by T. J. Jones
"I'll bet you do." Maggie nodded emphatically. "Wouldn't the Sherriff know about all that?"
"He's too damn lazy to care. I think he figures old Wallace did something to her and is just waiting for him to slip up. I asked Levi and he says she isn't up there, that he thinks Wally did something to her too. Course if she ran off with Lee, they wouldn't be likely to tell anyone."
"And Wallace, how'd Lilly know him?"
"She always walked by his place coming and going to school and just felt really bad for him, him being old and living all alone. She claimed he was a savant, like a genius in his head, but it all came out in his sculptures. I warned her, old or not, the man had eyes. Creepy old guy like that and a pretty young girl, something bad was bound to happen. If she didn't run off with Leo, my guess is old Wally tossed her in the river. Her Daddy sure thinks so."
"Sounds like a lot of guessing without any evidence." I put in. Maggie had Bonnie talking and if I had any sense, I would have kept my mouth shut.
"You taking his side?" Bonnie straightened up and eyed the two of us. "How do you know Lilly anyway? You said you're looking for her, why is that?"
"We represent someone who is interested in knowing what became of her, that wants to know that she's alright." Maggie explained.
Her eyes narrowed and her tongue flicked across the gold in her lip. "Say it plain Honey, it's really old Wally your looking after, isn't it?"
"He was beaten up Bonnie, convicted by public opinion when he didn't do anything except be nice to a lonely girl who wanted to learn about sculpting."
Bonnie tended to talk with her hands, which was increasingly concerning given that she was holding a pot of hot coffee. A few drops flipped onto the table and the waitress in her had enough presence of mind 6to back up, but she got upset in a hurry. "Are you two lawyers, or reporters of some kind? CNN showed up in town last year asking me questions about our school board, which was none of their business. You God damn liberals don't need to come around here and stick your nose in things that don't concern you."
Maggie kept smiling even though the situation had taken an ugly turn. "Bonnie, we're not reporters. We work for Wally's niece, and she just wants to clear her uncle's name."
"If I was guessing, I'd say he killed Lilly and he got the beating he deserved." She spun around, throwing a good amount of coffee on the floor, and disappeared into the kitchen.
I glanced at Maggie. "Don't let me talk anymore. You get information out of people and then I piss them off."
"She would have caught on sooner or later."
"By the way, I like your lips." I shared.
"That was random, and I was just thinking about a piercing."
As suddenly as she had stormed off, Bonnie returned with our check. She put it down, then pulled another stub from her book and scribbled on it quickly and handed it to Maggie.
"What's this?" The redhead asked.
"Couple of names, friends of Lilly's. Maybe they know something they aren't telling the Sherriff. Sorry, I went off like that, I got a short fuse. But nobody in this town likes outsiders showing up and telling us how to live, me included. Honest truth is old Wally probably didn't kill her. He's been in here and he's polite and nice enough. He don't seem like the type to hurt anyone, and like you said he's old and not very spry. Lilly's big boned, not fat mind you, but pretty tall and athletic like. I doubt an old fart like Wallace with one leg could get the best of her unless he conked her on the head with a club or something. Lilly liked him, so I guess I should give him the benefit of the doubt. I shouldn't listen to all the gossip around this here, it's rottin' my brain. I'd like to know that Lilly's alright too, so let me know what you find out."
"Thank you, Bonnie." I risked a comment. "Are these girls that Lilly went to school with?"
"Clara did. She probably walks by Wally's house every day. You can't miss her. She's a really skinny black girl with bright orange hair. Teenagers, they've got some weird ideas about fashion, don't they?" That, as her tongue hooked momentarily on the aggregation of metal in her lip. "Jane's a year older, a white gal, and she works at the Shell station as a cashier. Normal hair and she's there most afternoons."
"Thank you again, this is really helpful." That was Maggie.
"Like I said, sorry I blew my cork. Sometimes I got a big mouth. I hope nothing happened to that girl." She walked away and we sat finishing our coffee.
"Could it be that easy, that Lilly's shacked up with an old boyfriend in North Dakota?" Maggie suggested.
