“Not an issue,” Mark said. “Flora is already like a daughter to us. We’ll gladly provide for her. She’s an amazing girl. We couldn’t love her more if we tried.”
Charlie saw Jo wince at the statement, which employed the exact same words the woman had used before.
It’s like they were going off a script.
Charlie asked Mark, “They get along like a house on fire, do they?”
“Exactly.” He beamed, as if he’d passed a test. “Like a house on fire.”
“Anyway,” Jo said, trying to do clean-up. “The Faulkners, her grandparents, are not good people. I’m sorry to say that, but we are talking about Flora’s future here, her college education, her life as a young woman. They try, but their character is—” She stopped herself, probably about to repeat the same line Flora had given Charlie in the bathroom at the Y this morning.
Instead, Jo said, “I know Flora won’t say a word against her Meemaw and Paw, but Leroy has a drug problem and Maude is … well, you’ve met Maude. You know what she’s like. I wouldn’t cross her for all the tea in China, but we love Flora so much. She’s an amazing girl. We couldn’t—”
“Love her more if you tried?” Charlie asked.
“N-no,” Jo stammered.
Mark jumped back in. “I imagine what my wife was going to say is, we couldn’t live with ourselves if we let Flora stay in that awful situation.”
“What’s so awful about it?”
Mark’s well-tanned nose wrinkled in distaste. “That apartment complex is horrible. It’s directly off the highway.”
“I think that’s all they can afford. There’s no crime in being poor, is there?” Charlie watched their expressions, which were as fixed as a marble statue. “Unless you mean the trust?”
“Trust?” Mark said, his voice going up at the end. “Why wouldn’t we trust her?”
Charlie almost laughed at the poor attempt. “Flora told me that she told you guys about the trust.”
The lie made them both relax a tiny bit.
Jo laughed uncomfortably, which was the second laugh in her arsenal, right behind the belly brawl.
Mark said, “Well, we weren’t thinking of the trust because, obviously, that’s for Flora’s college, and to help her get started in life. She’s a very smart girl. She could go to any school, really.” He indicated the house. “I don’t want to sound crass, but, obviously, we don’t need the money.”
“Obviously,” Charlie said.
Jo laughed again, but only twice—a “ha ha” that literally sounded like she was reading it off the back of a box of cereal.
“One more thing—” Charlie always loved the one more thing, because it was usually the thing. “I’m sorry to say this, but Leroy had some unkind words to say about you, Mark. Something about your being crooked?”
“Oh, dear.” Jo gave laugh number one, deep from the belly. “We’re standing in the middle of a joke here: a builder and a lawyer walk into a bar…”
Mark joined in, actually clutching his stomach.
Charlie stared at them both until their guffaws gurgled down the drain.
“Ah.” Mark wiped bogus laugh tears from his eyes. “Well, you know how people feel about builders. They paint us all with the same brush.”
“I thought you were a developer?”
“Builder, developer. Same difference.”
“Really? One seems much more speculative than the other,” Charlie said. “And financially risky.”
Jo said, “We do all right. Mark is really good at his job.”
“That’s great.” Charlie waited, looking at Mark as if she expected him to add more.
His mouth was so dry that his lips caught on his teeth when he smiled. “Is there anything else?”
“Nope. Thank you.” Charlie closed her notebook. She capped her pen. She pretended not to notice them both exhale in unison. “I’ll just need you to put what you said in the affidavit, that you won’t ever take any money from the trust.”
They did the look again, their eyes bouncing in their heads.
“A letter, you mean?” Jo’s voice had gone up, too.
“No.” Charlie drank a sip of tea, but only to make them wait. “I’ll need a sworn affidavit from both of you saying that you’ll never receive any money, directly or indirectly, from Flora’s trust.” Charlie smiled. “And of course you’ll need to take the stand in court and say the same thing, which shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
Mark sucked on his bottom lip. “Mm-hm.”
