He shook his head. “No, in fact, in a strange way it was like he wasn’t giving me advice at all. But now I can’t get it off my mind.”
Grady chuckled. “That man should have been a counselor. He’s really good at turning a man’s conscience back on himself.”
“What do you think I ought to do?” he asked.
Grady shrugged. “Son, I haven’t been married for fifteen years. My wife died of a staph infection, of all things. I can’t give anybody advice. Considering I’m seeing Millie, all it’ll do is get me to asking the same questions.”
Nick brushed his hand through his hair as he pulled into the construction site. “If I did, I don’t know anything about picking a ring, how to do it, nothing.”
Grady grabbed his wrist. “Listen. Don’t worry about the small stuff. You’re not buying the girl, and my opinion is it won’t matter to Emily. She isn’t a material type person. If you’re ready, find something that will mirror her personality.” He pointed at Nick’s hand. “She gave you a Claddagh. Maybe you get her one with a diamond or a Celtic knot with one. Use your imagination.”
“I guess you’re right.” Nick opened the door to the car. “Let’s check on this foundation, document it, and that’ll be all she wrote for now.”
He walked over to the site with Grady right behind. As they peered over into the hole, Nick backed up, holding his gut. “Is that what I think it is?”
Grady nodded. “Afraid so.”
Nick pulled out his cell and all called 911. He stared in the hole again. A body. With no head.
****
County and state police swarmed the lot. Nick stood to the side, his hands crossed and knowing the outcome. No building until the authorities were satisfied they had all clues.
He glanced over at Grady. “Let’s look at the good side. At least we know the man was white. Probably not an illegal alien.”
Grady shook his head. “It’s still going to take time.”
“Yeah.” Nick watched as specialists with masks and gloves, even plastic booties on, scurried over the site. “They look like ants, don’t they? Picking up all the crumbs.”
Grady smirked. “Only you would come up with that. Look, do yourself a favor. Go get that woman a ring. You can’t do anything here.”
He nodded. “Maybe you’re right, but I don’t know where to find a ring either.”
“Go to Danville or Lynchburg,” he said. “You’ll find something.”
Nick shook his head. “No, I think I’ll ask Millie for advice, first. She may have a suggestion.”
Grady’s cell phone went off. “Sorry, boss. Hold on, speak of the devil, it’s Millie.” He punched the button. “Hello, darling. You found what? You’re kidding me. Who’s there? Okay, I’ll meet y’all at the house.” He hung up. “I think I know who our body belongs to.”
“How?”
He looked at the ground. “When they went for Darla’s memorial service, they found Luke Lincoln’s head.”
Minutes later, they both got back to the house. Emily sat, mute, at the kitchen table, while Millie bustled around the kitchen making sandwiches. “She isn’t talking right now,” Millie told Nick. “It hit her pretty hard on top of last night. She thinks if that guy had gotten to her, it would have been her head on the stake.”
“Come on!” Nick sat down next to Emily. “Honey, they already told me the body they found had been dead for almost twenty-four hours. He was long dead before that nut ever drove up in front of the house.”
Her bottom lip trembled, and Emily shook her head and began to sob.
Nick grabbed her in his arms and let her cry. And cry she did. Finally after more than fifteen minutes, her sobs subsided, as she wiped the remaining tears from her eyes. “It’s all too much,” she said. “One thing after another. I want some quiet time, sitting on the sofa watching TV, having Carlos fall asleep in my lap. Making love. Not this ugliness, this dark evil seeping into our lives.”
He held her to him, held her like he’d never let go. Held her like he planned to do for the rest of his life. “Shh, shh. It’s okay.” He rocked her back and forth. “It’ll all go away. Give it time. Just give it a little bit of time.”
“You didn’t see it,” she said, looking up at him, her eyes swollen and distorted from so much crying. “Like a dead animal, severed, his eyes lifeless, the blood still draining down the pole.”
“Put it away.” He cupped his hands around her face. “Pack it away and don’t let sunshine see it. That’s what my dad used to say.”
