Secrets and Revelations (Bellingwood #4) (26 page)

The boys looked at each other and dove into the food. They hadn't eaten for a while.

"Henry, could you go to the kitchen and get the boys each a couple of bottles of water? Those are in the refrigerator."

"I saw them. Sure."

He left the room and Polly sat down, pulling the popcorn bowl in front of her. She pushed the ketchup toward the boys and said, "Have you ever eaten a corn dog? You mush it in ketchup and then eat it. It's awesome. I've already had two tonight."

Jaleel looked up at her, his brown eyes sparkling. He picked up a corn dog and bit the end off. "It's a hot dog!" he said.

"I know, right?" Polly laughed. "It's a hot dog surrounded by cornbread. You really have to try it with ketchup though."

He squirted ketchup on his plate, in a space he'd opened up by polishing off the macaroni and cheese, and tested the corn dog. "That's awesome. Mickey, you have to try it."

Soon both boys were eating corn dogs and smiling at Polly.

"So, what story did you tell Roy? It doesn't seem like he believed everything you said?" she asked.

"It was totally the truth, though!"

"So, what did you tell him?"

Jaleel looked down. "We were stupid. Totally stupid. I thought we could drive Mr. Foster's truck. We were just going to go down the road and then come back, so we got up early on Monday, even earlier than we got up the other mornings. I saw where he put the keys and I swear, we were only going to be gone for a minute!"

"Okay, so you were stupid. Then what happened."

He looked at Mickey and the other boy shrugged. "I was driving," Jaleel said quietly. "I can drive. I really can. But that truck is big!"

"I drive a truck," Polly agreed. "It was my dad's. You're right. It's pretty big."

"I didn't see the guy and all of sudden, there he was, walking on the highway. I swerved and we ended up in the ditch. I was so scared."

"Who was walking on the highway?" Polly asked. "Did you know him?"

"No, he said his car broke down and he was going to Boone. And he was pissed at us, because when he thought I was going to hit him, he fell down and got his nice pants dirty. He was wearing a white shirt and a tie and it was dirty too."

"How old a guy was it?"

"I don't know. He was a little older than you, maybe, but not as old as the Sheriff."

"So then what happened?"

"He told us he could get the car out of the ditch, that he knew how to drive a truck and since it wasn't wet, we shouldn't have a problem, so I scooted over and let him drive. The next thing I knew, he was tearing down the road after this white Lincoln Navigator. The woman was driving like hell and he started pushing at her. He bumped her car a couple of times and Mickey and I thought we were going to die. We put our seatbelts on, because I knew he was going to wreck."

Mickey stopped eating and she could see tears forming in his eyes.

"Did he push her off the road?"

"Yeah!
She was going so fast, she plowed right into the corn. He stopped the truck and told us not to move. I thought he was going to help her, but he dug around in the back of the Fosters’ truck and took out a tire iron. There was some cans of paint back there because we were going to spray some tops of metal fences this week. He took one of those too."

"You had to have been pretty scared."

"When he came back to the truck, he was all red-faced and mad. He threw the tire iron in the back of the truck again and drove to Boone. Then he pulled over and told us to give him our phones. We didn't know what else to do, so we gave them to him. He told us that now we were accessories to murder and if we told anybody about what we saw, he knew who we were and he knew the Fosters and he knew you guys and he would find us and kill us. He gave us each forty bucks and told us to find our way back to Chicago and never tell anyone what we saw."

Mickey's lower lip started to quiver. "I thought he was going to kill us right there. He took our phones and got the tire iron back out of the truck and smashed 'em to pieces, then kicked them into the gutter. He threw the keys down after them and told us to run our pretty little black asses off until we were in Chicago."

"Oh boys," Polly said. "I'm so sorry! Where have you been all this time?"

"We went into the library on Monday and just hid there. Then we walked to Taco Johns and stayed there for a while, but the police station is right down the street and we were afraid that they'd find us and we didn't want to die. We mostly hid.
We found some trains that weren't going anywhere and slept in one of those Monday night," Jaleel said.

"We wanted to come back here, but he also told us that he was going to tell the Sheriff and Roy that we'd killed that lady and they'd put us in jail. And who were they going to believe, a white man who lived in Bellingwood or a couple of black kids from Chicago who weren't worth anything anyway," Mickey seemed to continue his thought without paying attention to anything else.

