In High Cotton: Neely Kate Mystery #2

by Denise Grover Swank

I hated to admit he was right.

  I found the note and entered it into my phone, saving it under Evil Half Sister.

  Jed chuckled as he shifted in his seat.

  I glanced up at him. “How can you be laughing right now?”

  “Because even when things are at their worst, I can count on you to put a smile on my face.”

  “Is that why you’re still with me?” I asked, deciding to be blunt. I told myself that Jed’s feelings for me should be low on our priority list, especially since Jed was in this whether he wanted to be or not. But if he was second-guessing our relationship, I wanted to know.

  “What are you talkin’ about?” he asked, casting me a surprised glance.

  “You’ve been away more than you’ve been with me the last week, and any time I’ve tried to show you any kind of affection, you quickly put a stop to it.”

  “That’s not true,” he countered in a defensive tone. “I showed you affection both yesterday and today.”

  “Only because I was scared about this whole mess and you felt like you had to comfort me. Three days ago, I kissed you and you pushed me away. And then I didn’t see you again until I met you at the landscaping office yesterday morning, and that was only because I got that phone call.” When he didn’t say anything, I asked, “Do you want to break up with me, but you can’t because you’re stuck with me because you helped me dig up Pearce Manchester?”

  “Neely Kate,” he said with a sigh. “I swear to you, that’s not why I’ve stayed away from you.”

  “Then why?”

  He hesitated for several seconds. “I’ve been setting up my new business.”

  “What’s your new business?”

  “Just wait, okay? I’ll tell you soon.”

  “Soon. But not now.” Why wouldn’t he tell me? What if he was opening another strip club?

  He reached over and grabbed my hand. “Neely Kate. I’m plannin’ to tell you everything soon. Just trust me.”

  What choice did I have? “Okay.”

  He squeezed my hand. “Thank you.”

  This whole conversation was stupid given that I’d discovered two dead men in the course of a few hours. I needed to get my priorities straight. If I was arrested for Pearce Manchester’s murder, all of this would be a moot point.

  When we got back to the farm, I went inside and tugged off my wig, unpinning my hair as we walked into the kitchen and found Joe at the kitchen table. He must have run over to his place because he was using his own laptop and taking notes on a legal pad.

  He wore a serious expression as his gaze lifted to mine. “I want to see that packet Kate left you along with the note.”

  Jed headed to the basement staircase. “I’m going to see if Franken’s fingerprint works.”

  Joe didn’t say a word, just watched him go through the door, then gestured for me to take the chair next to him.

  I sat down and handed him the packet. “The handwritten notes are inside with the PI report.”

  He pulled out the first note and studied it. “Where’d you find it?”

  “I found that one in the nightstand drawer. The other was in the packet that we found under the mattress.”

  He frowned. “Carlisle’s thorough.”

  “The first note suggested there was something else in the room. Up to that point, other than the computer, the only thing of interest we’d found was a pair of women’s panties on the floor.”

  He set the note on the table and removed the second one. As he read it, his fingers tightened, crimping the edge of the paper. “This is a threat, Neely Kate.”

  “I’m not surprised. She’s been threatening me for months.”

  “With her letters?”

  “And then in person when I finally started seein’ her at the hospital.”

  “I wish you’d told me she was blackmailin’ you.” He set the paper on top of the other note on the table, shaking his head. “Don’t misconstrue what I’m sayin’. I understand why you didn’t tell me, but I still can’t help feeling responsible.”

  My jaw dropped. “How are you responsible?”

  “I was the one who took you up there to see her in the first place. She started makin’ you come see her after that.”

  “I was the one who insisted on goin’ the first time, Joe. You know how stubborn I am. I would have found a way without you.”

  He looked grim as he started flipping through pages, then paused, flipping back several pages. “So Kate went to see Beasley, then hired a PI to investigate the rest.”

  “Looks like it.”

  “But she doesn’t know anything about Pearce Manchester. Or at least she didn’t find out about him from the PI.” He pushed out a sigh. “Her comment about what happened on a bed got us here worries me.”

