by Jessa Archer
He nodded. I pulled out my phone and pressed record.
“I didn’t give the drug to Tessa. I…I don’t know who gave it to her, okay?”
I had the strong sense that Eli wasn’t telling the truth on that point, but I just said, “Okay. Go on.”
“Tessa used to come out here a lot. Sometimes she’d help me with the snakes. She didn’t handle them, but she thought they were cool. Then my pop had this idea for the TV show. He was always getting ideas. It was his idea for us to find people to sell the dip-it in the first place.”
“The what?”
“That’s just what he called it. Crushed up candies mixed with LSD. You lick your finger then dip it in the powder and lick again. So…dip-it. Anyway, my pop’s been making it for members for a long time. It’s not expensive, and he says it keeps them loyal. He thought we could make some money off it. One of the members must have said something to Tessa, though, because she started asking my pop questions. Wanted to try it. She was real…curious. About a lot of stuff.”
“I’ve heard that,” I said. “What were you saying about the TV show?”
“Yeah. My pop tried to pitch it before, but nobody was ever interested. He guessed maybe they were worried about someone gettin’ hurt and the TV network ending up part of the lawsuit. That’s why he had the snakes operated on. There’s a vet in Nashville he paid to do it last fall. He was gonna start pitchin’ the idea to the TV people again—tell them the snakes were safe now, and that he’d stop using the poison. He’d never put much in the water anyway. Just enough to make the people wanna get up and move around. It kinda makes your muscles twitch, and they think it’s the spirit flowing through them. He never got around to pitchin’ it again, though. That’s about the time I got arrested for selling the dip-it. They asked a lot of questions about the church. I told them about the venomoid process, mostly because I was still mad about it. I mean, God gave them those venom sacs for a reason, and it didn’t seem right to take them away, especially when my pop was claiming that having the faith to hold the snakes could heal people.”
He heaved a big sigh. “Felt a little guilty about tellin’ them he was a fraud, but I could’ve done worse. I could’ve turned him in for makin’ the stuff. I figured at some point the police would come out and close the church down, and I was kind of okay with that. But nothin’ happened. My court date kept getting pushed back, and then suddenly the TV people contacted him to say they were interested in shooting a…whatchamacallit.”
“A pilot?”
“Yeah,” he said. “And maybe a series later. So we had to find some shills real quick who could help sell the healing side. Put on a big show, something a network might buy. Not just members. Perry knew that Meredith woman from when he lived in Knoxville, and my pop contacted her. He went over and auditioned them, got the whole thing lined up, except I don’t think he counted on that guy standing up and saying he was the girl’s daddy.”
I didn’t think Meredith had planned on that either, but I kept quiet.
“And then,” Eli continued, “Tessa shows up a few weeks ago after Friday night service. Saying she knows all about the snakes and knows that he’s a fake. I think he panicked. The thing he’d signed with the TV people said the snakes were venomous. If it got out they weren’t, he figured it would blow the deal. He got one of his…dip-it distributors…to give her some. He’d said no when she asked before, so I think it was kind of a bribe. To try and get her not to spill the beans.”
“He wanted to get her addicted?”
“No. It’s not really all that habit-forming. I figured he was just trying to buy a little time. Give her what she wanted until the pilot had been filmed, then maybe try to reason with her. But then he got the call saying she’d had a bad reaction. That she was dead.” His voice broke on the last word. “The guy left her body out in the woods, inside this little shed. Pop sent me out to take care of it. Told me to drop her in the river. But…I couldn’t do that. Tessa was my friend. She deserved a proper burial, but I didn’t have time, and the ground was too rocky to dig very deep. I was going to go back after all this was over and do it right. Maybe sprinkle some wildflower seeds. Make it pretty.”
“What you should have done was call the police, Eli. Even anonymously.”
He gave a ragged sigh. “I know. But I didn’t really think he’d done it on purpose until later. Then I started thinking about all this and about him being mad at her. And about how she looked when I found her.”
