Fingering The Family Jewels

by Greg Lilly

  Valerie sighed and said, “I don’t remember anyone mentioning this.”

  “I think it happened in the late forties, before Walterene and Ruby’s house was built.” I shifted in the vinyl-covered chair. “You see, the oak next to their driveway was where they found him, hanged.”

  “Walterene and Ruby found him?”

  “I don’t know who found him, but Walterene suspected Papa Ernest led the hunt and the lynching. She believed that Vernon took a big part in it to help avenge the honor of his sister.”

  Valerie kept quiet for a moment, but her eyes darted back and forth; I almost thought I could see sparks as her mind processed this new information with things she had known or suspected for years. “I don’t think it’s true. Probably, like Ruby said, just young girls adding drama to their lives for the sake of the diary.” She glanced over at Mark as he turned the paperwork back into the nurse at the station. “What else did she write about?”

  “Just regular teenage girl stuff; she didn’t like Gladys, that’s for sure. A lot about the family, I didn’t get to go through all of them.” The realization shook me: I had been going to check for the diaries when I found Ruby; now I wasn’t sure if they were still there or not.

  Mark sat down in a chair next to mine. “The nurse says a doctor will be out in a few minutes. She said the initial diagnosis was a concussion, but the doctor will have to give us any more details.”

  Valerie’s eyes searched my face as if to ask whether Mark knew about Mr. Sams and the diaries.

  I answered that unasked question with, “Mark, I was just telling Valerie about Walterene’s theory on Mr. Sams and the lynching that took place in the oak tree. Whoever did this knows about it; otherwise, the noose wouldn’t have been there when I first arrived home.” I looked to Valerie. “Can you find out how much Gladys knows?”

  “I doubt she would admit remembering it, but I can ask.” She glanced down at the floor. “I’d like to see what Walterene wrote exactly. I might get something different out of it, you never know,”

  I hated sharing Walterene’s private thoughts with more people, but Valerie knew her better, and she had just as much right to see it as I did. “Okay, but Ruby didn’t like me looking through them, so you better not mention it to her.”

  “Fine,” Valerie agreed.

  A young woman approached us. “I’m Doctor McConnell.” Crimson lines ringed her tired emerald eyes. Her pale delicate hand reached out to shake Mark’s strong hearty one. Funny, how people gravitated to him as the one in charge. Valerie and I stood to shake her hand as Mark introduced us.

  “How’s Ruby? Will she be all right?” I asked.

  Dr. McConnell adjusted a pencil in her thick auburn hair. “She has a concussion. We’re going to run a CT scan to look for any possible blood clots that could have formed near her brain.”

  Valerie gasped.

  “It’s routine at her age,” the doctor assured. “We’ll keep her overnight for observation. Hopefully, she’ll be ready to go home tomorrow.”

  “Is she conscious?” Mark asked.

  “Yes, but she needs rest. I’ll tell her you are all here.” She began to turn away.

  “Wait, can she tell us what happened?” I took a step toward her, afraid she would get away.

  The doctor stopped. “Oh, the police officers have already asked her a couple of questions, but she has a slight case of amnesia from the blow to her head. That’s common with concussions.”

  Mark shook his head in disbelief. “You mean she can’t tell us who did this?”

  “She couldn’t tell the police anything,” the doctor said, “but the good news is, the memory usually comes back in time.”

  I looked at Mark and Valerie. “Maybe that’s not so good. I’d almost prefer she didn’t remember what happened.”

  The lack of sleep and the stress of the night began to swallow me. I sank down into the chair and held my head with both hands.

  “Mark, can you stay here for a little while?” Valerie asked. “I’m going to take Derek home and let him get some sleep.”

  “Sure, go ahead,” Mark agreed. “Derek, get some rest, and I’ll catch up with you later this morning.”

  Valerie and I drove back to Ruby and Walterene’s house in silence. The early Sunday morning sun sparkled the dew on the lawns of the neighbors. When I unlocked the door, I hesitated before going in. Would they come back looking for me? Would we be safe here? I grabbed the baseball bat from the kitchen counter where I had left it and walked through the house checking behind doors, under beds, and around corners. I asked Valerie to double-check that all the locks were secure.