She tightened the screw. “Because that would be perjury, if you said that you weren’t going to take any money from the trust, but then you did.”
“Perjury,” Mark repeated.
“Well.” Jo cleared her throat. “I’m not a lawyer, but as I understand it, Flora will be emancipated.” She smiled weakly at Charlie. “She’ll control the money, not us. She can do with it whatever she likes.”
“Correct, but if you received money, like if she was a tenant, or she paid utilities or helped with the mortgage or groceries or anything like that, then that would be taking money from the trust. Which is why I’m glad you said she wouldn’t be a tenant, because then it might be construed as an inducement to you, as if the only reason you’re taking Flora in is to exploit the money in her trust, and since she is still a juvenile and not yet emancipated, the judge would frown on that kind of arrangement. Which is why we need to make it clear that what you said is the truth: Flora would be like one of your own children. Not a cash cow to bail you out of whatever financial straits you might find yourself in.” Charlie put her notebook in her purse. “Right?”
Mark did another, “Mm-hm.”
Charlie said, “The thing is, the judge would assign a social worker and a trustee to follow up on everything, because taking a child away from her blood relatives, emancipating her as an adult, all with the understanding that she would be looked after by a kind and loving family, is a really big deal. He’d want to make sure that everyone was doing what they’d promised to do. The social worker would make spot checks. The trustee would oversee the outgoing money to make sure everything is above board. And of course everyone would be concerned with the perjury thing, because that can carry a prison sentence of five years and a fine of up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
“Good-good-good,” Mark said. “Good. To. Know.”
“It is,” Jo chimed in, her lips quivering around a smile. “And I have no problem signing that. Our intention is to not touch a dime in that trust.”
Mark caught on quickly. “Jo’s right. We have every intention of making sure Flora has that money for college.”
They should’ve known better than to try to bullshit a lawyer. “I’m afraid intentions aren’t the same as legally binding agreements. The judge isn’t looking for intentions. He’ll be looking for sworn testimony.”
Jo said, “Well—”
“Obviously, this isn’t about the money,” Mark interrupted. “Flora is very important to us. We couldn’t love her more.” His eyes moved like the carriage on a typewriter. “As you said. Before, I mean. That’s what you said. We couldn’t love her more if we tried.”
Charlie matched his fake grin. “Obviously.”
5
Charlie sat in her parked car outside the near-empty diner, which was mostly chrome and red vinyl in a homage to the fifties. A quick call to the courthouse that she should’ve made this morning had revealed that Mark Patterson was millions of dollars in debt. The Range Rover she had seen parked in the driveway when she left the house was about to be repo’d. The balloon payment on the McMansion was in arrears. He even owed some swank private school down in Roswell so much money that they had turned him over to a collection agency.
Obviously, they wanted Flora for her money. Whether they had worked out an agreement for cash up front or monthly rent or something else untoward was a question that Charlie needed to get answered before she proceeded with any of this.
There
were other questions, too.
Flora had said she wanted to get away from her grandparents before they depleted all of the money in her trust. Why go to the trouble of emancipation only to fall into the clutches of two different adults who wanted her money just as badly? Did Flora think she could keep the Pattersons on a tighter leash once she was legally declared an adult?
There was only one way to find out, and that was to ask Flora herself, but Charlie had found herself seized by inertia once she had pulled her car into an empty space in front of the diner.
Why hadn’t Flora been honest with Charlie in the first place? Was she afraid to tell the truth, or was she playing Charlie for a fool?
Through the windows, she watched Flora talking to her last customer. She looked the same as she had this morning: like a perfectly nice, girl-next-door kind of teenager. Earnest. Honest. A bit fragile, but at the same time, also a bit determined.
The girl’s hair was up in a bun. She was wearing a white apron over her blue jeans and the green Girl Scout shirt. Flora’s customer was a lean, beef-jerky-ish old man with a comb-over, the kind of guy who had a lot of boring stories for pretty young girls. Flora seemed game to listen. She smiled and nodded, then nodded and smiled, then carefully slipped the bill onto the table before walking away.