Polly jumped up and went over to hug him. He fell apart again, sobbing and crying while she held him. "We didn't do anything but take that truck out. We wouldn't ever hurt someone," he said through the tears.

"Was that the same Lincoln Navigator that the mean woman drove?" Jaleel asked.

"It was," Polly said. "She was the woman he killed."

"She wasn't very nice, but she didn't deserve to die," he said.

"No she didn't."

"Will we have to go to jail? I have a big brother who is in for killing a guy. He's gotten really mean since he left. I don't even like to go see him anymore," Jaleel commented.

"The Sheriff is going to investigate what you've told them. Did you tell them everything that you just told me?" she asked.

The boys nodded.

"You didn't lie about anything? It was all the truth?"

"I think so," Mickey said. "I don't think we forgot anything."

"Then you aren't going to have to go to jail for any of this. Driving a truck into a ditch isn't anything people will arrest you for. You shouldn't have taken the truck without permission, but I suspect the Fosters won't do anything. Especially after they hear what you've been through. Mr. Foster could have driven that truck out of the ditch as easily as this man did."

"Miss Giller?"

"Yes, Mickey."

"If he is from Bellingwood, is he going to know we told? Will he try to kill us?"

At that, the three men returned to the conference room. Henry shook his head and smiled at Polly. He mouthed, "You were great."

Aaron asked the two boys, "Can you help us figure out who the man was?"

"We can try. Will we have to see him face to face?"

"Let us do some work, first. We’ll do everything we can to keep you safe."

Then he said, "Roy, I'd like to keep these boys out of sight for a while. Whoever did this thinks he got away with it and I'd hate for him to see them and get spooked."

"Do you believe us now?" Mickey asked.

"We believe you."

"Roy?" Jaleel pressed.

"I believe you. Both of you."

Aaron put his hands on the table in front of him and leaned in. "I think you boys have had enough adventure for this week. I want you to stay here at Sycamore House and don't go outside. Can you do that?"

They nodded, their eyes wide as saucers.

"Polly, can you find them a place to sleep?"

"I have an air mattress already set up in my apartment. Would you two boys like to sleep with a couple of cats and a dog? They're very friendly."

"We can move the mattress over to my room and they can stay with me," Roy said.

"Your choice," she replied. "I have a kitchen and a bathroom that you all can use. I won't be around much tomorrow anyway. Let me email you the key, Roy. You can go in and out whenever you want. I'll just text you when I'm going to be there, so no one tries to interrupt me in the bathroom, how's that?"

"Thank you, Polly." He looked at Jaleel and Mickey and said, "Boys?"

"Thank you, Miss Giller," said one boy and then the other.

"I'll get your things from the Fosters tomorrow," Roy said. "I suspect you both really need a shower and a change of clothes."

The boys looked at each other and grinned. "I told you that you stunk," Mickey said.

"Not as bad as you!" Jaleel retorted.

"I'm going to leave you to it," Aaron said, "and check in with you all tomorrow. We'll hope to have this wrapped up before you leave on Tuesday. It's good to have you back in Bellingwood, boys."

He left and they all took a breath as they heard the front door close.

"Let's get the bed moved over to Roy's room," Henry said," and you two can get a good night's sleep." He glanced at their plates. "Looks like I'm making some money tonight." He winked at Polly and left.

"You don't have to finish a thing, boys," she said.

"But, I'm not done!" Jaleel said. "Can I finish eating? I'm still hungry."

"You two can eat whatever you like. I'll bet that Henry would make the same deal on the other side of mine. If you don't finish your meals, that means I pay up."

"We'll finish. This is good." There wasn't much left on their plates, but in a few minutes, both plates were clean.

Polly took out her phone and said, "Give me a smile, boys. I need proof." They put their arms around each other's shoulders and grinned - big, toothy grins over their empty plates. "Thanks. The cash is yours."

She stacked the plates and left them on the table. Tomorrow would be soon enough to deal with that. Tonight she wanted to get them upstairs and tucked in.

