by T. J. Jones
"I'm going to walk over to the other side of the ballfield and see if she comes down the backstreet over there. We need to find her."
"I'll wait here, maybe she's just running late." Maggie said.
I walked across the open field to one of the two baseball dugouts and leaned against the block structure, hanging back a little, so if she did come by, she wouldn't see me until the last minute. If she ran, I would have to let her go. No matter how badly I wanted to talk to her, it wouldn't look good for a thirty-nine year old man to be chasing a high school girl down the street. There was always the chance that I wouldn't be able to catch her and I'd never hear the end of that.
I heard a scuff and had started to turn when someone hit me from behind. I fell forward into Levi Davis's fist as he stepped around the corner of the short wall in front of me. Before I had time to react, two sets of hands grabbed me from behind and Levi and his three accomplices began taking their frustrations out on me.
But you've heard that part of the story.
After the Sherriff left, Maggie and I walked back to Wally's house. I was hurting, I'm not going to lie. I used Wally's bathroom to clean up while Maggie explained to him what had happened, then we got in Maggie's car and drove back to the motel.
"Seriously Slater, should we take you to the doctor?"
"I'm just banged up, nothing broken. Some ice from the fridge and I'll be fine."
"Can I get you anything else, maybe a backrub?"
"Now? Now, you want to give me a backrub?" I grinned.
"A backrub is not code for sex, Slater."
"You don't know me at all."
She chuckled. "Suit yourself, a hot shower would probably help. Do you think Wally's memory problems are just because of his medication? He shouldn't be living by himself. I'm going to call Camille and talk to her about it."
"You're right, but Wally isn't going to thank you for that."
"I don't know what you think, but we're about out of options here, aren't we?"
"Another day or two and the Sherriff will give us the boot. Not arguing with him, one butt-kicking is enough for a while."
"It already looks better." She kissed me gingerly on the cheek.
"Good enough for a backrub?"
We were late for breakfast. Nothing to do with a backrub, it just hurt to move very fast. Another hot shower had helped and I was beginning to feel human. I had a wisp of a black eye and a couple cuts, but all in all it wasn't too bad. It was just before eight when we got to Maryetta's. Bonnie came up with coffee, grabbed my chin and inspected the damage.
"Four of them." Maggie volunteered.
"Heard all about it. Kyle was in here, but no sign of Levi. He's asking for it and Kyle's likely to give it to him, that's all I'm saying." But of course it wasn't. "News is Levi is going to be looking for a new job if he doesn't get his act together. Old man Davis heard about Levi lifting his fist to a woman and he's likely to kick his ass if Kyle don't."
"Odd mix of chivalry and redneck you have in this town." Maggie said.
"Thank-you." Bonnie said and walked away. Hard to say if she was serious.
We had been there a few minutes when Clara, the orange-haired black girl walked in. Couldn't be too many of those. She spotted us and walked right over to our table. "Heard you were looking for me."
"We are, Clara, right?" Maggie asked her and held out her hand.
She ignored it and backed up half a step. "I don't know anything about Lilly. Don't know where she went or who she went with."
"She went with someone? And you're sure she's not dead?"
You could see it in her face, the realization that she had already given too much away. "I never said she was dead. Henderson asked me, and I told him she probably just ran off. I'm sorry, but it wasn't my fault what happened to old Wally. Hater's gonna' hate, they don't need a reason."
"What about Leo Davis? Any chance she went up north with him?"
She scowled. "Hell no! He's a dick. Too young for her anyway."
"Young? He must be a couple years older than she is, isn't he?"
A wisp of a smile crossed her lips. "Lilly always went for older guys, a lot older. Claimed she was an old soul, because of the Art, or some shit. Maybe that's why she got along with Wallace so well. But a girl's got needs and Wally wasn't much help there."
High school girls have sure changed in the last twenty years. I was glad when Maggie jumped in. "So, you're sure, not Leo Davis. Hooking up with some old guy just to get out of town could be dangerous."