She smiled, her lips only barely curling up at the ends, and then nodded. “I know. Just, please, let’s us not fight anymore. I can’t stand it.”
He kissed her nose. “You have a promise. Want to watch TV tonight and veg?”
She smiled, a real smile. “Absolutely.”
He grinned. “When Carlos gets home, it’s popcorn for all.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“We’re in big trouble.” Sam glanced at his brother. “Luke’s dead, and I know we’re not far behind.”
Mark stared at him. He rubbed his lips together and gripped the table. “How?”
Sam laced his fingers together. “Shot between the eyes. Then decapitated. His head was on a stake in the cemetery. Gruesome, I’m told. It was right next to where we buried the money, I might add. His body was in the hole for the foundation at the Dazzle site. His hands and legs both had marks around them.” He choked and looked away. “They’d been bleeding.”
“Holy shit.” Mark rubbed his hand over his eyes and stared at Sam, but looking right through him, the color drained from his face. “He didn’t deserve that bad. Nobody deserves it, but all he did was play like a preacher. So, he got a bunch of old wet hens stirred. He didn’t do anything else. Except steal a little bit of money. Not much at all in comparison to the stash. And, he was leaving town.”
“The kingpin has to be behind it.”
Mark nodded, glancing up, his eyes red. “When you told me we were meeting in the Good Ole Boys I knew it really had to be bad. Why take the chance for people to link us, I thought. After all, why would you want to talk to a grunt on a construction crew, right?”
Sam waved his hand. “No red flags. Luke was the one who got tongues wagging. I talk to all sorts of people. Moonshiners, little old ladies. It won’t look weird. We don’t even look alike. You have Dad’s coloring and I have Mom’s.”
Mark nodded. “I’m surprised nobody’s caught on to your resemblance to Luke.” He gripped the table in a white knuckle hold. “I can’t believe he went like that and we’re powerless to even claim the body.”
“Yeah.” Sam stared off in the distance. “You didn’t see it. I lost my cookies. Thank God I saw the body and not the head. Cal got that part.”
“So, what do we do?” he asked.
“We get the stash in the hole and run. The money in the cemetery is as good as found. Why did the bastard have to stake our brother right in front of it?”
“Maybe he knew it was there.”
Sam shook his head. “No, if he had, he would’ve taken it. I checked after they’d removed the post and things cleared out. But boy did I have to be careful. Reporters were running all over that hill. I say we get the stash and get out of Climax.”
“When?” Mark asked.
Sam tilted his head. “Might as well be tonight. Everyone’s tired from the fireworks. It should be quiet.”
Mark nodded. “Okay. Do what you have to. I’ll try to keep the Tasmanian Devil at bay. Better known as Monstruo.”
****
“Popcorn again, Nick?” Carlos smiled. “I guess you’re not mad anymore about me skipping school.”
Nick leaned down and looked him in the face. “I’m still not happy about that, but I promised Emily we all get a treat. You’re lucky, bud. You get it by default.”
“What ees default?” He cocked his head sideways.
“Never mind,” Nick said. “I’m not sure I could explain it to you right n
ow. Just remember you’re lucky.”
“How come Emily gets a treat?” he asked.
Emily smiled as she pulled out a big bowl. “I just had a very bad day.”
“Memorial no good, eh?”
She shook her head. “No good. Somebody messed it up.”
He sighed. “Ay, yai, yai. People should stop making other people feel bad.”
She nodded. “I agree.”
Nick shook the pan with the popcorn, trying not to butt into the conversation. Seems like Emily told him what a memorial was. The kid was learning.
“Does the fact they found a bunch of money up there have anything with the problem you have?” he asked, already rubbing his eyes.
Emily turned. Nick pulled the pot off the stove. “What money, Carlos?”
He smiled. “You grown-ups don’t pay ’tention. Ees on TV.”
“What’s on television?” Emily asked, grabbing the boy’s shoulders.
Carlos looked at her hands. “Jeez, Emily, you don’t have to manhandle me.”
She let go. “Where did you learn that?”
Carlos looked at her. “Women always manhandle me. That’s what Senõr Andy said. But the stuff about the money. It was on the News Channel. Just a second ago.”
