Nelson shrugged. “I don’t care how you do it.”
Vic looked at Erin. Erin knew how much Vic hated the thought of running to her family or having to deal with them and their prejudice.
Erin shook her head. “You don’t have to, Vicky. We’ll find another way to sort it out. Charley didn’t do it and there is video out there that proves it. The masked man is out there. People know things. We can figure it out.”
“How? Mr. Dyson obviously isn’t giving up the video. If the masked man is smart enough to wear a mask and avoid the cameras, he is smart enough to avoid our bungling attempts to find out who he is. We’re bakers, not detectives.”
“We know people with skills,” Erin said stubbornly. She was thinking of Terry and Willie specifically, but she wasn’t going to name names in front of Nelson, who was obviously too smart for his own good. Terry was a trained investigator, and Willie had set up that firewall and would know its weaknesses. Maybe there was a backdoor or administrative password in case Nelson forgot his. And if Nelson had captured video of the masked man killing Bobby, then there was a chance that someone else had seen it or had access to it. “Let Charley go with us,” she told Nelson, “and we’ll see what we can find out.”
“Why would I let Charley go?”
“Why would you keep her here in the first place? You knew she wasn’t the killer. Why would you let her take the punishment for something she didn’t do?”
“She hasn’t been punished for the murder.” Nelson’s eyes glittered. “There’s only one punishment for killing a member of the family. She’s just been incentivized to tell us what she knew. And apparently, to motivate you to act. Why would I take away that motivation?”
“We’re still going to be motivated if she comes with us. I get that you’ve got people out there who can take us at a moment’s notice. I get that you have eyes and ears all over the place, including in the police department. I’ll be motivated because I don’t want to come back here, and I don’t want any of my friends coming back here.”
Nelson raised one eyebrow. He went back to the report on his desk, ignoring them. Erin assumed he was thinking it through, clearing his mind by focusing on something else for a few minutes. She often distracted herself in order to relax and look at a problem again with fresh eyes.
After a few moments of silence, Nelson looked up at them. “Nobody is keeping you here,” he pointed out. “I have other things to work on.”
Erin looked at Willie. He was the one who knew Nelson and understood the dynamics of the clan, something Erin couldn’t even come close to doing. Willie got to his feet. He motioned the three women to come with him. Erin felt panic rising as they left the room and wound their way back through the halls again. She felt like they were walking in slow motion, and that any minute, they would all be the target of one of Nelson’s minions. They would shoot her in the head, or drag her back to the cell Charley had been imprisoned in. But he wasn’t just going to let them walk out of there.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
N
one of them said a word as they traipsed back to the car. They piled in and fastened their seatbelts with shaking hands. Vic sat shotgun beside Willie. Erin looked anxiously at Willie, trying to assess his stress level. He was the one who knew Nelson and the family. He was the one who knew how scared they should be. But his face was a mask and Erin didn’t know what he was thinking or feeling. He shifted gears and pulled out into the driveway. They backtracked the curves and came up to the gate again. It swung open in front of them, and Willie drove through.
Erin let out a huge sigh of relief. She wasn’t the only one.
“Oh, lordy,” Vic exclaimed, fanning herself with her hand. “I was scared as a jack-rabbit that’s heard the howl of a wolf. I about wet my pants!”
“I never would have guessed it,” Erin said admiringly. “I couldn’t tell.”
“You don’t need to lie to me. I was sweating buckets. Must smell to high heaven.” Vic slumped back in her seat, trying to relax. She wiped her forehead.
“If you two are done,” Charley said, “we should talk about what we’re going to do.”
“If one of the options is to run away and never come back…” Vic suggested.
“You think we could ever run far enough that they wouldn’t find us?” Charley shot back.
“We’ve all run away before,” Erin said, looking at each of them. “I don’t think it solved all of our problems, though, did it? If we ran… there’d be no more Auntie Clem’s, Vic. That life would be over. We’d go somewhere else, use new names, and start all over again. New friends, new jobs, new city…”
“I know,” Vic admitted. “I’m just scared, and it’s so tempting.”
“I’ve done it before. More than once. And it never solves all the problems.”
“Right now, we’ve only got one problem,” Charley said. “And that’s keeping alive. If we’re going to keep alive, we have to figure this out. Who this guy was that killed Bobby.”
“Should we go to the police?” Erin suggested. “Jack Ward? Terry? One of them could help us.”
“No, Erin,” Willie growled. “The police are not going to help us get out of this. You go to the cops, and the clan is going to come gunning for us. And I don’t mean that in a figurative way.”
“Then what? Do you know how to get into his system to get the video?”
“It’s a possibility,” Willie said. “But I think our first step should be to show compliance, not to hack his system.”
Erin looked at Charley, then at Vic. Vic’s arms were folded over her stomach and she was looking down. Despite her earlier jocularity, Vic looked ready to cry.
“Tell me you don’t mean going to my family,” she begged.
“I know that’s the last thing you want to do,” Willie said gently. “No more than I would go back to mine, if I could. But we need information. We need to get some clue of whether the Jacksons are involved in this. And I don’t know how else to get it. I can’t exactly go walking into one of their watering holes.”