"Maybe so, but she was desperate. I'm not saying she went for creepy old, just not Leo. Look, I don't know where she is, and I wouldn't tell you if I did. Lilly was afraid that no matter what, her Daddy would find her and try to drag her back here. I'm sorry for what happened to old Wally, and I'm sure Lilly didn't intend for her leaving to bring that trouble down on him, but she hasn't called me and her phone is out of service. That's all I got, and I have to go to school. Don't bother me anymore." She turned and left. It seemed like our last chance to find Lilly had just walked out the door.
"Maggie, why do so many people in the south call their father Daddy? I never had one, so it never came up. Did you call Frank, Daddy?"
"Right up until the day he tried to touch my boobs. I never called him that again."
We ate in silence. It was depressing to think that we had been stumped. After we had finished, Bonnie came back to our table just to chat.
"Slow day." She shared. "I guess I can get some cleaning done. Maybe I'll pull those ugly-assed pictures of Maryetta down and put them away."
Maggie studied the photos. "Didn't you say her son took those pictures, and he has a gallery in Charleston?"
"Up that way, not sure where exactly."
Maggie seemed interested suddenly. "Maryetta. What did you say her last name was?"
"Cuff something. No, Kaufman. It was Kaufman. Danny, he hung around some last summer, like I said. Waiting for his inheritance, I reckon. Your face don't look so good Mr. Slater."
"In general, or just this morning?" While Bonnie and I exchanged jabs, Maggie was busy punching buttons on her phone. After Bonnie walked away, she grinned at me and I could see she was excited. "Alright Red, what is it?"
"Drink your coffee, you can sleep some more in the car. We have a long drive ahead of us, and we need to go right now."
"Where are we going?"
"Sheldon, South Carolina, a little town about an hour this side of Charleston."
"And why would we go there?"
"To get Lilly Franklin, of course."
Chapter Ten
The Kaufman Gallery was an old barn that had been fixed up and divided into viewing rooms. It appeared that Daniel Kaufman leased spaces to several local artist, as well as showing his own work and advertising for senior, wedding, and Bar Mitzvah pictures. One of the rooms was filled with photos, one with pottery, one with paintings, and one with wooden sculptures. It was the newest of his galleries according to the banner hanging below the main sign as we pulled in.
Lilly liked older men, we had heard that repeated more than once. When Wally Weston had muttered about a black Jewish girl during his glucose deprived rant, the pieces had started to fall into place for Maggie, and Clara had given them a final shake. The internet provided quick verification. Her theory was that during Maryetta's extended illness, Danny Kaufman and Lilly had spent time together at the Diner, maybe became friends, or maybe more. When Leo Davis became too controlling and abusive, and her father kept trying to push them together, leaving town became Lilly's only option. She had needed a place to run, and Daniel Kaufman's gallery must have been her best option.
The website said only that a new artist had joined the Gallery; a sculpture of extraordinary talent, trained by a genius mentor unnamed. It had to be Lilly. We walked in the front door and recognized Danny Kaufman from his pictures in the Diner. In person he looked older, closer to forty than thirty. It made me uneasy, but we weren't sure the relationship was
anything more than a professional one.
"Hello folks, feel free to look around. I'm the resident photographer and we have three other artists here, creating their Art as we speak."
We were in a hurry, it was a six hour drive, and we hoped to take Lilly with us. Maggie gave Danny her best smile. "We've heard so much about the new sculpture you have! Could we see her work, and I'd love to meet her if that's possible."
"Of course. As I said, all our talented Artists do their work onsite. Just walk through the door there and take a right, then walk down the hall. We each have our own space here."
We followed his instructions and saw an open door that lead into a well-lit room that smelled of wood shavings and scented candles. There was a small sign at the entrance: L A Kaufman, Sculpture in residence.
Lilly Franklin was wearing a smock and safety glasses, hunched over the beginnings of a figurine that was almost three feet high. Wally's bust had captured her perfectly, there was no need to look at the high school picture I had managed to find online. We stood there watching her for a minute, not sure if we were being ignored or if she was just so immersed in her work that she didn't see us. Suddenly she glanced in our direction and quickly put down her tools and pulled the glasses off.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there. I am struggling a little, starting is always the hardest part of a piece."
