by Ava Miles
How long has she been morbidly obese? Vander wondered. Once again, he found himself feeling sorry for her.
“Are you going to get that drawer or do you intend to keep gawking, Toby?” Lenore finally spat at him.
He gave her a flirtatious wink since he suspected no one treated her with much charm these days. “I’m going, ma’am.”
As he was opening the door, he heard Lenore say, “That man of yours could charm the pants off a snake, Shelby.”
They shared a long look, and Vander felt acutely aware of the steady beating of his heart.
“And he probably has,” Shelby answered easily, making Lenore laugh.
Her loud gusts of laughter followed Vander into the house, and he found himself smiling in spite of everything. The rest of the trailer wasn’t much to write home about, and it was as filthy as the den and the kitchen. Her mattress sunk down in the middle, and the smell of urine hung in the air. The lamp on the nightstand had a dusty, stained shade, and he expected all of the furniture was from a thrift shop.
There was a faded photo on Lenore’s dresser of her with three young children. While she looked completely different—large, sure, but in the way some people called curvaceous—she didn’t look happy. Heck, no one in the picture looked happy. And the worthless man she’d married wasn’t in the photo, he noted. He wondered when he’d abandoned the family. In so many of his cases, children made the exact same mistakes their parents had made before them. Seemed the McGuiness family was no different, but from what he had seen of the new generation, that pattern had been forever broken. None of these adults would abandon their families. It gave him hope.
He pulled out the drawer, noting it was stuffed with cream-filled cakes and rock candy. Lenore had already lost a few teeth, and it occurred to him that diabetes might have given her those bruises on her ankles. Well, it wasn’t his concern. He was affected enough as it was. Taking the drawer, he headed back to join the others.
When he came through the door, Lenore was smiling as J.P. described his recent wedding and the two children he felt blessed to raise as his own.
“What about you, girl?” Lenore asked, turning to Susannah. “How long have y’all been married?”
Jake smiled. “Just a couple of months. Best months of my life.”
“You’re lucky,” Lenore told Susannah. “And Shelby? When is that devil over there going to put a ring on your finger? Boy, don’t just stand there with my treasures in your hand. Bring them over to me.”
Shelby glanced at him as he made his way to Lenore. Clearly she didn’t know how to answer, and who could blame her? He made himself smile at Shelby and punctuated it with a saucy wink.
“I’m still working on convincing her I’m good enough,” he told Lenore in his most honeyed Southern drawl.
He gave another wink, this time directed at Lenore. When he set the drawer on her lap, she slapped his hand. “You’re a devil, through and through.”
“You’re going to have to work a lot harder to convince me to be with you forever, Toby,” Shelby said in one of those sugary drawls she’d perfected, the kind that drove him wild. “I have pretty high standards.”
Vander’s brows rose, and he couldn’t help but smile. “I’ll keep that in mind, honey.”
He knew they were flirting a little too easily, and from the intent way Sadie was watching them, it hadn’t gone unnoticed. This is just a job, he reminded himself. But it was getting harder and harder to believe that.
Resuming his position behind Shelby’s chair, he returned his attention to the group. J.P. was looking at him, and he had to wonder whether he’d noticed the same thing as Sadie. When Shelby didn’t reach for one of the hands he put on her shoulder like she had before, he suspected her siblings had noticed. Even so, he kept his hands where they were.
“This is from Pres,” Lenore said, pulling out an envelope wrinkled from many openings. “I always keep his cards together so I won’t lose them. It’s…my only connection to him. I don’t have a phone, and I have a feeling Pres don’t live in a place that has one either. He’s been down on his luck most of his life. I wish….I could do more for him.”
Vander watched tears fill Sadie’s eyes. “We’ll do what we can for him, Me-Mother,” Sadie said. “If and when we find him.”
“The postal stamp says Haines,” Lenore said. “I wish my boy would come visit, but the bus doesn’t get out this far. I have trouble driving, so it’s near impossible for us to see each other.”
