Monday
Jeffrey trudged back through the woods, his socks bunching from the wet earth. He stopped by a tree, using it to lean on while he peeled them off. The rain was barely more than a memory, and the air was filled with mist as the sun evaporated it up to the clouds. Jeffrey wiped sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand as he walked into the cemetery. The sun was sharper in the open graveyard, and the sloping hill with its jutting white markers seemed like teeth in the big mouth that was trying to swallow him.
Reggie was sitting in his cruiser with the door open, a cigarette hanging from his lips. He stayed where he was, making Jeffrey come to him. The asphalt was blistering against Jeffrey’s bare feet, but he was damned if he’d show it.
Reggie gave a leisurely glance down at the wet athletic socks Jeffrey held in his hand. His lip curled up in a sarcastic sneer, but Jeffrey didn’t let him get out whatever shitty thing he wanted to say.
“Take me to the station,” Jeffrey ordered, climbing into the passenger seat of the cruiser.
Reggie took one last suck on his cigarette before closing the door. He cranked the engine and let it idle for a few minutes. “Where’s your girl?”
“She’s fine,” Jeffrey told him. Despite the fact that she had been scared out of her mind seconds before finding the bones, Sara had insisted on staying with them while Jeffrey went to get help.
Reggie rested his hand on the shift for a moment before putting the car in gear. He took his time merging onto the interstate and drove the posted speed limit into town, waving at folks out the window like he hadn’t a care in the world. Jeffrey tried not to show his irritation, knowing Reggie was doing all this on purpose, but as they crawled past the high school at twenty miles per hour, he had to let off some steam or he would explode.
“Is there a reason you’re going this slow?”
“Just to piss you off, Slick.”
Jeffrey stared out the window, wondering how much worse this day could get.
Reggie said, “You wanna tell me what’s going on here?”
“No.”
“That’s your prerogative.”
Jeffrey gave a low whistle. “Big word.”
“I thought you might be impressed.”
“Your sister teach you that?”
“You shut up about my sister.”
“How’s Paula doing?”
“I said shut up, you fucker,” Reggie said, his voice a low warning. “Why don’t you ask me how my cousins are doing? How they’re getting by without their father? How it feels for all of us when we get together and my uncle Dave’s not there?”
Jeffrey felt all the guilt his words could bring and more. Still, he said, “I’m not my father’s keeper.”
“Yeah,” Reggie said, making a sharp turn into the sheriff’s station parking lot. “That’s real convenient for you. I’ll tell that to my cousin Jo when she graduates this fall and her daddy’s not around to congratulate her. I’m sure it’ll be a real comfort.”
Jeffrey grabbed his wet socks off the floorboard and got out of the car before Reggie cut the engine. He walked into the building, ignoring the secretary and the deputy who was leaning over her desk as he went back to Hoss’s office, opening the door without knocking.
Hoss looked over the newspaper he was reading when Jeffrey closed the door. “What is it, son?”
Jeffrey wanted to sit down, but something stopped him. Instead, he leaned against the wall for support, the weight of his fears catching up with him. He looked at Hoss’s office. Like the man, nothing had changed in the last decade. The fishing trophies and photographs of Hoss on his boat were still around, and the folded American flag that had been on his brother’s coffin when they brought his body back from Vietnam was still given a place of prominence on the shelf by the window. After his brother had died, Hoss had tried to join up, but his flat feet had kept him out. He always joked that the Army’s loss was Sylacauga’s gain, but Jeffrey knew he did not like to talk about it, as if having flat feet made him less of a man.
Hoss prompted, “Jeffrey?”
“We found some bones.”
“Bones?” Hoss asked, creasing his newspaper in a tight fold.
“In the old cave me and the boys used to use when we were in junior high.”
“Out on the edge of the quarry?” Hoss asked in a careful tone. “Probably just a bear or something.”
“Sara’s a doctor, Hoss. She knows what human bones look like. Hell, even if she didn’t, the damn thing was laying out on the rocks like she was taking a nap.”
“She?” Hoss asked, and all the air went out of the room.
A knock came at the door.
“What is it?” Hoss demanded.
