by Ann Mullen
“I hope I didn’t offend anyone,” Mom said. “I just said what was in my heart. The Lord knows what kind of person I am, and he loves me. I’ve been and still am a faithful follower of Him. He will help me deal with this bitterness in my heart, but until then, I can’t change the way I feel.”
“I was happy with what you said,” Abby said. “It was perfect.”
“God knows what’s in our hearts, Minnie,” Sarah said. “It doesn’t matter how you say it just as long as it gets said. It was a wonderful prayer and I agree with you. Whoever caused the breakdown of this family deserves to face eternal damnation.”
“And we know who that is,” I said. “Benjamin Beard.”
“I have to agree,” Billy said. “I’m going to rip that man to shreds. He should be so lucky to get only jail time. If it were up to me, I’d take him out back and skin him.”
“Billy!” I said, stunned. “We have children in the room.”
“We know Uncle Billy wouldn’t do that, Ant Jess,” Benny said, his eyes glued to Billy. “You wouldn’t really rip off his skin like they do in the movies, would you, Uncle Billy?”
“Of course, he wouldn’t,” Claire said. “He’s just mad, and when people get mad, they say things they don’t mean. Isn’t that true, Billy?”
Billy looked over at Benny and Carrie and then realized what he had said wasn’t meant for young ears such as theirs. He back-peddled and said, “No, I wouldn’t do anything so horrible. I was just mad, that’s all.”
Chief Sam stood and followed his son.
One by one, we all ended up in the kitchen. Mom fixed Billy a plate of leftovers, while I sat at the table holding a sleeping Maisy. Benny and Carrie sat beside me and stared at Maisy as she slept. It was nine o’clock and way past the children’s bedtime, but no one was in a hurry to do anything about it.
“I should call Randy before we leave and see if he wants us to wait for him to return,” Abby said in a monotone manner. “I don’t want to leave him without a way home.”
“We have plenty of room if you want to spend the night,” I said, my voice a little shaky. “It might not be as fancy as your place, but we have good food and a lot of love flowing through this house. Why don’t you stay? I’m sure we can dig up a couple of nightgowns and a spare toothbrush, or you could sleep naked and not brush your teeth.”
Abby laughed out loud and said, “Now that’s a gross thought. I don’t think I want to parade my naked body around in front of anyone, but thanks anyway. If I stay, I’m going to at least have to brush my false teeth.”
Everyone laughed, except Benny.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “Why would you brush your teeth if they’re not real? I thought they were supposed to be put in a jar by the bed.”
Abby smiled at him and said, “I was just kidding about my teeth being false. They’re not false. See.” She pulled her lips back, opened her mouth real wide to show him, and clicked her teeth together a couple of times.
Benny jumped back as if he had been stung by a bee. “Wow,” he said. “You sure have big teeth.”
“Benny, you’re so cute,” I said and laughed out loud. I reached over and mussed his hair. “And you’re so smart.”
“I know,” he replied. “Mom tells me that all the time.”
“You have a very smart mother,” I said as I looked over at Claire.
“I know,” he said. “And she’s pretty. Cole says that all the time. He thinks Mom is beautiful. He said he was going to marry my mom. Is that true, Mom?”
“We’ll have to wait and see,” Claire replied. She looked over at the chief and chuckled. “You just never know what the future holds.”
CHAPTER 25
Billy and I stood on the front porch listening to the sound of the wind blow through the trees as it played its musical notes. The temperature was in the upper thirties, but almost felt like a heat wave compared to the temperatures we’ve been experiencing these past winter months. Hopefully, the cold was about to leave and spring was on its way. The snow had stopped earlier during the day, and as the clouds disappeared, a ray of sunlight slipped through just for a second. Now it was dark and even though it was still cold, it was a different kind of cold. It was bearable.
“Did you see the daffodils at the edge of the front porch?” Billy asked. “They popped up through the snow. We could get a better look if you want to. I could go get a flashlight.”