Vander filed away those details. So Preston didn’t have a car. Vander expected he was using a fake name now, but perhaps he also stuck to small towns because they were cheaper and walkable. Sure, big cities had public transportation, but they could be expensive. Plus, Lenore had said Preston didn’t like city life.
“I don’t know that town offhand,” J.P. said, “but we’ll look it up.”
Lenore pressed the letter to her ample chest. “When you find my boy, will you tell him I miss him? That we’re due a visit?”
“Of course, we will,” J.P. said, folding his hand over hers. “We’ll also write you here and let you know what happens.”
Vander knew he meant that and wondered if there would be any more communication between this group after today.
“I’d like that,” Lenore said. “Would you…tell me a little more about yourselves? I feel so ashamed this is the first time I’ve laid eyes on you. And…and I was so ugly to y’all earlier. You were strangers, and there’s still a lot of bad blood in me from my time with your mama.”
Vander was equally surprised and happy the woman had softened. It would make this meeting so much easier for everyone.
J.P. smiled at her and started to talk about himself, and afterward, he turned to Shelby, who continued. Each of the McGuinesses shared a little about their current profession and a story or two about growing up together. All the while Vander kept his hands on Shelby’s shoulders, feeling so at ease doing so, from time to time, he forgot they were there.
When Lenore included Vander and Jake in her questions, both of them kept their answers as vague as possible.
Lenore spent the next hour sharing stories about Preston as a boy. The McGuiness children lapped it up after being denied details about their daddy for so long. Vander remembered what Shelby had said at Oak Bar, how she didn’t even know if her daddy liked baseball or fishing, and he was grateful her questions had finally been answered. Preston had liked to play baseball, it turned out, but he’d hated fishing.
Seeing connections like this was what made Vander’s job worth it. Even if they didn’t find Preston, at least these children had met their grandmother.
J.P. finally stood when Lenore started fanning herself. “We’ve stayed as long as we should. We don’t want to tucker you out more. It was good to meet you, Me-Mother. I’m sorry it’s taken this long.”
She looked up and sniffed. “Me too, boy. You have a mighty fine family. Tell that wife of yours she’s lucky to have a man like you.”
“She already knows that,” J.P. told her and helped her out of the glider while Sadie handed her the cane.
Vander took the dresser drawer, which Lenore had set on the ground, and held the door open for her. She ambled inside, and J.P. helped her get comfortable on her couch. Vander retraced his steps to her bedroom to replace the drawer. Before shutting it, he took a picture of the postal stamp on the envelope Preston had sent and then opened the card. It read:
Dear Mama,
Nothing much to say on this end. Working here and there and staying out of trouble. Wishing you a merry Christmas.
Your son,
Preston
Either Preston was a man of few words or he was sending the card out of a sense of obligation. Vander noted he didn’t use a closing of love. Before he left the room, he took a picture of the photo of Lenore and her children.
When he returned, J.P. was smiling at Lenore as she handed him a photo. He caught a glimpse of it—and darn it all if it wasn’t a
more up-to-date photo of Preston. Vander wondered if it had been in the den since it was in a frame.
“This was taken at Virgil’s funeral,” Lenore told them, holding it out. “Deedee sent it to me. I wasn’t as large then as I am now, although some people around here might disagree. I’ve gotten so horribly fat. But when I lost my boy, I just…”
Tears ran down her face, and Shelby walked to the couch and knelt close to the woman. Vander felt his throat growing tight when Lenore reached for the hand her granddaughter had extended.
“I’m ashamed to have y’all see me like this,” Lenore whispered. “I’m…I’ve grown into a monster.”
“Oh, Me-Mother,” Shelby said, capturing the woman’s attention. “You have nothing to feel ashamed of. Certainly not with us.”
Vander wanted to cross the room and kneel beside her in support. Just when he thought Shelby was the toughest of her sisters, she went and extended her compassion like this. Charlie had been right about one thing—this woman’s layers intrigued him more than he would have liked.
