The Three Miss Margarets (24 page)

“After Grady realized he wasn’t going to be able to change Dalton’s mind, he went to find your father at his house. Your mother didn’t live there, of course. She and your father weren’t married.”

Maggie smiled at Laurel the way she did when she wanted to make bad news easier for a patient. From what Peggy could see of the girl’s face, it wasn’t helping.

Maggie went on. “Lottie and Nella were working late at the Lodge. Richard was home with Vashti. He was due to start his new job in a week, but there hadn’t been an announcement yet.” Maggie paused. “I try to put myself in John Merrick’s shoes sometimes. To imagine what it must have felt like to have gotten that opportunity and then have it taken away.”

In the darkness, Peggy watched Laurel strain to get every word as Maggie continued.

“Grady went to John’s house, and he and your father had a few drinks. It was Grady’s idea for them to go to Lottie’s cabin and scare Richard off, run him out of town. John went along with it. They got into John’s car.”

Maggie leaned back wearily and Li’l Bit sat up straighter, ready to take over. It was as if they were handing off the story like a runner’s baton. Li’l Bit began the next leg of the race.

“I want to reiterate what Maggie said,” Li’l Bit began. “Everything you’re about to hear was pieced together after the fact. Some of it was from Vashti, and some was what Grady and John confessed to Dalton.”

“Just tell me,” Laurel said.

Li’l Bit nodded. “Richard saw John’s car coming down the road. He knew about John and the job so he probably suspected what was coming next. All we know for sure is, he told Vashti to stay away from the window and started out. When she tried to go with him he pushed her down on the floor so hard her teeth cut her lip. Then he ran outside. Vashti got to her knees and looked out the window to see a white man get out of the car and come toward her father. For a moment they talked; then the white man hit her father. She saw her father hit back. She tried to scream, but she couldn’t get any sound out. Then a second white man got out of the car. Richard saw the second man and started to run. The first man got back in the car and started it; Richard was trying to get to the woods. We think he didn’t go back inside the house because Vashti was there. So he ran toward the ridge behind the cabin. The car started after him. The white man on the ground ran to the side of the car shouting, but Vashti couldn’t hear what he was saying. He reached in and tried to grab at the man who was driving, but he fell and the car went on.

“Richard was starting up the ridge, but he tripped and fell. As he tried to get up, the car went forward and ran over him. Then it backed away. Richard was on the ground. And the car ran over him again. Then it stopped. The first white man got out of the car and the second ran over to her father. He bent over Richard and put his head on Richard’s chest. He looked up, and Vashti saw him shake his head. Then everything went blank for her. It was days before she could remember any of it.”

Laurel felt her voice come through her throat like something made out of sandpaper. “Richard was dead?”

“Yes. John and Grady got him—the body—into the backseat of the car and drove to the county line. They left him on the side of the highway. But then Grady lost his nerve and they told Dalton.”

“Which one did it—killed Richard?” the sandpaper voice rasped. “Was it my father?”

“No,” said Miss Li’l Bit.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” Peggy said. It was her turn with the damn baton.

Peggy lit a cigarette and began. “That night after Grady left, I went to bed early, but Dalt stayed downstairs. I woke up when I heard someone banging on the front door. Dalt answered it, and I heard the door slam, but no one came in. I went around to the front of the house and looked out. Grady and John were with Dalt, but the windows were closed, so I couldn’t hear what was going on. Grady and John seemed to be arguing about something. Dalt stopped them. I started to open the window, but it made too much noise. Then Grady said something, and Dalt pulled back and hit him hard with the back of his hand. Grady just stood there. Then Dalt came into the house and Grady and John drove off. I went back to the bedroom. Dalt came upstairs a few minutes later and I pretended to be asleep. I thought if he was finally angry enough to cut Grady loose I wasn’t going to say anything that might put his back up.”

Peggy paused and tried to smile, but she could feel it come out twisted. “I was so glad Dalt was finally seeing the light.

“Dalt didn’t stay upstairs; he went back down and I heard him go into his study. Twenty minutes later the sheriff came over.” Peggy stopped again, and looked at Laurel. “It was ten o’clock at night, and the sheriff was coming to our house. I still didn’t realize what kind of mess that had to mean. All I could think was that Grady was in trouble and I was glad.