“For crying out loud.” Emily darted a look at Nick. “Get the popcorn in a bowl and let’s go look.”
Minutes later, they were in front of the TV. Nick shoveled the popcorn in his mouth. “Where’s the update? Don’t they replay this stuff like every fifteen minutes?”
Emily stroked his arm. “You’re just impatient.”
“What’s wrong with you two?” Carlos asked. “You’re no fun tonight.”
Emily stared down at him. “You’re right, honey.” She turned off the remote. “What do you want to do?”
He laughed. “I want to play Wii baseball!”
She smiled and looked at Nick. “Ever since you got that, you have an addict.”
He handed her the control. “Better that than other things. Batter up.”
Later that night, Emily lay in Nick’s lap. “It took him forever to go to sleep. His teachers won’t appreciate it when he falls asleep on his desk.”
Nick stroked her face. “You’re turning into a very maternal female.”
She smiled. “I guess I never had the chance before, but I like it.”
“What if you find out you’re pregnant?” he asked.
She stared at him. “I think I’d rather wait now that I thought about it. But if it’s time, well, I’ll be happy.”
He sighed. “You know what? I think I would be too. But what I’d really like to do is try to adopt Carlos.”
“What about going back to Charlotte?” she asked.
“We could do that too,” he said with an encouraging nod.
“I don’t want to.” Her lips were firm.
He laughed nervously. “We’ll talk about it some more.”
She shifted in his lap and suddenly sat up. “Did you hear that?”
He frowned. “Sorry. Ten years around jackhammers and loud noises, ever since high school. Even in college had a job. Mom made it a prerequisite. High pitches are going out even now.”
“A car just drove down my road,” she said. “Either no one pays attention to keep out signs anymore, or we have trouble.”
“Maybe they’re lost?”
She threw him a glare. “After everything we’ve had going on, do you think I believe that?”
Suddenly Emily’s cell began to ring. She picked it up and stared at it. “It’s Cal.” She opened it. “Hey Cal, what’s up. You are? It did? Okay. I’ll tell Nick. Thanks.”
She glanced up at him. “Cal says he just followed a car down the road, and he thinks somebody’s up to something he shouldn’t be. He says to stay in the house and be ready to call back-up if we hear anything suspicious.”
“I don’t get why anyone would be fooling around it the woods,” Nick said. “Unless the Peeping Tom did come back.”
“Maybe.” She shivered.
The retort of a gun rang in the air.
Nick jumped up. “I’m going out there.” He ran upstairs and retrieved the handgun Chris loaned him and returned downstairs. “Who are you calling?”
“I thought I should call the office.”
He shook his head. “Not yet. Be back in a minute.”
“Cal’s already out there. He could mistake you for the intruder. Stay put like Cal said.”
He looked at her grimly. “I’m going. Wait until I call you on my cell.” Turning on the floodlights, Nick exited the back door.
The night was dark. New moon and overcast. He didn’t hear a sound in the still night air. Nick took a deep breath and descended the stairs of the back deck, his eyes darting right and left as he handled the gun carefully between his two hands. At least this skill his dad taught him was coming in handy. If he could just keep his cool.
A sudden snap of twigs in the distance made him turn his head. Adjusting his eyes to the darkness, he saw the faint outline of a police car down the road in an indentation of wooded land. In his mind, he groaned. Not as close as he thought. Being in the country like this, sound traveled a hell of a lot farther. Nothing to slow it down.
He slowly inched his way down the road until he saw there was not one, but two cars, parked at the edge of the woods. As he got closer, he saw a man giving mouth-to-mouth and pumping on another’s chest.
“What the shit is going on?” He pointed the gun and stood his ground.
The man swerved, pulled his gun and trained it in Nick’s direction. “Who goes there?” His laser guide pierced Nick’s eyes.
“Nick Troy. I’m staying at Emily’s.”
The man put the gun down. “Sorry. Waiting on an ambulance. Cal’s bad.”
“Quent?”
He nodded. “Somebody shot him. Good thing I followed them both down the road.”