  “I’ll stay here while you sleep,” she offered.

  The thought of having her in the house relieved my anxiety, somewhat. “Great. Thanks, Valerie.”

  “What about the diaries? Maybe I can go through them while I’m here.” She headed toward the attic pull-down in the hall.

  The diaries. I’d forgotten them again. We pulled down the stairs and climbed up. The remnants of the ropes and the overturned chair lay under the eaves. I found the boxes of diaries untouched where I had last seen them. Valerie and I hoisted them down to the den.

  “I can barely keep my eyes open,” I said.

  She sat on the floor sorting out the journals. “Okay, go to bed. I’ll be here.”

  “Thanks.” I kissed her cheek and headed for bed.

  I WOKE TO voices in the den. Still groggy, I checked the clock; I had only slept a few hours. I dressed, wondering who could be here and why, then opened the bedroom door slowly, trying not to make any noises, and crept to the kitchen door to listen.

  Valerie explained Ruby’s condition.”…and she has to stay in the hospital until tomorrow.”

  A male voice I couldn’t identify said, “They know she’s a Harris, don’t they?”

  Then I heard the unmistakable high-pitched voice of cousin Edwina. “Valerie, you make sure they know she isn’t on Medicare and that she has insurance, otherwise those doctors will try and push her out the door as soon as possible.”

  I walked into the den to see Edwina, in another nylon crinkly wind suit, and Roscoe her twin agreeing with every word she said. “Edwina and Roscoe.” I yawned. “Why are you here?”

  Valerie answered for them, “Just a Sunday visit.”

  “Boy,” Edwina started, “can you get me some more iced tea while you’re up?”

  “The name’s Derek,” I corrected. Bitch, go home, I want to sleep.

  Valerie jumped up and took her glass before I could snatch it from Edwina’s fat little fist.

  “Your sister was just telling us about Ruby.” Roscoe informed me. “We stopped for our usual Sunday visit only to find Ruby’s in the hospital.”

  “Yes, yes, Derek.” Valerie returned with Edwina’s tea. She set it down on the coffee table. “I was just telling them about Ruby’s terrible fall.” She stared me in the eyes and nodded as if to make me agree with her.

  “Yes, it was a bad fall,” I agreed, unsure why I needed to hide the truth from these two. I dropped into the wingback chair next to Valerie’s and glimpsed around the room for Walterene’s diaries.

  Valerie caught my searching glance and nodded toward the laundry room. Good, she’d put them out of sight. I didn’t want the rest of the family clamoring to read them.

  The clock on the mantel read 10:20; I’d only had two hours sleep. “Why aren’t you two at church this morning?”

  Their tired old faces blanched; maybe they thought I accused them of being heathens, since one thing in the lives of the Harris family that remained constant was regular church attendance. Roscoe piped up, “Edwina wasn’t feeling well.”

  Edwina managed a weak cough.

  So, I thought, you decide to visit other people to make them sick.

  “Boy,” Edwina started. “Derek, your father had his,” she croaked another fake cough for effect, “retirement party last night, but not all of the family was invited.”

&nbs
p; My mind popped, Yeah, so? Instead I said, “That’s right.”

  Edwina straightened herself up on the couch to the crackle of nylon fabric. “I thought it would have been nice if the whole family had been invited.” She smiled with lipstick-stained teeth.

  “You’re right, but I didn’t have any say in who was invited.”

  “Your mother did,” she countered. “Gladys should have invited us. Roscoe and I are on the Board; we’re shareholders just like Gladys and Vernon.”

  Valerie tried to soothe her hurt feelings. “The party was very small. You know how Dad doesn’t like a lot of fuss. Just us kids and a few of the people who worked directly with him were invited.”

  I hadn’t been invited; I had to push my way in. If I hadn’t, maybe Ruby wouldn’t be in the hospital. No one had expected me to be there. Is that why the scratchy-voiced man came here? Expecting to find me? I spoiled his plan by going to the retirement party when I hadn’t been invited. The party sure gave the family a tidy alibi.

  Roscoe fidgeted with the zipper on his jacket. “Ed, you ready to go? We still got a couple more stops to make before lunch at the Rodale’s.”