“You think your father spiked the drugs with strychnine?”
“Yeah. I think so. I found the little bag in her pocket when I buried her.”
“And you were going to cover for him?” I asked.
“No! I was going to turn him in. But I never got a chance to put the evidence back, because those women ran off with it.”
“What?”
“The packet of stuff my pop made for Tessa was in that alien from the yard sale. I was going to leave it in his lab and call a tip in to the police, but…”
“Why did Mindy take the alien?”
“I don’t know!” Eli said. “Ask her, maybe. I guess it coulda been a coincidence. Or maybe she saw me stick the packet in there and realized it might be drugs. I didn’t even know she and her mom were the shills until they stood up in the audience tonight. I went out to the campground looking for them. Went to all the campgrounds. I didn’t get back here until almost eight. We already had people in the seats.”
I pulled the alien out of my purse as he was talking and checked inside. It was empty.
“Eli, to be clear, are you saying a packet with strychnine-laced drugs was inside that toy?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you know who gave it to Tessa? Who was it that called your father to say she’d reacted badly to the drug?”
“I don’t know who it was.”
I’d already asked him that once, but I really didn’t believe him the first time, so I’d asked again. His voice still had that sing-song quality when he answered. It rang false. But I didn’t think I was going to get anything else from him. If he was covering for someone, it wasn’t his dad.
“So you’re not the one who yelled for Tessa’s friends to get out?”
“I didn’t get there until later. Parked down the road and waited until the police left. Then I hiked over to this little pump house in the woods at the edge of the factory grounds. If they’re still looking, I buried her near that.”
“No,” I told him, a little surprised that he hadn’t pieced that much together. “They found her. Where does your father make the drugs, Eli?”
“In his lab.”
I took a deep breath and sent up a prayer for patience. “Yes. But where is his lab?”
“Oh. In the root cellar.”
“Is the cellar inside the house or behind it?” I asked.
“Neither. It’s under the barn. There’s a trapdoor in the floor, back behind the part where we built the stage.”
“Why didn’t you just tell Billy all this when you were inside?” I asked.
“Because I didn’t have the proof anymore,” Eli said. “So I thought maybe I should wait on a lawyer.”
“That’s actually not a bad idea,” I told him. “But I’m going to see if we can find some proof, okay?”
I called Wren as I went back into the barn, but she was apparently in one of the many dead zones between here and Maryville. As I ended the call, I saw Billy Thorpe coming down the ladder from the loft. I debated which of the things I’d just learned to tell him first. While I sincerely hoped that Mindy wasn’t dumb enough to try the little packet of possibly-drugs she’d found stuffed up inside an alien while she was being driven to the ER in a police cruiser, I decided that I wouldn’t put it past her. And given the risk if she did decide to try it, finding Abel could wait.
“You need to get Mason on the radio,” I told Billy. “I can’t reach Wren. I think Mindy Tucker has a packet of the same stuff that killed Tessa.”
&nb
sp; He took off toward the car without another word. I waited at the barn door until he came back.
“I’m not even going to ask how you knew this or why you’re not in your Jeep,” he said when he came back in. “But Blevins will ask, and he’s in a nasty mood. This whole thing was being filmed for Sting TV, and I guess I got too much of the limelight.”
“What is Sting TV?”
“It’s a cable network. Shows reruns of Cops and shows like that, but they do some original stuff. One of their producers stumbled upon the pitch that Davenport was sending around and decided to see if he could interest local law enforcement. They’d act like they were doing a pilot for his pitch, but they’d really be focused on the law enforcement effort to catch him in the act. Blevins being who he is jumped at the chance. Then Tessa Martin disappeared just as the film crew arrived in town, and Ed decided to start the search for the body this afternoon. Blevins had to turn back so he could at least put in an appearance. I was supposed to wait for him before busting in to stop the show, but when the snake bit that girl…well, let’s just say Steverino is not too happy that I was the one bustin’ down the door with the cameras rolling.”