“It must have been a couple of hours later that Maggie called. Lottie and Nella were frantic. They’d gotten home from work at about midnight. Richard was gone, and Vashti was on the floor with her lip cut. She couldn’t tell them what had happened; Maggie said she was in a state of shock. Maggie had checked her over but they were going to take her to the hospital to be sure she was all right. And they were going to call the police.

“I knew whatever had happened, Grady and John had a part in it. I went downstairs to Dalt.” Her cigarette must have burnt down. In the darkness she saw Li’l Bit lean over to take it from her and stub it out in the ashtray at her feet. Peggy turned to Laurel. “I don’t know if I can make you understand—” She stopped.

“Just tell her what happened,” said Li’l Bit.

Peggy took a fresh cigarette out of her case and lit it. She had said practically the same thing that night:
Just tell me what happened, Dalt.

D
ALT DIDN’T EVEN TRY
to explain. He just looked out the window into the dark night and said, “I was hoping you slept through all that.”

“No,” she said. “I saw Grady and John, and I heard the sheriff come. And now Richard is missing. I want to know what those two did.”

She figured he’d give her a fight. She was ready for him to be mad that she was questioning him. Or he’d say she was imagining things, that she didn’t know what she was talking about.

“I never should have given Richard that job,” he said. “I knew Grady wouldn’t stand for it.”

“What did they do?”

“It wasn’t supposed to go so far. I believe he was telling the truth about that. They just wanted to scare him.”

“Dalton, what happened?”

“They went to Lottie’s cabin and Richard was there. Richard and Grady fought, and from what John said, Richard was winning.” Dalt let out a deep sigh. “That was why it happened: Grady can’t stand to lose; he couldn’t even when he was little.” He saw the way she was looking at him and went on quickly. “John finally went to help him, but that made it worse. Grady got into the car and started after Richard. Richard couldn’t get away.”

“Grady ran him down?”

“He loses control. He gets mad and he doesn’t know what he’s doing—”

“He ran Richard down with the car?”

“He didn’t mean—”

“Don’t! Don’t even try to make excuses for him!” But then a chilling thought hit her. “You told the sheriff all this, didn’t you?”

He felt ashamed, she could see that. But he had closed down in that cold tough way he had that said not to get in his way.

“It’s been taken care of.”

“You’re going to cover for him?” He looked away. “He killed a man, Dalt. He ran him down like a dog in the road.”

“He’s my son!”

“You can’t do this.”

“He’s
mine,
Peggy. I have to protect him.”

“You may have to. I don’t.” She started for the phone, but he stopped her.

“The sheriff’s going to investigate personally,” he said. “It’ll be a killing that never gets solved. That’s how it’s going to happen. There’s nothing you can do.”

“I can tell everyone who will listen. I’ll find a newspaper or a reporter on television—”

“I’ll stop you. I can do that. Please don’t make me.”

“You can’t let him get away with this.”

“I can’t let him go to jail. He’ll die there.”

“Like Richard died?”

“This is the last time I’ll help him. I promise you. It is.”

“Dalt—”

“I’m asking you to leave it alone. Pretend you were asleep tonight.”

He wasn’t a bad man. He hated what he was doing, she knew that.

“That’s all you have to do. Just pretend you don’t know.”

He’d loved her in his way, probably more than she’d ever loved him. And in spite of everything, he’d been the best husband he’d known how to be. Everything she had she owed him. This was the first time he’d ever asked her for anything.

O
N THE PORCH
it was still again. Three pairs of eyes were on Peggy, waiting for her to go on. She knew that even after all this time, Li’l Bit and Maggie were still hoping she could explain what she’d done next so that they could finally understand it. But of course they never would.

“Dalton asked me to help him cover for Grady,” she said, “and I did. I went to the cabin. Maggie and Nella were at the hospital with Vashti. I sat with Li’l Bit and Lottie, and we waited for Richard to come home. I knew he was dead, but I sat there and waited as if I thought he was going to come walking through the door. I stayed until Maggie and Nella came back. I don’t think I could have kept it up if I’d seen Vashti, that would have been too much for me, but she stayed at the hospital overnight.

“I kept on sitting and waiting with Nella. I said I’d been asleep all evening. And all I could think was, Please, God, let me get out of here before someone calls to say they’ve discovered Richard’s body. But the sheriff did his job very well. He managed to avoid finding it until the next morning, and I’d gone home by then. After that, the lying was easier. That night was the worst.”