Comb-Over slapped her on the ass.
Charlie gasped.
Flora had obviously handled this before. She grinned, wagging her finger at the dirty old man, before returning to work. He practically drooled as she leaned over to clear plates from a recently vacated booth.
Charlie’s cell phone rang. She recognized Ben’s office number. He had probably found out from the surveillance crew that she had been at the apartments.
She waited for the phone to stop ringing, guilt niggling at her conscience.
When she looked back at the diner, Flora was laughing, her mouth open, eyes closed. There was a second waitress, a girl about Flora’s age, who had likely said something funny. That seemed to be the long and short of the other girl’s contribution to the job. She had made a huge mess of filling up the catsup bottles. There was so much red on her apron that she looked like she’d come straight from a serial murder. Her bleached-blonde hair and the snake tattoo on her forearm weren’t doing her any favors, either.
Charlie shook her head at the snake. Used to be, only bikers and outlaws had tattoos. They were so commonplace now that they weren’t even a statement. Unless the statement was, “Look, I’m like everybody else.”
Her stomach clenched. She was doing it again, acting like an old lady. Or maybe not an old lady. Maybe she was acting like a mother.
She put her hand to her stomach and thought of Scarlett O’Hara watching Rhett walk away.
There was a lot to be said for letting tomorrow be just another day.
She shook these thoughts from her head, returning her attention to the scene inside the diner.
Comb-Over heaved himself up from the table. Flora gave him the same perky grin right up until he turned his back to leave. The disgusted look on her face was one that was familiar to a lot of women whose wages depended on whether or not they could convincingly flirt with a man for whom they felt absolutely no attraction.
Charlie couldn’t sit in her car for the rest of the day bemoaning the plight of women in the world. She turned off the car engine and headed for the diner.
A rush of cold air enveloped her body as Charlie pushed open the glass door. She smelled French fries, which made her hungry, then she saw a jar of mayonnaise, which brought back the queasiness. Charlie focused instead on the gleaming chrome trimming every surface. There were worse places you could eat. The red vinyl booths were deep and welcoming. The Beach Boys were playing through the speakers. The only other customer in the restaurant was a large man at the lunch counter who was showing an ample amount of butt crack. Charlie guessed by the way he was dressed that the plumber’s van in the parking lot was his.
The tattooed young waitress looked up from pouring a cup of coffee and smiled at Charlie. Her name tag said NANCY. She nodded toward an empty table in the front. “I’ll be right with you.”
Charlie scanned the restaurant, but Flora was not there. “I’m going to use the restroom first.”
She walked down the back hall, the same direction in which Flora had disappeared. There were three doors on the left, each marked with their respective purpose. GUYS. DOLLS. STORAGE. The back door was propped open. Sunlight cut across the black-and-white tile floor like a razor. Charlie smelled cigarette smoke. She heard laughter.
“No, you asshole,” Flora said, her voice sounding a lot older than before. “I’m not gonna do that. Gross.”
“Why?” a man’s voice responded. It was high-pitched, likely from a capuchin monkey. “Don’t you love me?”
“If you loved me, you wouldn’t even bring it up.”
Charlie closed her eyes. At fifteen, she’d had similar conversations with boys.
“Look,” Flora said. “Just be cool for a few more days. That lawyer lady is going to talk to your folks, and then we’ll both be living in the same house and it’ll be easier.”
“Not if your Meemaw has anything to do with it.”
“I can handle Meemaw.”
He barked a short laugh. “If you say so.”
“Of course I say so.” Flora paused. “Come on, baby, don’t be that way.”
Charlie listened to the unmistakable sound of lips and tongues coming together.
Which was creepy, because eavesdropping on Flora making out with her boyfriend was something that Comb-Over would do.
