Listening to Hollis practice octaves hadn’t prepared me for what a lovely voice she had. She opened her mouth and soared on the high notes, her face flushed with pleasure. I leaned over and whispered, “I didn’t know you had two musicians in the family.”
Sara Meg glowed with pride. “They got it from Fred,” she whispered back. “We Tanners could never carry a tune.”
During announcements at the end of the service, Joe Riddley looked at me and asked a silent question. We’ve been married so long, I knew what he wanted. I didn’t feel a bit like eating with people, but I nodded, so he wrote a note and passed it to Sara Meg. Little Bit is feeling rich today. Join us and Ridd’s crew for dinner? Buddy, too.
Sara Meg started to nod, then passed the note to Buddy for his opinion. He smiled their acceptance. A single woman in the pew ahead beamed back, then colored when she realized his smile wasn’t for her.
We decided to eat at a place down by the river and, as we often did, Martha was going to ride with me while Joe Riddley rode with Ridd and Cricket. Bethany decided to ride with Sara Meg, and Buddy told Garnet to come with him so he wouldn’t be lonely. She nodded, then bent impulsively to Cricket, “Would you like to ride with Uncle Buddy and me?”
Cricket abandoned his daddy and granddaddy without a backward look and climbed happily into Buddy’s backseat.
“Didn’t those kids do a fine job this morning?” Martha asked as I headed out of town.
“Yeah, but Bethany, particularly, still looks awfully pale. She seems to be taking DeWayne’s death real hard.”
“That’s not all. She and her daddy had a real row last night. She had told us earlier that she and Todd were going with another couple to a movie, but after she heard about DeWayne, she decided she’d stay with the other girls. When she called Todd to tell him, he got furious. Came down to your place and dragged her out into the backyard to yell at her. Ridd didn’t like that, so he went after them and heard Todd telling her it was going to be a great party and she had to come. That was the first we’d heard about a party. At least Bethany stuck to her intentions and said she needed to be with her team right then, but that made Todd so mad, he took off fast and spun a rut in your driveway as he turned onto the road.”
“I’ll send him a bill,” I joked. The truth was, he could have dug a pit in my driveway if that meant he was too mad with Bethany to come back.
“But that wasn’t the worst. Ridd started reading Bethany the riot act for telling us it was a movie when it was really a party, and she got furious with him for eavesdropping. Then he told her she wasn’t going out with Todd any time he’d been drinking. She insisted Todd hadn’t been drinking and Ridd insisted he had, and they got so loud, I finally ordered them down to the barn. Poor Bo had to listen to them yell at each other for nearly an hour.”
“Anger’s a great way to forget for a little while that you’re grieving,” I reminded her.
“I know. Ridd finally realized that and told her he was sorry. They both came back to the house crying. But Bethany has good cause to be pale. Between her daddy fussing and Todd yelling at her, she had quite a night even without DeWayne’s death.”
Luckily, we had arrived. It sure wasn’t the time to mention that Hollis was worried that somebody she knew was sleeping with somebody else.
The restaurant we’d picked was known for its fried catfish and hush puppies, but the hostess was so skinny, I could have used her shinbone for a needle.
Joe Riddley leaned down and muttered in my ear, “I hope she’s not an advertisement for the quality of the food.” I smacked him lightly, but she hadn’t heard. She was explaining to Ridd that there would be a thirty-minute wait for a table for ten, but they could immediately give us one table for four and one for six.
Ridd waved toward the smaller table halfway across the room. “Okay, kids, you eat there, behave.” I wondered if Garnet would rather eat with the adults, but she seemed happy enough to take Cricket’s hand and go with him.
“We’d better watch those two,” I joked to Sara Meg as we headed to our own table far across the room. “He’s got a serious crush on Garnet.”
Buddy laughed, but Sara Meg said wistfully, “He’d be the first male she ever looked at. I used to picture making my girls prom dresses and wedding gowns, but Garnet has no interest in boys whatsoever. She even skipped her senior prom. And Hollis—” She sighed and shook her head. “Sports, sports, and sports. That’s all she thinks about.”
“Skipped her prom?” That seemed an odd way to put it.