  “It still doesn’t mean she knows about the man I killed. They told her that I had sex for money. That seems more likely.”

  His lips pursed. “Maybe.”

  He got to the tabbed page and when he saw it was about my mother, his eyes widened. “So Kate really saw her.”

  “I never doubted that she did.” I grabbed the remaining pages from him. “There’s nothin’ in there from my mother that will help us with the rest of this mess. What did you find on the guy’s phone?”

  His gaze turned to the partially open basement door. “I was plannin’ on tellin’ you both. Carlisle’s been down there awhile. What do you think he’s doin’?”

  “It might not be Neil Franken’s laptop. What if it belongs to Chad Manchester?”

  Joe’s face paled. “Let’s hope not. I don’t want any of us near that car or body. I’m already havin’ second thoughts about the whole thing, especially if Carlisle’s tampering with the camera.”

  “You want me to tell him to let things be, and we’ll tell the sheriff’s department about the body in the basement?”

  “Yes. No.” He shook his head. “I don’t know. This thing’s gettin’ a hell of a lot deeper by the minute.”

  “You have no idea how deep,” Jed said as he walked through the door with the open laptop in his hands.

  “Well, shit,” Joe groaned.

  Jed ignored him, setting the computer on the table, then turned to me with a serious expression. “Did you know anything about Pearce Manchester?”

  He looked nervous. My heart started racing. “No, not really. I didn’t even know his name. Branson always referred to him as the client from Dallas, and he was paying ten thousand dollars to have the night to do anything he wanted.”

  “Did Branson end up with ten grand?” Joe asked.

  “No,” Jed said in a dull tone. “Neely Kate said Manchester refused to pay until he was done.”

  “Do we know what happened to the money?” Joe asked.

  “We buried it,” I said, worried about getting Jed into even more trouble with my brother. “Beasley and I buried everything the guy had with him—his clothes, his video camera, the black bag. I never looked inside it, and I guess neither did Beasley, because I can’t imagine he’d bury that much money. I didn’t realize it was even there until Jed discovered it. We were more concerned with hiding all the evidence.”

  “What happened to his car?” Joe asked.

  “It wasn’t at the house,” I said. “I don’t know what happened to it.”

  “The news reports said his car disappeared,” Jed said. “I looked into it after we came back from Ardmore.”

  “Did you stir up trouble with your diggin’?” Joe asked in an accusatory tone. “Did your questions put the spotlight on Neely Kate?”

  “No,” Jed said, keeping his gaze level with Joe’s. “I was careful. It was all online research. No one knows his death is tied to Neely Kate.”

  “Someone knows,” Joe said in frustration. “There’s a dead man in the basement to prove it.”

  I turned to Joe with pleading eyes. “That was Kate’s doin’, not Jed’s. He’s on my side, Joe.”

  Joe crossed his arms over his chest, fuming.

&
nbsp; “Something doesn’t make sense,” Jed said, leaning over. He then linked his hand with mine and squeezed. “There was ten thousand dollars in that bag. That’s a hell of a lot of money for one night with a woman.”

  Joe’s face erupted with anger. “Are you sayin’ my sister isn’t worth ten grand?”

  “Simmons,” Jed grunted. “Do you think I really want to discuss this in front of her? I’d ask her to leave to spare her, but I know she’ll never do it, and besides—this is her life. She deserves to know.” He squeezed my hand again. “Even the hard stuff.”

  Joe settled back in his chair.

  “As far as I’m concerned,” Jed continued, “that man didn’t pay near enough. If Neely Kate hadn’t killed him, I’d hunt the bastard down and make him suffer the way he made her suffer ten times over, so no, ten thousand is nowhere near enough for one second with her, let alone for the hours she endured. But you and I both know he could have just picked up a prostitute on the street and tortured her, killed her, and been done with it. Why travel to Ardmore and pay ten grand to Branson Desoto, a low-level drug dealer? Something’s missin’ with this story.”

  Joe’s lips thinned as he studied Jed.

  “Neely Kate said Branson was doin’ a drug deal too,” Jed said. “But after taking a brief look at the laptop, now I’m not so sure.”

