I was worried you wouldn’t come.”
Well, the gang’s all here. The party can begin. Amanda took a drink of her iced tea since Charley hadn’t reported that Lila put any drugs or poison in the beverage.
It was freshly brewed, a little weak but better than most restaurant tea.
“Thank you for letting us come by,” Ross said.
Lila grimaced or smiled. It was hard to tell the difference on her harsh features. “Parker told me about you. He said you were a good guy even if you are a cop.”
Ross laughed, the sound easy and natural...and probably rehearsed. He was moving into the cop mode thing. “I’m not here as a cop. I’m here as Parker’s brother. I took a leave of absence after his death. I just wanted to
talk to you because you were important to him.”
Lila’s eyebrows lifted slightly as if in surprise. “He told you about me?”
Ross nodded. “Of course he did.”
Unlike ghosts, cops could lie. However, it was kind of the truth since Parker’s bank account had led Ross to this woman, so he’d sort of told Ross about her.
“He told me too,” Teresa said. “He told me you’re a friend, someone he cares about.”
“He did,” Charley assured Amanda. “Just now. I heard him.”
Lila set her glass of tea precisely in the center of a coaster on the lamp table beside her chair and looked down at the beige carpet...the new, spotless beige carpet. “Parker was a good person.”
“Yes.” Ross leaned closer, his gaze intent, scrutinizing Lila’s every movement—a human lie detector. “He was a very good person. He wanted to help you.”
Lila put her face in her hands. Her small shoulders heaved and she burst into sobs.
Charley spread his hands in a gesture of confusion. “Why is she pretending to cry? How does Ross know Parker wanted to help her? He didn’t say that. Just because he was giving her money doesn’t mean he wanted to help her. She could have been blackmailing him. I’m not buying this boo-hoo stuff.”
The same thought had crossed Amanda’s mind. Crossed it and lingered. Parker probably had a good reason for wanting to help Lila, but the woman reminded Amanda of a possum with her pointy little face and beady eyes, a possum sneaking around in the dark, getting into garbage cans in somebody’s back yard and making a huge mess of things.
Charley looked at the television. “Was she blackmailing you, buddy?” He returned his attention to Amanda. “He says no. But maybe he can lie. I don’t trust this Lila.”
Charley was cynical, judged others by his own deplorable ethics. Lila had done nothing to justify such an attitude. Nevertheless, Amanda was inclined to agree.
Ross crossed the room to stand beside Lila. He laid a gentle hand on her back. “My brother wanted to save the world. He brought home stray dogs and cats and once even a wounded skunk.”
Was he implying Parker had rescued her? From what?
Lila lifted her head. Tears streaked the harsh planes of her face. Maybe she really was crying. “I can see him doing that.” She took a package of cigarettes and lighter from behind the lamp and lit up, inhaling deeply before blowing the smoke into the room.
Charley waved a hand in front of his face as if the smoke offended him. “I never did like women who smoked.”
Maybe he hadn’t liked them, but he’d certainly partied with a lot of them. The cigarette smoke might explain some of Amanda’s instant dislike for this woman. She should give her a chance before judging her.
Lila looked at the cigarette as if surprised to see it in her hand then crushed it out in a glass ashtray next to the lamp. “I’m sorry. Nasty habit. I’m trying to quit.”
The one puff seemed to have calmed her and she managed a weak smile. “I miss him. He was a great guy. I loved him.”
Amanda sucked in a breath. She’d never known Parker, but she couldn’t imagine Ross’ brother being with this woman in a loving relationship. Much easier to believe she’d been blackmailing him.
Charley made a face. “She’s a skank, Parker. You could have done better.”
“Were you lovers?” Teresa asked the question of the blank television screen.
Teresa was talking to Parker, but Lila’s eyes widened in horror. She shook her head adamantly. “No! No, he was my...friend. We never...no!”
Parker was...had been...single. Lila was single. There was no reason they shouldn’t have been lovers. Whether they were or weren’t seemed more inconsequential than Lila’s vehement denial warranted.
Frustration spread over Teresa’s features. She stood and moved closer to the television. “You were just friends?”
Lila scowled. “Are you talking to me or the television?”
Teresa turned to face her and gave her best phony smile. “You, of course.”
Lila’s lips thinned and her eyes narrowed. “I thought you said he told you about me.”
Teresa bit her lip. Busted.
A thick silence filled the room.
“He did tell us.” Amanda flinched at the words coming out of her mouth. She was getting way too handy with the fluid explanations, an art formerly practiced only by Charley. “Parker said you were close. He just didn’t specify exactly what your relationship was.”
“That’s right,” Teresa agreed. “He, uh, said you were very close.”
Lila reached for another cigarette. “Yeah, we were. Do you have a problem with that?”
Ross looked at Teresa and arched his eyebrows in a questioning expression. She shrugged. Parker wasn’t being as informative as they had hoped.