Vic held her hands over her face, giving a sob. Erin wished that Vic were sitting in the back so Erin could give her a hug. She had to settle instead for reaching up and giving Vic’s shoulder a squeeze.
“I’m sorry, Vicky. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” Vic’s voice was muffled by her hands. “I’ll be fine.”
“What can I do? I want to help you.”
Vic shook her head. “I don’t know what to do. I swore I’d never go back there. They all thought it was a big joke, that I’d be back in a day or two, tail between my legs, having learned my lesson. I swore it wouldn’t happen. I’d never go back there.”
“You didn’t. You came and worked with me and made a life for yourself. You made adult choices and took responsibility for yourself. This isn’t crawling back to them, Vic. If we go back…” Erin scowled at Willie for saying that it was the next logical step. He had to know how that would affect Vic. “It’s a fact-finding mission. Not because you made a wrong choice and regret what you did.”
“But I can’t go back there as myself. If I go back as Vic, no one is going to trust me or tell me anything. They’ll just laugh and tease and keep things from me like I’m an outsider.”
Erin didn’t know what to say. She knew how important it was for Vic to be true to herself and her identity. If she couldn’t go back as herself, she couldn’t go back. Expecting her to was just too cruel.
“Willie… we need to come up with another plan,” Erin said. “There has to be another way.”
Willie shook his head. “Okay. We’ll see what else we can come up with. We need a place to land for a few minutes to recoup.” Willie looked in the rear-view mirror toward Charley. “You have a suggestion?”
“Let’s just go back to my place. It’s not like they’re going to come back for me again. Nelson let me go. He knows the truth. If Dwight decides to overrule him… well, it doesn’t really matter where we go, they’ll fi
nd us one way or another.”
“Your place it is,” Willie agreed. He took a right turn at the next intersection, and Erin realized as they went back to Charley’s apartment that Charley wasn’t giving Willie any directions. He knew exactly where he was going. Erin glanced at Vic to see if she noticed, but Vic’s thoughts were far from the occupants of the car and their destination.
“What about the man in the mask, though?” Erin asked. “What if he comes back to your apartment? He knows where you live.”
“If he comes back, he’d better come guns a-blazing, because I’m not putting up with any more mystery nonsense. If he shows his face—or his mask—I’m blowing the dude away.”
Erin wasn’t sure that made her feel any better. Willie glanced at her and didn’t say anything.
Once parked, everyone followed Charley up to her apartment. Charley and Willie entered cautiously, checked out the extent of the small apartment, and returned to the door to let Erin and Vic know it was safe to enter.
Erin looked around the front room and kitchen of the now-familiar apartment and gave a sigh. The day was slipping away. They needed to make a plan. The next day was Monday, and Erin would need to be up bright and early to run the bakery. It seemed like a long time since she had been at Auntie Clem’s, and it felt farther away than ever before.
Charley had her head in the fridge. Erin suspected she probably hadn’t eaten well, if anything, in the previous two days. At least the rest of them had started the day with coffee and a continental breakfast. But when Charley straightened and backed up, she didn’t have leftover casserole or takeout in her hand, but one of the flat bowls Erin recognized as coming from the pet store.
Of course. Iggy hadn’t eaten in two days, and Charley was more concerned about looking after the lizard than herself. Charley put the dish on the counter. She caught Erin’s eyes on her.
“Have to let them warm up a bit,” she commented. “They get too slow when they’re cold. They’ll be more active once they warm.”
“What—?” Vic started to ask, and then cut herself off. She saw Erin’s expression and realized what they were talking about. She gave Erin a little smile. “You’re so squeamish. We need to take you fishing sometime.”
Erin gagged at the thought of having to bait hooks. She couldn’t imagine touching the worms or other bait that would be required, let alone impaling them on sharp hooks.
“No, thank you! I’ll get my fish at the grocery store.”
Though the truth was, Erin wasn’t much of a fish person. The nauseating smell was enough to put Erin off her feed for the rest of the day.
“They’re not that bad,” Charley said, nodding to the bowl. “They don’t stink and they’re not slimy…”
“I don’t want to hear about it,” Erin insisted. “You go ahead and feed Iggy, but leave me out of it. I don’t want to see or hear or smell what you’re giving him.”
“They need to warm up for a few minutes. Then I will. Sorry.”
She turned back to the fridge. “Man, am I hungry! You know, there were roaches in the room they kept me in, and I just kept thinking how Iggy would love them. And with getting hungrier and hungrier, I was thinking… people can eat bugs. They’re a delicacy in some countries. Lots of protein, a real lean meat.”
“No way,” Erin said. “Doesn’t matter how hungry I got, I would never eat a bug. Not on purpose.”
“What about cricket flour?” Vic suggested. “I’ve seen it online. It’s gluten free.”
“I don’t care. I’m still not putting it in my baking. That’s disgusting.”
“You know there are bug eggs and larvae in the flour you use, don’t you?” Charley asked. “That’s why you have to put it in the freezer if you don’t want it to go bad.”
“No,” Erin protested, covering her ears. “You guys cut it out. No more talking about bugs.”