  “Rodale’s steakhouse?” Valerie asked.

  “Yeah.” Edwina hoisted herself off the couch. “They have an all-you-can-eat buffet.”

  “Good food,” Roscoe added.

  Valerie stood to walk them out. I waved good-bye and ducked into the laundry room to retrieve the diaries. I had some reading to do.

  Chapter Seventeen

  VALERIA HAD KEPT the diaries sorted chronologically as I had left them a few days before. I couldn’t figure out why, but something was wrong, maybe the way she had stacked them back in the box. I pulled out the journals from the forties and reread some of the entries. Valerie joined me at the dining room table and flipped through some of the later books.

  “I never realized Walterene kept these.” Valerie stacked several more on her side of the table.

  The cardboard box and the table held twenty or thirty books. Some of them, especially the earliest, were actual diaries with the little locks and keys, but the majority were spiral-bound notebooks or hard-bound blank books given to her as Christmas presents from Ruby. As I read an account of Uncle Earl visiting from New York City, the phone’s ring jarred me back to the present.

  “I’ll get it.” I left Valerie in the dining room and grabbed the phone in the den.

  “How’d the retirement party go?” Daniel’s voice boomed through the phone with enthusiasm.

  The events of the past night rewound in my mind until I realized it had started with the party. “Fine, but that’s just the beginning of my adventure.” Taking a deep breath, I said, “You know I can’t go anywhere without a catastrophe.” How much should I tell him? He’s a reporter, and news like this is hard to ignore. “Have you been to work today? Heard anything from your friends at the paper?” I wondered if he had seen the police reports.

  “No, I’m off today, remember?” His voice softened. “Are you okay?”

  I settled into the wingback chair and lit a cigarette. “I’m tired, but all right. This is strictly off the record, right?”

  “Of course, I hope you feel like you can trust me.”

  Did I? The sting of the newspaper article from our first meeting still ached, but the more time spent with Daniel, the more trust I developed. I hadn’t shared anything about Mr. Sams or the diaries with him. Is it time?

  “I came home from the party and found…” I had intended to tell him the same story Valerie had told Edwina and Roscoe, but realized Daniel would have access to the police reports and might catch me in the lie. “I found Ruby missing. I called the police, and then, later in the night, I discovered her bound and gagged in the attic.”

  “What? Is she okay?” His surprise reassured me that he didn’t know about it, from the newspaper or from any involvement in the actual act. Did I really believe he could be connected? I wasn’t sure of anyone or anything, but craved someone I could trust with my confidence, with my emotions, with my heart; I hoped it could be him.

  “She has a concussion and is being held at the hospital for observation.”

  “Any idea who did it? Or why? What did the police say?”

  “You know about the phone calls I’ve received and what happened at the Observer building.” I tapped the cigarette ash off into the glass ashtray and took a sip of iced tea. “I believe it’s the same guy-or guys.”

  “You mean more than one?” he asked.

  “Sure. Mark and I had a hard time carrying Ruby down from the attic; there had to be more than one person to get her up there.”

  Silence settled heavy on his end of the line.

  “You still there?”

  Daniel cleared his throat. “Uh, who’s Mark?”

  Shit, I hadn’t said anything to him about Mark. ”My cousin, Mark Harris.”

  “He was there?” He clipped his words.

  “Yeah, I called him after I got home and couldn’t find her.”

  Silence again.

  His reaction puzzled me. “Do you know Mark?” I asked, meaning more personally than professionally.

  “Yes. I’ve had dealings with him in the past. What does the hospital say about Ruby?”

  Good dodge. But I didn’t let it go. “Dealings? Like what?”

  “Well,” he sighed, “his father is running for Senate; he’s helping manage the campaign; he’s the young, handsome poster boy employed to appeal to the younger voters. That’s my job, to know and talk to these people.”

  His defensiveness worried me. Could he and Mark be more than casual acquaintances? There was Mark’s secret to be guarded. I had always assumed I was the only man in his sexual past, but was that naive? I decided to let it go, for now.

  Valerie walked into the den and waved her hand in quick jerks as if she had something to tell me.

