3 A Brewski for the Old Man (10 page)

“Sure, no problem.” But I wasn’t fooling him.

“Want me to follow you home?”

The answer was yes, but he’d already worked twelve hours and babysitting me wasn’t part of his job description.

“I’m fine, Miguel, just tired.”

I headed for downtown Jac to make a night deposit. Even at the best of times I hate going to the bank at night. I usually just lock the receipts in the bottom draw of my desk and don’t worry about it, but I hadn’t gone to the bank that afternoon and the insurance company has rules about how much cash I can have on the premises.

I looked over my shoulder as I went up Beach Road. I watched all the pull-offs and all the driveways, waiting for a dark monster to shoot out and trap me. Not a sign of Ray John.

At the bank I sat in the truck, checking out the empty parking lot, sure he was there someplace just waiting to get at me.

My plan always was if anyone came close to me when I was making a night deposit, well, I planned to throw the bank deposit bag as far away from me as possible and run like hell.

But Ray John wasn’t interested in money, so he wouldn’t follow the cash and leave me alone. He’d come after me. I’d seen what he’d done to Ruth Ann and Rena, what would he do to me?

Even though there was no other vehicle in the lot, fear anchored me in the truck. In the end I squealed out of the parking lot, taking the money with me.

When I got home Marley was still up. I dropped my keys and the fanny pack holding the Beretta on the counter. “How’s she doing?” I asked, nodding in the direction of the den.

“I think she’s waiting for that bastard to come drag her back. Of course, my hanging around pretty much says she’s right to worry.”

I opened the bread drawer and stuck the night deposit bag inside. “I’m going to see Brian tomorrow and charge Ray John.”

Brian Spears was my lawyer as well as my friend and although he was a real estate lawyer, he’d help me through this.

“And I’m going to have another go at Rena. She has to understand what Ray John has been doing to Lacey. Rena wouldn’t listen today but I can’t wait, can’t keep Lacey’s secret anymore. It just helps Ray John. Sooner or later Lacey has to go home; this is just a time out, and if he’s still there the whole thing will start over. I can’t let that happen. I can’t wait any longer.”

“It ain’t going to be pretty,” Marley said. “Are you ready for that?”

I opened a packet of hot chocolate and poured it into a cup. “Do you want some?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Answer the question, are you ready for the bomb that’s about to go off in your life?”

“If you want to reconsider your choice of bridesmaid, I’ll understand,” I told her.

“Like hell you would. You’d do something painful and nasty to me. So you’re still in, even if you end up on Dr. Phil’s show.” Her face clouded over. “That’s if it ever happens, the wedding I mean.”

“Have you talked to David?”

“Nope.”

“Hasn’t he called?”

“Nope.”

“What exactly did you do?” I took the steaming mug out of the microwave and sprayed canned whipped cream three inches thick on top of the hot chocolate, taking comfort in calories. I led the way out to the balcony.

“The church needs a new roof and donations aren’t cutting it. I was just trying to get the bloody garage sale organized.” Marley picked up a silk cushion off a rattan chair and plopped down cross-legged on the chair, hugging the cushion to her chest.

“Seeing how you’re the greatest garage sale fanatic in the nation, they had the perfect person in charge.”

“I know,” she wailed and punched the cushion. “You should see the neat stuff I’ve got stacked in the Sunday School nursery room.” Her emerald eyes gleamed at the thought of the loot. Every Saturday and Sunday she cruised up and down every back street on the island buying vintage stuff. She often talked about opening a small antique store on Hope Street, one street over from Banyan. Hope Street is full of antique stores and tea shops and packed with bargain hunters.

“They’re just so sensitive. I was really into it, but those women just wouldn’t get with the program. Everyone with their own ideas but no one was ready to do any work. I was trying to be efficient.” “I’m thinking you were a tad bossy.”

“I’m not bossy; I just have the best ideas. Besides, what we needed was labor, not ideas. We had a great handmade quilt to raffle and some antique furniture for a silent auction. It was going to be terrific.”

“Words were exchanged?”

“Some.”

“I’m betting not ones that are normally heard in Sunday School.”

“Not exactly.” She reached a finger out and scooped up a dollop of whipped cream. I refrained from slapping her, knowing she was going through a bad time. “A delegation went to David. David asked me to step down as chairperson.” The cushion came in for some more punishment. “He took their side over mine. Don’t you think he should have told them to get stuffed?”

“I don’t think ministers are allowed to use those words.” She frowned. “He should have been on my side.” Suddenly I was exhausted. That’s what happens when you start the morning cleaning toilets — you just don’t have enough juice to finish the chocolate.

Before sleep found me my cell rang. No caller ID. Ignore it or take a chance? It could be Clay or it could be a crude reminder that I was annoying a real bad guy. Curiosity is a terrible curse.

“I give in,” Clay said.

“To what?”

“Love, that’s what it is, I know that now. I admit it, I can’t live without you.”

“What’s happened since I talked to you two hours ago?”

