Valley of the Scarecrow

by Gord Rollo

  “Always have before. Why stop now?” Richard Borden said, head half hanging out the driver’s-side window, his long, wild hair tied back in a ponytail and hidden under an Iowa State baseball cap. “Get your ass in here.”

  Rich worked with Kelly’s ex-boyfriend Dan, partners and friends in their landscaping/lawn care business. He’d always harbored dreams of being a rock star someday but for the time being seemed content enough laying sod and trimming hedges. Maybe not as glamorous of a life as singing in a band, but it was a living and kept him in good physical shape. He was an excellent singer and played a mean bass guitar to boot, but was smart enough to know getting a record deal was damn near impossible, more of a high school pipe dream than reality, career-wise. Besides, he and Lizzy were far too much in love for him to ever go off on some half-baked musical tour and be away from home for weeks on end.

  Lizzy McDonald had been plain old Elizabeth McDonald before meeting Rich, and for a time Kelly used to know her as Beth, but once everyone in William Tuthill High School realized how perfect of a couple they made and seeing as Rich’s last name was Borden, it only made sense to start calling her Lizzy. Kelly always kidded them that if they got married she was buying Lizzy an ax for their wedding present; an inside joke that still made the two lovebirds smile.

  Kelly ran around to the passenger side where Lizzy opened the door to let her slip in. There was nobody sitting in the backseat, but Kelly snuggled up front and pulled the door shut. She gave Lizzy a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. Lizzy was as cute as a button, a tiny woman with dark hair and a big smile who liked to wear far too much eye shadow and tease her hair up into a kinky mess that would have looked terrible on almost anyone else. On her, it looked unpretentious but sexy. She looked like one of those girls in a sorority-girl horror movie, or a bad MTV music video from back in the heavy metal days. Then again, maybe that was why Rich liked her so much?

  “What’s going on at the Paramount?” Lizzy asked.

  “I don’t know. They found some poor guy’s body buried in the basement or something. It’s totally gross.”

  “Really?” Rich asked. “That’s weird. Hey…is that Matt Brown over there? I haven’t seen him in ages.”

  “Yeah, that’s him. You guys used to be fairly tight in high school, didn’t you?”

  “Definitely. Just lost track of him. Maybe I’ll give him a call tomorrow, see if I can find out what happened here.”

  “Shit, don’t tell me you’re interested in dead people too?” Kelly asked.

  “Not me. If I wanted to see a dead body, I’d just take Lizzy to bed.” Rich burst out laughing at his own joke and rude as it was, Kelly couldn’t help but laugh too.

  “Fuck you, Richie!” Lizzy said, smiling. “Actually, how about I don’t?”

  “Now now, sugar. You know you can’t go without your Tarzan for too long.”

  “Yeah right! We’ll see. Drive the damn car, monkey boy.”

  “Anything you say, beautiful.” Rich pulled away from the Paramount Theatre and they were soon zipping along Main Street, searching for a parking spot a little closer to the fairgrounds.

  “So what happened to your date with Mr. Big Bucks?” Lizzy asked, the tone in her voice indicating she already had a pretty good guess.

  “Don’t ask,” Kelly said, winking at her best friend.

  “That bad?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Anything we can do to make you feel better?”

  Kelly thought about Blake and about the luck she seemed to be having with men lately. “Actually, yes. I want some ice cream and a caramel apple and some jelly beans and a big bag of cotton candy.”

  “Jesus,” Rich said. “You’ll rot your teeth, woman.”

  “Exactly! Step on it.”

  Chapter Two

  Cedar Rapids wasn’t a huge city by American standards, but they did boast the second largest population base in Iowa with about 140,000 people, trailing only Des Moines in that regard. The annual fall Harvest Festival was a big deal here and, as usual, it was packed beyond capacity. Kelly blended in with the crowd, munching on a big bag of buttered popcorn as she followed closely behind her friends. She wasn’t the least bit hungry anymore but she kept shoving handfuls of corn in her mouth anyway, just because it seemed like the thing to do. Lizzy and Rich walked hand in hand, forcing other people to go around them to get past, blazing a trail for Kelly to follow. They’d played a few cheesy, damn-near-unwinnable games and even squeezed all three of them into one rickety old gondola on the Ferris wheel at the far end of the brightly lit-up midway but they’d spent the vast majority of their time raiding the endless row of snack shacks and food booths. Stuffing yourself like a fool and wandering around aimlessly—those were the true reasons anyone ever went to a local fair and Kelly was determined to keep up her end of what had become a bit of a tradition.

