Magnolia Nights

by Ashley Farley

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Abbott

  Abbott and Ellie drove back to the hotel in silence. He parked the car in a space out front, but he kept the engine running. “Something’s wrong about this situation. What is it that we’re missing?”

  “There are a lot of things wrong about this situation, starting with the scars on her wrists,” Ellie said. “Did you notice them?”

  His stomach rolled and he tasted coffee. How had he missed that? “You mean like suicide scars? I saw the one on her face, obviously, but not on her wrists.”

  “I’m no expert, but Lia said, and I quote, ‘I don’t feel any less empty now than I did thirty minutes ago.’ That sounds like a suicidal thought to me.”

  Despite her rudeness toward them, he felt an unexpected tenderness for Lia. He’d sensed her distraction. Maybe she was having marital problems or experiencing depression. He wouldn’t cast judgment until he understood what was going on in her life.

  He noticed the sky darkening to the west as the predicted storm system moved into the area. But he wasn’t ready to return to his dismal hotel room.

  “I’m calling Louisa. Let’s use your phone so we can talk to her on speaker.” He held his hand out to Ellie, and she dropped the phone in his palm. He dialed the number. The phone connected to Bluetooth, and the line began to ring. Louisa’s screechy voice answered the call. “Louisa, it’s Abbott. I have Ellie on speakerphone with me.”

  “Thank the good Lord. I’ve been worried sick,” she said, sounding slightly out of breath. “Lia won’t answer her phone. I’ve called at least a hundred times. Is she okay? Did you have a chance to talk to her? What about my grandchildren? Did you see them?”

  Abbott felt his temperature rise. Technically speaking, they were his grandchildren, not hers. This woman had deprived him of precious time he could’ve spent with his daughter and his grandchildren.

  “We saw Lia and the twins,” Ellie said. “She was less than thrilled to find out she has a father and a twin sister.”

  “Oh dear,” Louisa said. “I was afraid of that. Lia can be sorta difficult at times.”

  “You failed to mention that yesterday,” Abbott said. “And why didn’t you call us if you were so worried?”

  “I don’t have your number.”

  “Yes, you do, from when I called you on Monday.” Had it been only two days since all this craziness began? It felt like two years.

  “Oh, silly me. I didn’t think about that.”

  Abbott rolled his eyes at his daughter. This woman is a total flake.

  “How’d she get the scars on her wrists, Louisa?” Ellie asked. “You mentioned she suffered depression. You never said anything about a suicide attempt.”

  “What suicide attempt? You must be mistaken. Lia would never do anything to hurt herself. Maybe she burned her arms getting a hot pan out of the oven.”

  Ellie locked eyes with him and mouthed, “She’s delusional.”

  Abbott asked, “How about the other scar, the one on her face and neck?”

  A long moment of crackly silence filled the line. “She already had that scar when she came to live with me. Based on what I now know about her grandmother, I guess she’s the one who hurt that innocent child. What did Lia tell you about how she got the scar?”

  “That’s hardly the thing you ask someone you’ve just met,” Ellie said. “The bigger question is, what has Lia told you about the scar? You’re the one who raised her.”

  “When she was little, she was too traumatized to talk about it,” Louisa said. “I’m not sure she remembers how it happened now. She never mentions the scar. She acts as though it doesn’t exist.”

  Then why was she wearing a turtleneck on a warm day like today? Abbot thought to himself. “Wait a minute! You just said Lia was traumatized when she came to live with you. I specifically asked you yesterday about her emotional state, and you told us that she seemed like a perfectly well-adjusted three-year-old.”

  “I said overall she was well-adjusted. I also said she seemed a little frightened. Frightened, traumatized, what’s the difference?”

  “You’re an author, Louisa. You should know.” Abbott felt his frustration growing. “A child is frightened by a nightmare. When those nightmares happen every night, she’s traumatized.”

  Louisa let out an audible sigh. “Then she was traumatized.”

  “Did you take her to see a child psychiatrist?” Abbott asked.

