Chapter Twenty-seven

Back on Miss Hornbecker’s front porch, Hunter turned to Meemaw, looking a little guilty.

“Miss Amelia,” he said, his head down. “I didn’t mean to shut you out the way I did. Suppose you come with me back to the sheriff’s office and we look at the man’s things together. If you don’t mind waiting while I go up and get the suitcase . . .”

He was carrying the computer and gun case.

“I’ve already got an idea what you’re going to find, Hunter. You don’t need me for that and I got pies to make for a banquet this evening. We know that gun was there for some reason. I’d say it’ll match the bullet that killed Eugene. Maybe I’m wrong.” She shrugged. “I kind of doubt it, though. I’m thinking the murders of Eugene and Sally are tied together. Can’t get it out of my head. And thinking about it, it has to be somebody here in town Wade was hanging around to see. Maybe Elizabeth. She’s the third in the family. Maybe he was supposed to kill her, too.”

“Said ‘accident’ about Sally’s death,” Hunter reminded her.

“And I’d say right back: Take another look.”

Hunter nodded.

“I think that’s settled then.” Meemaw was ready to get back to her work. “Seems this man’s job wasn’t finished or he’d have been long gone. We find out what he was doing here and who he was after, I think your case will be closed.”

“And I’ll bet you another thing,” she added. “Billy Truly’s not involved in any of this. I know people pretty well after all the years running the Nut House. More than likely, if you check with Huntsville, Billy was in there ’cause he got in the middle of something he shouldn’t have. And I’ll bet you something else—that mother of his had some part in it, too. I’ve seen women like her a million times. Tie their sons to ’em closer than a husband and then lead them around like puppy dogs, but they don’t love ’em. Don’t know how to love anybody.”

Hunter said, “I hope you know you’re blowin’ holes in everything I’ve been thinking.”

“I don’t mean to interfere, it’s just that if Sally was murdered instead of being accidentally shot, Jeannie and her family weren’t even in the picture back then. Takes them right off the front burner, I’d say.”

“Speaking of Jeannie, I want to get out and see her today,” I said, realizing it was what I should be doing. “See how she’s doing and see how the legal business is progressing and how she’s getting along with the Chaunceys.”

“Aren’t you going to the farm to see Dr. Franklin? He’s been waiting a couple of hours by now.” Hunter’s concern for Peter struck an insincere note.

I shrugged the suggestion off. “Let him wait. He doesn’t know half what I know about propagation or much of anything else. I think he’s pumping me for information. Something going on with that man.”

Meemaw agreed. “Got the same feeling from him. You go on out and see the Chaunceys and Jeannie. I’m going over to have a talk with Ben Fordyce, see if he found out anything about what Elizabeth’s pulling on Jeannie. Think he’ll give me the rough edges of it even if he can’t tell me specifics. You know, money always seems to be at the heart of bad feelings in a family. Well, money, and not getting the love a person needs.” She took a breath. “First back to the Nut House. Can’t forget those pies. Jack Holmes with the pecan co-op’ll be over in a couple of hours to pick them up. You two call me with whatever you find out. Maybe I’ll see you at home later, Lindy.”

“I’ll be there. I lost a valuable record book I need for an article I’m writing. Got to check my apartment first.”

“Not like you to lose things,” Hunter said, then smiled. “Except your shoes—down by the river; and your math book in school; and your sunglasses and your purse and—”

“My virginity.”

I knew that would shut him up all the way back to the Nut House, where he dropped me and Meemaw off.

Hurrying up the steps of the wide porch filled with rockers, me and Meemaw were laughing though she elbowed me hard when she saw Miss Ethelred and Freda rocking amid a circle of friends. They looked our way, calling out, asking what we thought was so funny.

What can you do but stop and make up a lie to keep all the watchers happy?

*   *   *

Meemaw was on her way over to see Ben Fordyce after the pies were made. I was still upstairs, hunting for the book, then changing into shorts and a halter. The day was hot, hot, hot, and I felt clammy, my hair sticking to the back of my neck. I brushed it up into a ponytail, ran a cold washrag over my face and arms, and was out to my truck and on the road to the Chaunceys’ ranch.

On the way, I checked the phone calls I’d missed. Three from Mama so I called her and told her where I was going.