  Every year for the past five they’d gone to the fall festival together and the fact that someone in their group was missing this year wasn’t lost on her. Dan should be here holding her hand. Probably would be if he wasn’t such a moron, Kelly thought, but tried to push all those negative thoughts out of her head. She couldn’t keep living in the past, no matter how much she missed him. Best to just drop it and try to get her mind on something else.

  “So what did you guys do today?” she asked.

  “Not much,” Rich said. “We ended up over at Dan’s place and just hung out shooting the shit for a while.”

  Lizzy elbowed him in the ribs. “Shut up, Richie.”

  “Why? Oh…Sorry, Kelly.”

  “No worries. It’s not your problem Dan can’t keep his pecker in his pants. He’s the one who screwed things up, not you guys.”

  Rich stopped walking and turned to face Kelly. The throng of people around them protested a little but soon the tide of men and women was flowing around them, the three longtime friends a small island in the middle. “Listen, Kelly…I know nothing I can say means shit, but I honestly don’t think Dan did what you seem to think he did. Far as I know, he’s never had any interest at all in that skank and I’m being serious.”

  The woman in question was Tracey Bradley, a curvy red-haired girl who worked at the small engine-repair shop Dan and Rich had all their mowers and clippers repaired at. Kelly had noticed Dan flirting with her several times but never said anything about it until the night she’d come out of the bathroom at Bailey’s British Pub downtown and saw Dan and Tracey kissing up by the bar. Kelly knew the difference between a harmless kiss and an intimate one and she’d watched them long enough to be devastated. Kelly wasn’t a moron; she perfectly understood that Dan was a handsome man and there were lots of girls who’d be happy to take him off her hands, but she honestly didn’t think he was the womanizer type. After all those good years, she couldn’t believe he would fool around on her but the proof was ten feet away and pretty hard to misinterpret.

  “I saw him, Rich. We all did. Let’s just drop it, okay. Maybe we can—”

  “I’m not saying Dan didn’t fuck up, but he isn’t sleeping with Tracey. He loves you, Kelly, and always has. Christ! He’s been under a lot of stress. We…we both have.”

  “Don’t say it, Richie,” Lizzy said, then under her breath whispered, “You know he doesn’t want her to know.”

  “Know what?” Kelly asked, hearing her even above the din of the crowd. “What are you guys hiding? Tell me, dammit! What’s so stressful he had to stick his tongue down that whore’s throat?”

  Lizzy looked at Rich long and hard, but eventually softened and shrugged her shoulders. “Cat’s out, hon. Might as well share the cream.”

  Rich nodded. “Yeah, but not here. Let’s get out of this bloody madhouse.”

  It took them twenty minutes to get back to Rich’s car, where they could finally talk in relative peace. The entire walk back through the festival, Kelly had been wracking her brain trying to think of what Rich might have to say. What could possibly be so bad Dan would keep it from her? In the en
d, none of her guesses were even close.

  “Our business is going down the drain,” Rich said, not trying to sugarcoat anything. “Dan and I are up to our necks in debt and even though we’ve tried pretty much everything to stay afloat, unless a miracle comes along we’ll be bankrupt in a month or two. Three if we get really lucky.”

  “Oh my God! You gotta be kidding? When did all this happen? I thought the business was doing okay?”

  “It’s been heading south for a while now. The economy sucks. People are losing their jobs…losing their homes, you know? What the hell do they care if their hedges need trimming? We’ve lost a lot of our steady clients…most, in fact, and the bills are just spiraling out of control. Dan made me promise not to tell you. He kept hoping we could pull it back together.”