“No,” I whispered. I didn’t say anything for a while. Finally, I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I had to ask. “Do you think there’s any of Brian’s blood on the ground? I’m just asking because I don’t want anyone to come outside tomorrow and see it. It would just add to our pain.”
“The yard’s clean, `ge ya. There’s no blood,” Billy said as he wrapped his arm around me. “We checked.”
“We?”
“Cole and I had a look around after the ambulance left. I knew you wouldn’t want your mama to see any blood. That’s one of the things I love about you—you love your family more than anything.”
“I guess I just naturally have good character,” I said, joking.
“You are,” Billy said, smiling. “You are a good person and you have the wisdom of the owl.”
“That’s fine with me as long as I don’t look like one.”
Billy hugged me closer.
“I’m glad Abby and Isabel decided to stay,” he said. “I think they are a welcomed relief. They can help everyone put their attention on other things instead of death and the ills of society. Abby asked me if she could move in. She was joking, of course. She was stunned when I told her yes. I like her and Isabel and Randy. I’m still trying to deal with my feelings about your buddy, Frank Trainum.”
“I can understand. I guess he was pretty bad to you.”
“He wasn’t as bad as he could’ve been, but he wasn’t a picnic either.”
“A picnic, huh? Now that would be fun. I’ll be so glad to see the sun shine again. I’ve seen my share of gray clouds. It seems like the whole winter was nothing but dark clouds, and thunder clouds.” I chuckled.
“I hope you’re happy now that you finally know.”
“I don’t see what the big deal is. It’s just a name.”
“It’s a privilege to be given a name of such importance.”
“I’m sure it is. My son will have a Cherokee name of importance.”
“He certainly will.”
The front door opened and Mom stuck her head out. “Everyone’s in bed, except you two. I did like you said and put Abby and Isabel in the spare room upstairs. I’ll sleep with Claire, and the kids are sleeping on a pallet next to our bed. Randy is asleep on the sofa. Athena and Thor are on your bed. I couldn’t get them to get down. I guess they think they’re some kind of watchdogs for Maisy. Oh, and we have Spice Cat with us upstairs. I didn’t want him to jump into Maisy’s crib. You know I have a thing about cats and babies.”
“I know,” I said. “You think they’ll suck the breath out of the baby.”
“They could. We don’t know.”
“Those are just horror tales, Mom. But we’ll do it your way.”
“Okay.” She smiled, turned and went back inside.
Billy and I were alone again. We stood on the porch, looking out into the darkness. I let my mind ponder the recent events, what they meant, and what we were going to do about them, or if we needed to do anything about them. As my mind continued on its journey, I turned to Billy and shared my thoughts.
“I have all these names echoing in my head and I don’t know what to do about them. Carl, Claire, Sherry, Brian, Vicki, Maisy, Benjamin Beard, Cole, Sheriff Hudson, Captain Waverly, and of course, Frank Trainum—their names figure predominately. The way I see it, Sherry Lane killed two women and possibly paid to have someone kill her husband, and she’s going to make sure that Carl Benson takes the fall for it. Frank Trainum would be the man to see about that, but he’s at the hospital. I need to call him before he leaves. We have some
unfinished business.” I made a mental note in my head. “Sherry must have something on Carl.” I leaned down and put my gloved hand on the porch rail. My left arm was starting to give me a tingle, and I didn’t like the feel of it one bit. I hadn’t had much pain with it until today, when I noticed a different kind of ache. I thought it would go away.
“Are you okay, `ge ya?” Billy asked. “You look pale.”
“That’s what someone said earlier. I’m fine. There’s a lot going on in my mind.” The pain passed and I stepped back. I wrapped my good arm around Billy, nestled close and continued. “That’s not all. I’m sure Claire’s hiding something. She cleaned out their safe and has guarded the contents of it with her life… well, maybe not with her life, but when I asked her about it, she just said it was stuff that Carl wanted her to keep. She made it sound like nothing. I can’t go look in her bag because it wouldn’t be right. Do I confront her and take a chance of alienating my sister? You know that we’re finally come to terms with each other and I think we’ve finally bonded. We do have our ups and downs, but maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be between sisters. I just don’t know. I don’t want to jeopardize our relationship by putting pressure on her, but I can’t, in all honesty, let it go. I’m afraid I’m going to have to go snooping. I’ll ask her one more time, and if she doesn’t come clean, I’ll go through her stuff. She might be withholding something that could net her jail time and she doesn’t even know it.”