“You know that Dr. Franklin’s been sitting out in the back, waiting. I’m too busy to deal with him right now. Got orders for the pecans coming in right and left. He wants to sit there, that’s fine with me. Asked if he could go on out to your greenhouse. I said no, nobody goes out there without permission. Hope that was all right. I know he’s a friend of yours, but to tell you the truth, Lindy, I don’t much like the man. What people are saying is he’s suckin’ up to Elizabeth because of her money. Maybe she’s not much of a warm person, still I don’t like seeing her taken for a fool.”

Leave it to Mama. Chip off the old block. Or maybe, I was thinking, the nut doesn’t fall far from the tree. Something like that. If she wasn’t so busy running Rancho en el Colorado, where my grandfather used to raise cattle and now the family is firmly into pecan farming, I swear she’d be as good a detective as Meemaw.

“Could you, please, go tell him I’m not coming home today. Got too much to do.” I hesitated. “And Mama, would you call Martin and tell him to keep an eye out, in case Dr. Franklin decides to go to the greenhouse anyway? Tell him to send him away. Just say I don’t allow anybody out there when I’m not around. Okay?”

“Take care of it right now. Will I see you later?”

“I don’t know, Mama. Maybe for supper.”

By this time I was through the gates of the Chauncey Ranch and heading out the dusty two-track toward their house.

I groaned when I saw the blue car parked in front. Not the Trulys. I thought they’d be banned from the place. Now me and Jeannie wouldn’t get anything talked about, not with Wanda and Billy listening. I couldn’t imagine Wanda not having a comment on everything I said.

Melody was out of her chair first, waving and yelling she was going in to get me some “honest tea.” That was her name for iced tea with just a little Garrison’s Bourbon in it—enough to take away your cares, whether they be the heat, or rain, a fight with your sister, or putting up with the likes of Wanda Truly. I yelled back I sure would appreciate it and joined the others, hugging Miranda and Jeannie and nodding to the other two. We exchanged pleasantries like “How you feeling?” and “How are you doing?” and “How do you like this heat?” and “Wasn’t it awful about that man found dead this morning?”

“What kind of a town you got here, Lindy?” Wanda Truly was quick to sneer. “Seems like y’all keep killin’ one another off.”

“Mama,” Jeannie chided.

“Seems like it, doesn’t it, Ms. Truly? But this one’s a stranger. Nobody knows him.”

“I seen him on the TV,” Wanda went on. “He was at Jeannie’s party. Did you know that?”

“You weren’t there, Mama. How’d you see—”

“I saw him ’cause I was out in the kitchen.” Wanda slapped her hands together. “Wasn’t invited to my own daughter’s wedding celebration so I got myself a place helping the cook serve up the buffet.”

“Mama!”

“She did,” Billy put in, rocking slow as molasses, eyes shut. “Wanted me to do it, too. I told her ‘no.’ It was your special day, Jeannie. Think you about had enough of us.”

“So you were that extra helper I heard about?” I said as if I didn’t already know.

Wanda nodded. “Came in my own clothes. No servant’s uniform or anything like that. I have my pride even though my own children don’t think I deserve much.”

“That’s not true . . .” Jeannie frowned. Her voice was weary.

“Seems to me it is. Not even invited. Your own mother.”

“How much longer are we gonna have to hear about it, Mama?” Billy said.

“Well, I’d like to see . . .”

Jeannie turned to me and asked if I’d come out about anything special, just as Melody slammed the screen door behind her and put a sweating glass wrapped in a white paper napkin into my hand.

I took a swig because I needed something fast. Three minutes with Wanda Truly and I was about to lose it. What I did was nod at Jeannie and try pretending there was no human being sitting in Wanda’s chair. If the chair kept on mumbling things, I could just pretend it was all an illusion.

“Well, I did come out to ask you some questions,” I said to Jeannie. “I kept seeing that Curly around town. Hunter was getting the idea he might be after me for some reason.”

I noticed Wanda was stuck forward, holding her rocker still with her feet. She was taking in every word I said.

I leaned toward Jeannie. “Maybe we could go someplace else. This is information Hunter probably doesn’t want out yet.”

I was talking to Jeannie, but that didn’t stop Wanda.

“You get his real name?” she demanded. “All he’d tell us was ‘Curly.’ Said to call him that.”

“Why don’t the two of you go on inside?” Miranda got up slowly, with just a little tight menace to her ample body. “Come on, I’ll clear a couple of chairs for the two of you to sit in the big front room and talk in private.”

“Well, I don’t see . . .” Wanda protested.

