Elizabeth Shelley rose when she saw Hick’s face. “Are you okay, Hickory? Do you need a glass of water?”
“No, ma’am,” he said. “Thank you, but I’m fine.” The room was suddenly hot and his knees and his voice threatened to betray him. “Exactly why did Gladys Kestrel call you the day before she died?”
Elizabeth sank slowly back into her chair. “What?”
“Gladys called you person-to-person the day before she died. The phone call lasted for ten minutes. What did she say to you?”
Her face was frozen, a wasteland void of emotion. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am.” Hick crossed the room and looked down on her. “But before we talk about Gladys, I have a few other questions. How much did you know about your husband and Susie Wheeler?”
The name Susie Wheeler startled her. Her eyes darted from Adam to Hick and back to Adam. “The girl that was killed in Cherokee Crossing?”
“She was very close to your husband, wasn’t she?” Hick said.
She bit her lower lip and waited, but Hick and Adam were silent. “How much do you know?” she finally asked, her voice hushed, breathless.
Hick knew he didn’t have all the facts, but he had more than a hunch that if he told Mrs. Shelley what they knew she might break and fill in some missing pieces. He sat down on the ottoman in front of Mrs. Shelley and leaned forward. “I’ll tell you what I know and you can correct me if I’m wrong. I know that Susie Wheeler was pregnant and that somehow she found out Pearl Delaney might be able to help her out of her predicament. I know that George was the father of Susie’s illegitimate child, and I know that Gladys Kestrel somehow figured all this out when she was closing the school and going over old records. What I don’t know is what she told you on the phone and why you felt you had to kill her.”
Elizabeth’s laugh was nervous and her voice shrill. “Kill her? Me?”
“You want us to talk to George.” Adam’s voice held a decided sharpness. “He’s been up to his ears in this since day one.”
“No!” Elizabeth blurted with a gasp. “Don’t talk to George. He never knew anything about Susie’s baby.”
“But you did,” Hick prompted.
Elizabeth’s lips trembled. “Yes.” She looked at her hands clasped in her lap and a single tear fell on them. She turned to Hick. “How did you find out?”
“There was a letter in my dad’s study that named George and Susie as possibly having an inappropriate relationship.”
She shook her head. “I had a feeling.… When Gladys called she said she thought there might be a letter that would help prove her allegations, but she couldn’t locate it. I tried to go through there when I stayed with your mom but she was always in the house, always underfoot. I never had enough time.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “I never had enough time.”
Hick stared at Elizabeth. He had known her most of his life. She was a family friend, a mother, an intelligent woman. And she was a killer. But why?
Her eyes met his and she seemed to read his thoughts. “Did you ever wonder why George and I ended up in Cherokee Crossing? I met him in college—he was so good looking and funny. To me, it was a pleasure just to be by his side. We were married right after graduation, before we even had jobs. We moved in with my parents and started looking for work. He was going to be a high school principal and I was going to be a nurse in a big hospital. We had so much to look forward to.”
Her gaze moved past Hick and she stared into space. “I didn’t have stars in my eyes very long. I figured out pretty quick what I had married.” Her voice cracked and she covered her eyes. “He had an affair with my sister … my little sister … in my parent’s house. We hadn’t even been married two months. We had to leave immediately and Cherokee Crossing was the first opportunity that came along.”
Her face hardened. “He dragged me out to the middle of nowhere to hide his shame. There was nothing for me to do there. I didn’t know anyone. I had no one to talk to. I wanted to work in Memphis. There was plenty of opportunity. But in Cherokee Crossing …” She shook her head. “I hated him for what he’d done to me.”
“Why didn’t you just leave him?” Hick said.
She stared down at her wedding ring. “Because I … I loved him. I thought we could work through what had happened, but it was difficult. We never spoke, we slept in separate rooms.” She sighed and looked up at Hick. “But your parents were kind to us, and our church was kind. After three months we were slowly becoming part of the community.” She shook her head and threw up her hands. “And then he moved us again. To Pocahontas. I knew something was wrong when George’s ‘great promotion’ meant a huge decrease in salary. Money was tight and my suspicions grew. Then a letter came to the house addressed to him marked ‘personal’, and I knew. I read it. That’s how I found out about Susie Wheeler. I couldn’t believe he’d done it again.”
Hick and Adam exchanged a quick glance as Elizabeth barked out a course, short laugh and shook her head.