Martha and Ridd had already reached the table and taken chairs across from each other at one end. Joe Riddley had gone around to sit by Martha, so I headed for the chair by Ridd as Sara Meg replied, “She was invited by a real nice boy—”
“—but bad old Uncle Buddy didn’t realize it was prom weekend, so he had rented a condo at the beach,” Buddy finished as he gallantly held my chair. I motioned for Sara Meg to sit by me. I hadn’t seen her in a long time, and I wanted her close.
“Sweet old Buddy had also found somebody to keep the store Saturday to give me a little break,” Sara Meg added as she sat down, “but Garnet had a choice. I told her we’d let Buddy go alone if she wanted to go to the prom. She said she’d rather go to the beach.” She picked up her menu and added absently, “I was real put out with her, to tell the truth.” She looked at Martha over her menu. “I wanted to see her all dressed up, coming down the stairs.” She sounded so wistful, I wondered if what she really wanted was a memory of her own mother watching her come downstairs in a prom dress. Some hurts never heal.
“You’ve still got Hollis’s prom and two weddings to look forward to,” Martha consoled her.
“And pay for,” Ridd added glumly. We all laughed.
As the waitress distributed our drinks, Buddy looked around the table and said, “This sure is peaceful after a week in the war zone.”
I thought at first he was referring—rather crudely—to the two episodes of graffiti and DeWayne’s death, but Sara Meg gave an embarrassed little laugh and explained, “The girls have been fighting more than usual. Pick, pick, pick at each other, all week.”
“What’s it about?” Martha wondered.
Sara Meg felt around in her purse and brought out reading glasses. “I don’t have a clue. I asked, but you know how kids are. They slide away from questions like fried eggs on a buttered plate. Garnet says she’s tired from summer school and Hollis says she has some stuff to think about that she has to figure out on her own. I tried to make Garnet tell me if Hollis is in some kind of trouble, but Garnet said not that she’s aware of.” Sara Meg tried to laugh again, but her heart wasn’t in it. “Of course, Hollis could be six months’ pregnant before Garnet looked up from her book and noticed. I don’t mean that, of course,” she added quickly.
“I don’t think any of us have any worries on that score,” Ridd assured her.
I held up my menu to hide my face and hoped Hollis hadn’t been talking to DeWayne about Bethany. Most of the time I think of myself as a modern mother, but I sure didn’t want to bring that up with Ridd and Martha.
Martha asked, “Does Hollis even have a special boyfriend right now?”
Sara Meg shook her head, and Buddy added, “Not since she stopped hanging around with Tyrone Noland. Boy, that was a relief.”
“He wasn’t a boyfriend,” Sara Meg protested, “just a friend. And he used to be real nice.”
I turned to Ridd and asked softly, “Did DeWayne teach Tyrone or Smitty?”
“Tyrone, yeah, but I don’t know about Smitty.”
I was feeling real clever until I realized that meant it was Tyrone, not Smitty, who might have a motive for murdering DeWayne. Then I didn’t feel good at all.
Our waitress returned and we all ordered catfish, but I pointed out to her that whoever decided to have “all you can eat” that day should have added a footnote: “except for Yarbrough men.”
Martha asked Ridd, “Are you going, or shall I, to mak
e sure Cricket doesn’t order french fries, mashed potatoes, and a baked potato as his three vegetables?”
“You go. I’ve got to stay here and make sure Mama doesn’t embarrass me by telling stories from my childhood.”
“Do you have any influence over your mother?” Buddy asked. “Nobody else does.”
I expected Ridd to laugh, but he gave me a very solemn look. “We’ll see. I’m going to try to influence her. I want her to find out who killed DeWayne.”
Nobody was more surprised than I was. After what he’d said the day before about “poking my nose where it doesn’t belong” and “meddling,” I wanted to bop him.
“DeWayne killed himself,” Joe Riddley said firmly, pouring himself a second glass of tea. He always claims going to church is thirsty work. “It’s real sad, but true. So you all just let it go at that, you hear me?”
“Are they sure?” Buddy wondered. “I mean, DeWayne seemed to be on top of the world, between the team doing so well and having a job he liked. He came by Thursday morning and told me he really liked being back in Hopemore.”