“But you’re in a regular car,” Nick said.
He nodded. “I know. I’m off. I saw Cal pull in here. When I heard the shot, I jammed, but the idiot shot past me and outta here. I think the car belonged to that maniac who caused the ruckus at the Good Ole Boys. The same one you all think is the Peeping Tom. I had to stop and try to save Cal. But I radioed HQ. They’re trying to find a car with my description.”
An ambulance wailed as Nick heard it barrel down the road.
Quent shook his head. “This isn’t a good day for the Sheriff’s Department.”
****
“It’s nice that Grady volunteered to take care of Carlos.” He squeezed Emily’s hand, as she broke down again in tears.
“I’m sorry, Nick, but Cal is such a fun loving, happy-go-lucky guy despite the fact he’s a dedicated deputy.” She blew her nose into a tissue. “He just had an obsession about keeping me safe and now look where it’s gotten him.”
“I’m glad he did what he did. I just wish it hadn’t turned out like this.” He stared off in the distance.
“Why do you say that?” she asked, raising her head up to meet his eyes.
He tossed his head back and forth. “I don’t know. Something about Quent. He didn’t look panicked enough or trying hard enough to save Cal. I just couldn’t buy he was concerned.”
Just then, Emily saw a motion out of the corner of her eye, and Lyle and Justine Burton strode up. “Emily,” Lyle said. “We heard the police alert on our scanner. We came right away.”
Justine nodded, mopping tears out of the corner of her eye. “Cal’s mama and I used to have a bridge club together. Before his daddy up and moved them to Florida, we were good friends.”
Emily nodded. “I remember. You and Cindy and Freddie used to have a whale of a time.”
“Freddie?” Nick asked, his head popping up.
Emily nodded. “Frederica.”
“I was his head scout leader,” Lyle said, shaking his head. “Lord, help us if anything happens to that boy.”
Emily nodded. “I agree. I can’t believe you c
ame out at this hour.”
Lyle nodded at Justine. “She insisted.”
She sniffed. “I just had to know how he is.”
“We don’t know yet,” Nick said. “He’s in a coma at the moment. A lot of blood loss. The bullet got him just above his gut. But the fall backwards made him go unconscious.”
“Is he on a ventilator?” Lyle asked.
“Nope,” Emily said. “He’s breathing on his own. He came to briefly when they brought him in, but all he said was, ‘he surprised me.’ Then, they couldn’t wake him up again.”
“All Cal said is he surprised him? Didn’t even call the guy by name?” Lyle stared intently down at her.
She shook her head. “I wish he could have.”
He nodded. “So do I.” He kissed his wife on the neck. “Come on, little lady. We’ve done all we can right now.”
She smiled sweetly up at him and then at Emily. “He’s the best husband. If Cal wakes up, make sure he knows I’m thinking of him.”
Emily nodded. “I will.” She watched them walk off. “That was nice of them, don’t you think?”
All Nick could do was nod.
****
“What do you know about Lyle Burton?” Nick asked Blue.
Blue took a sip of coffee. “I didn’t know your buying lunch was going to consist of an interview. Why do you want to know? Don’t trust him?”
Nick set his cup down. “Not far enough to throw him. He’s so holier-than-thou. And there seems to be something really sappy about Justine when she’s with him.”
He nodded. “Yeah, my sentiments exactly. Ever since he came back here, it looked like there was something different about him.”
“Came back?” he asked. “Where did he go?”
Blue shook his head. “Don’t really know. Just like all the founding families around here, Lyle’s was wealthier than God. He still is. Inherited all the money. That’s why he came back. His mom and dad died in a small plane crash. But when he left, his father told him he better straighten up or never consider setting foot back here.”
“Was he different for the good when he came back?” Nick took a bite of his ham sandwich.
Blue sighed, as he cupped his coffee mug in his hands. “Maybe better, but more reserved, cold. He was full of life when he was younger. Just got in trouble with the law. Small thefts. One time he got caught in the girl’s locker room streaking. When he left, I would have sworn he’d been in prison.”
Unforgettable Heroes II Boxed Set Page 149