“Who am I kidding?,” she said. “I knew he’d done it again the moment he said we had to move. I knew that’s why your daddy sent us away, but I didn’t want to believe it, and I convinced myself I was imagining things. Until I read that letter from Susie. She was pregnant and distraught. She said she was going to see Pearl Delaney because the rumor was she might be able to help. Susie said she had stolen something of Ronnie’s to pay for it … I didn’t care what she’d stolen or how distraught she was. I knew once she took care of the problem everything would just go away. George and I would be together and it would be as if nothing ever happened.”
She stood, smoothed out her skirt, and began to pace. “Everything was fine until the second letter. The one where she decided to have the baby. She said she had told the Delaneys she had changed her mind. The tonic had already been made so Susie paid them what she owed and said she was ready to go to Memphis. I couldn’t risk her having that baby and naming George as the father. And I was terrified he might leave me. I couldn’t have that, not with a baby of my own on the way. I just couldn’t.” She looked at Hick and Adam with wide eyes. “What would people think?”
She twirled the wedding ring on her finger as the story tumbled out. “George never knew anything. He only made problems, never bothered cleaning them up.” She glanced up. “Don’t think Susie was the only one. George is so charming. He even won Principal Knowles over. In two week’s time, he became the model teacher, volunteering to sponsor every club imaginable. Of course, there was always some favorite or other—”
“And yet you stayed.”
Elizabeth shot Hick a defiant glance. “Do you know how children of divorced parents are treated? I was pregnant when we moved to Pocahontas. I had my own baby to protect. Besides, there might have been plenty of other girls in his life, but I was the one he came home to every night.” She waved her hand as if she could make it all go away. “If she would have just done what she set out to do, none of this would have happened.”
Hick heard Adam draw in a long breath.
“As soon as I read that second letter I knew I had to stop her from having that baby. I drove to Cherokee from Pocahontas one afternoon when I knew she’d be walking home from school. I waited until she came down the steps. She ran over when she saw the car, thinking it was George. I offered her a ride and after running over smiling like that, she had to accept. In a way, I think she was just happy to be with anyone connected with him … even me. I could tell she’d have to leave Cherokee Crossing pretty quick—she was beginning to show. She asked how George liked his new school, and I told her he loved it. That he was involved with many of the after school clubs. Her face fell as I told her how glad George was to be away from Cherokee Crossing and how much he liked his new students. That there were a few who were particularly smart and he had started mentoring them. She wouldn’t look at me then. Just stared out the window. It made me feel powerful. Happy.”
Elizabeth licked her lips, and turned to Adam. “Do you mind if I have something to drink? My mouth is so dry.”
He went to the kitchen to fix her a glass of water. The ice tinkled in the glass as he handed it to her and she took a drink and smiled. “Thank you.” She peered down into the glass as if it held all the answers she was looking for. “We drove out of town and I don’t think she even noticed she was so upset. I saw tears in her eyes, and I guess that’s what did it. Those stupid tears.”
Elizabeth took another drink and Hick noticed her hands were trembling. “And then what happened?” he asked.
“Those tears infuriated me. It wasn’t her right to cry for George. It was my duty, my burden to cry for George.” The glass slipped from her hand and crashed to the floor. Elizabeth covered her face with her hands. “I warned her to stop crying, I told her if she didn’t she’d be sorry. She was frightened when she realized we were out of town. By then she could tell I knew all about her and George.” Elizabeth got a faraway look in her eyes. “She was a pretty girl. I could understand George liking her. I put my hands around her throat and squeezed and squeezed until she blacked out. She never really even fought back. I’ll never forget the sadness on her face.” Elizabeth shrugged. “I drug her body out to the slough and found a rock big enough to make sure she’d never cry for George again. I made damn sure.”
She looked up at Hick. “I didn’t know until the next day that Abner had found her and told Sheriff Michaels. I was surprised when they arrested him—that was a shame. I wasn’t counting on that.” She reached out as if to put a reassuring hand on Hick’s arm. “I didn’t want Abner to die, I truly didn’t. But what was I supposed to do? I knew he’d keep his mouth shut because Susie had been at his cabin. I knew he wouldn’t want any suspicion thrown Pearl’s way.”
“So you kept your mouth shut and let Abner die in prison.” Hick let the words hang in the air.
“Yes.” She looked down at the broken glass. “Abner probably thought Ronnie Pringle did it, a lot of folks did. He knew Ronnie wasn’t likely to be arrested.” She puckered her bottom lip and added, “I really never wanted any harm to come to Abner.”
