“That’s your sister?” Fortune whistled.
“That’s my twin.” I corrected with a smile.
She shook her head. “Wow. Just. Wow.”
We piled back in the jeep and they took me home.
“I guess I’d better head out to tell Mom. Once I take a nap and a shower.” I said.
“You never told me the whole story about the money Hugo stole.”
Ida waved me off. “I’ll tell you later. Call us when you get back from visiting Sadie. We’ll try to flesh the whole story out then.”
Gertie yawned. “I could use my beauty sleep.”
“It didn’t help forty years ago,” Ida cracked. “What makes you think it will now?”
I laughed and waved as they drove away. Ten minutes later, I was falling asleep. My gun on my nightstand. Fully loaded.
Chapter 10
My cell woke me up around ten in the morning. Deputy LeBlanc wanted to know if I could stop by. So-So Silas’ mama had showed up with questions about the ticket I’d written. After a quick shower, I hit the road and pulled up at the sheriff’s office in town.
I walked in and waved to Myrtle, who motioned me into Carter’s office where a short, heavyset woman in a muumuu seemed to be at the height of a tantrum. Not many women in Sinful wore muumuus. This one had pictures of crawdads on it.
“I issued So-So the ticket, Mrs. Roach. His boat was leaking oil into the bayou.” I said, taking a chair opposite her.
The woman glared at me with eyes I wasn’t sure I could find in the fleshy folds of her face. “It ain’t his fault! That’s what I told the deputy here! Someone shot that hole in So-So’s boat! He shouldn’t hafta pay a fine when it ain’t his fault!”
I wasn’t surprised by this outburst. The Roach Family, which actually just consisted of So-So, his mama, and his daddy’s cremains inside a taxidermied squirrel, usually argued public fines, no matter how small.
Carter shrugged. “I’m sorry Mrs. Roach. But the law is the law. Now if he remembers who shot his boat, I can press charges.”
Mama Roach frowned…I think… “He don’t know who done it! I told you that! He was just out fishin late one night and someone shot at his boat.”
I suspected that no one was really targeting So-So’s boat. It wasn’t really hunting season but I was usually up to my eyeballs in poachers all year round.
“You know what?” I said getting to my feet and taking the ticket from her. “I’ll forget about it as long as So-So gets that hole patched before he goes back out on the water. Deal?”
To be honest, I just didn’t want to deal with one more thing. I had to get out to see Mom, check in with Ida Belle and see if I could beg that outfit off Peggy Sue again before the funeral services tomorrow.
“Fine!” Mrs. Roach spat, giving me the distinct impression that she was angry she’d had to talk me into tearing the ticket up. I left before either she or Carter could stand and was on the road to Mudbug in no time.
This whole situation was a mess. Not just because my dumbass dad had the bad taste to show up dead after almost thirty years, or that Mom was crazy enough to tell people she did it. But getting involved with mobsters, having my house invaded, and finding out Hugo was a crook was a huge pain in the ass.
Okay, so it wasn’t all bad. I’d probably been more social in the last couple of days than I had in years. And I liked hanging around with Ida and Gertie, Ally and Fortune. I thought about the portraits on the walls going up the stairs. The more Peggy Sue came out of her shell, I’d drifted into one.
Was it a caregiver thing? I’d heard that people who have to take care of a family member become kind of introverted. That’s what I’d been doing all this time. And while I wouldn’t want to make a habit out of hanging out with mobsters and fighting off intruders, it was fun having friends around.
Friends. Was that what these women were? I’d known two of them my whole life but I’d never really hung out with them. And that Fortune. I could tell she’d be fun. Had I wasted all these years by becoming a recluse?
The only people I saw regularly were my co-workers. But we were out of the office more than in. I saw Eleanor Woodruff at the nursing home once or twice a week, but that was just to say ‘hi.’ Huh. I guess I really had hidden myself away.
