Call Back: Magnolia Steel Mystery #3 (Magnolia Steele Mystery)

by Denise Grover Swank

  Pain shot through my arm, and I gritted my teeth to keep from crying out.

  “Who shot them?” Belinda asked in disbelief. “Bill didn’t even have a gun.”

  “I have an idea and we’re not sticking around to find out. Belinda, get your gun off the floor. We can’t leave any trace that we were here.”

  She did as he asked while he picked his jacket up off the floor and slipped it on.

  “Maggie, look at me,” he said, squatting in front of me. “We have to go. No police, okay?”

  “I trust you.” I lifted my gaze from my arm up to his naked chest peeking through his jacket, then up to his face. “I lied.”

  He squinted. “You lied about what? You don’t trust me?”

  “Your chest. I told you I didn’t want to see it. I lied.”

  He gave me a hard kiss on the mouth and grinned. “You have the worst damn timing.” He turned more serious. “Can you walk?”

  I nodded. “I think so.”

  He helped me to my feet. My knees wobbled, and he slipped an arm around my back to steady me. The pain made me dizzy. “Belinda, can we go out the way you came in? I take it that it’s discreet?”

  “Yes, but what about Magnolia?”

  “Can you climb the stairs?” he asked me.

  “That’s not it,” Belinda said, sounding more like herself. “She freaked out in the stairwell.”

  “Her claustrophobia,” Colt said as though upset he’d forgotten.

  “Her experience with the serial killer,” Belinda corrected.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Colt asked in a tight voice.

  Belinda grabbed my left hand. “God, Magnolia. I’m so sorry.”

  “I can do it,” I said. “I have to get out of here.” There were two dead bodies less than ten feet from me, and I was close to freaking out. “Let’s go.”

  Belinda opened the wine cellar door with the skirt of her dress. Colt and I followed her in, and we both watched her open the door to the spiral staircase.

  Colt gave me a worried glance, then looked up the stairwell. “Can you do this?”

  “Yes.” I shoved him to the side with my good elbow. “Get out of the way.”

  “And . . . she’s back . . .” Colt muttered, but he sounded rather pleased.

  Now we just had to get out.

  Chapter 30

  Getting out took more effort than I’d expected. There was a fair amount of blood on my dress, which was bound to draw suspicion.

  “Colt, get your truck,” Belinda said in a brisk tone when we reached the second floor. “Drive behind the house, and I’ll bring Magnolia to you, out of view.”

  Colt shot me a look as if to make sure I was okay with this plan.

  I nodded, trying to hide how badly my arm hurt.

  He turned to Belinda. “Will you tell Roy you’re leaving?”

  “I’m staying.”

  I started to protest, but she held up her hand. “No. Think about it. Once the bodies are discovered, it will look odd if all three of us are gone. I’ll say you two left because you couldn’t keep your hands off each other. I’ll be the eyes here to find out what’s going on.”

  “Belinda . . . I can’t leave you,” I choked out through a throat thick with tears.

  “You can and you will.” She looked up at Colt. “Why are you still here? Go.”

  Colt took off toward the front, and Belinda and I headed to the back staircase. We stayed silent until after we’d slipped through a back door to the garden.

  “You have to leave Roy, Belinda,” I said. “You accomplished your goal. It’s time to leave him.”

  “I didn’t accomplish anything. Not really.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe I thought it would work. I can’t believe I put you in danger.”

  “You think my father really cares?” I asked. “He’s a selfish asshole. Pack a bag when you get home and then come to Momma’s house. She’s going to need help when she comes home, so that’s where I’ll be from now on. If you need physical backup, call Colt.”

  “Why are you being so forgiving?” she asked.

  “We’re family. Family sticks together.”

  We pushed through a hedge to reach the street behind the house. Colt’s truck was already rounding the corner.

  “Belinda, why did you take me to Bill’s office? What did you hope to find?”

  “I really did think he might be the serial killer, and if your father thought his partner was after you . . .”

