“I’ll drive,” I told Austin. I needed to be in charge for a while. It was a little tricky, finding our way back to the Interstate, and it was good to concentrate on alternate routes and road signs instead of the even trickier matter of my mother’s whereabouts.
Austin drummed his fingertips on the van’s dashboard. “Well,” he said finally. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s tragic that a woman in her forties has never been to Disney World,” I said, staring straight ahead.
“No, I mean about Darvis Kane. He didn’t have your mother with him when he sold her car. What can that mean?”
“Lots of things. Maybe she was meeting up with him someplace in Anniston. The old lady said she didn’t hang around to see if he got on a bus. Or maybe he arranged to meet her someplace else. Or…” I let my voice trail off, not wanting to speak about the possibilities that were whirling around in my own mind.
“Maybe Jeanine didn’t know he took her car. Maybe he left her back in Madison. Maybe she really didn’t run off with Darvis Kane,” said Austin, ever helpful.
I pushed a strand of sweaty hair off my forehead. “That still leaves us with more questions than answers. Again. We still don’t know where my mother is, and we don’t know where Darvis is.”
Austin reached over and massaged my taut shoulder muscles. “Is this upsetting you?”
“No. Sort of. I don’t know. Maybe we should just let Daddy’s private detective sort it out.”
He clamped his hand down on my arm. “Private detective?”
I nodded. “Now that he’s started dating, Daddy has decided maybe he does need to have some answers about Mama. He told me Wednesday night that he’s hired another detective. Somebody from Atlanta. A real pro this time, he claims.”
“Keeley!” Austin said, looking peeved. “I can’t believe you’re just now telling me this. Who is it? Has the guy found anything out yet? Maybe we should get together and exchange information.”
I laughed. “Daddy didn’t tell me his name. Not that it matters, because we don’t have any real information, Austin. I think we really have hit a dead end this time.”
“What?” he screeched. “How can you talk like that? This isn’t a dead end. We just uncovered a really important fact. Darvis Kane was alone when he sold your mama’s car. And he probably took a bus from Anniston to wherever he was meeting your mother. All we have to do now is get the bus company to check their records and tell us where he went.”
I hated to rain on Austin’s parade, I really did. But it wasn’t fair to let him keep up with the fantasy that he was going to track down my mother after all these years, and everything would be peachy-keen. And it wasn’t fair to me either, to let that fantasy take root in my mind.
“What records?” I asked. “Twenty-five years ago, they didn’t have computers. Anyway, it was a bus station, not an airport. Have you ever actually ridden on a Greyhound bus? They don’t take down your name and address and Social Security number. You give them some cash, they give you a ticket, you get on the bus next to some stinky guy with a mullet hairdo wearing a Walkman.”
“It’s still an important piece of information,” Austin said sulkily.
I patted his knee. “You’re right. It is. When we get back home, I’ll tell Daddy to pass it along to his private detective. It could be the key that unlocks this whole mystery.”
“Now you’re patronizing me,” Austin said. “I can’t stand when people do that.”
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s talk about something else. Like where do you want to stay tonight? It’s at least seven hours to New Orleans. Should we find a motel, maybe in Mobile or Biloxi, or keep going to the Big Easy?”
“Either way, I miss Friday night in New Orleans.”
“It’s always Friday night in New Orleans,” I pointed out. “Okay. I don’t know about you, but I’d kill for a shower right about now. Let’s just take I-65 down to Mobile and spend the night there. We can have a nice dinner and get an early start to Biloxi in the morning. I wouldn’t mind touring an old antebellum plantation house either, if there’s one on the way to New Orleans. For research purposes. I’m not doing an exact historic reproduction at Mulberry Hill, but it always helps me to see the real thing.”
“It’s your party,” Austin said. “I’m just along to do the heavy lifting.”
“Not true. You get to do some of the driving too. And I need your design sensibility. You’re a man of many talents, Austin.”
“I’m an excellent detective too,” he said. “Despite what you think, we are making progress on finding out what happened to your mother. We’ve eliminated a lot of possibilities, and now there are just a few people left who we absolutely have to talk to.”
“Who?”
“That cousin of yours up in Kannapolis, mainly,” he said.
“Sonya Wyrick,” I said.
He nodded. “I found her. She’s still right there in Kannapolis.”
I stared at him. “Have you talked to her?”
“Sort of. A woman answered the phone at the house I called, but she hung up before I could even tell her what I wanted. I think she thought I was trying to sell her something.”
“She probably won’t talk to me either,” I said.
“Why are you being like this?” Austin asked, exasperated. “You’re such a defeatist!”
“Talking to people about Mama, it’s just really hard. I mean, it’s not like I’m dredging up happy memories, for them or for me. This was a scandal, and even though it all happened a long time ago, it seems like just about everybody in Madison would just as soon forget the name Jeanine Murdock.”
“But you wouldn’t,” Austin said gently. “And neither would your daddy. And if you won’t find out for yourself, find out for him. Don’t you think it’s about time these old secrets get aired out?”
“I guess,” I said. “But I don’t have a good feeling about this. There has to be a reason it’s been a secret all these years. And I just don’t think this is going to have a happy ending. That’s why I’m so reluctant to keep going. Somebody is going to get hurt.”
“Somebody already has been hurt,” Austin said. “You and your daddy. Probably a bunch of people you don’t even know have been hurt by your mother’s disappearance too. It can’t get any worse, can it?”
I’d been thinking about that too. All the awful possibilities. But in the end Austin was right. Daddy and I needed to know. Now. So we could get on with our lives, with or without Jeanine.
“All right,” I said finally. “I guess I wouldn’t mind seeing Sonya again. I know so little about Mama’s family, maybe she can fill in some gaps.”
“That’s my girl,” Austin said, beaming. “I’ll even go with you. And after we’ve caught up with cousin Sonya, we can go on up the road a little bit and hit the High Point furniture outlets. They have the most fabulous website. I’ve already checked it out. We can head up there, right after we’re done in New Orleans. I mean, we already have the truck, and I’ve got the week off to play. And best of all, we can do our little research and still write the whole trip off on Will’s dime.”
“You’ve been plotting against me,” I said.
“Somebody has to.”