Laurel grabbed her hand. “Miss Peggy, I don’t care what lies you told. I don’t give a damn about that. I need to know about my father.”

“Your father didn’t kill Richard. Grady did it. Dalton told me that.”

“And my father tried to reach into the car and stop him—”

“Your father went to a man’s house to beat him—” Miss Li’l Bit said, but Laurel broke in.

“Then he tried to stop it.”

“Yes, dear,” said Dr. Maggie. “Your father tried to stop it.”

“And it was all over a job. It never had anything to do with Nella.”

“No.”

“Then what the hell happened? Where did the story about Nella come from? Why did Grady kill my father?”

Chapter Twenty-five

T
HE THREE
M
ISS
M
ARGARETS
looked at one another, and Laurel could see the energy pass between them, the unspoken bargains and agreements.

“I’ve always thought if I hadn’t lied—” Miss Peggy began.

“It would have happened anyway,” Miss Li’l Bit said.

What would have happened?
Laurel wanted to yell. But they were going to do this at their own pace and in their own way. Dr. Maggie seemed to be up again.

“People in town knew something was wrong,” she said. “The sheriff was too sloppy handling the investigation. Lottie and Nella were insisting that Richard would never have left Vashti alone. And it was clear that the child had seen something that traumatized her. But the sheriff only went to the cabin once, and he went alone.”

Miss Li’l Bit picked it up again. “People started saying there was something else going on. But it didn’t make any sense that the sheriff would cover for John Merrick. He wasn’t. . . .”

“Important enough?” Laurel said.

“Yes,” said Miss Li’l Bit, without flinching. “The only family in town with that kind of power were the Garrisons. And everyone knew Grady got himself into messes all the time. People started speculating.

“Then all of a sudden a rumor started that Nella had another man—a black man, of course—who got into a fight with Richard and ran him down by the side of the road.”

“It wasn’t anything concrete.” Dr. Maggie took over. “But the gossip stopped people from talking about Grady and John. Which was what it was meant to do, of course.”

“There were many white people in town who were happy to believe it,” said Li’l Bit. “It was more comfortable for them to think that two black men got into a fight over a woman instead of having to ask questions about the Garrisons from whom all blessings flowed. Besides, there were people who had thought for years that Lottie and her whole family didn’t know their place. And Richard had gotten a white man’s job. So some people were glad to see them get their comeuppance.”

“No one knew who started the story. But Dalton was a man people listened to,” said Dr. Maggie.

Laurel nodded.

Maggie watched Laurel. She wished they could write out the rest of the story and hand it to her to read when they weren’t around. Or maybe make a videocassette, with all of them taking turns talking. She thought she’d heard of wills being done that way, or had she seen it on TV?

She didn’t want to live through it again. She was too old. But if anyone had suggested sparing her, she would have been spitting mad, she knew that. So she had to get on with it.

“When the stories about Nella started, I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said. “It was too cruel. Nella had lost her husband, and her little girl was in shock. Vashti couldn’t remember anything about that night. She could barely talk.

“Li’l Bit and I were convinced Grady and John had killed Richard. And we were convinced Peggy knew it.”

S
HE AND
P
EGGY HAD IT OUT
after Richard’s funeral, when Peggy couldn’t look any of them in the eye and Maggie smelled liquor on her breath.

“I know that man is your husband, but you have to stop lying for him,” Maggie said. “Forget what it’s doing to Nella and Lottie, they’ll get past this. Even Vashti will survive. But you won’t.”

“I don’t—”

“Don’t try to tell me you don’t know what I mean. You’re betraying people you care about. You’re letting a horrible miscarriage of justice be done, all so Dalton Garrison can tell himself his son is just a troubled boy.”

“You don’t understand—”

“Grady raped you. Are you going to let him get away with murder now?”

“Whatever I do, it’s not for Grady—”

“It’s for Dalton. I understand that.”

“No, you don’t. You and Li’l Bit will never understand what Dalt’s done for me. Where do you think I’d be now if he hadn’t married me?”

“You don’t have to be grateful—”

“Yes, I do. You two don’t know. Li’l Bit has been rich her whole life. You’re smart and educated and you can earn your keep. You’ve never been afraid. You’ve had it easy.”