  If Bill wasn’t the killer, then who had we overheard in Bill’s office that night? Who had burned down the house? That person now had the necklace Brady gave me. The real killer.

  “You were trying to lure him out. He never showed up tonight. See?” I said. “He doesn’t give a shit.”

  “You’re wrong,” Belinda said softly. “He cares more than you know. He was there tonight.” She paused. “Magnolia. He’s the one who killed Rowena and her guy.”

  My mouth dropped open as Colt pulled up to the curb. How?

  Belinda opened the door and pushed me in. “Take her to Lila’s. I’ll let you know when I hear something.”

  She shut the door, and before I could say anything at all, she was already hurrying back toward the house.

  Colt studied my face. “On a scale of one to ten, how much trouble am I in?”

  There was no doubt he cared about me, but there were so many unanswered questions. But when I thought about them, the trauma of what just happened hit me full force. My voice broke as I said, “I can’t talk about it right now.”

  He wrapped an arm around my back and pulled me close. I leaned my head into the crook of his arm.

  Fat tears leaked from my eyes, which pissed me off. I needed to keep it together.

  Colt tilted my head back and searched my eyes as he whispered, “It’s going to be okay. I promise.”

  I shook my head slowly. My world was imploding. My mother was dying. My sister-in-law had held a gun to my head. I’d just seen two people murdered. Maybe by my father. Who, by the way, was alive and apparently keeping tabs on me by using the man I was falling in love with. How could things be okay?

  “Let’s go to Lila’s and we’ll get your arm cleaned up. Then we can talk,” he said softly.

  I nodded. “Okay.”

  Tears continued to roll down my cheeks as Colt pulled away from the curb. If Belinda was right and my father had killed Rowena and Kent, where had he been hiding?

  The kitchen. He’d been there the entire time.

  I wasn’t sure I could handle the betrayal.

  Colt unlocked my mother’s front door and guided me into the house. “Sit down at the kitchen table, and let me take care of your arm.”

  “I just want to change,” I said, closing my eyes with exhaustion.

  “You can change after I get a bandage on it.”

  I sat down at the table while he opened up the pantry and pulled out the first-aid kit. He unwrapped his shirt and cleaned up the wound with alcohol, which had me jumping out of my chair and crying out in pain.

  “I’m sorry,” he murmured, looking distressed. “If we don’t get it clean, it will get infected.”

  “Do what you need to do,” I said through gritted teeth.

  He’d just wrapped the bandage around my bicep when my phone started buzzing in my purse on the table. I nearly dumped out the gun in my clumsiness to get it out. Colt picked up the phone and gave me a worried look. “It’s the hospital.”

  I sat upright, my heart racing as I took the call. “Hello?”

  “Magnolia, this is Vanessa at Vanderbilt. I know you’re at your big party, but your mother’s taken a turn for the worse. I think you should come back as soon as you can.”

  I nodded, unable to speak.

  Colt took the phone from me and said, “We’re on our way.”

  He practically carried me out to the truck and then raced to the hospital, driving well over the speed limit. It still took us twenty minutes, and my heart
was beating like a rabbit’s the whole time.

  The nurses were waiting when I rushed off the elevator, and they didn’t seemed bothered by the bandage on my arm or the spots of blood on my dress.

  “Momma?” I asked.

  Vanessa, the nurse who had helped me with my hair, walked around the desk. The look on her face sent my heart straight into my throat. “We started giving your mother a round of antibiotics before you left, but as you know, she was already weak from her chemo and the infection. Her body was worn out.” She paused, holding my gaze. “Magnolia, your mother passed ten minutes ago.”

  “No,” I said calmly. She was mistaken. “Momma changed her mind. She wanted to spend more time with me.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Vanessa said.

  Colt had put his arm around me at some point, and he pulled me closer. “Maggie, let’s go sit down.”

  “No,” I said more insistently as I pulled away from him. “She said she was going to spend more time with me.”

  Tears filled his eyes. “She wanted to, Mags. I know she did.”

