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The next morning, Ida Belle, Gertie, and I were set to meet Walter and Carter at the General Store. Gertie had just arrived at my house when Ida Belle called. She was running a little behind.
Ida Belle’s tardiness didn’t come as a surprise. We gave Doris and her family a good ten-hour jump and took turns on Jax-watch. With any luck, Doris and her family were well on their way to independence and a life away from the mob.
While we waited for Ida Belle, I filled Gertie in on everything she’d missed while she’d watched over us from her perched position. She excitedly hung on my every word.
After I provided her with the complete rundown, she said, “I think he’s setting us up. I can’t shake the feeling.” She poured another cup of coffee, likely her fifth, and said, “Death is in the air. It’s everywhere over there. It’s like a ghost town.”
“Speaking of which, Harrison is on vacation, but he’ll touch base after Halloween. I hope we can find out more about Jax and his organization in the meantime.”
“Maybe find out why he’s really here?” Gertie asked.
“Yes. The Feds have gone out on a pretty long limb for this guy. If he doesn’t deliver, a lot of heads will roll.”
“So basically the Feds are letting this guy just live out his life? He has carte blanche to kill?”
I slowly nodded.
“Elle will never let this happen.”
“She’s a child, not an adult,” I reminded her.
“Hard to remember that sometimes, but Fortune, she loves her dad,” Gertie said, looking as if she were holding something back.
“You’ve spent a great deal of time out there, haven’t you?”
“A little more than I’ve shared, maybe,” Gertie admitted.
“Is it serious?” I asked. “If it is, you need to be honest. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
She laughed. “I used Jax to spend time with Elle. She’s an amazing kid and she doesn’t have any positive female role models in her life. I figured if I flirted a little with Jax, he wouldn’t mind.” She fluffed the back of her hair. “So far, so good.”
“After everything was exposed last night, I don’t think any of us will be seeing much of them now. We know too much. If we stay out of sight, we aren’t a liability.”
“I’m still going to ask Jax to let Elle stay with me on the weekends if he suspects there’s trouble brewing. She doesn’t need to witness her granddad’s shenanigans.”
“After her outburst, I don’t think she’ll be excited about that.”
“We made amends. We were on the outs because I made her a chore chart and talked Jax into an allowance based on how well she progressed with her duties.”
“I’m impressed.” I waited a beat. “As for Jax’s shenanigans, are you talking about the mob or Jax’s trysts with Celia?”
Gertie fanned her hand. “Celia’s uninterested now. She called me this morning to tell me I could just have him. Claimed he had natural gas or something crazy like that.” She looked sheepish and covered her mouth. “Oh. I just realized what she meant. I have noticed that, but thought it was something in the water, you know since the town is called Wasteland.”
I sighed. Gertie smiled. My heart was heavy then. Gertie was too invested in the Daigles’ lives. Even if she didn’t want to admit it, she could end up hurt.
“Gertie.” Where did I begin? The phone rang and I held up my index finger. “Give me a second. It’s Carter.” I answered by saying, “Hey, we’ll still be there. Ida Belle’s running late. I’ll call you when she gets here.”
“We’ve got a problem,” said Carter.
“What is it?”
I’d been on the wrong end of long silences many times and this was one such time. It was that loud silence, the kind that didn’t go unnoticed. .
“Carter?” I put the phone on the table, clicking the speaker option. “Gertie’s here. What happened?”
“Someone killed Jax Daigle last night.”
Gertie’s expression faded from inquisition to one of sadness. Based on what we’d just discussed, her concern was for Elle.
“How?” I asked.
“He was gunned down,” Carter said.
“Oh no,” I said, fearing the worst for his granddaughter. “And Elle?”
Gertie held her hand over her mouth as if she were afraid a cry might escape.
“Carter? Where’s Elle?” I asked.
“She left with her dad this morning. Sheriff Davidson released Jax’s body to his son, verified his information, all of it. Elle wanted to go with him and Davidson couldn’t intervene.” He waited a beat. “Legally, there wasn’t anything we could do to stop that from happening. Director Morrow talked to the Feds. He said he’ll reach out to you later, but there’s nothing we can do. The child hasn’t been abused and wants to be with her dad. She’s been in touch with him since the very beginning.”
“I see,” I said, reading into what he wasn’t saying. There was a good chance that Jax’s son had been aware of everything from the start, perhaps even knew when he originally purchased the land in Wasteland.
“Walter will be around, but I’ll be tied up for the rest of the morning. Sheriff Davidson asked me to consult on this. Davidson also provided an escort for Doris and her family last night. They were long gone by the time Jax returned home.”
“Good to know,” I said, wondering how much danger Brigham Cable Daigle would present to those who had known Jax. Would he be a danger to Gertie, to any of us or would he let us go back to our not-so-ordinary lives?
“I’ll call you when I’m done,” he said in a methodical tone.
“Carter?”
“I know,” he said. “I’ll take care of everything, Fortune, and that always includes you.”
We said our goodbyes and I took a deep breath. “Gertie, I’m so sorry.”
“Elle called her dad?”
“Carter couldn’t know anything for sure,” I said. “Except that maybe Jax was precisely who he said, just a grandfather trying to protect his granddaughter.”
I could leave her with that. We all could. I’d seen a couple of glimpses of the charming grandfather who wanted to have friends and a new lease on life. For a minute, he could’ve had that.
“Elle won’t be protected now,” Gertie said, gripping the table as she slowly dropped to a kitchen chair.
I sat with her, waiting for the tears to come, but they never did. She just sat there saying, “This is my fault. We could’ve done more, something more, anything more.”
Unfortunately, there were many stories just like Elle’s. She had a mother who had wanted more for her, but it hadn’t worked out. Now, the only chance Elle would ever have rested on her ability to remember.
If she could remember what her grandfather had attempted to do—remove her from that situation—then maybe she’d turn out okay. Maybe her legacy would be one filled with joy and life.
Or....
Maybe she would follow her grandfather in death, just as her father eventually would. The bad guys often lost their lives at a young age.
For today, anyway, it was a hard loss, a win for the bad guys, a loss for the good.
And we’d have to accept it.