Well once this was over, I was going to take Ally, Ida Belle, Gertie and Fortune out to dinner in New Orleans. Maybe we could even have lunch regularly or something. My spirits started to lift a little. After all, this would all be over soon. Why couldn’t I have a real life?
My step was a little lighter as I got out of the car and walked into Sunnyvale.
“You look happier than you’ve been in a long time!” Eleanor said with a smile.
“Now that Mom’s been cleared of murder, things are looking up!” I answered back.
Eleanor’s smile faded into a look of confusion and I realized she probably had no idea what I was talking about. I was about to explain when the phone rang and she answered it. Oh well, I thought as I made my way to Mom’s room, maybe I’ll see if Eleanor wants to hang out some time. My social life was definitely looking up.
“Hey Mom!” I bent and gave her a kiss on the cheek, and settled down beside her on the bed. She looked tired. Maybe I shouldn’t bring this all up.
“Margaret.” Mom said as if she’d been expecting me. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you.”
“What about?” She was probably going to tell me she hadn’t seen Hugo and didn’t remember confessing to killing him. I straightened the covers on the bed and pulled up a chair so I could face her.
“There’s something I should’ve told you and your sister a long time ago.” She said as she looked me straight in the eyes.
“Um, alright. What is it?”
“Your father didn’t really leave us.” Her eyes grew wide and she reached for my hand.
I took it. “Yes he did. He went away and never came back.” Well, until now. “He never got in touch with us. I call that leaving.”
Dammit. Mom had lost it. She’d lost all touch with reality. It finally happened. The doctors had said it would. That she’d think things far in the past had happened only yesterday.
Clearly Hugo’s return was too much for her. Damn that stupid man! Even in death he was screwing up our lives. I wondered if Gertie had c4 in her handbag so I could blow up the casket at the funeral tomorrow.
Then Sadie Ancelet did something I’d never seen her do. She cried. Tears poured down her face and she broke into heavy sobs. I got up and held my mother while she wept. All those years she never once shed a tear over that bastard. Now she couldn’t hold it back. Her sobs turned into keening wails and after a moment or two one of the doctors came running in. I watched in silence as he checked her vital signs.
“I was afraid of this.” He said. “She’s been extremely emotional these last few days and now her blood pressure has sky rocketed.”
I stood aside as he gave her a sedative. Then I held her hand until she finally drifted off to sleep. And I vowed that once Hugo Ancelet was in the ground I would never, ever think of him again.
Fortune answered the door at Gertie’s house. She handed me a bottle of beer.
“You look like you need this.” She said with a wink.
I drained half the bottle before stepping over the threshold. Ida Belle and Gertie were waiting for me in the living room. I finished the rest of the bottle and asked for another before I finally sat down on the couch opposite them.
The whole story poured out of me. I didn’t cry. I didn’t even feel like crying. I just needed to get it out. Every bit of what I’d been worrying about, how my mom had lost it during my visit and how much I loathed my father came gushing out of me. When I finished, there was absolute silence.
The women looked at each other.
“I need to tell you what was in the file.” Ida Belle said solemnly. She reached behind her and pulled out a packet of three letters, wrapped in blue ribbon. “And about these.”
> From where I was sitting, I could see that the letters were made out to my mother, with Hugo Ancelet written as the return address.
“So he wrote her three times.” I said as I took a second beer from Fortune. “Big deal. Three letters doesn’t even come close to making up for almost thirty years of abandonment and breaking my mom’s heart.”
“I know.” Ida Belle said as she set the letters on the couch next to me. “But I think you deserve to know the whole story.” Fortune and Gertie nodded. So they knew already. Weirdly, I was okay with that.
I sighed. “Okay. Let’s get this over with.”
“Your father didn’t leave voluntarily. He went to prison.” Ida Belle let that sink in a minute.
“That’s where he’s been all this time?” I felt the heat rising in my neck. “Why didn’t anyone tell me? How long have you known?” Anger, disappointment, confusion, all ping ponged around in my brain which was now, threatening to explode.
