CHAPTER 26
“Why, pray tell, do we need to lay down in the back seat?” My question came out muffled from underneath the blanket Aunt Vi had tossed over Betsy and me.
We were slumped down nearly perpendicular in the back seat of the big brown late-’90s model Cadillac. She’d insisted none of the models made after the ’90s was suitable for her. The body styles went to pot, I believe she’d said. Followed by she needed a car with size, class, and panache. I guess the large pink dice hanging from the rearview mirror added to said panache. I held out my hand to Betsy and she passed over the box of tissues.
“Yeah, it’s stuffy under here, and I’m already having trouble breathing out of my nose.” Betsy succumbed to a coughing fit, and I shielded my face with my arm.
“Because, girls, if someone checks the traffic cameras, y’all won’t be seen on them.” Aunt Vi sounded pleased to have thought of this. “Whoever is trying to frame you girls will use anything and everything against y’all. I mean, I don’t know what the world is comin’ to. None of this ever happened in my younger years. We took the law into our own hands. Someone spoke against us, we took ’em to the woodshed. And if it comes down to it, I’ll root out the culprit and handle it myself.”
I held my aching head and pictured Aunt Vi, the vigilante, running amok.
“Hold on. We’re turning onto Alex’s street.”
Betsy and I held on to whatever we could grab. Aunt Vi navigated the behemoth into the sharp turn, and I swore we must have gone on two wheels at one point.
“Once we can knock some sense into that ignorant nephew of mine, he’ll help us.”
Betsy cleared her throat. “Unless he’s involved.”
Aunt Vi slammed on the brakes, and Betsy and I were flung into the back of the front seats. The blanket had somehow managed to come completely off me and wrapped Betsy like a burrito.
I righted myself just in time to see Aunt Vi peering over the tall seats with an angry scowl. “That boy is not involved! He’s gone a little cuckoo, but who in this family hasn’t at one point or another? Ain’t no cause for slander.”
Betsy had lain perfectly still while Aunt Vi ranted, opened the door, stomped out, and slammed the door shut.
“Come on. Let’s get this over with before your aunt has an aneurism.” I reached around the front seat to open the passenger’s side door. A car this big should be a four-door.
Aunt Vi marched toward Alex’s side door, keys in hand, and I climbed out onto the small carport and sighed. It’d been over a year since I’d visited Alex at his house. It’d belonged to his daddy’s side of the family and was willed to him. The all-brick ranch home sat on a large, private corner lot with a privacy fence and a gigantic double carport with a large storage building in the back. Alex had painted the beige shutters recently, and the clay shingled roof was new. The large palm tree in the front yard, which Alex and I had taken one of my favorite pictures of us in front of, had been recently trimmed.
My attention was pulled back toward the car as a thumping commenced. Betsy had yet to emerge from the back seat.
“Well, come on. We don’t want any nosy neighbors driving by seeing you or Betsy,” Aunt Vi said just before we noticed the car had begun rocking.
I hurried around the car and opened the driver’s-side door. Betsy was yelling and thumping around on the floorboard.
Aunt Vi stomped over, her flip-flops flapping loudly. “Sweet Lord, Betsy. We ain’t got time for games. Get on out of there.”
A not-so-nice response came from beneath the blanket.
“I’m going to wash your mouth out with soap and then take a hickory to ya.” Aunt Vi put her hands on her hips. “Out. Here. Now.”
“I think she’s stuck.” I reached down and tugged at the blanket to no avail. How she managed to roll herself so tightly, I’d never know. One last tug, and I stumbled backward as the blanket came flying off her. Betsy crawled out of the vehicle. Her frizzy hair stood up all over her head. When she managed to look up from her hunched-over position, her eyes were bloodshot, and snot had run all down the left side of her face.
“Sweet fancy Moses, you look possessed!” Aunt Vi jumped back.
Betsy wheezed and coughed with her hand over her chest. “I nearly suffocated in there. I saw my entire life flash before my eyes. The light was coming for me.”
“The light, huh.” I held out a hand to Bets.
Aunt Vi leaned down. “Did you see Daddy in the light?”
Betsy was about to launch into one of her tirades when someone called out, “Yoo-hoo!” from around the side of the yard. It sounded like Mrs. Davies, Alex’s sweet elderly neighbor.
“Quick, hurry,” Aunt Vi hissed.
Betsy and I scampered, hunched over, through the carport and through the side door that led directly into the galley kitchen. Aunt Vi closed the door behind us. We made sure to steer clear of the window over the kitchen sink. Betsy hovered low to wash her face over the white ceramic beauty. I did a double take. The deep sink with hook sprayer was the exact one I’d picked out for Alex when he’d considered a remodel three years ago. In the end, he’d decided he was happy with things as they were and would rather spend the money on a new fishing boat.