Charlie backed up and went into the DOLLS room.
The smell of bleach stung her nose. One of the waitresses, probably Flora, had done a good job cleaning the place. The sink practically sparkled. Even the floor was squeaky clean.
Charlie blinked as her eyes started to blur. She felt unaccountably dizzy. Her stomach was churning again. She pressed her hand to the wall. She was not going to throw up the cinnamon bun from an hour ago. But just in case, she walked into the stall. The toilet seat was already up from being cleaned. Charlie stood there, looking at her reflection in the flat surface of the water, and waited.
Was she going to throw up?
She was going to throw up.
She leaned down. Her stomach clenched. Her throat did that goose pâté gurgling thing, but nothing happened.
She waited a few seconds to make sure. She stood back up. She went to the sink.
The mirror showed a panicked-looking woman on the cusp of her entire life changing.
For the better? For the worse?
Her hand went to her stomach again, not because she felt sick but because she wondered what was in there.
She could go to the drugstore. She could buy one of those tests. She could pee on a stick and in minutes she would have her answer.
Did she really want to know?
Charlie pulled her hair into a ponytail and clipped it in place. She found some lipstick in her purse. She was smoothing color onto her pale lips when the door opened.
Flora asked, “You okay, Miss Quinn?”
“You keep finding me at bad times.” Charlie talked to the girl’s reflection in the mirror. “Was that Oliver, your boyfriend?”
Flora leaned back against the wall. She talked to the mirror, too. “I wouldn’t say he’s my boyfriend.”
“Whatever he is, don’t do anything with him that you don’t want to do.”
“I won’t.”
She seemed very sure of herself. Charlie asked, “Did your grandparents tell you that I spoke with them?”
“Meemaw called. She’s really mad at you.”
“She made that clear when I saw her.” Charlie couldn’t pretend that things had not changed since the last time Flora had caught her puking in a public restroom. She told the girl, “I spoke with the Pattersons, too.”
Flora leaned back against the wall. She crossed her arms. She waited.
“You know
that they want money from you, right?”
Flora looked down at the ground.
Charlie put the lipstick back in her purse. “I can’t help you if you’re not honest with me.”
“I was honest,” Flora insisted. “I need to get away from Meemaw and Paw. They’re going to burn through my trust and—”
“Do you have some sort of arrangement with the Pattersons?”
Flora did not respond.
“I need to know the truth, Flora.”
The girl gave in with a slow nod.
“Honey, the Pattersons are not good people. They’re scamming you.”
“You can’t be scammed if you know what’s happening.”
“That’s not altogether true.” Charlie crossed her arms, too. “What happens in a year from now when they want more money?”
“I won’t give it to them.”
“And they’ll kick you out, and then what?”
“Then I’ll live somewhere else.”
“Flora—” Charlie didn’t want to get into the minutiae, so she kept it simple “As a lawyer, I can’t put someone on the stand to testify if I know that they are going to lie.”
Flora looked dubious. “How can anybody prove what you know and what you don’t know?”
“I’ll know.” Charlie let out a long sigh at the girl’s confused expression. “This might be hard to believe, but lawyers are held to a code of professional responsibility. I could lose my license to practice if I violate the code.”
Flora was unmoved. “You some kind of chicken?”
Charlie wasn’t going to give a child a child’s answer. “I’m sorry, but I think I am.”
Her eyes flashed with anger. “Your daddy ain’t no chicken.”
“No, but he taught me a very hard lesson about how your choices have consequences.” Charlie could see that the girl still wasn’t getting it. “My father made some decisions as far as how he was going to be a lawyer that had a lot of negative ramifications for his family.” She didn’t know how to be any clearer. “Our house was burned down.”
Flora looked surprised. She had grown up in Pikeville, so she obviously knew about the shooting. The fact that the house had been firebombed just over a week prior tended to get overshadowed by the cold-blooded murder.
Last Breath Page 7