  “Humph. There was never any need for a child psychiatrist. She wasn’t that bad off. Lia adjusted to her new environment over time, and she stopped having nightmares.”

  “Did she ever see a therapist for her depression?” Ellie asked.

  “For a few years while she was in high school. Waste of time and money if you ask me.” Abbott heard a bitterness that had been absent in her voice the day before.

  “How long has it been since you’ve seen Lia?” Ellie asked.

  They heard a muffled sound as though Louisa had dropped the phone or was changing her seating position. “Sometime last spring. I’m not exactly sure when. I flew to Atlanta to see them.”

  Ellie gaped at the lie, and Abbott shook his head, warning her not to press.

  “Lia seemed distracted today,” Abbott said. “Is there any chance she could be having problems in her marriage? Her husband wasn’t at the house when we were there.”

  “He doesn’t treat Lia right, and I don’t care for him very much,” Louisa said.

  “How’d she meet him?” Ellie asked.

  Louisa slurped noisily from a cup of liquid, coffee if Abbott had to guess. “Growing up, Lia never had much experience with men. She attended an all girls’ boarding school near here and then Hollins, a private single-sex college in Roanoke. When she graduated, she was eager to see the world. She took a job in the marketing department at Delta Airlines in Atlanta. She was making a good salary that included free air travel, mostly domestic but she went on a couple of international trips as well. She seemed happy, which is why I was surprised when she quit Delta and went to work as an administrative assistant at a residential construction firm. Turns out she was sleeping with the owner of that construction firm, who happened to be a married man. Fortunately, he didn’t have children, but when his wife found out about Lia, his marriage ended in divorce. He whisked Lia off to Las Vegas for a quickie wedding before the ink was dry on his divorce papers.”

  Abbott couldn’t trust anything she said. He dragged his finger across his neck, signaling to Ellie he was ready to end the call. “I think that’s all we have for now, Louisa. We’ll be in touch.”

  Ellie grabbed his arm before he could end the call. “Wait, Louisa. One more thing before you go. What’re the twins’ names? Lia never said.”

  “Bella and Mya. Sweetest little things you ever did see.”

  It had begun to sprinkle a few minutes earlier, but as he was ending the call, it started to pour.

  Ellie sat in the passenger seat, a dazed expression on her face as she stared out at the rain. “What is it, honey?”

  She slowly turned her head toward him. “Bella and Mya were the names of our dolls when we were little. Lia remembers, Daddy. No wonder she didn’t seem surprised when I told her I was her twin sister.”

  Abbott let his head fall back against the seat. “I’m not sure what to think about any of this.”

  “I don’t get it. Yesterday Louisa told me she saw Lia over the Fourth of July. Today she said she saw her sometime last spring. And Lia said she hasn’t seen Louisa in a year. Was the last time they were together so unmemorable they can’t recall the occasion?”

  “Or so painful they are trying to forget.”

  “What do we do now?” Ellie asked, referring to the rain pelting down on the windshield. “Since our rooms are already booked until tomorrow, we should probably stay the night in case Lia decides to call one of us. Although I have a sneaking suspicion she won’t.”

  “Maybe she’ll surprise us,” he said, without m
uch conviction. He turned the wipers to full speed. “It’s supposed to rain all afternoon. What say we find a decent restaurant and have a three-martini lunch?”

  Ellie glanced at her watch. “But it’s only eleven o’clock.”

  “Then we’ll start out with a Bloody Mary.” He accessed the Yelp app on his phone and searched for restaurants in the area. “The reviews are good at Leon’s Full Service. Let’s go there.” He put the car in reverse and backed out of the parking space.

  Ellie said nothing on the way over nor while they waited for their Bloody Marys at the bar in Leon’s fifteen minutes later.

  Abbott nudged her with his elbow. “What’s on your mind?”

  “I can’t get over the fact that Lia named her daughters Mya and Bella. I’m anxious to talk to her and find out what else she remembers.”

  “I wouldn’t count on her remembering much. She was only three.”

  The bartender, a woman in her late twenties with dark curls springing out all over her head, arrived with their drinks, and they thanked her.