Willie was sitting on the couch, thumbing through his phone. The insect conversation was going right over his head. Erin knew that she and the others were giddy with their nervousness and anxiety over what was going on, but she sobered at Willie’s grim expression, and Vic and Charley quickly became serious as well. Charley pulled a plastic box out of the fridge, along with a bottle of juice.
“Anyone else wants anything, just help yourself,” she invited. And don’t worry, there’s no more bugs in there. You can open anything up without fear.”
She sat down with her scavenged lunch.
“So. What are we going to do?”
“Maybe you could make some phone calls,” Willie suggested. “Is there anyone you can call on who might have an idea of what’s going on?”
Charley pursed her lips and shook her head. “No… not really. If it’s something to do with the Jacksons, I can’t think of anyone I could touch.”
“There are always people who have a foot in both camps.”
“I’ve stayed as far away from those types as possible. I’ve got no intention of being accused of being a turncoat.” She paused for a moment. “I thought staying away from those kinds of people would keep me safe, but obviously not. What about you? You’re the big disappointment. The one who did his five years and then decided it wasn’t for you.” Charley popped the top of the can and had a swig. “Usually after five years, you’re either dead or in too deep to pull out,” she informed Erin and Vic. “People just don’t do their tour and then bow out.”
“Usually,” Willie amended.
“Usually.”
“I’ve got a couple of people to tap,” Willie said, his eyes still on his phone screen. “But it’s a long shot. I’m not confident they’ll know anything or want to talk to me.”
In another hour, Willie had exhausted his contacts. Pale but determined, Vic looked to Charley for help.
“If I’m going to go visit my family, I’m going to need to dress down,” she said. “I’m going to need some clothes that look a little less…” She looked down at herself, trailing off.
“Less feminine?” Charley suggested.
Erin winced. Vic loved her clothes. She loved dressing up and looking good. While Erin was happiest in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, Vic had a flair for making herself look pretty.
“Yeah,” Vic agreed. “That.”
“I have to admit, I’ve been wondering since Nelson called you James. I never met a transvestite in real life.”
“Transgender,” Erin corrected her quickly. “And it’s really no one’s business—”
“It’s okay, Erin,” Vic said. “I can deal with it. Yes, it’s transgender, and I just need to know if you’ve got… tennis shoes and a hoodie… something that will make me a little less… different. More like I dressed before I left home.”
“Sure,” Charley agreed. “Come with me. We’ll find you something.”
Vic followed Charley into her bedroom. Erin looked at Willie, not sure what she should do. Follow them and try to run interference and make Vic feel as comfortable as possible? Or stay out of the way and not make such a big deal of it?
“Nothing we can do,” Willie said. “Just be supportive. She knows you love her for who she is. She can take strength in that.”
“And you too,” Erin agreed.
“I’m not so sure. This is not something I should be pushing her into. I just don’t know what else to do. I’ve done my best to stay on the good side of these guys in spite of not staying inside the organization. I never foresaw it causing Vic any pain.”
“It’s not your fault. I’m the one who made contact with Charley. If I hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t be here. We wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“You had no way of knowing.”
“Neither did you.”
They both sat there, lost in their own morose thoughts, waiting for Vic and Charley to return.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
E
rin barely recognized Vic when she came into the living room after changing and washing off her makeup. She wore a shapeless, faded hoodie with the l
ogo of a Tennessee college on it, sneakers, and had her hair pulled back and hidden under the hood of the sweatshirt. Her face looked rougher and more angular without the softening lines of her makeup. Erin could still see the familiar face and expression of her friend, but she could also see the face of the boy she had first seen in the “missing” advertisement of the Bald Eagles weekly newspaper months before. She was still Vic, but she was much closer to James than she had ever been in the months Erin had known her.
Erin bit her lip and looked away, not meeting Vic’s eye. Vic didn’t need anyone telling her that she looked fine or that she was still the person she had always been. She hadn’t changed as a way of exploring another side of herself, but because she had a job to do.
“Okay,” Vic said. “Let’s go.”
Willie stood up. “Where to?”
“I’ll have to put in an appearance at the farm. I never associated with the wider clan, so I’ll have to start with where I’m known.”
Willie nodded. After Charley fed the room-temperature bugs to Iggy, they all headed back down to the car.
“It’s just a costume,” Charley told Vic, trying to cheer her up. “Just like for Halloween or a play. It doesn’t change the person you are. It’s just clothes.”
Vic nodded.
“It’s going to be all right,” Charley encouraged.
“Charley…” Willie said. “Just shut up, please? You’re not helping.”
“I’m just trying to—”
“Just drop it. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Charley opened her mouth to argue. She stopped, looking at them, then shook her head.
“Okay. I admit I don’t know thing one about being transvestite. Transgender. I’m just trying to be positive.”
No one said anything to her.
“Got it,” Charley sighed. “Shutting up.”
They didn’t say anything as they got into the car. When Willie and Vic were once again settled in the front, Vic gave Willie directions in a soft, husky voice. It took almost an hour to get to the farm.
Stirring Up Murder Page 19