"You're pretty cool, Miss Giller," Mickey said as they walked up the steps. "And so is the Sheriff. I've never known a policeman to be so cool."

"I'll tell him you said that. It will make him smile."

The door to Roy's room was open, so she led them over. They'd set up the bed and the boys followed her in.

"I have to be somewhere tomorrow morning, so my apartment will be clear by ten fifteen. Is that early enough for showers?" she asked Roy.

"That will be fine. Thank you."

"There's going to be a lot of activity around here tomorrow, but no one should be upstairs except for the other two guests. I might send Sylvie up with some breakfast, but other than that if you stay up here, you'll be out of the way. There are movies and video games in my apartment and feel free to use anything in the kitchen. I have food there the boys should like."

"Thanks again. For everything. This means the world to me."

Henry pulled his friend into a hug and Polly looked at the boys. "I'm glad you told me your story tonight. Now get some sleep. There are good people who will take care of this for you."

They nodded at her.

When she and Henry got back inside her apartment, she turned on him. "What in the heck was that all about? Why did you all leave me with the boys?"

"I didn't know we were until I got to the kitchen. Roy had heard their story and he wanted to believe them, but he wanted to see what their reaction to you would be. He wanted to hear the story as an observer, not an interrogator. I guess Aaron bought into it, because they just let you roll. You did a great job, by the way. You are really good with kids that age.

"How much of it did you hear?"

"We were sitting outside in the main office. You just couldn't see us with the lights off. We heard everything."

"Those poor boys. I can't believe what they've been through this week."

"Roy was right, though, wasn't he? They're good boys. At least he knows now that his intuition about his kids isn't wrong."

She dropped down onto the sofa. "This has been a weird week."

"And I didn't get my romantic moment on the Ferris wheel."

"No you didn't. What were you going to do with that moment?" she asked.

"I was going to do this," he took her hands, pulled her back up and into his arms and kissed her. She felt her knees go weak and she sagged against him.

"I think I must be a little tired," she said. "I haven't had enough sleep and you're making me swoon again."

"Then we'll put you to bed and I'll drive away and promise to see you tomorrow. Remember, there's a street dance downtown and I want all of your dances."

She smiled weakly at him. "I love you. All of these things I do are easier because you're around."

They walked into her bedroom and the animals all followed. She held his hand and led him to the steps leading downstairs. "Good night, Henry. Thank you."

"Good night, my crazy, beautiful girl. I love you too." He kissed her again and went downstairs. She watched out the back window as he drove off, then stripped off her clothes and dropped into the bed. A few swipes on her phone and she made sure the outside doors were locked and the lights off. She pulled the blanket up to her neck, waited for Obiwan to settle in beside her, and fell asleep.

Opening the barn door
Saturday morning, Polly found that the entire complement was already at work. Rachel saw her first and said, "Hi Polly! The horses were beautiful in the parade yesterday. I only got a few minutes off to run up and watch, but they were really something."

"Thanks, Rachel. Maybe next time you can join us."

"That would be fun."

Jason stuck his head out of Daisy's stall. "Hi Polly."

"Hi there, Jason. How's your brother this morning?" she asked.

"He's nervous. Mom told me I should get out of there because he was so grumpy."

"It will all be over soon." The Literacy Competition would be held at the Lutheran Church this morning. The kids were supposed to be there by nine o'clock to practice using the microphone. Andrew had memorized an excerpt from his story and she looked forward to watching him perform. He was very natural and seemed comfortable engaging the audience as he told his story, but as Polly knew from her utter terror the night before in preparing to play with a large group, his nerves would be overwhelming him this morning. Jason was much safer in the barn than at home.

"My mom wanted me to tell you thank you again for putting me and Caleb up at your place the other night," Rachel said, shyly. "We're still pretty scared. She didn't have anything to do with that woman's death."

Polly sat down on one of the benches in the alley of the barn and patted the seat next to her. The air in Rachel's lungs rushed out as she slumped down beside Polly.

"How are you doing with everything this morning?" Polly asked. “That was a lot of stuff coming at you."

"It's weird to think that my Dad ever had anything to do with that woman, especially when she was married. I wish I knew why he left. Mom doesn't believe he found another woman. She thinks Mrs. Rothenfuss threatened him somehow."