The memory flashed through Maggie’s mind of two little girls watching in horror as the barn floor beneath them burst into flames. She thought of the days following the fire when she thought the shame would crush her, and the years afterward when she hid in Atlanta. Until she finally gave in and gave up on a chunk of life that most people considered a birthright.

She had turned and walked out. If she hadn’t been so angry, maybe she would have stayed. And maybe she would have talked Peggy into telling the truth. And maybe the rest of it wouldn’t have happened. There were so many maybes.

I
N THE DARKNESS
, Peggy said, “I’ve always wondered if I could have stopped it.”

Li’l Bit said, “I’ve always wondered if I started it.” She turned to Laurel. “We were all angry about what was being done to Nella. Then we heard about John Merrick getting the job at the resort.”

L
I’L
B
IT LEANED BACK IN HER CHAIR
. She remembered when she heard about John getting Richard’s job. It made her so mad she couldn’t sleep. Walter found her in the middle of the night pacing in the garden outside the bedroom. “This is about John Merrick, isn’t it?” he’d said.

She’d told Walter about Richard getting the job away from John. It was one of the rare times when she talked to him about anything that even skirted close to race. He hadn’t said anything, but she was afraid he might sympathize with the plight of a white man who had a job taken away from him so a black man could have it. If he did think that way, she didn’t want to know it.

“I’m fine,” she said. “Go back to sleep.”

But Walter wasn’t going to let the subject go. “You think John Merrick killed that man to get his job back. That’s why you’re out here wearing holes in your bedroom slippers. You’re judging that man, and you don’t know for sure what happened.”

“Oh, yes, I do.”

“Because he’s poor white trash—”

“Because it’s how he and Grady operate. Because Dalton covers up for Grady, and they think they can get away with anything, and they’re right.”

“Margaret, you’re not being fair. You don’t know Merrick. You’ve never even talked to the man.”

Walter didn’t mean she should actually confront John. She knew that. It was just one of the nastier ironies of the whole nightmare that he was the one who planted the idea in her head.

“I
FOUND YOUR FATHER
working at the Gardens,” Li’l Bit said to Laurel, “and I started talking to him about Richard and the accident. He tried to be casual, as if it had nothing to do with him, but I didn’t believe him. I said Maggie and I were convinced that the sheriff was lying. And I said Nella and Lottie weren’t going to let it drop. Then I lied and I said Vashti’s memory was starting to come back, and I was sure it was just a matter of time before she could tell us what had really happened. I’m not sure what I thought I was doing. I wanted to get through to him, to frighten him. It was one of the worst mistakes I’ve ever made.”

T
HEY WERE COMING TO THE END
, Laurel could feel it. And for a second she wasn’t sure she wanted them to go on. She’d lived with questions all her life, and believed that everything would be better if she had answers. But what if it wasn’t?

“The night it happened, Dalton was out of town,” said Miss Peggy. “He’d been finding excuses to be away ever since Richard was killed. I think he was waiting for things to die down. I was alone in the house.”

“I was in my bedroom,” said Miss Li’l Bit.

“I was at Lottie’s cabin,” said Dr. Maggie. “I’d been going over there every evening to check up on Vashti.” The three women exchanged another one of their looks. Then Dr. Maggie went on.

“Nella and Lottie and I were in the main room. We saw headlights coming down the drive. It was still light out, but just barely. All three of us rushed out onto the porch. I’m not sure why we did that. You’d think after what happened to Richard we’d have stayed inside. But we went out. John Merrick drove up in that red car of his. He stopped the car, slammed the door, and started for the cabin. I remember hearing the cabin door behind me open. I thought it was Nella or Lottie opening it for some reason. I never even turned to look.

“John called out, ‘I want to talk to you!’ And for one ridiculous moment I thought, Oh, it’s all right. If that’s all he wants, it’s fine. And the truth is, we don’t know if that’s all he did want. But he was walking toward the house so fast, and he was so angry. . . . I turned to Lottie to say maybe we should go back inside. Then I heard a sound coming from my left. At first I thought something had exploded. Then I realized it was a gun going off. John screamed, and in the half-light I could see his hand go to his chest, just above the heart. I turned and Vashti was standing between Lottie and me on the porch. She had her father’s hunting gun in her hands. Richard took her hunting with him sometimes. He always said she was a good shot.