“So you’re going to do this for her benefit?”
“I have to, Billy. What would you do?”
“I’d give her a chance to explain, and if I wasn’t satisfied or thought she was not telling the truth, I would do what comes naturally—I’d snoop.”
“Then it’s settled.”
“What else is bothering you? I can tell by that frown on your face that there’s more hiding in the shadows of your brilliant detective mind. You might as well tell me everything if you want me to help you in your unsavory endeavors.”
“Brian and Vicki are dead as a direct result of something concerning Benjamin Beard. How or why, it doesn’t matter, because we can’t change the fact that Benjamin Beard is most likely Maisy’s father. A piece of paper proves that.”
“Who says it’s real?”
“I feel certain that it’s real. Anything that damaging has to be real. And I would think the law would be on his side if he decided that he wanted custody. He probably has every right to take her, even though several people heard Brian tell me he wanted us to take care of her until his return, which we now know isn’t going to happen. Do you think Beard would want custody of Maisy? He has a wife. What would she say? I’m sure she already knows the whole sordid mess by now. Did Beard kill Vicki to keep his criminal activity a secret, or was the secret he was trying to keep was that he had a brief affair with Vicki and a child was the result? What happened there? Could it be that he’s a pervert who preys on his defenseless patients, or was Vicki the only one? Maybe he thought he was in love with Vicki, she rejected him, and he drugged her in his office and had his way with her.”
“You ask many good questions.”
“What about Cole? I asked Cole and Frank to release Brian. I wanted him to be able to hold Maisy one more time before they took him away. When Cole handcuffed Brian, he did it in the front. Maybe he was too close to the case and just didn’t think. He had a lapse in judgment. He knows there’s a reason the cops don’t handcuff their suspects in the front—it makes it too easy for the suspect to get control of the situation, which I feel is exactly what happened here. Brian was able to wrestle the gun away from the officer and in the process, the gun fired and Brian was killed. Will Cole be reprimanded? Could he lose his job? And one more thing—the chief said Claire was going to marry Randy, and he said it right in front of Cole.”
“I bet Cole wasn’t too happy.”
“He was embarrassed. I felt sorry for him.”
“Well, don’t,” Billy said, turning his back to me as he walked the length of the front porch, and back. “He’s not feeling pity for anyone but himself.”
“What did he do?”
“He hasn’t done anything. It’s what he said.”
“Stop beating around the bush, Billy! Tell me what he said.”
“Maybe we should go inside.”
“I don’t want to go inside. Tell me!”
“After the ambulance took Brian away, Cole and I were talking while we checked out the yard for…”
“I don’t want to hear about that,” I said, my stomach doing an Indian tribal dance. “Just get to the nitty-gritty.”
“He told me that this whole terrible ordeal between Brian, Vicki and Benjamin Beard has made him open his eyes. He’s determined to force you to have a paternity test done.”
“Screw him,” I said. “We don’t need a paternity test to convince me that this is a Blackhawk child I’m carrying. I feel it in my soul. Cole can’t force me to do anything. Why can’t he just give it a rest? Tell him I said to leave us alone. No, never mind, I’ll tell him myself. And here I was worried about his career and all the while he’s trying to shoot another arrow into my heart.” My face felt red hot.
“I told Cole that I would go along with your wishes. I’m not afraid that this child is not mine. I know he is. I saw it in a dream.”
“You did what?” I asked as I let out a little chuckle.
“Laugh if you want, but I promise you that Ethan is my son.”
“Whoa, perhaps you should back up a minute until we’re absolutely sure that it’s a boy.”
