Low Country Dreams

by Lee Tobin McClain

  “Hang on a minute, Yas,” he said. “There’s something you should know.”

  His words and his tone made dread pile on top of her like heavy weights. “What is it?”

  “There’s no easy way to say this.” He was staring straight ahead toward the lake. “You know that body they found in the car by the docks?”

  “Yeah.” She held her breath.

  Buck’s eyebrows drew together and he patted her shoulder. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this. It looks like Josiah is responsible.”

  The weights bore down on her. “I don’t believe that, Buck! He’s not violent.”

  “Unless he’s provoked,” Buck said. “He might have been trying to protect someone, or the guy might have said something that made him angry. By all accounts, he was a lowlife.”

  “You know who he was?”

  “I do.” He glanced over at her. “Rocky’s stepfather.”

  “What?” Her voice screeched high but she didn’t stop to modulate it. “He moved to California!”

  Buck shook his head. “No, he didn’t.”

  “The guy who’s been abusing Rocky’s mom and winning her back, all these years?”

  “I told you, a lowlife.” He turned to face her. “Look, maybe we can come to some agreement.”

  Blood pounded in her ears. “What kind of agreement?”

  “I don’t want to see Josiah prosecuted, any more than you do. I’m willing to overlook some evidence if you and Josiah just keep quiet about it. If you can keep him quiet about it. I know he’s not reliable on his own.”

  The temptation was there. It was what she’d been doing, right? But something about this didn’t ring true.

  “You’re an officer of the law,” she said slowly. “Why would you be willing to overlook a murder?”

  He was opening his mouth to answer when another car pulled up beside them. The door opened and a woman got out.

  Yasmin’s mouth fell open and she flung open the passenger door and scrambled out. “Lorraine! What are you doing here?”

  “What are you?” Lorraine asked.

  Now Buck was out of the car, too, looking from one to the other. “Come on up onto the porch,” he said quickly. “We all need to talk.”

  “I want to see Josiah,” Yasmin said.

  “In due time. He’s fine.” Buck spoke so casually and offhandedly that Yasmin believed him, and she nodded, feeling dazed. Lorraine was here?

  “How long have you been in the area?” And aren’t you at least a little concerned about your son?

  Lorraine shrugged. “A few weeks.”

  They sank into chairs on the porch. Buck went inside and came back with a tray, passing out open bottles of hard lemonade.

  Yasmin put hers down without tasting it.

  Lorraine took a big draw on her bottle. “I’ve been staying out here, trying to lay low,” she said, “because I think I’m in trouble for killing my ex.”

  “You killed your ex?” Yasmin stared. “But I thought...” She looked at Buck, confused. “Who was it who hit him over the head? And put him in a car and drove it into the ocean?”

  “I don’t remember a whole lot about it,” Lorraine said, frowning. “I’d been drinking, to be honest. But I know we got into it physically, and the next thing I know, Buck’s hustling me into his car.” She squeezed his arm and smiled at him. “He’s an old friend, and he always takes good care of me.”

  Buck smiled and nodded. To Yasmin, it looked completely insincere.

  Her mind raced. The way Buck was acting lined up with him being the person who’d whispered things to scare her. What was his endgame?

  “But the more I think about it...well, I don’t know what happened. And isn’t there some kind of clause, anyway, for women who beat up their abusers? So I was thinking.” She looked at Buck fondly. “I appreciate what you’ve done for me, and all, but I miss my kid.” She turned to Yasmin again. “I made him drive me by your house a week or so ago, to make sure he was okay, but seeing him just made me miss him worse. And I know I can’t leave him with you forever. I think I ought to just confess everything and face the music.”

  “Wait,” Yasmin said, her mind reeling, “are you sure you killed him? And Buck knew that, thought so too?” She turned to him. “Then why were you telling me that Joe was the one who killed him? And where is Joe, anyway?”

  There was a noise at the screen door into the house, and they all turned. Josiah stood there, a silent shadow.