  Ellie dragged the stirrer around in her drink. “This whole thing is getting weirder by the minute. Aside from meeting Julian, I wish none of this had ever happened. I’d gladly give up my inheritance to be back in my tiny apartment in San Francisco.” Ellie removed the stirrer from her drink and took a sip. “I suggest we don’t call Louisa anymore for help. She lies so much, I’m not sure she even knows what the truth is anymore.”

  “Agreed. Do you think she’s lying about the scar?”

  “Definitely! Although I don’t know why she would, unless she’s somehow responsible for causing the scar and she’s too ashamed to tell us. I have no recollection of Lia getting burned when we were little. That’s not to say it didn’t happen, considering my unreliable memory.”

  Abbott took a sip of his Bloody Mary and licked his lips. “What about the scars on Lia’s wrists? How could Louisa not know about a suicide attempt?”

  “Those scars look fresh. She may legitimately not know about them.”

  A large crowd of people entered the restaurant, taking the noise level up several notches. The bartender slid menus across the wooden counter to them, and for the next few minutes they studied the offerings. When the bartender returned, they both ordered the arugula salad with grilled shrimp.

  Ellie stared into her half-empty glass. “If it wasn’t for my inheritance, I’d drive back to Charleston this afternoon.” She lifted her glass to her lips and drained the rest of her Bloody Mary. “You know, I felt guilty when I first found out about my inheritance, like somehow I didn’t deserve it. But then I started remembering all the pain and suffering my grandmother put me through. Put us through. The money is restitution for that pain and suffering. But half of it belongs to Lia. Mom would want her to have it. I’m tempted to let my grandmother’s attorney figure out the best way to give it to her. I really don’t want to get mixed up in my sister’s problems. Is that wrong of me?”

  He placed his hand over hers. “You’re overwhelmed, honey, and rightly so. You’ve been dealing with a lot for a long time. But she’s family. If she needs our help, we should give it to her.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Abbott

  Ellie ordered another Bloody Mary before their salads arrived and then drank two glasses of wine during lunch. She was too interested in drowning her sorrows to notice Abbott had switched to sweet tea. Her alcoholic buzz played right into his plans. She was struggling with the situation. And he respected that. She needed a break from the turmoil that had taken over her life. But he wasn’t ready to give up on Lia. Call it a parent’s intuition; even though he’d met his daughter for the first time only that morning, he had a gut feeling that all was not right in her world. When she’d finally answered the door for them earlier, he’d noticed her scanning the street behind them as though expecting to see someone else. And she’d been too anxious to get rid of them for someone who’d just been reunited with her long-lost family.

  After he paid the tab, he drove Ellie back to the hotel, walked her to her room, and pulled the bedspread over her fully clad body. He heard the soft sound of her snores before he exited the room.

  The heavy rain had subsided, and a fine mist fell over the area as he returned to Lia’s neighborhood. He circled the cul-de-sac and backed into the driveway of a house that was for sale catty-corner to Lia’s. Satisfied with his unobstructed view of her house, he removed his Canon from its bag and chose a 100-400 mm lens, which gave him sufficient zoom to focus on Lia’s front door. Nobody stirred on the street for the next thirty minutes. The mailman was nowhere in sight, and the occupants of the houses were either at work or at school.

  Abbott was feeling drowsy and had closed his eyes for a wink of sleep when he heard the loud muffler of an approaching car. He sat up straight in his seat and positioned his camera. A black Honda Civic Coupe with oversize tires sped down the street and whipped into Lia’s driveway. Two average-size men, dressed in black with their dark hair slicked back into man buns, got out of the car and strutted across the lawn. The taller of the two rang the bell. When no one answered, both men began pounding on the door. The door opened a crack, and the two men forced their way in. Abbott abandoned his camera and darted across the street. He approached the house with caution. The door was open just wide enough for him to see inside. The men appeared to be unarmed, but one of them held Lia’s arm in a tight grip. Abbott overheard the man say, “We won’t hurt you. We just want to know where your husband is.”