“Thank you, child. Whatever I might think of your mama, she done raised y’all right.” Lenore pointed to Preston in the photo. “He’s always been skinny as a rail. Never ate much as a boy since we never had much. He takes after his daddy in that. That man was a skinny son of a bitch before he ran off. I take after my mama and her kin. They always were large, but I’ve gotten…out of hand. My health gets worse and worse…some days I don’t want to get out of bed.”
Shelby just kept holding her hand, and Vander was glad she didn’t try comfort her with any meaningless platitudes. She was just giving her support, plain and simple. J.P. kept his hand on his grandmother’s arm as she fought tears.
“Sure as shooting, y’all are good people,” Lenore said, clearing her throat. “I’m happy to call you kin.”
“Us too, Me-Mother,” Sadie said, giving her a soft smile.
She returned her attention to the photo. “Pres is gray now, but he’s got all his teeth—unlike me. He’s still pretty handsome, if you ask me.”
“Yes, he is,” Susannah said, clutching her husband’s hand.
Lenore glanced at J.P. “When I look at you, all I see is Preston—not that you don’t resemble him too, Shelby. There’s just something about a father and son. It’s…a good feeling. I want you to have this photo of him. So you know what he looks like currently. I hope it makes it easier for you to find him. He’d be lucky to know you.”
“Thank you for giving this to us and for saying that,” Shelby said.
“We can copy it and send it back to you, if you’d like,” J.P. said. “We know this photo is precious to you.”
“Thank you,” she said as the dog started whining. “I’d like that.”
Lenore looked over toward a closed door at the back of the trailer.
“I’d better take out No-no,” she told them, making an awkward attempt to stand again, leaning hard on her cane. “He’s been more than patient while we were visiting. I hope he didn’t piss in the room, although it wouldn’t be the first time. I sometimes can’t let him out when I’m feeling poorly.”
“I’d offer to get him,” Vander said, “but I don’t think your dog is used to strangers. How did you come to name him No-no?”
“Because when he was nothing but a whelp, all I did was say, ‘no-no.’ He got used to it being his name. Shoot, I’ve talked more today than I have in years. I should let y’all get back on the road.”
“Would you mind if I gave you a hug, Me-Mother?” J.P. asked, helping her up.
Tears danced in her eyes. “I’d be mighty put out if you didn’t.”
He wrapped his arms around her as much as he could and kissed her cheek. Vander stepped forward to do the same because it felt right. He hoped the others in the group would gather their courage to follow suit.
He’d never hugged a woman as large as Lenore, and he felt that bone-deep compassion for her again. In his profession, he met plenty of people who’d given up after a lifetime of hard luck. Lenore might have been close to that before meeting her grandchildren. He wondered what she would do after they left. Sometimes all it took was a pivotal moment for someone to decide to turn their life around.
“You keep on keeping on, Lenore,” he told her.
“You too, darlin’,” she told him.
He let her go and nearly stepped on Shelby.
“It was real nice to finally meet you, Me-Mother,” she said and leaned in to hug her gently.
Sadie gave her grandmother a sweet hug and actually wiped away her tears. Susannah was a little stiffer, but she pulled it off, and then Jake made Lenore laugh by whispering something in her ear as he embraced her.
“Boy, you might be as bad as Shelby’s man over there,” Lenore told the country singer.
J.P. started the procession out of the house. Lenore was dashing away her tears and waving goodbye when Vander looked back from the car. He waved at her too. She might have been mean when they’d arrived, but there was an unexpected kindness inside of her, like a bittersweet chocolate with a caramel filling. He was glad for the McGuiness family. The interview had gone a heck of a lot better than he’d hoped.
They had a real lead on Preston McGuiness.