Reggie opened the door. “I was just—”
“Give us a minute,” Hoss barked, his tone inviting no dissention.
Jeffrey heard the click of the door, but his eyes were on Hoss. The old man seemed to have aged about a hundred years in the past few seconds.
Jeffrey reached into his pocket and pulled out the chain he had found in the cave. He held it up, letting the gold heart-shaped locket twirl in the light.
“It doesn’t prove anything,” Hoss said. “She went to the cave a couple dozen times. Everybody knows that. Hell, she told them herself.”
“Sara won’t let this go.”
“I thought y’all were leaving this afternoon?”
“I talked her into staying another day before all this happened,” Jeffrey told him. “Even without that, she’ll want to see this through.”
“I don’t see giving her a choice.”
Jeffrey felt the heat of his remark and the underlying warning. “I don’t have anything to hide,” he said, hearing the false bravado in his own voice.
“It’s not a matter of hiding anything, Slick. It’s about burying the past and getting on with your life. You and Robert both.”
“No matter how much of a bitch Lane Kendall is, she deserves to know this.”
“Know what?” Hoss asked. He stood from his chair and walked to the window. Like Jeffrey’s, his office had a stellar view of the parking lot. “We don’t know anything right now.”
“Sara will find out soon enough.”
“Find out what?”
“Her head was bashed in,” Jeffrey said. “Someone killed her.”
“Maybe she fell,” Hoss suggested. His posture was ramrod straight, his back to Jeffrey. “You ever think of that?”
Jeffrey said, “Then we should let Sara figure it out.”
“Could be it’s not even her,” Hoss tried. He turned back around and seemed to have collected himself. He reached out to Jeffrey, asking for the necklace.
Jeffrey handed it over, saying, “She wore it all the time. Everybody saw it.”
“Yep,” Hoss agreed. He took out his pocketknife and pried open the heart-shaped locket. He palmed the charm and held it out for Jeffrey to see. Baby pictures had been crudely cut into the shape of the heart and glued into either side. A strand of blond hair curled around the photograph on the left, a small piece of twine holding the ends together.
“Two different babies,” Jeffrey said. One photo was in color and the other in black and white, but it was still easy to tell that the child on the right had a shock of dark black hair, while the one on the left was fair.
Hoss turned the necklace around to look at the photos. He gave a heavy sigh and closed the locket before handing it back to Jeffrey, saying, “Hold on to this.”
Jeffrey did not want to, but he took the necklace and tucked it back into his pocket.
Hoss said, “I told Reggie to wait for you back at the funeral home.”
“Why’s that?”
“You need to go talk to Robert.”
“He didn’t seem too interested in talking to me this morning.”
“He is now,” Hoss said. “He called the station looking for you.”
“Sara’s waiting back at the cave with the body.”
“I’ll run go fetch her.”
“She won’t give up on this,” Jeffrey repeated.
“On what?” Hoss asked. “Could be some bum walked into the cave and forgot to come out. Could be somebody fell and hit their head. Could be a lot of things, right?” When Jeffrey did not answer, he reminded him, “You’ve got nothing to hide.”
Jeffrey remained silent. They both knew that he did. Things were going downhill faster than he could keep up with.
Hoss gave him a hard pat on the shoulder. “I ever let anything bad happen to you, son?”
Jeffrey shook his head, thinking that the words were no great comfort. Hoss had proven more than a few times that he was not above bending the law to keep Jeffrey and Robert out of trouble.
Hoss flashed one of his rare smiles. “It’ll be fine.” He opened the door and waved in Reggie as he asked Jeffrey, “What happened to your shoes?”
Jeffrey looked down at his bare feet. They should be digging in the sands of Florida by now. He should be rubbing suntan lotion on Sara’s back and front and every other part of her body while she laughed at his jokes and looked at him like he was the second coming.
Hoss asked, “What size are you?”
“Ten.”
“I’m an eleven and a half.” He asked Reggie, “What size shoe do you wear?”
Reggie looked embarrassed, as if his answer would be the punch line to a joke. Still, he said, “Nine.”
“You’re stuck with mine, then.” Hoss took a set of keys out of his pocket and handed them to Reggie. “Run go fetch my boots out of the back of my truck.”