Sins of the Father: Rose Gardner Mystery Novella 9.5

by Denise Grover Swank

  “I’m sorry, Hil,” I said, my voice breaking. “I failed you. And our baby too.”

  Two babies—and those were just my own—killed at the hands of my father. I couldn’t help wondering if this was some sort of cosmic justice. Maybe I wasn’t meant to have children at all, no matter how much I wanted them.

  “It’s not your fault,” a woman said.

  I jerked my head up and around, shocked to see Maeve standing behind me.

  “How . . . ?”

  She grimaced. “I stopped by the house to see you and found the commotion. The maid remembered me and told me you were probably at the cemetery.”

  “How did she know?”

  “She said you come here whenever you seem upset. I have no idea how she knew. Maybe your mother?”

  That explanation made sense. I wouldn’t put it past my mother to have me followed.

  I stood and shifted to the side of the grave so Maeve could stand next to me. “What are you doing here, Maeve?”

  “I’ve come to take you home.”

  Releasing a bitter laugh, I turned my gaze to the headstones surrounding us. “I don’t have a home. Everything’s gone.”

  “No.” I turned back to see her slowly shaking her head. “That’s not true. Home isn’t a place. It’s the people who care about you.” I started to protest, but she held up her hand. “You do have people who care about you. I care about you.”

  “Why?” I moaned. “Savannah would be alive if it wasn’t for me.” My father might have ordered her death, but I’d already left her and hurt her over and over again. Sure, I hadn’t known about her pregnancy, but I’d ignored her pleas for help when she told me someone was stalking her. I was responsible for her death too. And our baby’s.

  “Joe.” Maeve moved closer and put her hand on my arm. “Savannah loved you. Despite everything.”

  My chest felt tight with pressure, and I was dangerously close to losing it. “I’ve screwed up so much, made so many mistakes.”

  “I’m sure you’ve made mistakes, but so has everyone else. Rose is wallowing in guilt because she kept her Lady in Black secret from Mason. Mason’s wallowing in guilt over walking away from her. I feel guilty for pushing Rose to keep her secret to save Mason. And Neely Kate . . .” She paused. “None of us are perfect, Joe. See? Not even me.” She gave me a soft grin. “But living in guilt doesn’t solve anything. It’s selfish, when you stop and think about it.”

  “Selfish?”

  “You’re holding yourself back from the world, hiding the gifts you have to offer.”

  “Gifts?” I asked with a grunt. “I was given gifts—money, houses . . . Savannah. I threw them away. I lost everything, and it’s my own damn fault.”

  “I’m not talking about the gifts that have been given to you. I’m talking about the gifts you have to offer other people.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t have any.”

  “You do. The maid at your parents’ house told me about your generous offer. The severance package. The reference. She wasn’t your employee, yet you’re making sure she’s taken care of.”

  I snorted. “Don’t act like I’m some damn saint. It’s the decent thing to do.”

  She smiled, ignoring my statement. “Look at all the things you did around my house. The leaky faucet. The broken screen door. And you wouldn’t accept a dime of repayment.”

  “You insisted on paying me with food. Besides, I owed you.”

  “No, Joe. You didn’t owe me a thing.” She was silent for a moment. “Why did you go into law enforcement?”

  I snorted. “So I could help people. That’s ironic, isn’t it? I wanted to help people, but I just keep hurting them.”

  “Your father hurt so many more. And you stopped him. If you’d been following in his footsteps, you would have found a way to cover up what he’d done, but you held him accountable instead. You tried to make the world a better place by putting him behind bars.”

  “Like bars stopped him.” I shook my head in disgust. “It never occurred to me that he’d escape from jail. How naïve was that?”

  “Not naïve. You were trying to follow the law, something your father never respected.”

  “Fat lot of good it did. He still escaped.”

  “And you stopped him then too.”

  A memory flashed through my mind—the look on my father’s face the second before I pulled the trigger. The shock. The fury.