  “And where does Tracey fit into all this? I still don’t see how—”

  “She doesn’t fit anywhere, Kelly. Dan was just being an asshole. We owed our ass to the small engine shop she works at and Dan knew she liked him. He just thought if he took her out for a few beers maybe she could let our account slide for a while. It was stupid and he ended up way too drunk. You already know the rest. Look, this is between you two guys, I’m just saying you need to talk to him and let him at least try to explain. You’re both too goddamned stubborn for your own good.”

  “Probably, but he’s still not getting a pass on this. No way. I’m sorry things suck as bad as they do but the least the son of a bitch could have done was tell me the truth. Maybe I could have helped you guys figure something out? Instead I got the cold shoulder and shut out of his life. For nearly three months now I’ve been going crazy wondering what I did to drive him away.”

  “Like I said, he was an asshole, but that doesn’t mean you two shouldn’t be back together. Hell…he’s been an asshole since the day you met him, but there must have been something about him you liked, right?”

  Lizzy burst out laughing at that comment, and as mad as Kelly was she couldn’t help but laugh too. “You got that right. Once an ass…always an ass. Pretty much a true statement for all men, if you ask me?”

  “Screw you, sweetie,” Rich said, trying his best not to smile but unable to keep a straight face.

  “Doubtful. You’re cut off, remember?”

  “You’re cold, woman, but I’ll deal with you later. Will you at least agree to see him, Kelly? No stress, just say hi and see what happens? The poor guy’s falling apart without you.”

  “I don’t know. I…I need to think about it, okay?”

  “Of course.”

  The car was uncomfortably silent for a few seconds, none of them knowing what to say, but Kelly needed some time to herself to think things through. There was no doubt she still cared about Dan a hell of a lot, but damned is she was going to ever let any man treat her like a fool. “Can you give me a lift home? Think I’ve had about enough of the Harvest Festival for another year.”

  “Sure. You tired?”

  “Not really. I just ate so many corn dogs, pizza, and popcorn that if I don’t get home soon, I think I’m gonna be sick in your car.” Kelly made a fake retching noise, then started laughing. “Just kidding, butthead. Get us out of here.”

  Chapter Three

  Her cell phone rang in her ear like a nuclear detonation, startling Kelly so badly she nearly fell off the edge of her bed. Apparently she’d passed out last night with the phone by her head, contemplating sending Dan a text message but dropping off to sleep before she could think of anything reasonably intelligent to say to him. With her body still numb and tingling from being half-asleep and her heart doing somersaults inside her from the fright, Kelly finally got her wits about her and answered the phone on the fifth or sixth ring. The digital clock beside her pillow read: 8:46 A.M.

  “This better be good,” she said. Kelly had never been much of a morning person and would sleep until noon every day if it were up to her.

  “It’s good enough for the likes of you,” Rich answered, the joy of waking her up clearly in his voice. “’Sides, you’re sleeping your life away. I got some news.”

  “What’s up?”

  “Got some info on that old guy over at the Paramount last night.”

  “The guy who was murdered?”

  “No, that’s the crazy part. The cops don’t seem to think so. I was up early this morning and was thinking about it so I gave Matt a call at home. It’s a bit hush-hush around the station, but he said the old guy had a handwritten note on him and there were bricks, mortar, and a trowel inside the room with him. No one knows for sure, but it looks like he might have sealed himself inside the little room. He tied himself to the chair so he wouldn’t fall off.”

  “Yuck! Strange way to commit suicide? That’s pretty weird.”

  “It get’s even weirder. The note he left didn’t say ‘good-bye, cruel world’ or any crap like that. Matt could get in shit for telling me this so you didn’t hear this, okay, but apparently it said, ‘For what we did at Miller’s Grove. I’m sorry, Joshua. May God have mercy on all our souls.’“

  “Miller’s Grove?” Kelly gasped. “You sure? That’s where my family came from.”

  “I know, goofy…that’s why I’m calling. Wonder what it means?”