Gertie shook her head. “We didn’t know that part. Not until we got the folder from Big and Little. Your mother told us when you were little that he had to leave. She’d never said anything more.”
“Mom just told me at the nursing home that there was more to the story. Why didn’t she tell us when we were old enough? And how come everyone in town didn’t know? You’d think it would be in the papers that he’d been arrested and tried?”
If Sinful residents knew about Dad, most would’ve kept silent to protect two little girls. But some wouldn’t. We weren’t different than other towns. There’s always someone who takes pleasure in others’pain.
“Because he was extradited. He didn’t steal the money here. He’d stolen it in Paraguay.” Ida said.
“Paraguay? Who the hell steals money from Paraguay?” I was getting a little hysterical, but Peggy Sue’s breakdown would be epic if she were here – complete with fainting couch and a Xanax martini.
So, Ida Belle told me the story. Turns out, Hugo did some construction work for a company in Texas, that sent him to Paraguay to work on a military complex. During that time, Hugo came across a government stash of money and for reasons unknown, absconded with it. He’d had help from someone – but the authorities never found out who.
At any rate, he was tracked down here and though they didn’t find the money, he was quietly extradited to Paraguay to serve out a lifetime prison sentence. He’d escaped a year ago, living who knows where until he came back here a week ago.
“They never found the money? What happened to it?” I asked.
Fortune held up the key we’d found this morning. “So that’s why Ida gave me this and sent me on that errand.”
“What? Where did you go?” I asked. The key was a clue? And all these years it sat in that box in my childhood cubbyhole in my closet.
“It’s not one of Big and Little’s storage sheds.” Fortune said. “They’ve never seen one like it before.”
“Do we actually think that where ever it is, five million dollars are just sitting there?” I asked. “All this time, there’s been all that money, just waiting?”
Gertie nodded. “It has to be. My guess is your mother knew about it. She hid the key in the box with the letters.”
I sat up. “What do the letters say?”
Ida shook her head. “We thought you should be the one to see them. It isn’t our place to intrude.”
I gave a snort of laughter. They’d been intruding so far – but with my complete approval.
I picked up the three letters, removed them from the ribbon and envelope and started reading. My father’s handwriting was new to me, but I managed to get the gist. Swallowing every word was difficult and I wasn’t sure I’d believed much. One thing I discovered was that the annual, summer portrait of Peggy Sue and me had been for him. Hugo was the reason Mom put us through that ritual each year. To keep him updated on what we looked like.
“There’s nothing here.” I said as I put the last letter down. “Just how much he misses us.” My voice squeaked a little on the last word. Wow. Hugo said missed us. He claimed he hadn’t wanted to leave us. It felt like my heart was being strangled. I’d hated him for so long and it hadn’t been his fault.
But it had been his fault. He didn’t have to steal that money. He could’ve been with us all these years if it hadn’t been for his greed. I wasn’t going to let him off the hook just yet.
“May I?” Gertie asked. I nodded and she began scanning the letters.
“So now what?” I asked. “We don’t know where that money is.” I told them how upset Mom had gotten earlier trying to tell me. “And there’s no guarantee she’ll ever remember it again.”
“We have the key,” Fortune said. “And we know someone – probably the accomplice all those years, is looking for it. And we know they won’t stop until they get it. That’s something.”
“I just want this over.” I said numbly. “I’ll put an ad in the papers offering up the key to whoever it is who wants it just so they’ll leave my family alone.”
By now, Ida was reading the letters. She didn’t look like she was getting any further with them.
The door opened and Ally came in, her arms laden with paper bags. I could smell the chicken fried steak and potatoes. My mixed up and mangled thoughts faded as my stomach growled in complaint.
“Dinner!” Ally announced as she headed for the dining room table. Thank God. I was grateful for the distraction.