“Let me handle this,” Charley said. “Parker, my man, were you and this lady...” He paused then cleared his throat. “Were you and this lady, uh, you know, sleeping together?”
Amanda could only imagine what crude expression he’d almost used. Actually, she probably could imagine it but didn’t want to.
“Hey,” Charley continued, “it’s okay if you were. I mean, we’re all adults here, right?” He paused and looked puzzled. “You weren’t sleeping with her, and she wasn’t blackmailing you. So you were paying her every month just because you’re a nice guy? That doesn’t make sense.”
Naturally Charley found it hard to believe that anyone would have purely altruistic motives. Though, to be honest, Amanda didn’t quite buy into that either. Something strange was going on, and both Parker and Lila seemed reluctant to discuss it.
Parker had been anxious to get his accounts transferred into Ross’ name. That would make sense if she’d been blackmailing him. If she had been, of course Lila wouldn’t want to admit it but why wouldn’t Parker speak up, exact revenge from the grave as Charley had done?
“So Parker was your friend and he helped you.” Ross knelt next to Lila’s chair and took the hand that wasn’t holding the cigarette. “Can you help him now? Do you know anybody who’d want to hurt him?”
Lila took another puff of her second cigarette and smashed it in the ashtray with a vengeance. She wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand, smearing her mascara. “I thought you wanted to talk about Parker, not question me like you’re a cop and I’m a suspect or something.”
“She is a suspect,” Charley muttered. “I bet she’s still using. That’s why she’s wearing long sleeves in this weather, to cover the tracks on her arms.”
“I’m asking as his brother,” Ross said hastily, “not as a police officer. Just as somebody who loved him and misses him terribly, the same way you do. Someone who wants to see his murderer punished.”
Lila rubbed her arms. “I don’t know anybody who’d want to hurt him. Can we talk about something else?”
“Of course. The last time Parker came up for the weekend we went out and had a couple of beers, and he told me all about his classes. Did he tell you about the English class that was a required subject and how much he hated it?”
Lila relaxed visibly. “Yeah, he said he didn’t understand why a geology major needed to read Shakespeare.”
“I’m glad he got to see both of us one last time. You must have been the friend he said he was going to visit when he left my place Sunday two weeks ago.”
She nodded. “Yeah, he came by for a little while on his way back to school.”
“Was that the last time you saw him?”
Lila’s eyes narrowed. “Yes.”
“She’s lying,” Charley said.
“Yes,” Amanda said softly. “I recognize the signs. Thank you for the training.”
She spoke in a whisper, but Lila looked over at her, tears dry, dark eyes squinting. “Who are you talking to?”
“Myself. Nobody.” She cleared her throat. “Bad habit. You smoke cigarettes, I talk to myself.”
“Parker was doing really well in school.” Ross skillfully
drew Lila’s attention back to the subject at hand. “Was it hard on your friendship, not seeing him often? Did he call you from school?”
She nodded.
“When was the last time he called you?”
“I don’t remember.” She focused on picking a bit of ash off the sleeve of her blouse.
“Lying again,” Charley said. “This is getting really monotonous. I’m going to look through the rest of the house and see what I can find while that woman tells lies and you all pussy foot around.”
Amanda shot to her feet. “You can’t...”
All eyes turned to her.
She coughed and sank back to the sofa. “Talking to myself again. Don’t mind me. Just go on as if I wasn’t here.”
Lila’s expression said she thought both these strange women were...strange.
“He gave you money every month,” Teresa said, “so you wouldn’t have to worry about working, so you could recover because you were on drugs.” The last part of the sentence sounded like a question and Amanda suspected she was fishing, that Parker hadn’t said that. Teresa was relying on Ross’ information about Lila’s drug arrests and Charley’s belief that she was using again or still.
Lila glared at Teresa. “He had plenty of money and he wanted to share. He was a nice man.” She didn’t deny the accusation of drugs.
“Did he ever bring Steven Anderson to meet you?” Ross asked.
Lila’s gaze shifted to one side. A slight flush spread over her cheeks.
Amanda vaguely recalled watching some crime show where the detective said looking to the left meant the person was getting ready to lie, right meant they were going to tell the truth. Or was it vice versa?
“No,” Lila said.
“But you know who he is,” Ross continued.
“Of course I do. The senator’s son. He’s dead.”
“Did Parker try to help him get off drugs too?”
Lila blinked twice and reached for her cigarettes again.
“It helps to have somebody else in your same situation,” Ross said casually. “Talk about what you’re going through, help each other with the bad times. Steven had a few of those. His dad had to bail him out of jail more than once. But maybe he couldn’t stay clean the way you did. Maybe Parker had to give up and walk away from him. Did he ever talk about Steven?”
The Ex Who Saw a Ghost (Charley's Ghost Book 4) Page 8