I spun slowly around the kitchen. The new granite countertops were the ones I’d chosen as well. The new stainless-steel appliances gleamed against the creamy cabinetry. And my heart nearly stopped when I spied a set of double ovens.
“What is it? You look like you’ve seen a ghost, and not a friendly one.” Betsy patted her face dry.
I swallowed hard. “This is my kitchen.”
“Huh?”
I shook my head and attempted to discern what I saw. “Not my kitchen. The kitchen I chose for Alex when we were together. The one I told him I could prepare Thanksgiving and Christmas meals in. When did this happen?”
“Oh, I thought this was all about Lucy. He remodeled six months or so ago. Not that Lucy cooked or anything.” Betsy scratched her head. “Now that I think about it. It was during their separation period, right before they got engaged . . .” Betsy’s green eyes widened, and she sat at his farmhouse dining room table. “That’s why she told him she was expecting. He’d cut her loose and was planning on winning you back. Then when nothing else worked, she came up with the pregnancy scheme.”
“Don’t go down that rabbit hole. I’m not the reason he remodeled. She wanted a nicer house and Alex, not having imagination for it, went with what I chose in the magazine Yvonne gave me. Knowing Alex, he didn’t even remember I was the one who chose it.” Part of me wondered if Betsy could be on to something, the other decided I’d take my own advice and not go down that rabbit hole.
I moved through the house on the brand-new hardwood flooring past the living room with a large leather sectional and sixty-inch flat screen that I hadn’t picked, and down the narrow hallway toward their bedroom. I paused in the doorway of the tastefully decorated room and blew out a breath.
“Here.” Betsy handed me a pair of purple latex gloves. Once snapped into place, I began snooping in my ex’s and his wife’s bedroom. Lord help us.
When the bedroom provided nothing in the way of insight, either to Lucy’s character or if Alex had any involvement, I moved to the bathroom adjacent to the master bedroom. It was spick-and-span. Alex’s mom must’ve cleaned everything. There wasn’t any evidence that a woman used this bathroom. I sat on the closed toilet and sighed. That was when I noticed a dark black spot on the back of the tile beneath the sink. I went down on all fours, thinking it might be blood. I opened the cabinet beneath the sink and found a Q-tip. If it was blood, it would flake. Nope. Not blood. I added a bit of water to the tip and rubbed it over the stain. Hair dye. Brown or black hair dye. I carefully scanned the contents of the cabinet for a brush. What I found belonged to Alex. Not even Lucy’s comb or toothbrush was there.
“Hey, Bets,” I whispered down the hallway.
“Yeah? Find somethin’?” Betsy popped her head around the corner, chewing.
I narrowed my eyes. “What are you eating?”
She paused and mumbled around a mouth of red goo. “Hot Tamales.”
“You’re eating Alex’s candy?” I hissed. “He’ll know we’ve been here.”
Her face reddened. “But I love Hot Tamales.”
“So does Alex.” He kept boxes of those things everywhere. I shook my head and focused on the task at hand. “Go into the kitchen and get that snake Alex keeps under the kitchen sink.”
She nodded, looking a bit sheepish about her blunder. In these older houses, clogged drains were always an issue. Especially in the bathroom sinks.
Betsy returned and began the task. She didn’t even argue about how gross it was or that she was too pretty for such a job, like she normally would. When she pulled the contents from the drain, we both made a face and put a hand to our noses. I leaned forward and felt deflated. A couple of strands of hair looked to be the length of Alex’s, but maybe a strand or two could be longer. I bagged it anyway.
Betsy and I had gone through everything, and the three of us sat at the kitchen table. Not much belonging to Lucy remained. Other than several articles of clothing, a couple of designer bags, and a bag of makeup. Sadness crept over me. They’d planned to begin their lives together here, only for someone to cut short their chances of happiness. Sure, their union hadn’t had a perfect beginning, especially with Lucy’s deception. Nor had she made many friends on the island. Still, I couldn’t help but mourn her. I let out a cleansing breath. What did this recon give us? Nothing. Well, a few strands of black hair. My first thought when I found it was the person’s reflection caught on the video. The one they believed was Alex. Perhaps the person in question frequented Alex’s home. Colored their hair in his bathroom? Mrs. Myers colored her hair. Could it be? Had her whole reaction to Lucy and all her finger pointing at Betsy been a ruse? No, surely not. A hard reach, for sure. Desperate even. Ergo, nothing.
“I don’t know what to think, y’all,” I said after I relayed my thoughts to Aunt Vi and Betsy. I left out the what-if about Betsy’s aunt Regina. I wouldn’t add fuel to that fire. Plus, as flawed as the woman was, she loved her son. “Maybe we should move this discussion to my house. We’re pressing our luck here.” I checked my watch. In a little under half an hour, we’d done all we could do here.