  “Too little, too late.” It was a refrain that haunted my days, my dreams. Would probably haunt the rest of my life.

  “Maybe, maybe not. You saved Rose’s life.”

  “Another example of too little, too late. I broke up with her at my father’s insistence and then ran right back to Hilary and got her pregnant. A decent man would have left Rose alone. But when I saw her at her nursery last October during that campaign stop, I realized I didn’t want to live without her. I wouldn’t leave her alone, even after I realized she was happier with Mason.” I pushed out a grunt of self-disgust. “My father had threatened her, and I was arrogant enough to think I could protect her. I thought I could use Dora’s journal as leverage. I only put her in more danger.” I looked down at the tombstone. “I should have walked away from her after I finished my undercover job. My father would have left her alone.”

  “I’m sure she thinks differently. She says you helped her become the person she is today.”

  I laughed. “No. She’s a better person because she was smart enough to not take me back.”

  “Joe. Enough. You’ve made mistakes, but you’ve learned from them. It’s time to come home.”

  “Come home? That’s what I did after I killed my father. But now it’s gone.”

  Her nose scrunched in disgust. “Your parents’ house isn’t your home. You came back here to settle your family crisis, and now it’s done. There’s nothing left for you to do here.”

  I glanced back at the tombstone. She was right. My work on my father’s estate and businesses was at an end. But what did that mean for my future?

  “Joe.”

  I looked down into her warm and pleading eyes.

  “It’s time to let the past go. Come home and rebuild your life.”

  She was right. I had to go somewhere. Either my cold, sterile bachelor apartment in Little Rock, where I had no job and no real friends. Or back to my rented farmhouse outside of the Henryetta city limits, where I had slowly begun healing my heart by restoring the decades-old structure. Back to the few real friends I’d ever had. Would they welcome me?

  “Neely Kate,” I whispered. “I’ve hurt her.”

  “She’s your family now. She’ll get over it.”

  “I’m not so sure about that.” Neely Kate was capable of holding grudges tighter than a squirrel hoarded nuts.

  Maeve squeezed my forearm and smiled at me. “I guess you’ll never know until you try. I never suspected you of being a coward, Joe Simmons.”

  I’d taken the coward’s path more times than I could count. But here was the opportunity to change that. This was my chance to make things right.

  I nodded, feeling an equal mixture of relief and anxiety. “Okay.”

  “Then let’s go home.”

  After I went back to my parents’ house, I grabbed the few things the FBI would let me take, made sure the maid escaped relatively unscathed, and then watched my mother’s forlorn face in the backseat window of her father’s car as he drove her away. Once it was all over, I got into my car and headed back to Fenton County.

  Was I going home? It was time to figure that out.

  4

  Rose

  After lunch, Muffy followed me out the door and we climbed into the truck.

  The morning had been cooler, but now fluffy clouds were building on the horizon, bringing humidity with them. I rolled down the windows and grinned as Muffy stuck her head outside and panted into the wind. I considered stopping by Joe’s house first, but I had no idea how long I’d be there, and Bruce Wayne needed an answe
r from me about the landscaping job.

  I spent the ten-minute drive trying to figure out how to cheer up Neely Kate. Her husband Ronnie was still missing, but she was moving forward with her divorce. She’d moved in with me at the farm, and even though both of us had been through life-changing breakups, we had found ways to move on. Mostly. But I could tell she felt abandoned, not just by Ronnie and Joe, but by her mother. Her mother had left her years ago, of course, but I knew Neely Kate had started hoping again after discovering the truth about her father. She’d let herself think her mother had taken off as a way to protect her, but nearly three months had passed since J.R.’s death, and her momma had made no attempt to reach out to her. It only made it worse that Joe’s sister Kate had managed to get in touch with her momma to confirm that J.R. was her father.

  I had no idea how to fill that void created by all her losses.

  Pride flooded my chest when I pulled up to the curb in front of the house Bruce Wayne and his crew were working on. As I watched my friend and business partner talking to one of the men in his crew, I marveled at how the beaten-down man I’d met in the courthouse ten months before had blossomed into this confident leader of a four-man crew.

