NEXT MORNING I SLIPPED MY KEY INTO THE LOCK of the office door a couple of minutes before nine and dragged myself inside. I hadn’t slept for longer than a few minutes at a time, and I felt as if someone had taken a baseball bat to my head.
In my office, I draped my blazer over the back of the chair and popped the lid on my first Diet Coke of the day. The rush of caffeine made me dizzy, and I dropped into the chair. A moment later, Erik opened the door, stopping in mid-stride to stare in my direction.
“Jeez, Bay, what happened? Is the Judge worse?” He crossed the Berber carpet and stood hovering in front of my desk. “You don’t look so hot.”
I managed a smile. “Thanks, pal. No, the Judge is home and doing better. I didn’t sleep well last night. In fact, I didn’t sleep at all. No big deal.”
If he was dissatisfied with my evasion, he let it go. “I hate when that happens. Makes you feel like you’re in a fog for the rest of the day.”
“Well, I need to get it together. I went up to Jacksonboro yesterday, but the Hatchers had moved. I recruited a neighbor who put me in touch. Unfortunately this isn’t the right Maeline, but she knew someone who knows another woman with the same first name. I’m going to reach him this morning and see if he can put us on the trail again.”
“Sorry that didn’t pan out. I guess it was too much to hope for that we’d hit pay dirt on the first try.” He turned then and retreated to his own desk. “I’ll check messages.”
I pulled the aspirin bottle from my bottom drawer and downed two with a long swallow of Coke. I’d either lose the pounding headache or end up facedown on my desk. At that point, either option would have been an improvement. I took my notebook from my bag and signed on to my computer.
After Red stormed out the night before, I hadn’t had the heart to pursue the lead Maeline Hatcher had given me. I paced the great room for hours, alternately fuming and weeping, though whether from frustration, anger, or sadness I couldn’t have said. As the clock on the mantel ticked off the long minutes, and midnight, then one o’clock came and went, my thoughts veered wildly, my always overactive imagination conjuring a dozen scenarios of where my life might be headed. At one point, I found myself kneeling on the floor of my bedroom closet, the door to the safe gaping open. The ring I had been so reluctant to retrieve slipped easily over my injured finger, the small square-cut diamond glittering in the overhead light. I sat there for a long time staring at my hand, the clothes hanging from the rods providing a comforting cocoon. I even dozed off for a couple of minutes, some noise outside jerking me awake, my heartbeat accelerating in anticipation of familiar footsteps that never came. . . .
I realized I had been staring unseeing at the computer screen and jerked myself back from the pointless remembering. I jabbed at the keys. Switchboard.com yielded up a home number in a matter of seconds. I also took down the one for the store, conveniently named for its owners. No one answered at Ellis’s house, so I tried the listing for Brawley’s Stop ’n Save.
“Brawley’s. This is Duke.” The voice was soft, with a slight hint of the native Gullah of the Sea Islands.
“Good morning, sir. My name is Bay Tanner. I’m a private investigator calling from Hilton Head. May I speak to Ellis Brawley?”
“He’s out right at this moment. Private investigator, you say? The boy in some kind of trouble?”
“No, sir,” I rushed to assure him. “Maeline Hatcher, who used to live in Jacksonboro, thought he might be able to help me. I’m trying to locate his cousin who I understand is also called Maeline. Do you know her as well?”
The silence lasted a couple of beats. “Heard the name, I believe. She the one in trouble?”
“No, sir.” I gave him the same limited information I’d communicated to both Maeline Hatcher and Peggy Watts. “The unusual name is almost all we have to go on, and it’s vital that we contact my client’s sister as soon as possible.”
Again I waited while Duke Brawley digested what I’d said.
“I don’t know. I mean, I’m sure you’re exactly who you say you are and all, and I guess it can’t hurt nothin’, but I’m a mite leery about it, I don’t mind telling you.”
“I perfectly understand, sir. What can I do to assure you that I mean your nephew no harm and that your cooperating with me will cause no trouble to your family?”
“Let me think on it. You got a office number?”
I gave it to him and reiterated how important it was that this be resolved quickly. He promised to get back to me before the day was out.
“Anything?” Erik called from the outer office.
“He’s going to call us back. But he didn’t react at all to Joline’s name. You’d think if this other woman was family, he’d know if she had sisters.”
“Maybe not. She could be related by marriage. I don’t think it’s totally out of the realm of possibility that he doesn’t know any more.”
“Well, there’s nothing to do now but wait. Any messages?”
“Mrs. Eastman called and asked for a report.”
“Let’s hold off on that until Duke or Ellis Brawley calls back. Maybe we’ll have some good news for her.”
“I can’t imagine what it must be like to know that your kid is going to die and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.”
My mind flashed to the Judge—and Harley Coffin’s warnings. I shook my head. “Anything else?”
“Red left kind of a strange message,” he said, glancing down to the pad on his desk, completely oblivious to the effect of his words on my heart rate.
I bit down hard on my lower lip. “What did he say?”
“That he’d be by the house later to do some cleaning. Doesn’t he trust Dolores to take care of that?”
I tried to match his mischievous grin and failed. I couldn’t deal with explanations. “Private joke.” I turned away to hide the tears that threatened to spill over. “I’ve got some personal calls to make. I’ll just shut the door around.”
In the emptiness of my office, I grabbed a handful of tissues and stuffed them against my mouth. My breath came in short, labored gasps, and my legs felt as if they wouldn’t hold me. I slumped in the chair, Red’s words echoing wildly through my head. He’d said just enough to convey his intent without embarrassing me in front of Erik. I supposed I had to thank him for that. But I perfectly understood his meaning: He’d be by the house later to do some cleaning . . . out.
It seemed as if another Tanner was about to abandon me, this one by choice.