“Nevertheless, the police are satisfied he killed himself,” Ridd said gloomily. “Chief Muggins told me so last night. However, I think somebody had to have pushed his buttons to make him do it, and in my book, that counts as murder. I just don’t know how we’ll prove it.”
Joe Riddley leaned across the table and pinned him with the glare he used to use when Ridd was eight and declaring he wasn’t going to church that week. “You all aren’t going to prove it. That’s what we pay police officers for. MacLaren has no call to go mixing in stuff like that.” He never calls me that unless he’s upset.
“Ike can figure it out,” I said in a soothing voice. “He’s a lot smarter than me.” When Joe Riddley relaxed, I figured maybe I’d learned a little bit from Mama after all.
We went on to talk of other things, but in a few minutes I noticed Ridd pounding one fist lightly on the edge of the table. That was unusual—Walker is generally the pounder in our family. I leaned over and asked, real low, “What changed your mind, son?”
I had to bend even closer to hear him. “I saw Chief Muggins last night at the Bi-Lo. We’d run out of snacks and he was getting his groceries.” Chief Muggins had been getting his own groceries ever since his wife made one too many trips to the emergency room with a broken bone and decided she’d be safer in Atlanta. “I asked if he had any leads yet, and he said he isn’t looking for leads—it’s a clear case of suicide. When I protested that somebody had to have driven DeWayne to do it, he shrugged and said, ‘I got more important things to do than try and figure out what makes those people do what they do.’ ” Tears reddened Ridd’s eyes. “You know as well as I do that if DeWayne had been white—”
“Hush,” Joe Riddley growled. “Don’t say things like that in public. She’s a magistrate.”
“And that still takes some getting used to.” Buddy’s eyes twinkled across the table. I gave Ridd a warning kick. We’d talk later when nobody was listening in.
I tuned in to Martha, who had come back and was telling Sara Meg about talking to Garnet’s psychology class. “She asked a real good question, too.”
“Oh? What was it?” Any mother likes to hear about it when her child has been bright.
“I talked about child abuse, particularly sexual abuse, and described symptoms and various treatments. Garnet asked the one question I’d failed to cover: ‘What happens to victims of abuse when they grow up?’ ”
“What did you say?” I asked, intrigued. Martha knew a lot about a lot of things, but this was one subject I’d never heard her discuss.
“Some remain victims, repeatedly seeking out others to abuse them in various ways. Some manage to get enough counseling and support to function pretty normally. We call those survivors. A few become thrivers—people who are strong enough to reach out and help others in similar situations. Some thrivers even become professionals—pastors, counselors, or psychiatrists.” She sighed. “But those are the rare ones. Most bear scars the rest of their lives. This class had an extra-good outcome, though. Garnet told me afterwards about a little girl she suspected was being abused, and it turned out she was right. The child has been sent to a safer place.”
“Who?” Buddy, Sara Meg, Ridd, and Joe Riddley spoke in unison. In a town like Hopemore, it’s easy to think that things like that can’t happen. We know our neighbors and pretty much what goes on in our neighborhoods. A lot of folks, for instance, suspected Charlie Muggins was beating his wife. It just took our youth pastor a while to convince her she could safely leave. I, too, wondered who the child was. The idea that she had been going through that kind of horror and we hadn’t suspected was intolerable.
“I can’t give her name, but it was one of Garnet’s piano pupils. I had the Department of Family and Children’s Services check it out, and they removed the child at once.” Martha heaved another sigh, one that seemed to come from far under the earth. “If we had the space, I’d love to take in kids like that. I can’t stand to think there are children who don’t have a safe, happy place to sleep at night.”
“Me, neither,” Buddy agreed, setting his glass exactly in the ring where it had been.
“I’m glad Garnet told you.” Sara Meg emphasized the last word, sounding more sad than glad. She added wistfully. “I don’t even know who her piano pupils are. I didn’t know she was taking psychology. She tells me nothing. If you have a lecture on secretive daughters, I’d like to hear it sometime.”