"If Cletus Johnson is typical of the people in North Dakota, I'm not going up there." I assured her. "Tommy can hire someone local to check on Leo and see if she's with him. Meanwhile, we'll see what we can find out here."
Chapter Six
It was time to meet Wallace Weston.
The middle and high school that Camille had mentioned were on the north edge of town, on opposite ends of a large block, both modest buildings in the days of school consolidation. The buildings were older brick structures that looked clean and well maintained. The Weston house was half a block down and across the street from the middle school, situated so that most of the kids that didn't ride a bus would walk right in front of it coming and going to the rest of the town.
Wallace Weston's house was a tiny two story with a rickety porch surrounded by a broken lattice fence once meant to keep the largest of animals out. A giant Tabby cat let out a moaning growl and jumped through a large hole in the lattice, then spun and raced away around the corner of the building as we approached. The hardwood floor of the porch was uneven from years of disregarded maintenance, buckled and warped sufficiently in spots to stub an unprotected toe. The whole front half of the structure had started to sink, and we leaned precariously as we made our way to the front door.
The interior door was open but there was a screen door, latched from the inside. I wrapped on the door frame and waited. We heard some movement, then a faint thumping, and Wallace Weston came limping into view, the bump-bump of his cane matching his cadence. He walked to the door and popped the latch, then turned and walked back into the kitchen without comment. I pulled the door open and held it for Maggie.
"Wallace?" She called loudly as we walked into the room.
"I got a limp, and I'm a little worse for wear, but my ears work fine. No need to yell."
He was a tall slender man, bent over slightly, with a scraggly beard and short hair the color of wood smoke. He eased himself onto a kitchen chair and pointed at two others with the end of his cane. Maggie took the closet one and extended her hand. "I'm Maggie Jeffries, and this is Eric Slater, your niece sent us."
"She called, bunch of nonsense you coming here." He had a large bandage over one eye and several stitches in the corner of his mouth. He paused, pulled his pantleg up and adjusted a strap on his artificial leg, then dropped it back into place. "I threw this damn thing on too quick when I heard Jasper making a fuss. Better than a watchdog, that old stray cat. He's been living under my deck for three years on leftovers I toss out for him." He smiled about the cat and seemed to have lost his train of thought. Maggie and I waited quietly until he started talking again. "People get something in their head, there's no changing it. Don't care what most folks think, but the same kids used to watch me and Lilly carve, they yell at me and throw things, call me dirty names. Lilly went away, but she'll stop back and visit, sure as we're sitting here. She'll tell them how it is."
"Where did she go?" Maggie asked gently.
"Don't know, somewhere away from all the trouble I expect. What is it my niece thinks you can do to help me?"
"Maybe we can find Lilly, then everyone would realize you didn't do anything to her."
"Four years, three, four days a week the whole town seen us out in my garage making my statues; seeing she was like my daughter, and now they think I would hurt her?"
"Can you tell us about the men that beat you up?"
"White men. It was dark and there was three of them. I'm an old man and I
don't walk so good, so I sure as hell couldn't outrun them." He chuckled at that. "Don't matter, the law sure ain't gonna' go after them, not in this town."
"We met Sherriff Henderson this morning at Maryetta's, he seems like a really good guy." I commented.
"White man. He's not going to try too hard to arrest them what put the boots to an old black man like me, especially when he thinks maybe I hurt a young girl."
"White or black, Wally, I'm sure he'd like to arrest them. These days, people like Sherriff Henderson watch out for everyone, no matter what color they are." Maggie said.
He put his head down and cackled briefly, then winced and rubbed the stitches in his lip. "Not in this part of Georgia, Miss Maggie. Lilly, she worked at Maryetta's for a spell. Good food in there. I got no problem with those kinds of people, but some folks do."
I looked at Maggie and shrugged. The reason for the observation wasn't clear. There was a sharp rap on the wall, then another. Wallace eyed the door sadly. "School's starting. Sometimes the kids throw rocks when they walk by."