  The elevator doors opened, and I knew without looking that my brother had gotten out. “What’s going on with my mother?”

  “I’m alone,” I whispered, overwhelmed by the concept. I’d been alone while I was living in New York, yet it had been a different type of alone. I’d always known my mother was only a phone call away if I needed her. I was as good as an orphan.

  “No, Mags,” Colt said, holding me close to his side again. “I’m here.”

  The first sob ripped from my chest. “She left me. I can’t believe she left me alone.”

  Belinda hugged me from the other side. “No. We’re family. Family sticks together. You’re not alone.”

  “Belinda,” Roy barked. “What are you doing? Get away from her. Magnolia made her choice when she left ten years ago.”

  “Roy.” The name dripped off her tongue like it was poison. “Go fuck yourself.”

  I gasped and turned around to face her, completely stunned. I’d never even heard her utter more than one damn. I started to laugh.

  “What the hell’s so funny?” Roy asked. “I’m not kidding, Belinda. Come over here now.”

  Belinda gave him a condescending glare.

  “This is your last chance, Belinda. You either come over here or don’t come home.”

  “Roy,” Belinda said in a softer tone. “You’re really screwed up if your mother just died, and your biggest concern is that I’m comforting your sister.”

  Roy turned around and punched the elevator call button.

  “I want to see her,” I said. “I want to tell my mother goodbye.”

  “She’s already gone,” Roy shouted, still facing the closed elevator doors. “She’s not there.”

  “You need to see her too, Roy,” I said, feeling stronger with Colt and Belinda beside me. “You need to tell her goodbye.”

  He leaned his head into his arm on the wall, and his shoulders began to shake.

  The elevator door opened again, and Tilly rushed out, panic on her face. She searched me out. “Maggie?”

  I walked toward her and shook my head.

  Tilly burst into tears and began to collapse. Colt helped me hold her up, and we led her to the waiting room to sit down and let the news sink in.

  I looked up to check on Roy, only to realize he’d already left.

  Tilly continued to cry, sitting between Colt and me, and Belinda knelt at her feet.

  “I’m so sorry, Tilly,” I said through my own tears. “You didn’t get to tell her goodbye.”

  She shook her head. “There was nothing left unsaid. It’s a lot more than most people get. I’m grateful for that.” Glancing around at us, she released a laugh through her sobs. “Why are you all hovering around me? You should be takin’ care of Magnolia.”

  “They already are,” I said.

  “That still doesn’t explain why you’re hovering around me.”

  “It’s just like you told Roy,” I said. “You loved her the longest.” Then I added what I’d always suspected. “You loved her the most.”

  Her chin trembled and fresh tears fell down her cheeks. “Oh, Magnolia. She was all I had.”

  “No, Tilly,” I said grabbing her hand. “You have me.”

  “And me,” Belinda said, putting her hand on top of mine.

  “And me,” Colt added.

  Turned out I wasn’t alone after all.

  Chapter 31

  My mother was buried on a warm Monday afternoon in April.

  I stood by her grave and looked up at the clear blue sky, feeling the sun on my face.

  “It’s a good day for a funeral,” Tilly said. “Your mother would have loved it.”

  Colt laughed. “She would have made fun of you for saying that.”

  The minister gave us dirty looks, but I didn’t care. He obviously hadn’t known my mother.

  As per my mother’s instructions, she only had a graveside service, which lasted less than ten minutes, also per her instructions. Roy had a fit, but the funeral home insisted Momma was very specific. I watched her coffin lowered into the rectangular hole, but I knew she wasn’t there. She wasn’t in the clouds either. She was in Tilly and Belinda, and even in Colt. She was in my fresh-brewed coffee and the coffee cake I’d made that morning without a single screwup. She was in her once again impeccably clean house. She was in Tilly’s laugh, Colt’s protectiveness, and Belinda’s goodness.