We followed as if she was the pied piper. I got the lemonade out and we dove in. Apparently Ally had worked the lunch to late afternoon shift at Francine’s and ordered dinner to go. I gave a silent thanks for having such a thoughtful friend.
Fortune was reading the letters as the rest of us filled Ally in on the story and gorged ourselves on what was feeling like my last supper.
“Maybe I should just put the key on Hugo’s tombstone at the funeral tomorrow.” I joked.
“That’s not such a bad idea.” Ida Belle said. “Your father’s accomplice will probably show up at the funeral. Murderers usually do.” She looked excited. I wish I was.
“There’s something here.” Fortune said, finally looking up from the letters. “These sentences are weird.”
“In the letters?” I asked.
She nodded. “At first I just thought this was how Southerners talked. You guys do have some strange dialogue. But it’s not that. At least, I think it’s not that.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Can I keep these for a little bit?” Fortune looked at me hopefully.
“Of course.” I said with a nod. “I’m too tired to figure it all out.” I looked at my watch. “The funeral is tomorrow. I should head home soon.”
As I stood to go, my cell rang. The number was unfamiliar, but had the same area code. I answered.
“If you want to see your mother alive again,” A voice I didn’t recognize hissed, “Bring the key to the place where Hugo’s body was found in the next thirty minutes.”
The call ended.
Chapter 11
“Margaret?” Ally asked. “What is it?”
“You look white as a sheet!” Gertie cried out.
I stared at the cell in my hand. The blood in my veins ran cold. “I think the intruder just called. He has my mom.” I looked up.
“What did he say?” Fortune asked. She didn’t seem as freaked out as I was. In fact, she looked alert…eager…ready to pounce.
Glancing at the others, the only one who was as horrified as me was Ally. Gertie and Ida seemed to come alive at this news.
“He said we have thirty minutes to bring the key out to the place where they pulled Hugo out of the water, or he was going to kill my mother.”
Saying the words left the poisonous taste of fear on my tongue. Was this psycho really going to kill Mom? Over a key? No way was I going to let that happen. I snatched the key from Fortune and headed for the door.
“Do you remember how to get there?” Ida asked as she shoved a pis
tol into the elastic waistband of her polyester slacks. She was going with me. Okay. That was fine. Whatever it took to save Mom and kill this bastard was all right by me.
“I don’t think I could forget it.” I said grimly as I stopped at the door. “We can use the agency boat. Let’s go.”
Exactly four minutes later, Gertie, Fortune, Ida Belle and I were in the DNR boat, racing to the scene of the crime that had started all of this. We were all armed. And if the kidnapper had any idea what was headed his way, he’d abandon this altogether. My fear had given way to a murderous fury I’d never known before.
Fortune snapped her fingers, “Old place! That’s it!”
I looked at her questioningly. “What are you talking about?”
She was busy tying up her long blonde hair into a messy bun. “The phrase ‘old place’ kept coming up in the letters. But they were used in strange situations, like ‘remember the old place,’ and ‘how’s the house – the old place?’ That phrase kept coming up. It’s a clue to where the money is!”
Ida Belle nodded. “That’s got to be it.”
“But there’s no old place where we’re going.” I protested. “It’s just a muddy shore in the swamp.”
We were no closer to solving this, but I let the two words revolve in my mind. Something about the phrase stood out to me. And then it hit me! That was the clue on the stairs, when I’d been looking at our portraits! Mom had said something about me reminding her of the old place she and Dad went to once. I’d never questioned her about that and had no idea what it meant. Strange how those words should come up at the same time now.
“I think we should stop about five minutes out.” Fortune shouted to me as she looked at her watch. “Gertie and I will get out there and meet you at the site.”
I nodded. They could sneak up behind whoever was holding my mom hostage and stab him in the neck or kidney or some other soft, vulnerable spot. A few minutes later, I dropped them off and Ida and I continued on.
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