  “Hold on a minute,” I said into the phone, then placed my hand over the receiver.

  Valerie held her oversized pocketbook on her shoulder and dangled her car keys. “I’m going back to the hospital to sit with Ruby. Why don’t you stay here and rest?” Her watery eyes drooped, and her black hair fell over her cheek. She looked older than the sixteen years she had on me; of course, the events of the past week could’ve worn the strongest person down.

  “Okay, but I’ll be there in a little while.” I winked at her. “Val, thanks for always being here for me. I love you.”

  “I love you, too.” She kissed the top of my head as she left.

  Taking my hand off the receiver, I said to Daniel, “Sorry, Valerie was leaving for the hospital.”

  “That’s okay. So, you think the same guy who went after you in the morgue did this to your aunt?”

  “I hope it’s the same person; I don’t want to think there are that many different people in Charlotte after me.” I snuffed out the cigarette. “Listen, I need to get back to the hospital to see Ruby. Can I call you tomorrow?” I wanted to see him face to face and bring up Mark again to get his reaction.

  “Sure,” Daniel replied. “In fact, come by the office around six, and we’ll grab dinner.”

  I processed the new information after I hung up the phone, Daniel knows Mark, but how well? Mark knew I had seen Daniel; actually, as I thought back on the day after the Observer basement incident, he’d known Daniel’s name before I said it. Damn, how’d he know?

  The walls of the house crowded me; the oak looming above the roof held the spirit of a struggling, dying Mr. Sams. Wind rustling the leaves produced a cry for help, a cry for vengeance. Why had Walterene and Ruby wanted to live with that tree? Maybe it was the California coming out in me, but the energy in the house seemed to have cursed the people living here. Why now, after all these years? In less than two weeks, Walterene had died, I had been attacked, and now Ruby was in the hospital; I needed to get out of there, so I grabbed my car keys and headed for Carolinas Med to join Valerie at the vigil by Ruby’s bed.

  RUBY’S ALER
TNESS REINFORCED our hope for a speedy recovery. She still could not remember what had happened to her, from the time she sat down for supper Saturday night until waking up in the hospital Sunday morning. The doctor decided she needed to stay in the hospital until Monday for a full range of tests to be performed. Valerie and I sat with her until late, and then I spent the night at Valerie’s condo.

  Monday morning, Valerie went to work with word to call her as soon as the tests came back. I hung out at the hospital until they took Ruby. Finding no cute interns to entertain myself with, I decided to go see Grandma again. Gladys the Bitch attended her book club on Monday afternoons, so I knew I could avoid her.

  The azaleas appeared brighter and heartier than the last week when I had stopped by Grandma’s house on Dilworth Road. Maybe it was knowing that Ruby would be okay, or maybe it was knowing that I wouldn’t run into Gladys the Ice Bitch of All Time. She knew about Ruby, but hadn’t come by the hospital, or even called Valerie to find out how she was.

  Grandma Eleanor’s house, dappled in spring sunlight through the oaks and maples, wore the veil of the most peaceful place on earth. The warm afternoon allowed me to drive with the car windows down, and when I drove up the driveway, I could smell the sweet scent of the flowering hyacinths by the steps of the front porch. I rang the doorbell and waited for Martha to answer.

  “Mister Derek, come on in.” Martha smiled and stepped back for me to enter.

  “How’s Grandma doing?” I asked.

  She closed the door, and said, “The poor old girl has her good days and bad days, like most of us, I guess.”

  “What’s today?”

  “Today, she’s pretty good, but she been talking about her mama and daddy. After breakfast, she asked me if her daddy was coming to take her home.” Martha shook her head as if she saw the same fate coming for herself. “Miss Eleanor will be glad to see you.”

  She led me through the entrance hall and past the curving staircase back to the sunroom where Grandma sat on the rattan couch reading her mail.

  Grandma Eleanor’s simple A-line buttercup-yellow dress complimented her emerald rings and necklace. Her thin gray hair framed the soft and composed features of an elegant woman in her nineties. “Derek.” Grandma looked up and smiled. “Come sit by me.” She patted the cushioned couch next to her. “Gladys and Thomas aren’t here, just me and Martha.”