"I'll go see about that." I said and left them sitting there. I walked out of the porch and sat on the front step. It was thirty feet from the sidewalk to the front of Wally's house, and I saw a couple young kids toss their rocks into the street when they saw me come out. The high school must have started a few minutes after the middle school, because the age of the passersby went up shortly after I heard the first bell ringing from down the street. Two boys and a girl slowed and gawked when they saw me, then stopped and started a conversation.
"You a cop?" The girl asked.
"Yeah, rock patrol. Hope you don't plan on throwing any."
They seemed to think that was funny. The boy spoke up. "Most of the older kids know old Wally wouldn't ever hurt Lilly. Besides, she liked older guys." They all snickered.
"So what do you suppose became of Lilly, if you were to guess." I was stalling, hoping Maggie would come out. The two boys were sixteen or seventeen. One look at her and they'd skip first hour and happily tell us everything they knew.
"If somebody killed her, I'd say it was her Daddy." One of the boys said quickly.
"Or Leo Davis. That guy isn't wrapped too tight, and they were always tearing into each other." The girl said.
"No way." The second boy got into it. "She ran off, left her Daddy a note and everything."
"Bullshit, I heard she left Wally the note, a suicide note." That was the first one again.
"You're high, asshole." The girl laughed and pushed on her friend's shoulder, then turned back to me. "You tell Wally we don't think he killed Lilly, she never had anything but good to say about him. She said he was just old and mixed up. I bet wherever she is, she really misses him."
"Probably in heaven, 'cause he killed her." The second boy quipped. They walked off laughing. Teenagers.
The screen door creaked and Maggie held it open as Wallace stepped carefully down the three steps to the yard. He held a door opener in his hand, and he used it to lift the garage door and expose his work space. He pointed listlessly to a beautiful figurine lying on its side on a table next to his work bench. "Night they came after me they smashed a lot of my stuff. That one was Lilly's favorite. I didn't have the heart to throw it away even though it's cracked right down the middle."
"No idea who the men were though?" I asked again.
"Like I said, don't matter, they were white boys."
"Things are changing Wallace, if you know, you need to tell us." I tried.
"Don't need to do anything but eat and sleep, carve once in a while until Lainey comes back." Maggie glanced at me and raised a brow, but Wally realized his mistake. "Lilly, I meant Lilly. She'll come back and check on me, and I ain't stirring up any trouble in the meantime."
"When do you think she'll come back Wally?" Maggie asked.
"Lainey isn't coming back, married a man and went to Carolina."
It was hard to know if he was talking to us, or himself. "Lainey, or Lilly?" I asked.
"Lainey didn't wait. I come back from 'Nam all shot to shit and find out she run off to Charleston and married up with some salesman."
"That had to be hard." Maggie sympathized. "Is that why you went to Charleston a while ago, to try to find Lainey?"
"Lainey? Hell no." He frowned at her and you could see him trying to work it out. "I never been to Charleston, and I think maybe Lainey is dead. She is dead, isn't she? I remember something about that. She died, or got herself killed somehow best I recall. I'm sorry, I don't remember things so good sometimes."
"Lainey's husband, what was his name?" I wanted a last name.
"She was a damn fool, running off like that. I'd have made sure she was okay."
"No idea about his name though?"
"There's some damn fools think she went with that Davis kid."
"Lilly broke up with him, didn't she?" Maggie picked up the shift right away. Wally shrugged, and I realized he was having trouble separating the two young girls; the one gone a lifetime, and the one just weeks ago.
The old man coughed and seemed to choke up. "She would lie down with me in the bed sometimes, just hold onto me and sing gentle like, till I fell asleep."
"Lainey did that?" The redhead asked him softly.
"No." Wallace muttered as he picked up his small hammer and a carving tool. "Wasn't Lainey." He appeared lost in thought or his sculpting, and when Maggie looked my way, I tipped my head toward the front yard.
We sat down at the small picnic table half way between the house and the garage and talked quietly. "Did I hear what I thought?" I asked.
Maggie shrugged. "It sounded like he was talking about Lilly, but it's hard to be sure. Poor guy seems to confuse the two of them a lot."