  “Joe!” She stood, rushed to him and opened the door, wrapped her arms around him. “I was so worried!”

  Josiah extracted himself from her hug but left an arm around her and guided her back out onto the porch. He looked bedraggled, wearing the same clothes he’d been wearing yesterday, his eyes sunken. Had he been taking his medicine?”

  He nudged her. “Yes, I took my meds,” he said too quietly for the others to hear.

  “You always could read my mind. Oh, I’m so glad you’re safe.”

  His head tilted to one side as if listening to voices no one else could hear. “We’re not safe,” he said.

  She bit her lip. He was still having his delusions.

  “And it’s only since I got out here and met Lorraine and thought it all through,” he said, his voice clear and rational, “that I figured out the truth. At first I thought Lorraine did it, and Rocky thought so, too. But she didn’t.” Josiah looked straight at Buck. “He killed the guy.”

  Before Yasmin could react, Buck took two steps toward them, face furious. “Who’s going to believe you?”

  Yasmin stared at Buck, and at Josiah, and everything fell into place. The reason for Josiah’s anxiety and Rocky’s fear; the reason Buck hadn’t pushed the investigation forward; the reason he was trying to blame Joe. She looked over at Lorraine and saw the same realization dawning on her face. “If they don’t believe Josiah, they’ll believe us,” Yasmin said, and Lorraine nodded agreement.

  Buck turned and saw them exchanging looks and his lip curled into a snarl. “No one will believe you either,” he said to Lorraine. “They all know you cheat and lie and drink.” He nodded toward his boat, docked down at the lake. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go for a ride.”

  Josiah, Yasmin and Lorraine all stood their ground. “We’re not going for a ride,” Yasmin said.

  Buck grabbed Josiah with a roughness she hadn’t known he was capable of. “And you,” he said to Yasmin. “I know you won’t go anywhere without your precious brother. So come on, man. You’re the pied piper gonna lead your sister back to...wherever the pied piper leads people to.”

  “Don’t go with him, Joe,” she said.

  “He has a gun.”

  Josiah said those kinds of things all the time, but this time, it was true. Buck held a gun pointed straight at Josiah’s head.

  “Put it away,” Yasmin said, trying to keep her voice from shaking. “I’ll come, just put it away.”

  “I don’t think you’re really in any position to call the shots. Come on.” Roughly, he jerked Josiah toward the long wooden dock below his place.

  “Get help,” Joe said to Yasmin.

  “Can you?” she mouthed to Lorraine. Because she didn’t think her brother had a chance of surviving if she didn’t go along.

  Wasn’t sure she had a chance of surviving, either. Wherever Buck was planning to take them couldn’t be good. But she was going to try.

  She was strong, she knew that now. And even though she’d made mistakes, she still wanted all the happiness she could squeeze out of life.

  Buck was untying his big, powerful fishing boat, flicking the gun to point at Josiah every few seconds. His movements were jerky, manic.

  Oh, this wasn’t good. Not good at all. If they got onto the boat and went into the swamp, their chances of survival would decrease dramatically.

&
nbsp; Although, if they didn’t get on the boat, Buck might very well shoot them and let their bodies fall into the swamp. Either place, they’d be unlikely to be found.

  They were out of options.

  Rocky would have Lorraine, who was even now squealing off in her car. She and Josiah would be together, in death as they’d been in life. And Liam...

  Oh, how she wanted the chance to hold him, to be with him, to try to explain. One more time, she wanted to see him laughing with his brothers, or patiently teaching Rio, or explaining to middle-schoolers the consequences of their actions.

  He was a man who held family and community at the core of his being, who valued it above all else. A truly good man.

  The woman who gained his heart would be lucky, indeed.

  She’d had the chance to be that, but her own feelings of not deserving happiness had ruined it, had made her push him away in an unforgiveable way. Yes, she’d been trying to sacrifice herself for him, but why? Had he asked her to do that? Had it helped him at all?

  “Get on the boat,” Buck said, pulling her arm roughly.

  Liam, where are you?