“Oh, I’m sure. It shows in your aura.”
“That sounds like something Abby would say.”
“She’s the one who brought it to my attention.”
“Everyone I’ve met since I moved to the mountains knows and sees all kinds of things. This place has a mysterious hold on people... on me. I’ve never met anyone with ideals and visions and things of that nature. It’s so strange. It’s as if the meaning of life has become clear to me through the people I’ve met. Everybody should experience this feeling.”
“I’m sure many do.”
“Do you have your cell phone in your coat pocket?” I asked, changing the subject.
“Yes, I do. Why?”
“I want to call the hospital and talk to Frank.”
“It’s late. Are you sure you don’t want to wait until tomorrow? Remember, tomorrow’s another day.”
“All right, Rhett Butler, hand it over.”
“Actually, I think it was Scarlet O’Hara who said that.”
“Just give me the phone.”
Billy pulled the phone out from under his coat and handed it to me. “Don’t…”
“You don’t need to tell me what to do, Billy. I have a mind of my own, thank you very much.”
“I wasn’t going to. I was going to tell you to watch out for the keys. It’s a small phone and if you press it too hard against your ear, you might get disconnected, Missy.”
I took the phone, winked at him, and said in my most charming southern voice, “I’m sorry, dear, but I’m in such a tizzy. I just don’t know what came over me. Could you find it in your heart to please forgive my terrible manners, sir? You know how we Southern Belles are. We’re such scatterbrains.”
Billy rolled his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”
“You’re going to love me,” I said as I opened the phone and punched in the number for UVA Hospital—a number I’ve memorized.
“Admissions,” a female voice said.
“I need to talk with Frank Trainum,” I said. “He’s the detective handling a case involving one of your patients, Sherry Lane. I don’t know her room number, but if you could connect me to the nurse’s station on her floor, I’d appreciate it.”
“Sure,” she replied. “I’ll see what I can do.”
I held on and waited for her to connect me.
“Fifth floor,” a woman said. “May I
help you?”
“Yes,” I replied. “I need to speak to Detective Frank Trainum. He’s the detective handling the case of one of your patients, Sherry Lane. He’s a short, heavy-set man with…”
“I know Detective Trainum,” she said. “He’s not on the floor right now, but I can have him paged if you’d like.”
“Please do,” I said. “I don’t have his cell number.”
“It wouldn’t matter; cell phones aren’t allowed.”
“Okay,” I said, wondering why she thought I needed that tidbit of information. I waited while she put me on hold.
Several minutes passed before Frank got on the line. “Hello,” he said.
“Frank, this is Jesse Watson… I mean, Blackhawk.”
“I know who you are, Jesse. Let me call you right back. We’re tying up this line and that cute little nurse is giving me a wicked look. What’s your number?”
“I’m on Billy’s cell phone,” I replied. I rattled off the number and then closed up the phone. I looked at Billy and said. “He’s going to call me back. He didn’t want to tie up the phone.”
“I figured as much.”
A short bit later, the cell phone rang.
“Hello,” I answered.
“How’s everybody doing over there?” Frank asked.
“Better than expected. I haven’t had a fit in a while, but I’m still on the edge.”
“Well, you’re really going to get your hair in a knot after you hear what I have to tell you. I’m sure that must be why you hunted me down. Do you realize it’s nearly midnight? You’re lucky the hospital put you through. They’re not too happy about keeping track of nosey and cantankerous old detectives like me. At least, that’s what one of the nurses called me. However, I think the night shift head nurse, Alexandra, has a crush on me. She said I could call her Alex. She has it bad for me. I might even ask her out. She’s a real beauty. I think I’m in love.”
“I don’t need to hear that, especially if the next thing you’re going to tell me is that sex is going to be involved,” I said. “Tell me about Sherry Lane.”
“Sherry Lane was transferred to a hospital in D.C. about an hour ago, under heavy security,” Frank replied. “I was just about to leave when you called. I was headed to the helipad to catch my helicopter.”