“What about Gladys?” Adam said. “How did she fit in?”
“Oh, dear, good-hearted Gladys. She called me up to warn me that my husband could possibly be a murderer. She said she had a notion that he might have killed Susie Wheeler and that she was worried about me. I pretended to not believe her and she asked to see me. I proposed picking her up and we drove to the levee. She slipped out of the house right after breakfast for what she thought would be a short drive. I pretended to be amazed when she told me how she learned that George had taken a demotion to go to Pocahontas and it was right at the same time that Susie was confiding in her she was pregnant. Susie never told Gladys who the father was, but Gladys wasn’t stupid. As she was going through those old records, she put two and two together pretty quick. Somehow she even figured out Abner’s involvement. Yes, Gladys had all her facts straight, but one. The only thing she seemed to discount was that it might be me and not George that killed Susie. She learned her mistake.”
“What did you hit her with, Mrs. Shelley?” Hick asked.
She nodded toward the fireplace mantel. On it sat a huge trophy with a marble base. The plaque on the base read: George Shelley, Principal of the Year. “George left it with Gladys because she asked for it. She wanted to keep it because she admired George. When she learned his little secret … she didn’t want it around. She supplied me with what I needed to keep her from telling the world what she’d found out.”
“But Gladys was your friend,” Adam protested. “She called you to help you … to protect you.”
Elizabeth bit her lower lip. “I realize that. And I thought about it, but … my girls. I couldn’t let her expose George or me. I couldn’t risk it. I never expected …” Her voice faded.
“What did you expect?” Adam said.
“I tried to push her into the water but she snagged on that little tree. The ground was too soft to go in after her. I hoped she would just … go away.”
“This hoping things will just go away seems to be a pattern with you, Mrs. Shelley,” Hick observed.
“Yes,” she said looking down. “Yes, I suppose it is.”
The sound of a car door slamming in front of the house was followed by the shrieking laughter of children and the happy chaos of feet running up the porch. Elizabeth Shelley’s eyes filled with tears.
The drive to Broken Creek, Arkansas was made in silence. Mourning Delaney, like most of her family, was not one for conversation. Hick stared ahead as he drove, speeding toward the shimmering ponds of humidity that he could never quite catch. He was tired, but Mourning had pleaded with him in her own way. What she lacked in articulation she made up for with the eloquence of expression in her eyes. Of course Maggie had taken the young girl’s part in the discussion. A strong comradeship had sprung up between them in the ten days that Mourning had been at the house.
Hick was outnumbered and didn’t even attempt an argument. He could rest when all of this was over.
The parking lot at Our Lady of Sorrows church was empty as Hick parked his car. Even early in the day, the heat and humidity were oppressive, much warmer than a normal June day. The day lilies were no longer blooming but there were now red geraniums planted in pots near the front door. Grabbing Abner Delaney’s folder, Hick opened the door and he and Mourning walked inside. The young woman was back in the office behind her desk and her smile indicated that she recognized Hick.
Hick removed his hat and asked, “Pardon, Miss Esther, but is the preacher in?”
She rose and told him, “He’s been in there ever since Mass, typin’ away like every day lately. I’ll tell him you’re here.”
She tapped on the office door and went inside. After a moment she came back out and and motioned to them. “He says for you to come in.”
Hick entered and saw the priest, sitting across the room and typing with his back to the door. “I’ll be with you in a minute,” he said without turning.
Wordlessly, Mourning Delaney crossed the room and stood behind Father Grant’s chair. Putting her arms around his neck, she pressed her cheek into the back of his head. He was startled and jumped in his chair, turning quickly. His questioning eyes met Hick’s.
“This is Mourning, Abner Delaney’s daughter.”
She stepped away from the priest and put her arms behind her back. Looking at the floor she said, “I never knowed my pa. Thank you for what you done.”
“You were right. Abner Delaney was indeed innocent.” Hick placed the accordion folder on the desk piled high with papers. “His boys are innocent, too. I found the killer.”
Father Grant looked at Mourning and his eyes filled with tears. Sniffing, he said, “I’ve got a cold. Sorry.” He reached into his pocket, pulled out a handkerchief, and blew his nose. He rose from the chair and put his hands on Mourning’s shoulders kneeling down and looking into her face. “I’m sorry I couldn’t have been more help to your father when he was living. And I’m so sorry you never got to meet him.”
“You believed him.” Mourning looked into the priest’s eyes with her wise gaze. “It’s enough.”