  She let go of the dock and let Buck force her into the boat.

  * * *

  LIAM LOOKED AROUND at Rita and Miss Vi, all frustrated in Rita’s apartment. He’d talked to the state police, who couldn’t do much yet. He’d alerted Buddy in their own department, and he’d called his brothers to come. Sean had the twins alone and couldn’t leave them, though he was looking for a sitter so he could help. Cash was on his way.

  Keeping it together was a challenge, because he had the sense that Yasmin was in danger. She wouldn’t have just left town with no notice, and she always answered her phone. Something was wrong.

  And he had to remain calm no matter what. He was the cop. “I still think we have to find Josiah,” he said. “That’s where Yasmin is. That’s who she is.” She’d help her brother despite whatever risk to her own safety.

  But they’d followed several false leads. Miss Vi knew Josiah well, and it had been right to consult her, but her ideas hadn’t panned out.

  Rocky had fallen asleep, but now he sat up on the couch and rubbed his eyes, looked around. “Did we find Yasmin and Josiah yet?”

  “Not yet, honey, but we will.” Rita went and sat beside him, and to Liam’s surprise, Rocky allowed her to put her arm around him.

  It hit him then: Rocky had lost his own mother, and now he’d lost the woman who’d stepped in as a mother figure to him. A trauma for any kid.

  But Rocky was made of pretty stern stuff. After accepting a glass of orange juice from Rita, he sat forward and asserted that whatever they were doing, he didn’t want to be left behind.

  “We can keep using my place as a home base,” Rita said. “I’ll stay here with Miss Vi and we’ll wait for Jimmy, keep track of Rocky.”

  “I think that’s a good idea,” Liam said. He had all the respect in the world for Miss Vi and Rita, but for serious investigating, he was worried he’d be too preoccupied with protecting them to focus on the search.

  The doorbell rang, and when Rita opened it, she went still. Jimmy walked in. “Thanks for coming,” she said, her voice breathless. “We’re trying to figure out what to do.”

  “No problem.” But he sounded cool, distant. Something must have gone down between them, but Liam had no time to focus on that now.

  Cash walked in behind Jimmy. Good. His brother was a great resource, strong and smart.

  They quickly brought Jimmy and Cash up to speed. Cash turned immediately to Rocky. “Tell me everything you know about Josiah and what might have happened to him,” he said.

  Good thinking. Liam hadn’t paid enough attention to the boy and what he might know, but the truth was, he spent more time with Josiah than anyone else.

  “I know a few things,” Rocky said, but he turned away from Cash’s intensity, his face closing.

  Rita came over with a big bag of chips and some sour cream dip, and put them on the table. Good maternal thinking. A boy like Rocky, growing the way he was, needed constant nourishment.

  Liam reached for patience to connect with the boy. With Yasmin involved, he wanted to rush out, look for her and fight his way in to save her, but that wasn’t good police work. They first had to find out where she was. Running around crazily was the opposite of how to find out.

  He felt wildly out of control and he hated that. But he knew what it took to be a great cop, and panicking wasn’t it. “Anything you remember will help,” he said to Rocky, keeping his tone casual. “You’ve probably spent more time with Josiah than any of us. Did he say anything about places he wanted to go?”

  “He talked about places he didn’t want to go,” Rocky mumbled around a mouthful of potato chips.

  “Like where?” Liam passed him a can of Coke and reminded himself that the story would come out at its own pace. You couldn’t hurry people; that just made things worse. So when Cash looked ready to explode, Liam asked him to go check on Sean.

  “Buck invited him to come visit his place. On some lake? Joe didn’t want to go but he thought I might like to try fishing, so he said he would. Only Buck didn’t want to take me, so then Joe said no.”

  Liam looked at Rita. “He has a big house over on Five-Mile Bayou,” he said.

  “Yeah,” Rocky said, gulping cola and getting more animated. “They were talking about disappearing, and I listened to them, because I want to be a cop one day, too.”

