IT TOOK NEARLY TEN MINUTES FOR THE PHONE TO gain enough charge so that I could check my voice mail. Red showed me how to put it on speaker, and we sat across from each other, our drinks cooling in front of us, and listened to what might be Joline Eastman’s last words.
“Damn it, I don’t want voice mail,” she said, sounding angry and frustrated. “Listen, Bay, there’s something I—I’ve made a mess of this whole thing. We have to find my sisters. Forget Jerry. Forget about everything except Kimmie. Nothing matters but getting her well. I’m convinced Patience has something, and I want you to follow it up. She said—What the—? You stupid—”
Her voice was interrupted by the shriek of brakes, then she yelled, “Oh, God!”
Grinding metal and the sound of tree limbs whipping by the car and then . . . nothing.
I felt the tea rising in my throat, and for a moment I thought I might lose it. Red clasped my hands.
“It almost sounds like—”
I heard Joline’s shout inside my head. “Like someone else was involved,” I finished for him.
“Maybe. If so, whoever it was didn’t stick around. Don’t be surprised if we get a visit from one of the detectives,” he said softly.
“But they can’t know what she said. It’s only on my phone, right?”
“Of course. But some . . . people might use the simple fact that she was calling you as an excuse to hassle us. Just on general principles.”
“People like ace detective Lisa Pedrovsky?”
Red forced a smile. “Anything she could do to make life miserable for one or both of us would be the highlight of her week.”
That the combative detective blamed me for the death of my partner, Ben Wyler, she’d made abundantly clear in any number of ways. Whether she had only imagined a relationship with the caustic former New York homicide cop or whether there actually had been something between them, I was never certain. Regardless, the woman had been riding my tail for nearly a year, and her sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant undermining of Red’s career had been one of the overriding factors in his decision to quit the department, whether he was willing to admit it or not. The idea of facing her on little more than three hours’ sleep made me shudder.
“Let’s not borrow trouble,” Red added. “Maybe it will be someone else. Or maybe it won’t be anybody at all. Joline could have been yelling at a deer that jumped out in front of her.” He rose and carried his cup to the sink. “Let’s go stretch out on the sofa and see if we can get a little more sleep.”
Wired with caffeine and anxiety, I had little hope, but I followed him into the great room. “Sorry about snapping before,” I said, determined this time not to let my pride drive him away. “I guess I jumped the gun a little.”
He seated himself on the wide white cushions, and I snuggled in beside him. He pulled the afghan over us, and I rested my head on his shoulder.
“This whole case is enough to make a person crazy,” he said after planting a kiss on my forehead. “Try to put it out of your mind.”
“Fat chance,” I said. “Did you notice the time the voice mail was recorded?”
“Not really,” he said, his breath soft against my hair.
“Eleven twenty. Which means she stuck around at the Brawleys’ for nearly an hour after we left. I wonder what was said that made her think Patience knows something.” I yawned. “Hopefully Joline will be able to tell us herself. Either way, I’ll make Patience talk to me tomorrow. I’ll confront her the moment I get done at Covenant Hall.”
“You’re not seriously thinking about meeting that Lizzie woman, are you? You don’t owe her anything. Besides, I’ve got a bad feeling about that place. I think you should just let it drop. Seems to me she might be a few bricks short of a full load.”
I smiled and yawned again. “I’m curious,” I said.
“I see you’ve conveniently forgotten that she shoved a loaded pistol in your face last night.”
“I’ll take the Seecamp with me,” I said. “But I don’t think she’d invite me to call in the middle of the afternoon if she had anything nefarious on her mind.”
“You never know,” Red mumbled, and I felt his shoulders relax into sleep.
The phone rang at eight fifteen and woke me out of a dreamless void. I rolled over, nearly toppling onto the floor before I remembered I wasn’t in my bed. Somehow Red had managed to crawl over me without disturbing my sleep. I heard his voice in the kitchen but couldn’t make out the words. A moment later he stood in front of me, a mug steaming in his hand.
“Who was that?” I asked, sitting up and accepting the fragrant tea.
“Malik. He’s off duty, and he wanted to bring me up to date away from the station.”