“Then I’m going to leave it up to you,” I said. “I’m almost certain Abel Davenport is the man who actually killed Tessa Martin. They’re going to find strychnine in her system, in much higher quantities than what they use as the watered-down poison for their services here. He makes that drug you guys caught Eli with—which he also uses in services—in a root cellar underneath the stage. I think there’s a really good chance that he’s still down there, waiting for everyone to leave before he pops his head up like a gopher. I got most of this from Eli, which means you can claim that he spilled the beans to you. So…the question is, do you want to haul Abel Davenport out of that cellar yourself and take the credit, or would your life be easier if you let Blevins be the one in front of the cameras for this part?”
He thought about it for a moment, then sighed. “I need to verify that he’s down there. Is he armed?”
“No clue,” I said. “Eli might know.”
“Let’s try something else first.”
I followed him to the back of the barn. Sure enough, there was a door in the wooden floor with a knotted rope pull. Billy dragged the pulpit back toward the cellar door, and then motioned for me to stand back. “Abel? If you’re down there, you need to say something. Things will go a lot easier for you if you come peacefully.”
There was a long pause, and then Abel said, “Or maybe I’ll just blow this thing sky high and take you with me.”
“Go!” Billy yelled as he shoved the pulpit over, blocking the cellar door.
I didn’t stop to ask why. Was Abel the type who would rather spend his days in prison or go out in a blaze of glory? I didn’t know, but I wasn’t willing to risk my life on the matter.
As soon as we were outside, Billy ran to his car. “I need to move this just in case he’s crazy enough to do it. Get back to your Jeep, okay? In fact, go home. I’ll tell Blevins I gave you clearance. He’s going to be in a much better mood in just a few minutes. Assuming the barn doesn’t go up in flames before he can play action hero, that is.”
✰ Chapter Twenty ✰
The parking lot at Woodward Mills looked empty as I approached just before eleven. I was about to drive on by, thinking that Ed was either waiting at my place or had headed home, but then I spotted his Silverado in the far corner of the lot. He was leaning against the door, and I could tell from the way he was standing that he hadn’t taken my advice about leaving the legwork to the younger crew.
I pulled the Wrangler up next to him, then got out and gave him a long hug. Neither of us spoke for a moment. It was nice just to feel his arms around me and his heartbeat against my shoulder.
“You didn’t have to wait here for me,” I told him. “I could have met you at the house.”
“It’s okay,” he said. “It hasn’t been that long since the ambulance took the body away. Since all three of our official law enforcement officers seem to be otherwise occupied this evening up at Pender’s Gap, I thought someone should wait here and make sure no one came in to disturb the area where the body was found. The path on the other side of the factory is the only way to access the location. And…I needed to wait on Cassie anyway.”
“Where is she?” I asked.
He nodded toward the factory. “I offered to go in with her, but she seemed to think I might be a distraction. She was pretty upset when we found the grave, and this seemed to be something she had to do, so…”
“How long has she been in there?”
“Not long,” he said. “Give her a few minutes. She’s okay. But we can drive around back if you want.”
“Sure,” I said, and we climbed into his truck. “Why were you parked all the way over here, anyway? I nearly didn’t see you.”
He held up his cell phone so that I could see the two bars in the upper corner. “Appears to be the only spot on the entire grounds with any connectivity.”
“Have you heard from Billy yet? Did they get Abel?”
“Not exactly.” Ed sighed, shaking his head. “The good news is that Billy got on the horn and managed to evacuate the rest of the people before the barn blew. They’ve got fire crews heading up there now.”
I covered my mouth. “Oh my God. It’s so dry right now. Is the fire spreading?”
“It’s not too bad yet, but you’re right. The whole area’s like a tinderbox. One good thing is that the nearest house is a little over a mile away. They tried to talk him out using the loudspeaker, but after that threat, they were right not to go back into the barn. Billy even got his phone number from Eli and tried calling to see if they could reason with him but…he knew they had enough to put him away for the rest of his life. I guess he decided it wasn’t worth it.”