I pulled my phone out. "Curious about this Lainey woman, and her getting killed. I'm going to call Tommy, see if he knows her last name and if he can hire someone up north to look in on Leo Davis."
Surprisingly, the dopey kid with the crush on Jasmine put me right through and I got the details. I told Maggie the name and she started Googling the Charleston newspaper's obituaries while I finished explaining to Tommy why he needed to hire someone to go to Williston to track down the youngest Davis brother.
"Elaine Johnston passed away seven weeks ago from unknown causes. There was an obit, but also an article about her death being investigated by the police as suspicious. No follow up, just that. Not good, considering that was about the same time Wallace ended up in a homeless shelter up there."
"Well, we may have to go to North Dakota, Tommy says he doesn't trust anyone else."
"No way. Do you know how cold it is there this time of year?"
"Freeze the balls off a brass monkey."
"God, you're a Neanderthal. Let me try something." She punched away at her phone for a few minutes while I sat there enjoying the fact that there wasn't a snow drift in sight. Finally, she looked at me triumphantly. "Yes, thank-you Facebook. Looking at Levi, I wasn't sure his brother would be on social media, but he is. His account says he's in a relationship, and it has a picture of him with a blond girl. Her profile lists him as her boyfriend and there are even cute pictures."
"Well that proves it, no way Lilly could be up there. The Internet wouldn't lie to us." I have to admit, I hate Facebook.
"Alright, granted it doesn't prove anything for sure, but it lists the bar the girl works at. That would be easy to verify and someone could ask around there and get eyeballs on Leo."
"Hopefully not us. Maybe that would be enough for Tommy. It's silly for both of us to go up there just to find out she isn't there. If they fought as much as Bonnie says it's not likely he'd let her stay with him just as friends, even if he had a place of his own. Guys don't normally let old girlfriends hang around, especially if he found some new talent."
That was a poor way to put it. I have to blame it on the fact that I'd been hanging around with construction workers all day, for a month. As a group, we all talked like seventh grade boys.
&n
bsp; I thought Maggie had missed it, but then she showed me a picture of Leo's new girlfriend. "What do you think, she has to be an eight, eight and a half, don't you think?"
Alarm bells sounded somewhere in my Neanderthal brain. I feigned shock. "That would be sexist, me giving her a number based on her appearance!"
She laughed, well aware that I'd caught on. "There may be hope for you yet Slater. I'd say she's a hard nine, all day long. I'll text Camille about the girlfriend and tell her we don't have time to go to North Dakota."
The morning had been cold, but the sun had started to warm the yard and it felt good to just sit there and listen to the tapping of Wally Weston's hammer. There wasn't much traffic, and it was hard to miss the Davis Paving truck when it crept slowly by. There were three people in the front seat and the two on my side were unfamiliar, but it looked like Levi Davis in the driver's seat. The men closest to us glared, and as they drove away the passenger offered a middle finger. So much for southern hospitality.
"Nice bunch of guys working for that outfit. Are we going to go talk to Lilly's Dad? He's supposed to be the one that got everyone at Davis Paving mad at Wally, right?" Maggie asked.
"Yeah, I'm guessing he'll be thrilled to help us. That's probably not going to go well. It's not like he's going to confess if he killed her, but maybe he knows something about her and the Davis kid. I say we hang around here for the day, maybe talk to some of the kids when they walk by, see if we can't find that girl with the orange hair, Clara. I hope having orange hair isn't a thing now, or is blue still in?"
"Neanderthal."
"I think we need to go to Charleston and talk to whoever looked into Lainey's death. If we go up there, maybe we can see if someone at that shelter remembers Wally and the particulars of his visit."
"If we time it right, we could swing through Jacksonville and spend the night at home. I'm not a fan of the bed at that fleabag motel we're in. But we're kind of going off script, aren't we? If the goal is to find Lilly and prove Wallace didn't do anything to her, how do we explain going to Charleston to Tommy and Camille? And what if we find out he might have killed Lainey, what then?"