"What you've done is exceptional, you must have had a good teacher." Maggie said circling the room.
"The best." She smiled. "A kindly old man that was nice enough to share his gifts with me."
I wasn't sure if Maggie had noticed the ring, so I asked. "LA Kaufman, what does the LA stand for?"
She hesitated for a beat. "Lainey, Lainey Alice Kaufman. My husband thought it was catchy."
I couldn't see any point in continuing the charade of being customers. I shrugged at Maggie and raised a brow.
She spoke up. "Lainey? Fitting, since Wally calls you that half the time anyway."
"Oh shit." She backed away from us, eyes wide, like she thought we might drag her out of there physically. "Did my Dad send you? I'm eighteen, and I'm married. That asshole has got no say over me anymore."
Maggie raised a hand. "No Lilly, that's not it. But Wally needs you, just for a day if you can spare it."
"What? He needs to get over me. I love the old guy, but he thinks it's something that it's not. I wanted to call him, but I didn't want to stir him up. He hated that I was going to marry Danny. Did something happen to him?"
"I'm Maggie, and this is Slater. Wally's niece hired us to find you. The rumor around town was that Wally may have abused you, and that he might have killed you. Lilly, you disappeared without a trace, without telling anyone except for the note to Wally."
"Clara knew! But Clara being Clara, I suppose she didn't trust anyone to not tell my Daddy."
"Someone, probably Levi Davis and a couple of his buddies went over and beat Wally up pretty badly. Some of the people in town still think he did something to you, and we're afraid it might happen again. His niece and sister both want him to move to Jacksonville, but he won't leave, mostly because he's waiting for you to come back to him."
"Well, obviously I'm not doing that. They beat him up? My God, that's my fault! Should I call somebody, like the Sherriff? I can tell him I'm up here, alive and well. So help me if my old man comes up here I'll shoot him myself."
"Lilly, is there any way you could come back with us? Just for a day? I'll drive you back tomorrow if you want, but you need to show up to talk to Wally as much as anything. Like you said, you're eighteen and your father can't tell you what to do. Slater and I will be there to make sure those idiots that work with your Dad don't try something."
"I can watch the shop, Lilly." The noise must have attracted Danny's attention, he stood in the doorway. "You could give Wally a proper goodbye and confront your Dad like you say you want to. If you want, we can shut down the shop and I'll come too."
"No, thank you Danny, but I'm the one that needs to tell him off, and say goodbye to Wallace. Maybe someday Wally could come up and see my work?"
"Yeah, that would be nice." I have to say, they looked pretty good together, the middle-aged Jewish guy and the young black girl. It was evolved.
Within fifteen minutes we were back on the road. How we didn't get stopped for speeding, I'll never know. While we tore south on 95, Maggie and I took turns quizzing Lilly, filling in the blanks.
"Danny and I hit it off right away, right after I started at the Diner. Of course I was only seventeen then, and he didn't want any part of it at first. But he was stressed about his Mom and I wouldn't take no for an answer." She laughed a little nervously and I wasn't sure if she was embarrassed or if Maggie's driving scared her as much as it did me. "I kept following him in the walk-in cooler and more or less jumping on him. Guy can only turn it down so long, right?"
"Statutory rape in Florida, perfectly legal in Georgia. Technically there's nothing wrong with it." I said without much conviction.
"Most people think like you Mr. Slater." She shrugged. "After my Mom died, my Dad started drinking heavy and was never around. I was out sleeping with guys by the time I was fourteen, so I knew what was what long before Danny came along. If it wasn't for Wally and him teaching me about Art, I would have lost my way completely and been a druggy on top of being a slut. He always talked about Lainey, and it kind of helped me figure out how things were supposed to be, love and stuff. Sex is fun and everything, but really caring about somebody is where it's at. I have that now."