  I hopped out and Muffy followed, immediately taking off toward the group of men. A broad smile spread across Bruce Wayne’s face as my little dog jumped up on his legs. He pulled off his gloves and then bent down to pick her up, rubbing the back of her head.

  “It’s looking good,” I said, stuffing my hands into my jeans pockets. “You guys are making great progress.”

  “Yeah. We’re wrapping up the removal of the front bushes sooner than expected, but now that most of them are out, I think we need to alter the height of the wall. The bad news is that it’s going to increase the amount of stone we need as well as the labor.”

  After going over the design, I agreed and we decided I’d be the one to call the homeowners.

  He looked over at his crew. “Our business is doing pretty good, ain’t it?”

  “Much better than I dreamed when we decided to do this crazy thing last November. We were in the black last month.” I studied the crew myself, amazed by how far we’d come. “I’m glad we took a chance.”

  “Anna says life ain’t worth livin’ if you ain’t takin’ chances.”

  I beamed. “Anna, huh?”

  He laughed. “Truth be told, I learned that lesson from you last fall when you suggested workin’ with Skeeter Malcolm, but Anna keeps the screws on me. When I start falling back into my hermit hole, she makes me get out and do things.” He paused. “I have some news.”

  “Oh yeah?” I asked with interest.

  “We’re moving in together. David moved in with his girlfriend, and my lease is up. Anna’s lease is up next month, so we’re gonna look for a place together.”

  “That’s wonderful! I’m so happy for you!”

  I’d gotten to know Anna better over the last few months. She worked at the nursery Joe and I co-owned, and she’d really stepped up after my sister Violet, also a co-owner, had needed to make her unexpected long-term trip to Houston. I had no idea what we would have done if Anna and Maeve hadn’t been so eager to help.

  “How are you doin’?” he asked quietly, and I knew that he was referring to my breakup with Mason. “I keep meanin’ to ask you, but it’s . . .”

  “Awkward?” I forced a grin. “I’m hanging in there.” When he remained silent, I added, “I’m fine. Really.”

  “Maybe it’s time for you to move on. Look for someone else.”

  I shook my head, surprised I was having this conversation with him of all people, but Bruce Wayne was one of the few people I could be honest with. With him, I never felt the need to pretend. “I moved on too fast after I broke up with Joe. Maybe if I’d given myself some time, Mason and I would have worked.”

  “You really believe that?” he asked, sounding skeptical.

  “Honestly? I’m not sure. But I have to believe that Mason was right. I need to spend more time on my own, figuring out who I am now and what I want. Because if I don’t, then our breakup feels . . . purposeless.” A lump filled my throat.

  To my surprise, he put an arm around my back and pulled my head to his shoulder. “You are one of the strongest people I know, Rose Gardner. Nothing you’ve done is purposeless, but don’t spend your life waiting for Mason to come back. Part of living is doin’, and I’m pretty sure that includes dating.”

  I laughed and wiped a stray tear from my cheek. “Let me guess—more wisdom from Anna?”

  “She’s a pretty smart woman. I have no idea why she puts up with the likes of me.”

  I pulled back, ready to chastise him for belittling himself, but then I saw his wide grin. I smacked his arm, shaking my head. “I don’t know what to do with you.”

  His grin spread. “Well, we’ve got a lot of years to figure it out, since it looks like we’ll be working together for a long time.”

  I laughed and glanced around, looking for Muffy. She usually stayed close, so I got worried when I didn’t see her. “Where’s Muffy?”

  Bruce Wayne glanced around the job site. When he didn’t see her, his back stiffened and he asked one of his men something in Spanish. The man shrugged and went back to work, but Bruce Wayne rushed over to the road, scanning the area.

  I was about to panic when I heard her bark in the next-door neighbor’s yard.