“Introductory psych is such a waste of time, though.” Buddy sounded like he was the world’s foremost authority on the subject. “It teaches kids just enough to make them think they’re messed up without giving them tools to fix themselves. Take me, for instance. I took it, and I’m still a mess.” Everybody laughed. I appreciated his lightening things up a bit.
“Maybe Garnet will become a psychiatrist,” Joe Riddley suggested thoughtfully. “She can try to fix Buddy, and even if she fails, she can support you both in your old age.”
Everybody laughed except Sara Meg. “Somebody may have to,” she said in an unsteady voice. “Have you all heard they’re definitely putting a big superstore out on the edge of town?”
Joe Riddley nodded. “They’ve already started bulldozing.” He slewed his eyes toward me and sent a silent message: See? I told you Sara Meg never notices a thing.
I frowned at him. I didn’t want her seeing that look. I said, “At least, if Garnet works for Laura she can help out a bit. Did she get the job?”
Sara Meg nodded, but before she could say anything, Buddy leaned across the table with a worried pucker between his eyes. “I wish you hadn’t suggested that, Mac. Garnet’s not real strong, and she’s already got a lot on her plate.”
“It’s not hard work,” Sara Meg protested. “She’s at a desk all afternoon, and Laura told her she can study when things are slow.”
“But we agreed she’d concentrate on school,” Buddy reminded her.
“I know, but she wanted to give it a try. . . .” Her voice trailed off uncertainly.
“At least she told you about the job,” Joe Riddley pointed out. “That’s a good sign.”
Sara Meg brightened. “It is, isn’t it? Of course, she was real excited about it, and I was the first person she saw. If she’d run into Buddy or Hollis first—or anybody else she knew—I wouldn’t have heard a word. Still, she did tell me. And like Mac said, it will help to have her earning something.” Now it was her forehead with the worry pucker. “What are you all going to do? I don’t know whether to try to sell out now or wait to see if the store can make it. I’d feel real dishonest selling to anybody if it’s going under, but if I try to make it and can’t—” Her voice dropped to a whisper.
We all said what we could to reassure her—it would take months to get their store up and running; she didn’t have to make a decision right away; maybe something else would come along. None of us sounded real convincing. Maybe it’s because we weren�
��t convinced.
Finally, Ridd leaned across me and suggested to Sara Meg, “Maybe you ought to marry a rich man. Have you considered that?”
Martha reached over the table and smacked him lightly. “Men! You think you’re the answer to all our worries.”
That, finally, brought back Sara Meg’s smile. “Find me an eligible millionaire, and I’ll marry him tomorrow. Hollis would be thrilled. She’s thrown every single man in town my way.”
“What about Garnet?” I wondered. “Would she mind?”
“I don’t know. What do you think?” Sara Meg asked Buddy.
He considered the matter, then shook his head. “I don’t know, either. Garnet and Fred were real close.”
Martha decided this was an opening for what she wanted to say. “I’m not sure she’s come to terms with his death. Has she ever gotten counseling?”
“No.” Sara Meg looked distressed. I’d be distressed, too, if I figured other people worried about one of my children, but
she wasn’t reluctant to discuss it. “Lately she seems even quieter than usual, and I’ve caught her crying a few times, but when I ask about it, she bites my head off.” She hesitated. “I found her daddy’s picture under her pillow last week when I was stripping the beds.”
“The local counseling center has some good grief groups,” Martha suggested. “She might benefit from talking to somebody and maybe joining one.”
“Maybe so.” Sara Meg sounded like the idea had never occurred to her. “Sometimes I think she blames me for Fred dying. And between finding that picture and watching the two of them circling each other these past few days like dogs ready to fight, I’m getting crazy myself. Did you ever feel like you could happily give your children away?”
“I tried several times,” I told her. “Took out ads and everything, but nobody would have them. Speaking of kids, here come four good-looking specimens searching for a home.”
Garnet and Cricket arrived first. I hadn’t had a chance to talk to the girls after church, so I told her, “You look mighty pretty today,” although she’d have looked better in something brighter than that brown skirt and a beige cotton sweater. “You look almost as good as your mama.”
Who Let That Killer in the House? Page 16