  That gave Liam’s heart a little squeeze. “What did you find out?” Still calm; no rushing, and as Cash came back into the room, Liam willed him to keep quiet and listen.

  “Buck said he had a good starting point for it, a place on the water. But Joe still said he didn’t want to go.”

  “Maybe he changed his mind,” Liam said slowly.

  “It’s the only lead we have.” Cash grabbed car keys. “I remember that place. Went to a party out there once. Let’s go.”

  “I want to come,” Rocky said. “And I want to bring Rio.”

  Cash shook his head. “No, buddy, it wouldn’t be safe.”

  “I’ve been training Rio like a police dog,” Rocky said stubbornly. “He can help. And so can I.”

  “If you stay in the car, okay.” Liam ruffled the boy’s hair. “I mean it, though. No running around or putting yourself at risk.”

  “I won’t,” Rocky promised.

  Cash looked at Liam like he was crazy. “We may as well have everyone come,” he said. “Jimmy? Rita? How about Miss Vi?”

  Rita patted his arm. “Cool down. The three of us will wait here and be a central spot for people to call and share information.”

  “Thank you,” Liam said. “Let’s go.”

  “I hope you know what you’re doing,” Cash said, but didn’t argue with him. Liam couldn’t have explained why he thought bringing the dog was a good idea, but intuition was a big part of police work, and that was what he was running on.

  Ten minutes later they were making the half-hour drive to Buck’s country place: Liam, Cash, Rocky and Rio. Cash was driving—well, but way over the speed limit. They didn’t talk much. Liam vacillated between thinking the whole thing was a wild-goose chase and worrying they wouldn’t get there in time.

  What was going on with Buck? Liam had always thought of him as smooth, maybe a little less than ethical, but certainly not dangerous. More and more, it was looking like he had things to hide.

  If he was behind breaking into Yasmin’s house and trying to put insane—literally—notions into her head, then something was seriously wrong. Wrong, and dangerous.

  That had been a blind spot, Liam acknowledged to himself. Because he and Buck were rivals for the chief job, and because Liam felt at a disadvantage to Buck’s country club background, he’d missed important signs.

  Now, he had to hope his own insecurity h
adn’t put Yasmin at risk. He was never, ever letting that happen again.

  “Up there,” Cash said. “What is that, a car?”

  “That ran into a tree,” Liam said grimly as they pulled up to it. At the steering wheel was a woman slumped forward, and Liam’s heart went into his throat. He ran to the car and opened the door.

  It wasn’t Yasmin, and the woman had a strong pulse. Relief washed over him, and then, as they tried to ease the woman out of the car, he realized she looked familiar.

  “It’s my mom!” Rocky cried just as Liam recognized the woman who’d driven slowly by Yasmin’s house.

  Rocky tugged at her. “Mom! Mom, it’s me!”

  “Be real careful. She could have some injuries,” Cash said, but gently. He glanced at Liam. “No matter what, you still love your mom.”

  When you were a kid, yeah, but now?

  They eased the woman out onto a blanket Cash had in the back of his SUV, and she began to murmur, her eyes flickering open.

  Strange, choking noises came from Rocky, interspersed with one word, repeated: “Mom. Mom.”

  After making sure the woman was basically okay, Liam and Cash stepped back by mutual agreement. Liam had a lump in his throat, and looking over at Cash, he suspected his brother felt the same.

  They didn’t know what it would be like to find your mom as a kid because they never had. “We have to try to connect better with Rita,” Cash said, and Liam knew just what his brother meant.

  “Hey, police officer,” Rocky’s mom gasped out. “You gotta go save Yasmin and Joe.”

  “You know where they are?”

  “Buck’s taking ’em out on his boat,” she said. “And he doesn’t mean anything good. Pretty sure he put something into my drink.”

  They loaded Lorraine into the car, in the back beside Rocky and Rio, and then Cash drove like crazy while Liam called Rita. He updated her on the situation, and she agreed that she, Jimmy and Miss Vi would wait to hear more and would contact others in the community who might be able to help, including Chief Ramirez, now home from the hospital.