Miranda stood tall, thumbs settling into the waistband of her khakis. She looked down her nose at Wanda. “Don’t think you see a lot of things, Wanda. Beginning with what a pain in the petooties you can be.”

We escaped into the house ahead of Miranda, taking seats at their big table and pushing stuff out of our way.

“Here’s what’s going on,” I started. “The man’s name is Henry Wade. We found a gun case in the closet of one of Lydia Hornbeck’s rooms. That’s where he was boarding. They already got the ballistics back on the bullet that killed him. Wasn’t the same gun as the one that killed Eugene. Now we’re all thinking maybe Sally’s death had something to do with this.”

“Sally!”

“Did you and Eugene ever talk about it?”

“He told me what happened that day, directly after we met. Took him a long time to get over Sally. Well, I don’t think he was really over her yet. That was awful for him and memories of it haunted him. I heard she was really a special girl.”

I nodded. “I thought she was funny and kind. Did he ever mention that maybe her death wasn’t an accident?”

She shook her head slowly. “After that one time, he didn’t talk about it at all.”

“Did they have any enemies that you know of?”

“You mean Eugene and Sally? Or just Eugene?”

“Either one.”

She shook her head. “Eugene had a lot of friends. We weren’t married that long—a couple of weeks. If he had enemies, he didn’t tell me about them.”

“What do you think about the relationship between Eugene and Elizabeth? Was it really close?”

She sighed. “I don’t think Elizabeth liked me at all. That made it hard on us. Eugene just wanted to get back to Dallas, maybe close up things there and move pretty fast. Or he said if Elizabeth went away, we’d come back here. Just so we weren’t too close to her. She’s got a way of taking over things. Like that party. Eugene and I didn’t want it much. We’re not . . . weren’t . . . that kind of showy people. Still, she’s his sister and she thought there should be something.”

“So it was her idea.”

She nodded. “She did everything, saying she knew I wouldn’t know how to handle a party that size and she had all this experience.”

I waited just a minute. “And that yellow dress you wore.”

“Yellow Rose of Texas. I thought it was nice.”

“But you know the history behind the Yellow Rose of Texas.”

“I do now. Maybe Elizabeth doesn’t know it, though. She’s the one got it for me.”

I remembered when she said it was Elizabeth’s idea. Her own sister-in-law making a fool out of her at her wedding celebration.

“I noticed that Elizabeth didn’t have a date there with her. Doesn’t she usually have some kind of escort?”

“I thought her escort was that Dr. Franklin. They seemed kind of friendly.”

“She say anything about him? Did she introduce him as her date or what have you?”

“Just introduced him around, kind of holding on to his arm. Then I saw him talking to you and I heard . . . well, that you two were out to dinner . . . and I didn’t know what to think.”

“Me either. He’s been the one taking her everywhere since Eugene died. Guess maybe they became friends. Happened to meet and he asked her about me, because we’re in the same profession.” I was trying to put things together.

“Still and all . . .” She seemed to drop into deep thought.

“He’s not staying there with Elizabeth, is he?”

“Not that I know of. But then I’ve been gone from the house a few days and so much has been going on.” She waited a minute. “Anything else?”

“What’s all this legal stuff Elizabeth’s been talking about? Did Ben find out anything?”

She nodded. “A family trust. I guess all the money’s in it and the house and a couple of apartments in Dallas and a boat and all the cars and just about everything. Ben says I’ll get some of it, as Eugene’s wife, but Eugene didn’t put me in directly as a trust holder so Elizabeth will get most. That’s what Elizabeth claims, which is kind of strange. I remember Eugene saying he was going into Dallas to make sure I got taken care of if something happened to him. That was the morning of the party. Maybe he just forgot.”

“Doesn’t seem right.”

“Ask Mama if she thinks it’s right. She’s been having fits. Threatening to find the best lawyer in the county, all of that stuff. I’m tired. I just want this over. I want to go someplace and start my life again. Eugene didn’t owe me anything. Elizabeth’s right about that. A few weeks of marriage. I was thinking if we ever had a baby, that would be the time to get me and the baby covered somehow. Guess I’m naïve, the way Mr. Fordyce says. It was never about the money, not with me. It is with Mama. Driving me crazy.”

I believed she was innocent of everything happening around her. And I believed she was naïve—maybe too much for her own good.

I sat back, looking at Jeannie’s open and sad face and wished I could go back outside, on that porch, pick up a big broom, and chase Wanda Truly out over the Chaunceys’ hills until she could never find her way back.