  I had my father’s looks, but I had my mother’s practicality, a trait that would last me years longer than my beauty. I realized she’d spent her life preparing me for the real world, even if I hadn’t known it. I didn’t need a goodbye, because she wasn’t really gone. She was still here, looking over my shoulder and yelling at me for filling shrimp puffs with buttercream frosting. She was whispering in my ear to be brave. That I was a strong, capable woman. That I would survive this loss.

  When the service was over, Roy stood to my right ignoring me as we greeted the mourners. I shook hands for nearly an hour, realizing for the first time how many people were there.

  Roy left first. When I saw Brady approaching me, I sent Tilly and Belinda to the funeral dinner, telling them I would catch up. Colt saw Brady and gave me a questioning look.

  “I need to talk to him. But I’d like you to wait.”

  He nodded and walked toward the back of the chairs that had been set up.

  Brady stopped in front of me. “I’m truly sorry for your loss, Magnolia,” he said, casting a glance toward her grave.

  “Thank you.”

  “I’m not sure if you’ve heard the news, but Bill James has disappeared.”

  My mouth gaped. “I haven’t.”

  “Two bodies were found in the basement of Savannah House,” he said, watching me closely. “The night of the ball.”

  I feigned surprise. “Oh, my goodness.”

  “An old associate of your father’s was murdered. Do you know anything about it?”

  “An associate? I didn’t know Daddy had any left.”

  “Rowena Rogers. And someone we presume was working with her.”

  “Do you think that’s why Bill James left?”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “Who said he left?”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Are you really interrogating me at my mother’s graveside, Detective Bennett?”

  He looked flustered at that. “I’m sorry. But we need to talk soon.” He leaned closer. “And we need to take a walk out in the woods behind your mother’s house.” He took a step back. “I’ll be in touch. Once again, I’m sorry for your loss.”

  “Thank you,” I murmured and watched him walk away as someone else approached me.

  The last of the mourners went on their way, and finally Colt and I were alone next to Momma’s open grave. We’d been too busy with funeral preparation and my grief to address his betrayal, and I knew he sensed it was only a temporary reprieve. The reckoning was coming.

  “How long?” I asked, knowi
ng he’d know what I meant.

  “Three years.” He sounded relieved to finally address the cloud that had been hanging over us.

  “How did it happen?”

  “He came to me in jail. I’d been arrested for robbing a store, but honest to God, Magnolia, I didn’t do it, although I’d done my share of shady shit in the past. Looking back now, I know it was a setup, but at the time I was scared. It seemed like the deal was too good not to take. He said if I’d work with him on a special project, all charges would be dropped, but if I ever stopped fulfilling my end of the arrangement, I’d end up back in jail. Of course I agreed, and somehow the charges were miraculously dropped, even though he wasn’t an attorney and had nothing to do with the police.

  “After I got out, I met him at a restaurant in Nashville. He told me my job was to keep an eye on your mother and your brother. I didn’t find out about you until I started working at the Belles. I was supposed to give him reports every week through email. I was also supposed to keep tabs on Bill James and Belinda.

  “I knew you were coming home before you ever showed up at the Belles. Before you showed up on your mother’s doorstep. He told me to watch you closely.”

  “The best way to do that was to become my friend.”

  He looked down at his shoes. “Yeah. So I stuck close and reported daily, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that I wouldn’t leave you. Not even if he told me to quit looking out for you.” He looked up at me. “I had no idea who he was until I’d been reporting to him for a year. He wasn’t actively involved in much until you came back. He came to town and told me to watch you. As you started to uncover the past, I realized he was hoping you would. I think he was counting on you to flush out the gold.”

  “Why didn’t he look in the garage?” I asked. “It’s been there for two years.”

  “When I asked what had become of his office, your mother told me everything had been seized or tossed out. He was sure Bill James had taken the gold. But when we found it, I didn’t tell him, Maggie.” His eyes pleaded with mine. “You have to believe me. I took it to my friend and had him research it. I wasn’t sure what to do when I realized he’d stolen it.”