  “Muffy!” I called out as I walked over. She was in the bushes by the neighbor’s front porch, cuddled up to a white-and-black dog only slightly bigger than her.

  The front door flew open and a woman with a baby on her hip walked out. Her mouth dropped in surprise. “Rose?”

  I gasped when I realized she was my old next-door neighbor. She’d had the baby around the time I’d left Momma’s old house, and she’d been desperate to move somewhere bigger. “Oh, my word! Heidi Joy! Is that Clementine?”

  She pushed the door open, hurried down the steps, and threw one arm around me, squishing her baby between us. “I can’t believe it!” she gushed. “And yes, this is Princess Clementine. The boys spoil her rotten, hence the name. She’s six months old now and bigger than the boys were at her age.” She looked around. “What are you doing here?”

  “We’re doing the landscaping next door.”

  She leaned to the side for a look, then turned back to me. “I had no idea the neighbors were having landscaping done. Y’all have made quick progress.”

  I smiled. “RBW Landscaping is growing by leaps and bounds. Bruce Wayne has a crew now, and they get things done.”

  “That’s amazing, especially since you just started with that church last fall.”

  “Miss Rose?” a little boy squealed as he ran down the steps. “Did Muffy come for a playdate with Hugo?”

  “Tommy!” I exclaimed. “I can’t believe how big you’ve gotten. Who’s Hugo?”

  Heidi Joy waved her hand toward the dog who was currently sniffing Muffy’s butt. “Rose, meet Hugo. The boys missed Muffy so much, and since we own this house instead of renting and have a big backyard, Andy and I decided to let them have a dog. We got Hugo from the animal shelter.”

  “That’s wonderful,” I said. “He and Muffy seem to be friends.” She was bouncing around him, her tail wagging furiously as he ran in circles around her. “He has a lot of energy.”

  Heidi Joy sighed. “He sure does. He digs holes around the fence and keeps getting out. We’re lucky he hasn’t run off.”

  The baby in her arms studied me like I was an alien, but then a big smile lit up her face.

  “Can I hold Clementine?” I asked.

  “Of course!”

  My heart melted as I reached out for the butterball of a baby. Her smile fell and she studied my face with a serious expression as I settled her on my hip. “How’s Andy? How are the boys?”

  We chatted for a few minutes, catching up on our lives, though I only shared the safe and easy side of my story. When I glanced back at Bruce Wayne and his cre
w, they were starting to unwrap the ties around the stacks of stone that sat on a pallet on our client’s driveway. Which meant they were waiting for permission to get started on the wall. “It’s been great seeing you, Heidi Joy, but I need to get back to work.”

  Her smile faded and she reached for the baby. “I heard about Violet. How’s she doing?”

  After I handed back the baby, I absently rubbed one of the incision scars on my lower back. “So far, so good. She had her bone marrow transplant, and if she keeps doing well, she can probably come home in another month or so.”

  “I heard you were the one who donated.”

  “We were lucky I was a match,” I said, then turned to see Bruce Wayne waiting. “I’ve got to go. Let’s try to meet for coffee sometime. I’d love to catch up more.”

  “Sounds great. Just be sure to come by when Andy Jr.’s home and bring Muffy with you. You know he loves that little dog.”

  I started to say, “Will do,” but my head began to tingle and my vision faded at the edges, the telltale sign of an impending vision.

  As it took hold, the sunny afternoon disappeared and the sky went dark. A gust of wind nearly blew me over.

  “Hugo!” I shouted in a tiny voice that was lost in the wind. I recognized the voice as Tommy’s—I was seeing this vision through his eyes.

  “Where’d he go?” another boy asked.

  “He took off running,” I said in Tommy’s voice. Then something whacked me in the back of the head.

  “I told you to be more careful! Hugo’s afraid of storms!”

  I heard Heidi Joy shouting as the boy next to me ran down the street. “Andy Jr.! You come back here right now!”

  The stormy afternoon disappeared, returning me to the sunny present, and I blurted out, “Hugo’s going to run off in the storm.”