"Does your mother know how to reach him?"

"She said she heard from him a couple of times, but the last number he used to call her isn't in service any longer, so we don't know anything. I used to think it was my fault that he left. And even yesterday when I started hearing all of this stuff about him having to marry Mom because she was pregnant with me, that made it worse. At least when Caleb was born, they'd been married for a while."

"He wouldn't have gotten married if he didn't want to," Polly said.

"That's what mom told me, but now it makes sense why that old bat was always calling me and my mom whores. She was really mean. That's why the Sheriff wanted to talk to my mom. They knew that Dad had left and wondered if things had finally gotten so bad between my Mom and Mrs. Rothenfuss that it got out of control."

"I can't tell you why, but you and your mom don't have anything else to worry about, Rachel. The Sheriff is looking at someone else and there is more evidence to tie them to the murder than there was with your mom."

"Good!" Then Rachel stopped. "It's not good for them, but it's great for us. I can't wait to tell Billy that he doesn't have to worry anymore."

"And your mom," Polly chuckled.

"Yeah. Mom, too. Eliseo is going to take me riding today. He said that it would be okay."

"Don't you have anything you want to do downtown? It's the last big day of the fair!"

"Not as much as I want to learn how to ride Daisy!" the girl exclaimed. "I can't wait. I keep thinking that someday I could have my own horse and we could ride far away all by ourselves. I could pack a lunch and find some grass somewhere and she would stand under a tree while I eat lunch and dream about my future. Just the two of us."

Polly nodded and smiled. "
Then I think a riding lesson would be a good idea today. Until you have your own, you and Jason and Eliseo can ride these horses and give them lots of exercise."

Rachel jumped up. "I'd better get busy if I'm going to earn my way. Eliseo says I have to build up my upper body
strength, so he wants me to help bring down hay from upstairs. Those things are heavy!"

"Yes, they are. But, a few weeks of lifting those bales will have you strong enough to do almost anything!" Polly agreed.

Eliseo came in from outside. "Are you ready to throw some hay, Rachel?" he asked. "Good morning, Polly! You had a big day yesterday. I heard the band last night. You were great!"

"You came up? I didn't see you!"

"I was in the back, but the band sounded terrific. It was nice to see you up on stage. You should do that more often."

"I was terrified out of my mind, but I don't think Jeff will let me get out of it, so I will
definitely do it more often."

"Come on Rachel," he said. "Let's get going. Oh, and Polly? We've got this today. I know you've got a full schedule."

"Thanks, Eliseo." Polly stepped into Demi's stall, where Jason was scooping up the muck. "How are you getting up to the competition?"

"Mom was going to text you and ask if I could take a shower at your apartment and ride up with you."

Polly pulled out her phone. Sure enough, she had missed a couple of texts.

"You sure can. I'm leaving at ten fifteen, so meet me in my office, okay?"

"I'll be on time. I promise," he said.

She responded to Sylvie that she and Jason had it all figured out and then checked the second text. It was from Henry, telling her that he was having breakfast at Joe's Diner with Nate Mikkels and then they were taking their cars over to the elementary school parking lot for the car show. He would try to get away for the Literacy Competition, but couldn't guarantee anything.

Polly texted him back not to worry about trying to show up. He'd been so good to her the last few days she would have given him the moon. He was having so much fun talking about cars with Joss' husband, she couldn't imagine asking him to do anything else. She walked in the side door, said hello to several people who were looking at the quilts hanging on the walls and went upstairs to her apartment. After feeding the animals and taking a quick shower, she went back to her office downstairs. Jeff was in the conference room with people she didn't recognize, so she woke up her computer and checked email.

When she saw that there was one from Ruth Ann Marshall, she nearly deleted it, but took a deep breath and opened it.

"Dear Polly,

I am so sorry that you left the other day with such a poor impression of me. I'm sure you will never allow me to change what you believe to be true about me and that saddens me. You look like your father and I must admit that I miss your parents in my life.

I've done what I could to make contact with you and though it didn't turn out as I had hoped it might, at least it is done.

If you would ever like to reach out, I will always be available to you.