“The sky, big and full of stars, do you realize how unimportant we are? The only thing we have is each other and love.”

I smile into the dark, figuring a little booze was involved with the stars and the love, but even though I like to take advantage of other people’s weak moments, it had been a long day. “Look, it’s one-thirty in the morning and I’m beat, too tired for philosophy. Let’s talk about the meaning of life tomorrow.”

“It’s love I want to talk about. Meet me in Miami.” For a nanosecond I thought about it, thought about leaving the mess for someone else to sort out. “Can’t,” I said. “Marley’s here.”

“Marley can look after herself. Let her stay there if she wants, although I can’t quite get why she’s there.”

“Hiding out from the church ladies. They want to lynch her. Also she knows I’ve had trouble being alone.” “And how are you doing with that?”

I laughed. “I haven’t really had a chance to find out. But I’m okay. No big panic attacks, no waking up screaming all in a sweat. Mostly now I just wake up horny.” “Come to Miami. I have the cure.”

“There’s something else, or rather someone else.” The wrong time for this conversation but it couldn’t wait. I told him about Lacey and to tell him about that, I had to tell him about Ray John.

The silence dragged out between as long as the miles. “Were you ever planning on telling me about this?”

“Not really.”

“Why?”

“I just wanted to forget it.”

“You don’t trust me, do you?” Clay asked. His voice was heartbreakingly gentle.

“Why are you taking this so personally? It has nothing to do with us.”

“Everything about you has to do with us. No secrets. Isn’t that what we agreed?” “There’s a tall order.”

“If we’re in for the long haul, that’s how it’s got to be.”

“We’ve never really talked about longer than next week. Can we talk about this when you come home? I need you closer for a serious conversation like this. Need to be able to see you.”

“And yet it seems to me we always have our serious conversations long distance.”

“That’s because when we’re together you can’t keep your hands off me long enough to talk.” “I’m not the only one doing the grabbing.”

“It’s true. I never knew I was a nympho before I met you.”

“You’re trying to distract me. It’s working, but there’s one more thing I want to say before we go right off topic. Call Styles and charge that bastard. Do you want me to come home? Screw the race.” No excuses now.

“Don’t come home. I’m calling Brian in the morning and bringing a civil suit against him. But thanks anyway. Got to go.”

I dropped the phone and slipped into sleep. Hours later, pounding on the bedroom door woke me. Fuzzy-headed and annoyed I sat up in bed. The door slammed open and Marley shot in.

“He’s dead,” she said.

I shot upright in bed. “No.” One word was all I could manage. My lungs no longer worked. Clay dead? I couldn’t conceive of it. I always felt I’d lose him but not this way. More likely one day he’d wake up and see what a fool he’d been wasting time with me, but to lose him in a stupid race? I couldn’t lose him to water. “No, no,” I was shaking my head in denial, wanting Marley to take back her words. “I told him not to go. Why did he go?”

For a minute Marley’s face wrinkled in confusion. “Oh no, not Clay.” She came farther into the room. “Sorry,” she said coming to the bed and dropping down to its edge. She was wearing white cotton pjs with black sheep on them. How strange was that? Death and black sheep.

The world righted itself again. “Who?” I croaked. It didn’t matter as long as it wasn’t Clay. I’d give up anyone to keep Clay. She wrapped her arms around my knees. “Ray John.” I could function again. “Good.” I was relieved that it was no one I cared about. “I hope it was painful.” “You don’t mean that,” Marley said gently.

“Yes I do. You don’t know how much I hated him.” I took air deep into my belly and let it out slowly. Relief washed over me. “It’s over now. Lacey is free.”

“It’s only just beginning.” Marley’s face held concern and something else. “The radio said his body was found about three in the morning at the recreation hall of the Preserves.”

“He was head of security there. Did they say anything else? What happened? How did he die?”

“He was shot.”

And now I knew why she didn’t share my relief upon hearing he was dead. “Funny but I would have thought he’d be the one doing the shooting. He was a violent, dangerous man, hard to think of someone killing him. Do you know what I mean?”

“You mean like violence came from him not to him?”

“That’s it,” I nodded. “I thought he might try to kill me or even Rena, never thought of anyone killing him.”

“But surely,” Marley said, “there must be more than enough people who wanted him dead. Isn’t it a surprise it hasn’t happened before?”

“Maybe. Who shot him?”

“Don’t know.”

She worried the inside of her cheek with her teeth. I knew something was coming I wouldn’t like. My chest tightened.

“The police are looking for a pickup truck seen leaving the area shortly before he was found. That’s all there was on the news.”

“Tully.” I buried my hands in my hair. “Oh my god, I told Tully about Ray John.” All those years I kept my mouth shut, why did I have to blow it now? “He went after him. Oh god, why couldn’t I keep my mouth shut just this once.”

Marley lunged at me, wrapping her arms around me. We clung together, Marley saying, “You don’t know that, don’t know it was Tully. Don’t jump to conclusions.”