Chapter 13
Shelby was strung out after they left Me-Mother, and she wasn’t the only one. Hearing Daddy was alive had put a permanent lump in her throat. Sadie was weepy beside her, and Susannah couldn’t stop shaking if the way her teeth were chattering was any indication. J.P. was silent, but she could see his chest rising and falling with deep breaths from her seat in the car. After all this time, after all her hopes, they finally had a lead on finding him.
She was a ball of emotion. Today had changed everything. They all knew it.
Vander found a roadside diner a few miles up the highway and suggested they stop and regroup. Maybe even eat something. While Shelby realized she should be hungry, she was too numb to have much of an appetite.
Vander took charge, finding them a table in the back of the rough wood building and then passing out menus taken from the metal holder in the center of the table. The lone waitress, who was working both the bar and the small eating area, ignored them. She looked fit to be tied. Well, join the club, Shelby thought.
She scanned the menu before settling on a hamburger and fries. In every crisis she’d ever experienced—and she’d had a few—she’d always been able to eat that classic. Maybe that’s why some people called it the all-American meal. Good Lord, the thoughts she was entertaining after learning she might actually meet her daddy some day soon.
Vander took out a small notebook and jotted down everyone’s orders. Shelby appreciated that he was taking care of them. Back at Me-Mother’s, he’d more than taken care of her, comforting her with his strong presence behind her chair. She’d never forget that as long as she lived.
Her eyes followed Vander as he got up and approached the waitress. All he did was hand the dark-haired woman the list and say a few words to her, but her transformation was immediate. She was smiling by the time he walked back to their table.
Shelby had watched him pretty much transform their grandmother as well. Of course, J.P. had been wonderful with Me-Mother, but it was Vander’s kindness that had caught her off-guard. That spark of empathy she’d seen in him the day he’d defended Sadie’s right to take part in the investigation had burst into a full-blown fire today. That softer side of him was hard to resist.
She thought back to what Sadie had said about making the first move because she was a client, and it just might come to that after today. Gail’s description of Vander came to mind: men like that don’t grow on trees, girl.
Indeed, they didn’t.
“Does everybody want to settle a bit or do you want to talk about what we discovered?” Vander asked. “I’m in no rush.”
“Seems it might be prudent for us to stick with our plan and stay the night as opposed to rushing back,” J.P. said. “I…I’m feeling a lot of
extremes right now.”
“Me too,” Sadie said, letting out a thready breath while everyone nodded in agreement.
“I’m glad we made reservations downtown,” Susannah said, gripping her husband’s hand. Jake had suggested they stay at the Peabody since the hotel had protocols in place to give celebrities some privacy.
“How far is Haines from here?” Sadie asked.
“I already looked it up,” Vander said, pulling out his phone. “It’s a little over an hour away—not too far from Brownsville. The population is just shy of three hundred people.”
“Me-Mother said Daddy liked to stay in small towns,” Shelby said. “What do you think the next step is, Vander?”
“One thing about I noticed about the return address on that envelope is that he didn’t use his name,” he told her. “It spiked my curiosity. He might be using his real name, and he might not. People can avoid surfacing by using only cash, but since we haven’t found any records of him for over twenty-five years, my guess is he has an alias.”
It was weird to think of anyone having an alias, least of all her daddy.
“I agree,” Jake said, and he and Vander shared a look.
“To answer your question, Shelby, I think I should go there undercover. Alone.”
“But—”
“Shelby,” Vander said, gazing her way, “I know you want to go. You might all want to go. But it might scare him off if a group our size comes into town looking for him.”
“Couldn’t you ask the local police for help?” Shelby asked.
“From my experience, some small-town local law enforcement officers aren’t eager to help outsiders. Once I play my hand as a P.I., they could tell your dad. I don’t want to take that chance. Undercover is better. Trust me.”
“What are the chances he’s still there?” J.P. asked, rocking back in his chair. “Christmas was months ago, and Me-Mother said he moves a lot. If he was in Alamo two years ago, and Haines now, he’s moving at least once a year.”
“I can visit Alamo if Haines is a dead end,” Vander said. “But I’ll start at his last known address.”