Sincerely,

Ruth Ann Marshall"

Polly rolled her eyes. Not a true apology or single admittance of responsibility in any of it. The woman had managed to turn it all back on to Polly, as if she had done something to hurt the crazy lady. She stuck it into a folder that she had for weird things in her life and hoped that it never cropped up again, but was certain that life would somehow bring this all around at least one more time.

Then Polly pulled out her phone and dialed. When the man answered, she said, "Uncle Clyde, this is Polly. Do you have a minute?"

"Good morning, Polly. How can I help you?" His voice was cool, but she pressed on.

"Well, I just heard from a woman who claimed to be my birth
mother and wondered if you could tell me anything about her."

"Oh, Polly," he sighed. "I was afraid this was going to come up some day. Your father made a terrible mistake when he let that woman into his home. She was a predator and hooked your mother into something that I thought would destroy us all."

"So it's true."

She heard him breathing heavily on the other end of the call. "Yes, it's true. Your parents were devastated when they couldn't conceive. And then the doctor told your mother she would never be able to have children. All she could think about was providing your father with a child. That terrible woman came into their lives and convinced them that she could help them out. Your father gave her too much money and when she showed up at the bank with a letter he had supposedly signed granting her access to all of his accounts, he finally figured it out."

"Uncle Clyde, is this what made you so angry at him for so long?"

"Your father was an excellent businessman, Polly. He made good decisions about money and invested everything so that you would be well taken care of. But, that woman tapped into a part of him that was vulnerable.
She made him believe that she was the answer to all of their problems and that by giving them a child, his life would be perfect. She nearly talked them into having another child, but I put a stop to that. It was too much money to spend again so fast. If he was going to buy another kid, I told him to wait until you were a little older."

"Buy another kid? Uncle Clyde, is that what you think of me?"

"I suppose so."

"Oh, Uncle Clyde," she sighed.

"I'm sorry, Polly. Your father had no business letting that woman in. She did everything to disrupt all of our lives. She tried to get him to sell the farm. I didn't have the money then to buy it from him. Fortunately, your mother stopped that. She was beginning to see that her friend was pulling a con and even though she'd been willing to spend nine months being pregnant with you, she was waiting for a big payout."

"You think I'm just like her, don't you?"

"You look so much like her, it made me mad every time I saw you. And then when your father decided to retire early, I had to come up with the money to pay him for his portion of the farm. He wanted to make sure you were taken care of. Yes, I think you have the potential to be a lot like her."

"I never asked Dad for any of that, just so you know."

"I suppose you'd say that."

"Uncle Clyde, if I'd wanted Dad's money, I would have come home when he died. And I haven't thrown any of that money away. We're building a business here."

"I hope you do well, Polly, but you have that woman's genes in you just as much as you have your dad’s and between him being a soft touch and her a conniving con artist, I don't hold out much hope."

"Okay, I see. Well, this isn't very helpful. I had hoped for more from you, but thank you for taking my call."

"I'm sorry that I can't see past her, Polly. Good luck with what you're doing."

Polly hung up. She wished she hadn't made the call. Finding out that her uncle believed the worst about her was rough. But, somehow, since he had never acted like he cared for her, it didn't sting as badly as she thought it should. She wasn't panicking or trying to run. She just felt really sad.
Money did awful things to people. You can't live without it, but for some people it seemed like the more they had, the more paranoid they became. A sad smile touched her lips. Even after he had been hurt so badly by Ruth Ann, her father continued to be generous and taught Polly the value of kindness. She didn't know why he was so different from his brother, but she was glad he'd been the one to raise her.

She thought about calling Henry to talk to him, but figured he didn't need to listen to her complain about one more thing regarding her twisted up family stuff, so instead she closed down her computer and left the office. Jason was upstairs taking a shower and getting ready. She'd seen him dart past her office and there were fifteen more minutes before it was time to leave.

Her phone buzzed as she sat down on a step of the main stairway. Sylvie sent her a picture of Andrew, all dressed up in his suit. He looked like such a young man. Polly texted back
, "Pretty proud! Jason is showering and we'll be there in a bit. Give him a hug for me."
She leaned back and shut her eyes, waiting for Jason to come downstairs.

"I'm ready!" he called, running down the steps. "Have you been waiting a long time for me?"

"No. I just didn't want to sit in my office any longer."