I pulled away from her and looked into her face. “But it’s true, isn’t it?” I said.

Her green eyes wavered and a tear slipped over the rim of her eye. Her freckles stood out like a rash on her ashen skin. She couldn’t hide the truth we both knew.

I pushed down the covers and slid from the bed. “I have to find him.”

“Whoa,” Marley said, grabbing at my oversized sleeping shirt. “Think about it.”

“You think.” I pulled away and grabbed a pair of jeans from the closet. “Be sure and let me know what the results are. I have to find Tully.” I tried to stuff a foot into the twisted pant leg of my jeans, hopping on one foot and kicking, fighting the fabric. “If I’d gone on keeping my mouth shut this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Okay,” she said and picked up the bedside telephone and started punching in numbers.

I conquered the jeans. “What are you doing?” I asked sucking in my stomach to do up the zipper. “You’re not going alone.”

“I need to see Tully before they arrest him.” I took the phone away from her as the dental-office answering machine picked up. “Need to talk to him.” She looked doubtful. “I have to do this alone.”

She plopped back onto the bed. “Poor Tully. This just can’t happen to him,” she sputtered. Hugging my pillow to her chest she wailed, “I love him.” She was crying for real now.

“Why?” I was really curious about this. Why would anyone love Tully? I’d spent most of my life hating him and wishing I had another father, a normal one, someone I could do normal things with, someone I could depend on, someone who showed up when he said he would, someone to be proud of.

Marley didn’t have to think about her answer. “He was just so different from mine,” she said. “Always a laugh and never giving advice.” Marley’s father was in insurance and had high standards, a hundred and eighty degrees from my old man. “Tully didn’t expect anything.”

“How could he? He’s one of the world’s great screw-ups. He’s just proved that. How could he ever think this was making things better? It will hit the papers big-time now, murder and child abuse. The
Jacaranda Sun
is going to love it.”

My pillow slammed into the wall. “When did you start caring so much about what people think?”

True, I did care. My don’t-give-a-shit attitude had deserted me.

“You’re getting to be just what you always hated,” she said, her voice accusing.

“And what’s that?” I dropped my nightshirt on the floor and pulled a tee off a hanger.

“You’re turning into a social climbing…” I turned to look at her.

“You’re turning into your mother-in-law, you’re turning into Bernice,” she yelled.

Her words rocked me before fury ripped through me. “Oh, thanks a whole hell of a lot. Don’t you think I have enough to deal with without you taking a piece out of me?”

She bit the inside of her cheek. “Sorry.” It was reluctant and insincere, dragged out of her because of sympathy and not because she believed it.

I turned away from her and pulled on the tee.

“I’m just scared for Tully,” she wailed. “What if he does something stupid?”

“Oh, you think he can do something more asinine than killing Ray John?”

“What if he runs from the police?” She was crying again now. “What if he…” She couldn’t finish the thought.

It took my breath away. What if? Here I was thinking about my problems when Tully was up to his ass in alligators. And Marley was right, somewhere along the way I’d started desperately seeking normal and belonging. Truth was, maybe I’d never been the rebel I thought I was.

“What’s happening?” Lacey stood at the door. In her plaid pajama bottoms, white cropped top and bed head. She looked shockingly young.

“I have some bad news for you, Lace,” I said. “Come and sit down.”

“What?” she wailed, backing away. “Is it my mom?”

“God no.” I took her arm. “It’s Ray John.” I told her what Marley had said.

She looked confused, shaking her head in denial. “But I didn’t do it,” she whispered, looking at me in confusion. “I didn’t shoot him.”

I led her to the bed and she flopped down. Marley wrapped her arms around Lacey and tried to pull her close.

But Lacey resisted the embrace and demanded, “How could he be dead? I didn’t kill him.”

“No one is saying that you killed him,” Marley soothed.

“Don’t think that,” I said. “No one is accusing you.”

“I wanted to,” Lacey blurted out.

“We both did. Doesn’t mean we’re responsible. You can’t kill someone by wishing.” I knelt down in front of her. “If wishing could kill, he’d have been long dead before he ever got to you.”

“My mom will be upset.” She was trying not to cry, sucking on her lips and hunching her shoulders together, trying to hold it in. “She really loved him.” Lacey wiped at her eyes. “When she called me last night she said she wanted me to come home. She said RJ just wanted us to be a family and if that wasn’t going to happen he was going to leave so Mom and I could be together again. She was terrified of him leaving. I told her what he did to me but she didn’t believe me. She said you’d put those ideas in my head.” Now she folded her arms on her knees and buried her head in them. We could barely catch her next words, “She said I was lying.”

I looked at Marley over Lacey’s shuddering back. “Poor kid,” she said.

“I’ll take you home, Lace.”

When I picked up my keys off the bar I didn’t spare a thought for the fanny pack with the gun in it. I didn’t need it anymore so I didn’t notice it wasn’t there.

Not noticing the Beretta was gone was only the first of the mistakes I made.