  “No idea…but I know someone that might.”

  “Your grandfather, right? I was hoping you’d say that. Let me come pick you up and I’ll drive you over there. I wanna ask him if—”

  “Whoa…slow down a bit. Gramps is eighty-four. He’s a sweet old man, Rich. The last thing he needs is you busting in his room and putting him through the gears like the second coming of the Spanish Inquisition.”

  “Don’t worry; I’ll go easy on the old fella. Promise.”

  “You sure will, ’cause you won’t be there. Listen, I’ll go have lunch with him today and fill you in on all the gory details later maybe. I doubt he’ll know anything about it anyway. He was just a kid when he left Miller’s Grove.”

  “Okay, but you better get me the dirt. Maybe you can stop by my place after supper sometime. We’re having a campfire tonight.”

  “Sounds good, but who’s going to be there?”

  “Umm, Lizzy and I, and Pat and Sheila…”

  “And…?”

  “And Dan, I guess. Don’t sweat it, okay? You gotta face each other sometime for God’s sake. Least you won’t be by yourself and who knows…you guys might even get along. You’ll never know unless you try, right?”

  Kelly set the phone beside her on the bed and rubbed her tired eyes. She had the beginnings of a killer headache coming on and making a decision like this so early in the morning wasn’t going to help matters any. It might not seem like a big deal to Rich, and maybe not even to Dan, but it sure as hell was to her. She sighed and reached for the phone again.

  “I’ll be there around seven thirty; eight at the latest. Oh, and Rich?”

  “What?”

  “You can tell Dan not to get his hopes up.”

  Chapter Four

  Lorimar House was a sixteen-unit assisted-living building out on Route 7, just north of the city and only a ten-minute drive from Kelly’s parents’ house if the traffic was reasonably light. Today, approaching noon, the roads weren’t even being close to reasonable, the snarl of cars, trucks, and SUVs a total bitch and it took Kelly half an hour to make it to the building lot where her grandfather lived. The only saving grace had been seeing the myriad colored trees along the highway, an explosion of red and yellow and brown leaves that always made Kelly think about the great Octobers of her youth, when her biggest concern had been raking leaves into piles to roll around in and having to decide what she was going to wear out for trick-or-treating.

  What a gorgeous time of the year this is, she thought, shutting off the engine of her 2005 Chevy Malibu, pocketing the keys as she climbed out of the small silver car. Not that it’s much fun coming here, regardless of the weather.

  Kelly hated coming to this place. She dearly loved her grandfather but there was somet
hing so depressing about coming out here and seeing him slowly wasting away. Lorimar House wasn’t a typical old-age home where the elderly were packed in like sardines and might not be able to take care of themselves; here they had their own spacious apartments and had all the freedom and privacy they wanted. Assisted living meant just that—there were cleaning, recreational, and medical staff on duty at all times but the residents decided for themselves how much, if any, help they needed to continue functioning in their own living space.

  So far it had worked out perfectly for Malcolm Tucker, as he was a fiercely independent man and his health had remained surprisingly strong in the three years since Grams passed away. He was slipping though. Slowly but surely. Kelly could lie to herself all she wanted but nearly every time she showed up here for a visit, about once every two weeks, he looked thinner to her, the light in his blue eyes less bright than she remembered. Seeing him wither away was terrible, but for the most part Malcolm was being a trooper about things and still had his wits about him, unlike many older men and women his age. Alzheimer’s was a horrible disease that was becoming a rampant problem for the elderly generation but luckily its dreaded hand hadn’t knocked on Malcolm’s door yet, and for that Kelly was immensely thankful. Her grandfather had been one of the few people in her family who’d never cared about her and Dan carrying on an interracial relationship. He’d never given a damn that Dan was a black man; only that he’d loved her. Her parents had eventually warmed up to her estranged boyfriend but they certainly could have taken a few lessons from the old guy here.

  Heading up the interlocking brick walkway to unit number nine, the front door opened before Kelly even had a chance to ring the bell. Malcolm was there in the doorway, smiling to beat the band, clearly happy to see her.