  “Why?” I asked, shifting in my seat to face him.

  His gaze landed on my face. “The laptop proved to be Chad Manchester’s, and he had two separate files with his brother’s name on it—one in his email and one in his documents. I’ve barely scratched the surface, but there’s a lot to dig through, including the original PI report from the agency their father hired about a year after Pearce disappeared.”

  “Why would Manchester have that much money?” Joe asked. “What was he buyin’ from Branson Desoto?”

  “I don’t know about that part for certain, but I’m pretty sure there’s a link between Pearce Manchester and the Hardshaw Group.”

  Joe’s eyes narrowed, and he tilted his head slightly. “That’s quite a leap. How’d you come to that conclusion?”

  “Because Chad Manchester concluded the same thing.”

  “Wait,” I said. “What’s the Hardshaw Group?”

  “A crime syndicate in Dallas,” Joe said. “The same one that wanted the flash drive that Daniel Crocker thought Rose had a year ago. And if they’re really involved and have caught wind of you, we’re in deep shit.”

  Chapter 14

  “We’re not in deep shit yet,” Jed said, wrapping an arm around my back and pulling me closer. “This is all speculation, which means we need to dig into that computer and find out what Chad Manchester actually knew.”

  “Wait,” Joe said, holding up his hand. “If the computer belonged to Chad, how’d you get Franken’s fingerprint to work?”

  Jed shrugged. “Franken must have gotten the password before Chad ended up dead and changed the print recognition, because it worked.”

  “So Franken wanted Chad’s information?” Joe asked. “Why kill him? Why not just steal the laptop?”

  “If Franken is with Hardshaw, then maybe Chad had found out too much,” Jed answered. “Hopefully whatever’s on that computer will give us some answers.” He turned to me. “How are you feelin’ about all of this? You feel like diggin’ through this laptop?”

  “Now wait a minute,” Joe said, pushing back his chair. “Neely Kate’s not searchin’ that thing. It’s likely to wind up as evidence.”

  “You were gonna let Jed search through it,” I protested.

  “Yeah, because Carlisle’s a known criminal.”

  My blood ran cold. “And I’m a known murderer.”

  “You killed that man in self-defense, Neely Kate,” Joe shouted. “That’s a big difference.”

  “I didn’t kill him in self-defense, Joe,” I said in a shaky voice. “I could have tried to escape, but I didn’t. The only thing in my mind was to kill him.”

  “How big was he?” Joe asked.

  I thought back to the night, his body looming over mine, the power in the thick muscles in his arms as he hit me over and over, leaving me bloodied and bruised.

  Joe’s eyes widened, and I realized I must look as horrified and frightened as I felt.

  “You don’t have to answer,” Jed whispered into my ear, pulling me even closer. “I can tell him.”

  “How do you know what he looked like?” My voice was thick with emotion.

  “I’ve been investigatin’ him, remember? I’ve seen plenty of photos. You put the sight of that monster out of your head.” He kissed my forehead and turned to my brother. “He was a big guy. Six three, two-twenty. Lifted weights. He was the son of an oil man with padded job title at his daddy’s company and too much time and money on his hands. He was known to have a temper and he’d seen the inside of a jail quite a few times due to his outbursts, with both men and women, but more often with women. They’d arrest him, then the woman would change her mind. I’m certain his rich daddy paid them off to go away.”

  Joe’s face paled. I was sure he was thinking of all the times his father had bought his way out of trouble, plenty of which Joe hadn’t even been aware of.

  “You never beat anyone,” I said to him.

  “I beat up my fair share of guys in bar fights.”

  “You never beat a woman, did you?” I asked. “I’m sure you never beat anyone for the pure pleasure of making them cry and plead for mercy.”

  “Is that what he did to you?” he asked in horror, his eyes brimming with tears. “No, Neely Kate. Never.”

  A fierceness took hold of me. “Then you are nothin’ like that man, do you hear me? And for what it’s worth, I wouldn’t be sittin’ here with you right now if I thought you were capable of it.”

  “What did he do to you, Neely Kate?” Joe asked, his voice broken.