“True that,” Betsy said as we all rose from the table.
I snapped the gloves off and shoved them into my cross-body bag.
“Well, you gals satisfied now?” Aunt Vi shook her head.
Betsy sneezed. “Not really. We didn’t find a thing.”
“That’s the point. If Alex was involved, you’d have found some evidence. Y’all even looked through his shed.”
Nothing inside there had changed. It held nothing but the same old lawn furniture and broken-down riding mower Alex had insisted he’d repair. And I didn’t argue the point that technically, since he was in law enforcement, he’d know not to hide anything in his house. This was a fishing expedition to clue us in more on Lucy.
Keys rattling at the side door startled us. Betsy and I ran in place before turning and bumping into each other. Aunt Vi waved for us to go and hide. Before we could even get out of the kitchen, the door swung open and Alex stood there gaping at the three of us.
“Now, honey, before you go bursting a blood vessel, let your aunt Vi explain.” Alex’s gaze narrowed and zeroed in on me, and I froze where I stood. “We just wanted to come by and clean up the place.” Aunt Vi went over to her nephew and wrapped an arm around his waist. “You’ve been hurtin’, and we just wanted to do our part. Show our kindness without getting you all riled. We all love you.”
“I don’t mean to be rude, Aunt Vi. You know I love you, but I want y’all out of here before I say something I might regret.”
“Alex,” Betsy whined.
“Out.” The single solitary word, gritted out between clenched teeth, was all we needed to excuse ourselves.
Alex barely moved aside to let Betsy and Aunt Vi pass. I didn’t make eye contact as I started to scoot by.
His hand closed softly around my arm. “Not you.” His face was close to mine, and his breath hot against my neck.
Bets and Aunt Vi stood, appearing unsure of how to respond.
Aunt Vi was the first to act. She rushed forward. “Son, Marygene rode with us. She doesn’t have any way of gettin’ home.”
“I’ll drive her.” His burning gaze sizzled my skin.
Aunt Vi placed a hand on her nephew’s back. “Honey, let the girl come with us. You’re not thinking clearly.”
Alex released my arm and turned around to face his aunt. “You think I’d actually hurt her?” The pain in his tone caused a knot to develop in the pit of my stomach. Of course he wouldn’t hurt me. All this craziness had addled my thinking.
Aunt Vi put her hand on his cheek. “Of course not, honey. But maybe it’s best if she comes with us.”
“Yeah, and Marygene don’t want to stay. Do you?” Betsy waved for me to slide through the small opening between Alex and the doorway.
I started to leave, but then he swung his head around and faced me, his nose mere inches from mine, and I couldn’t do it. The pain written all over his expression was too much.
“It’s okay. I’ll let Alex drive me home.” My tone was only marginally shaky.
“Have you lost your mind? He might be the one—” Betsy shut up the second Alex’s gaze swung to her.
“Not you too! I’m your damn cousin. The one who beat up that boy for picking on you in the third grade. The one who always comes when you call with a flat tire or need your oil changed in your car. And now”—he flung an arm toward them—“my own family makes sure I’m away so my house can be snooped through! And believes me capable of the most horrendous acts . . .” His voice caught in his throat.
Betsy smiled sheepishly and her face flushed red. “You’ve been acting crazy since Lucy, and your mom has completely lost it. We just want to find out who’s doing all this and get life back to normal. I didn’t mean to turn on you.”
Alex ran a hand through his untamable hair. “Yeah. I get it. I’ve been a little on the unhinged side. I think I deserve a little slack. I’ve kind of had a lot to deal with here. And you know Mom, always looking for the conspiracy. I think she likes all this.” He glanced toward me, and I turned away, still hurt. It seemed we’d all suffered in one way or another.
“Okay.” Betsy blew out a breath. “I’m sorry. Of course you had nothing to do with this. But someone sure wants me to believe you’re involved. I’ve had a lot to deal with too, you know. First, we were bombed and in the hospital. Then they put Marygene and me in the slammer.”
Aunt Vi rubbed Betsy’s back.
“Not that we’re not tough chicks who can handle it, but still. Plus, I don’t feel good.” She leaned her head onto Aunt Vi’s shoulder. “I’m going home to take a hot shower and get some sleep.” Betsy started for the car, yawning loudly.
“Finally seeing reason. I’m glad to hear it.” Aunt Vi looked pleased that her niece and nephew had made up.
“All right then. Y’all be sweet.” Aunt Vi wagged her finger in our direction and she followed Betsy toward the car.
I stepped out the doorway and watched them slowly back down the driveway. It took Aunt Vi three tries to fully back out onto the street. Betsy waved and Aunt Vi blew the horn as they drove off.
I turned and followed Alex back into the house. Butterflies took up residence in my midsection when he shut the door.