"Wow." Maggie put in. "Pretty smart for being eighteen."
"I'm an old soul."
Old soul or not, fourteen? "You and Wally, you never…" I had to ask.
"Oh, hell no. There was a time when I first started going over there when I thought it would be romantic, like the misunderstood Artist and his ingenue Muse that have this forbidden affair. But he wouldn't have any part of that shit, fortunately." She bit her lip, uncertain of how much to say. "The last couple years he would get confused sometimes and call me Lainey, and really believe I was her. I'd play along, kiss him and dance with him, let him be happy for a while. Everybody deserves that, right?"
"But he didn't want to give that up." Maggie nodded. "When did you decide to leave?"
"A couple months ago, when I turned eighteen, I told Danny I couldn't stand it at home anymore. Being all noble and shit, he insisted we get married. I figured what the hell, it was probably going to happen sooner or later. I explained it all to Wally and it broke his heart, but he said he was just worried about me. So Danny came down and got us both and took us back to his place and we got married. Strange I know. I wanted to, because I'm crazy about Danny, but part of it was that I thought it might help Wally let go. I knew he was kind of in love with me, or maybe me and the memories of Lainey that were all messed up in his head."
"That must have been when he went to see her?"
She laughed. "Yeah, that was my idea. What a fucking disaster. She told him she had married the wrong guy, but here it was fifty years too late and she wasn't about to start over. What the hell, Bitch? Next day we went back so he could try again and there's police tape everywhere. I wouldn't let him go in but I talked to the downstairs neighbor, the guy that found her."
"That must have broken Wally's heart!"
"No kidding. I took him to the funeral, and I should have gone in with him, but like a dumbass I waited outside. He must have gotten confused and wandered out a side door or something. He has times where he gets really mixed up and he was a mess because of her dying. I looked all day, and called the jails and the shelters. He had a cellphone but he wouldn't answer it and I thought sure as hell he'd been murdered or something, and it was my fault."
"He was in a shelter, we talked to them."
"We missed him somehow, but he called me the next day, right after he talked to his sister to get a ride. He didn't want her to know how he'd gotten to Charleston and wouldn't tell us where he was, but
he begged me not to stay with Danny. He said Lainey had left him and that if I did, he might as well just die. So I gave in and went back home, for him and for me. The whole marriage thing was too sudden, I was scared and confused and figured it would give me some time to think. I thought I'd graduate, make sure it was what I wanted, and maybe by then Wally would calm down enough to understand. Danny was amazing, most guys would have just had the marriage annulled, but he waited for me to get it figured out."
"But the plan changed?"
"My Dad and Levi, they kept saying I needed to get back with Leo! He's moved on, has a girl in North Dakota, but they kept saying he'd be back and I better damn well wait for him. Jesus, it's not the eighteenth century, I get to choose. I couldn't take it and I couldn't face Wally. I left him a note and Danny came down and got me."
"And you destroyed your phone?"
"They can track you anywhere with those damn things. I didn't want my Dad going to the Sherriff and finding out where I was. I had planned to call Wally after a few days from Danny's phone, but then I convinced myself it would be better if he just forgot about me."
"He clung to Lainey for fifty years." I pointed out.
"That isn't right, or normal."
"Your Dad and Levi went around telling everyone Wally had killed you, and that he'd been molesting you for years. The junior high kids were throwing rocks and calling him all kinds of names."
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I just didn't want my Dad knowing where I was. Not that I care, but me marrying a Jew won't go over very well with him. You don't have to be white to be prejudice. I'd be okay with never seeing my Dad again."
"Yeah, I know that feeling." Maggie said grimly and drove even faster.
Thanks to Maggie's penchant for speed we reached Lilly's hometown by nine-thirty that evening. Before we made the final turn a block from Wally's house, we knew there was trouble. It was pitch dark, but the street was lit brightly with emergency lights and the stench of smoke and burnt shingles filled the air. We pulled up behind the firetrucks and jumped out of the car. Sherriff Henderson walked out from behind the first truck, saw us, and walked over.