“Breaking a few rules?” I asked and sipped cautiously.
He smiled. “A couple. He knows we went to bat for him when they tried to claim his injuries weren’t work-related. He’s got our backs.”
Malik and Red had both been officially on their own time when we’d followed the winding, potholed road into Sanctuary Hill. “In fairness, the sheriff stood up for him, too. It was the damn insurance company that wanted to fight it.” I sipped again. “What did he say?”
“No one’s on our trail just yet, although there’s been some discussion. I think we might be okay. A lot depends on whether or not Mrs. Eastman recovers. If there’s any evidence it could be vehicular homicide, they’ll do a lot more digging. Then we’ll have to come clean.”
“We don’t really know anything.”
“True. But if they determine another vehicle was involved, we’ll have to give them the voice mail. It’s not up to us to decide what might be relevant.”
“Did they take Joline to Beaufort?”
“Malik says they life-flighted her to Savannah. To Memorial. They’ve got the best trauma center around.”
I realized that Red was already dressed in a white polo shirt and khakis. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to fix you breakfast, then I’ll head down to the station. Maybe I can pick up some more scuttlebutt. If not there, then I know all the places where the guys hang out for coffee. Somebody will have something to share.”
“You go ahead. I have to shower first anyway, then I want to get started on some lists. I need to get this all down on paper so I can wrap my head around it.” I paused and set my mug on the floor. “Are you going to tell them about the message Joline left? About the possibility someone else was involved in the accident?”
“I’ll play it by ear. Once they examine the crash site in daylight, they may have a better idea of what caused her to go off the road. The voice mail could turn out to be totally immaterial. Maybe she was just going too fast for the wet road conditions while she was talking on the phone. Anyway, I won’t lie about it, but I won’t offer it up if I don’t have to.” He sighed and ran a hand through his short brown hair in a gesture that always reminded me of his brother. “I’m beginning to appreciate a little more what kind of bind that confidentiality agreement can put you in.”
If the situation had been less serious, I would have laughed. “Welcome to my world.” I drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Actually, I’m in favor of giving this information up,” I said and smiled at the shock on his face. “I know, I know. I’m always the one being accused of holding out on the cops.” The smile dissolved. “But if someone is responsible for Joline’s injuries, I want them to get the bastard.”
“Let me see what I can find out.” He reached down to pull me up and into his arms. “You sure about breakfast? You know I flip a mean pancake.”
The kiss lasted a long time before I leaned back to smile up into his face. “Go. I’ll be fine. Besides, Dolores will be here in a few minutes. But keep me posted,” I added as he released me and walked toward the foyer.
“I love you, Bay Tanner,” he said.
“You, too,” I called as he stepped into the garage and pulled the door closed behind him.
It felt wrong to be so happy on a day filled with the tragedy of Joline Eastman’s accident, but I couldn’t help it. I hummed in the shower, dressed quickly, and gulped down an English muffin before carrying a fresh cup of tea into the office. I asked Dolores to work around me, and she went happily off to stripping the bed and working on the bathrooms.
My first call was to Erik at his second job at the office supply store. It took a few minutes before he came on the line.
“Sorry to bother you at work,” I began, then filled him in on the happenings of Monday night into Tuesday morning.
“God,” he said when I’d finished. “Do you think she’s going to make it?”
“I have no idea. I won’t even bother to call the hospital because they’re not going to tell me anything. I’m sure her husband is with her.” The second the words were out of my mouth I thought of Kimmie. If Jerry was hovering at his wife’s bedside, was the teenager all alone in her own hospital room? “I need to go over there,” I said to Erik.
“To Savannah?”
“No, sorry. I was thinking about Kimmie. She must be scared to death, and her father’s probably at Memorial.”
I hadn’t thought about that. “No, not positive. I’ll just feel my way around when I get there. She invited me back to visit, so my being there shouldn’t alarm her.”
“What a mess,” Erik said with a sigh.
“Listen. I saved Joline’s voice mail, but the sheriff might want a copy of it. Can you do that?”