  “Afternoon, gentlemen,” Abbott said, kicking the door open the rest of the way. “Is there something I can help you with?”

  All three heads jerked toward him in surprise.

  Abbott placed his hand on his hip, drawing his raincoat back to reveal the revolver stuffed in his waistband. He’d gotten in the habit of carrying a weapon during his years of exploring the wild. He had a permit to carry a concealed weapon, but so far, he’d never been in a situation where he needed to use it.

  One of the men spotted the revolver. “Hey, dude,” he said, his hands in the air. “We don’t want no trouble. We’re just looking for this lady’s husband. He owes our boss a lot of money.”

  The brawnier of the two men stepped toward Abbott. “And just who the hell are you?”

  Abbott removed his pistol from its holster and held it pointed at the ground. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m her father,” he said, nodding his head at Lia.

  “Chill, Pops.” His hands shot up. “Like my friend said, we’re just looking for her husband.”

  “Is your husband here?” Abbott asked Lia, who shook her head vehemently. “There. You have your answer. He’s not here. Why don’t you leave your business card with us, and we’ll be sure to tell him you stopped by when he returns.”

  The brawny man said, “That won’t be necessary. He knows we’re looking for him.”

  The two men backed out of the door and then turned and jogged to their car. Abbott squinted as the Honda sped off down the street, but he couldn’t make out any of the license plate.

  He slammed the door shut and returned the pistol to its holster. “Where are the girls? Are they safe?”

  She nodded. “They’re taking a nap.”

  “Clearly, your husband’s in some kind of danger. Tell me everything you know. And be quick about it before they come back.” She studied his face as though trying to decide whether to trust him. “If you’d rather call a friend to help you, then call them. But you need to protect your children.”

  Lia collapsed against the wall. “When my husband came home from work on Monday night, he told me he was in financial trouble. He’d used his construction company as collateral for a bank loan to pay back some gambling debts. I didn’t know he’d been gambling. Apparently, he has an addiction. When he lost even more money gambling, he borrowed from their boss to pay the bank. Ricky, that’s my husband, wanted me to borrow money from Louisa. When I refused to call her, we had an argument, and he lef
t. I haven’t seen or heard from him since.”

  “Have you called your husband’s office?”

  She looked at him as if he were the most ignorant man on the planet. “They haven’t seen him since Monday, either. He’s hiding out somewhere. Those goons wouldn’t be harassing me if they knew where he was.”

  Abbott checked out the side window to make certain they hadn’t come back. “How long have they been harassing you?”

  Lia pressed a trembling hand against her temple. “The phone calls started on Tuesday morning; just hang-ups at first and then a man with a deep voice asking to speak to Ricky. That Honda has been driving up and down the street all day and night since Tuesday. It was even parked in front of my house this morning when I woke up.”

  “You’re lucky I showed up when I did. These men will use you and the girls to draw your husband out of wherever he’s hiding. You realize that, don’t you?”

  “Of course I realize that. But I have nowhere to go.” She began pacing up and down the hall. “I checked our joint bank account. Ricky withdrew all our cash. The bastard left me only thirty dollars.”

  “Then, like it or not, you’re going to have to come with me. We need to get the girls out of here before they come back. Go pack your things. I’ll get my car and pull around back.”

  He retrieved his car from across the street and then poked around the backyard while he waited for Lia to finish packing. When he discovered the door on the side of the garage unlocked, he went inside and moved the children’s car seats from her van to Ellie’s MINI. He was leaning against the hood of the car when Lia emerged a few minutes later with a sleepy twin on each hip and three small suitcases lined up on the floor behind her.

  “Why can’t I follow you in my van?” she asked when she saw the car seats in the MINI.

  “These men have been staked out in front of your house for two days. They know what kind of toothpaste you brush your teeth with. Trust me, they have the make, model, shade of gray, and license plate number of your van memorized.”

  He placed their suitcases in the back of the MINI and helped Lia fasten his granddaughters into their car seats. He started the car and then sped away. “Until we sort this situation out, you need to be careful of every move you make.”