“Someone yelled ‘Vashti!’ I think it was Nella. But the child wasn’t hearing. There was the sound of another shot. And John was on the ground. Lottie made a move toward Vashti. So did I. But she was already off the porch. And I was so stunned. We all were. All we could do was watch.

“John was lying on the ground, I believe he was dead by then. I think I remember the coroner said the second bullet was probably the one that killed him. Vashti kept on moving until she was standing over him. She looked at him for what seemed like a long time. God knows what was going through her mind. Then she dropped the gun.

It was silent on the porch. “But my father didn’t kill Richard,” Laurel whispered. “He wasn’t the one.”

“It was dark out. She saw him come out of the same car. And he was a white man,” said Miss Li’l Bit.

“But he didn’t kill anyone,” Laurel repeated. Because it was so important to keep saying it out loud.

“No,” said Dr. Maggie. “And Grady didn’t kill him.”

M
AGGIE SIGHED
. If only it weren’t all still so clear in her mind. Her memory was failing her in so many ways these days, why couldn’t a little fortuitous senility wipe out that night? It seemed only fair. But she could still see it as if it were happening all over again.

V
ASHTI DROPPED THE GUN
and Nella ran to her.

“Momma?” Vashti said. Nella tried to lead her away from the gun and the dead man on the ground, but Vashti wouldn’t move. She stared at the man she had killed, and in a voice that didn’t have any feeling she told them what had happened the night her daddy died. When she was through, Nella still couldn’t move her.

Next to Maggie on the porch, Lottie said softly, “No. Please, no.”

But it had happened. And there was nothing to be done. Through the shock Maggie could see it start to sink in for all of them. Numbed brains were putting it together quickly. In one minute, a man had died and Vashti’s life had ended. The wonderful future they’d all envisioned was gone. Now they had to start thinking in terms of consequences and how to save her from the worst of them.

“She’s only a child,” Maggie said.

“She killed a white man,” said Lottie.

“She had a mental breakdown because she saw her father murdered,” Maggie said. “We can prove that. We’ll get her the best lawyers.”

Lottie turned to her and Maggie knew what she was going to see in her face, the defeat and the despair. But the Lottie who looked at her came from years ago, before so many losses had taken their toll. This was the Lottie who climbed pecan trees to the highest branches and talked her into stealing fruitcake batter from Charlie Mae’s big ceramic bowl.

“We can’t let this happen, Maggie,” Lottie said.

O
N THE PORCH
, Peggy watched Maggie. She looked weary, but not as bad as Peggy had been afraid she’d be. Maggie said in a ragged voice, “We decided we couldn’t let Vashti take the blame. So I called Li’l Bit and Peggy.”

It was a call Peggy would never forget.

M
AGGIE’S VOICE HAD BEEN CALM
on the phone. She just gave Peggy the bare bones of what had happened. By the time Peggy got to the cabin, Li’l Bit was already there.

“I’m going to drive Lottie and Vashti into Atlanta to stay with a friend of mine,” said Maggie. “We have to get Vashti away from here. So I won’t be here to corroborate what Nella and Li’l Bit are going to tell the police.”

“What are you going to say?” Peggy had asked, dread making her mouth dry.

They were going to say Grady did it. That he and John got into a fight over Nella—and Grady shot John. Li’l Bit was going to say she was a witness. Then, when she got back, Maggie would back up the story by saying she’d seen Grady at the cabin since Richard died, and John had come too, at different times. Which would play on the rumors that were already circulating. And of all the things they were throwing at Peggy, that was the one that stuck in her brain.

“No,” she said. “You can’t do that to Nella.”

But Nella was standing next to Lottie, holding her mother’s hand so tight it had to be stopping the circulation and saying it was what she wanted. “We have to have a way to explain it,” she said.

“We need you too, Peggy,” Maggie said.

“No.”

“You have to help,” said Li’l Bit.

“I can’t. Please don’t ask me.”

And the duet had begun in earnest.

“It’s justice,” said Li’l Bit.

“It’s for Vashti,” said Maggie.

“Grady deserves to be punished.”

“Vashti doesn’t.”

And then Lottie, who had never begged for anything in her life, was begging. And Nella was still holding Lottie’s hand as she begged too. And sitting there, silently watching her with haunted eyes no child should have, was Vashti.

It all came at her so fast and hard there wasn’t time to think. Later, she couldn’t actually remember saying yes.