Ed parked near the back door that Cassie and I had entered together when searching for Tessa. It was just last night, but it seemed like it had been days. While we waited on Cassie, I filled Ed in on everything that happened up at Pender’s Gap, including the fact that he seemed to be off the hook on the whole paternity issue.
He laughed. “Wren sent me a text to share that happy news with me. Mindy is fine. Doctor gave her a tetanus booster, just to be on the safe side. Apparently, she and Jesse are hitting it off. And Meredith doesn’t appear to be happy about that in the slightest. I just wonder why she didn’t tell Jesse sooner.”
“Maybe she just wanted to convince herself that Mindy was the result of a passionate one-night stand with the tall, dark, and handsome deputy and not her cousin’s argumentative best friend. But…to give Jesse credit, he really stepped up to the plate tonight. You should have seen him pushing through the crowd with Patsy’s mama in his arms.”
“Jesse’s okay,” Ed said. “He just likes to shoot his mouth off about everything. Been that way since he was a kid. But underneath it all, he’s got a good heart.”
Then I asked the question that I was dreading. Even though I pretty much knew the answer already, I still had to ask. “How are Jeff and Brenda taking it?”
“Rough,” he said. “They knew, or at least Brenda did. I don’t think she had any doubt at all. But it’s still hard to have that last bit of hope taken away.”
“Did you talk to Kate?”
He shook his head. “She wanted to come out and help search, but Sherry talked her out of it. Sawyer and Julissa were here, though. They may have felt like they had some penance to do. Once we found the grave though, I sent them all home. No point in them hanging around.”
“Cassie stayed for that part?” I asked, a little alarmed.
“No, no, no. Dean dropped her back off later. He seemed pretty reluctant to leave her, but when that girl sets her mind on something…” He laughed and put his arm around me. “Just like her mama. Stubborn, but definitely worth the trouble.”
I peered through the windshield and was able to make out a faint glimmer of candlelight inside the dark fa
ctory. “She’s not even using the flashlight you gave her,” I said.
“Maybe it scares away the spirit?”
I cocked my head and gave him a long stare. “Since when do you believe in spirits, Ed Shelton?”
“Since Cassie told me she sees them.”
The words were so simple and direct that they brought tears to my eyes. And then, without even pausing to think about consequences or propriety or whether this was the best time, I said the words I’d been thinking for several months but had never quite found the nerve to say.
“I love you.”
He smiled, leaning over to kiss me. “And I love you right back. But we’re not going to be able to have the romantic scene that confession deserves because you’re nervous about Cassie being in there alone, aren’t you?”
I nodded. “I know it’s silly. I’m all but certain that the person who gave Tessa the drugs, who called Abel Davenport to tell him she was dead…that’s who was banging on metal and screaming for Tessa’s friends to get out. Not some ghost or crazed serial killer. But I’m still a little freaked out, maybe because I don’t know who that other person is. And Blevins is lazy. Now that he can pin Tessa’s death on Abel Davenport, with Eli as an accomplice, I just don’t get the sense he’ll dig too hard to find the other guy.”
I didn’t add that I had a fairly strong inkling who the other person was. For one thing, I was biased against him, both due to the smirk he’d inherited and the fact that he was almost certainly responsible for the accident that came close to killing Ed seven years ago. And to be perfectly fair, the scuffle with Eli at Wren’s yard sale could have been about anything.
But if the guy who gave Tessa the drug was Derrick Blevins, that would also explain why Elijah Davenport wasn’t willing to rat him out. Having Blevins in his corner could be the difference between Eli spending little to no time in jail or spending most of his life there. And Blevins would definitely not be in Eli’s corner if Eli claimed Derrick had been the one who put that packet of drugs into Tessa’s hands.