“Sure, but I think I’ll need to have your phone. There might be a way to do it without, by accessing it with your code, but I’d feel better just doing it directly. If it might be evidence, I don’t want to take a chance on screwing it up.”
“How long?”
“It depends on how busy we are today, but you better plan on leaving it with me.”
For years I had resisted everyone’s insistence that I carry a cell phone. Now that I’d gotten used to it, I felt naked being unconnected. I said as much to Erik, and he laughed.
“I knew I’d get you hooked. We have prepaid cells here. I’ll get you my employee discount. It’ll only be for a little while.”
I agreed to meet him at the store and turned back to my blank yellow legal pad. I didn’t use columns, just jotted down random thoughts and facts as they came to me, but it soon became apparent I’d need some sort of division between what Joline had told me, what I’d learned from my brief conversations with her husband, and what I’d gained from independent investigation.
Lots of contradictions, I realized the moment I began categorizing the conflicting stories. Who, if anyone, was lying? I wanted to believe Joline, but her strange behavior the night before had left me doubtful. I’d asked her directly if her cousin Deshawn had been the man who’d fathered Kimmie, but she’d completely ignored the question. Had she conceived Kimmie during a one-night stand with some unnamed boy as I had assumed after her first visit? Or with this mysterious young man she hoped to marry, who may or may not have been her distant cousin Deshawn? And were his bones now lying unclaimed in a potter’s field somewhere? Or had Deshawn suddenly reappeared as his Aunt Patience had told the sheriff? If so, where in the hell was he now?
I rubbed my hand across my forehead where the first stirrings of a headache lurked. This is getting you nowhere, I said to myself. I ripped the scribbled pages from the pad and folded them in half. Out in the great room, I stuffed them into my bag along with the Eastman file, unhooked my cell phone from the charger, and tucked it into the pocket of my black trousers. I glanced outside through the French doors to see clouds being driven out over the ocean and the trees bending under the onslaught of a stiff wind. I retrieved my black blazer from the closet and called a hasty goodbye to Dolores on my way out.
It took just a few minutes for me to hand over my phone to Erik and for him to show me how the prepaid cell worked. He’d written the number down for me, and I placed a quick call to Red to pass it along. He reported little progress, but he was heading out to a coffee shop on the north end of the island where many of the deputies ate breakfast when they came off duty. He hadn’t encountered Lisa Pedrovsky.
Back in the car, I realized I’d have to give Lavinia my temporary number. I knew I’d promised faithfully to drop in on my father before the day was out, and I fully intended to keep my word. But there seemed to be so many other things to deal with. I turned on the heater against the chilly wind outside and dialed Presqu’isle.
Lavinia sounded pleased to hear from me. “I’m just making a nice broccoli soup. Let me know what time you’ll be here, and we’ll put lunch back for you.”
“I’m sorry. It sounds wonderful, but I have a stop to make on the way. Don’t wait for me.” I would see Kimmie, swing by Presqu’isle, then head on to Jacksonboro for my two o’clock appointment with Lizzie Shelly. With luck I’d hit the Brawley place about the time Patience would be getting out of school. At least that was the plan. A lot depended on whether or not the Judge was ready to spill the secret of my newly discovered sister, although the urgency I’d felt when I’d first learned of her existence had cooled somewhat. I had time. The Eastmans, mother and daughter, didn’t.
“We’ll be expecting you. I’ll save you a bowl,” Lavinia said, her tone telling me I had disappointed her once again.
I swung out of the parking lot and pulled up to the Hilton Head hospital a little before eleven. I picked up my visitor’s pass at the desk and waited for what seemed like an eternity for the elevator. On the ride up, I ran through the different scenarios I might use depending on whether or not Kimmie knew about her mother’s accident. By the time the doors slid open, I knew I didn’t have the guts to be the one to tell her.
In the wide corridor I passed the nurse with whom Dr. Eastman had been speaking the night before as he came out of Kimmie’s room. I smiled, and she nodded, averting her eyes. I glanced back over my shoulder at her as I approached the room, but she’d disappeared into another hallway.
I pushed open the door and stopped dead. Kimmie’s bed was neatly made up. And empty.