  I shook my head, tears burning my eyes.

  Joe’s gaze jerked to Jed’s. “What did he do?”

  “I don’t know all the details,” Jed said. “But I know enough. There was a tape that detailed it all, but I never saw it. Neely Kate took it from the video recorder and begged me not to watch. After some deliberation, I agreed to her request.”

  Joe sat up, looking hopeful. “There’s a video of him beating and raping you?”

  “And her killin’ him,” Jed said.

  “I need that tape,” Joe insisted. “It will clear you of any wrongdoin’.”

  I shook my head, my entire body shaking too. “If that tape is viewed out of order, it will show Pearce Manchester sitting on the edge of the bed, then me attacking him. He wasn’t hurtin’ me when I strangled him, Joe. It wasn’t self-defense.”

  “Was it obvious you were beaten?”

  I didn’t respond, but Jed said, “I saw the blood on those sheets, and the positioning led me to believe a lot of it came from head wounds. She was bound to look beaten.”

  Joe’s face paled and he stared at me in pity and horror.

  I got to my feet. “This is exactly why I can’t tell Rose. I couldn’t bear for her to look at me like that. It would take her forever to get over it.” I headed for the back door. “I’m goin’ for a walk.”

  “You can’t,” Joe called after me. “Kate might be out there.”

  I stopped with my hand on the doorknob, knowing he was right. I dropped my hand in frustration. “Why is she doin’ this to me?”

  “She’s jealous,” Joe said.

  “Of me?” I asked in disbelief. “I lost my babies. My husband left me. My mother dumped me like I was a piece of garbage. I’m so broke I’m drivin’ around a piece-of-crap car. What on earth is she jealous of?”

  “You and Rose,” Joe said, shifting in his seat to fully look at me. “Jed’s been goin’ with you to the psych ward, right? So she’s jealous of him. And finally, she’s jealous of you and me. If she’s really spyin’ on us, then she knows that we’re tryin’ to make this work. She thinks you usurped her as my sister, and
now she’s gonna make you pay.”

  The hard look in Jed’s eyes suggested he believed the same thing.

  I shook my head. While I knew he was likely right, I still struggled to believe Kate could be jealous of me. “Then we need to find and catch her.”

  “She’s sneaky,” Joe said. “And she’s whip-smart. She’s schemed up something, and we need to bide our time. Wait for a mistake.”

  “You want to wait?” Jed asked in a deadpan tone. “I’m not leavin’ Neely Kate as bait.”

  “I bet she’s plannin’ something for tomorrow night,” I said. “She knows about the fundraiser dinner. She’s gonna come.”

  Joe’s mouth parted, and then he quickly closed it. “You’re right.”

  “There’s no way Neely Kate’s goin’ to that thing,” Jed said. “I’m not putting her in that danger.”

  “We don’t have to make a decision yet,” I said. “Let’s see what else we can find. Why would she plant a body in my basement if she wants to pull something tomorrow night?”

  “It’s a test,” Jed said, turning his attention to Joe. “A test of Joe’s loyalty to you.”

  Joe stared at him in shock. Then he sank back in his seat. “Carlisle’s right.”

  “What else does she have planned?” I asked.

  “She left a dead body in your basement,” Jed said. “With possible ties to a drug syndicate in Dallas. I’m not waitin’ to see how this plays out.”

  “What the hell are you gonna do?” Joe asked.

  “I’m gonna track down Branson Desoto.” He turned to me. “Do you feel up to searching that laptop?”

  While I wasn’t looking forward to it, I needed to do something. “Yeah.”

  Joe’s jaw locked tight, but he didn’t protest.

  “You’re not goin’ to Ardmore, are you?” I asked.

  “No. I think I can get what I need from here, but I need to go talk to a couple of people about Hardshaw.”

  “Who?” Joe asked. “And why?”

  “You’re crazy if you think I’m gonna tell you who, and as to the why, Neil Franken might have had other reasons for showin’ up here. Things have been unsettled over the last few months and the Hardshaw Group might be tryin’ to insert themselves into Fenton County. I aim to find out if they’ve reached out to anyone.”