I kicked a rock.
"It's a damn shame she never told you or wrote it down."
Wrote it down. The journals.
"But I can tell you this," he continued. "She wanted to teach you more, to guide you—"
"Then why didn't she?"
He squeezed my shoulder. "Listen. Forget about all this." He eyed me skeptically. "Does your mother know you're here? Make sure she knows it wasn't my idea for you to go roaming around by yourself."
"I'm not roaming around. I came to see you."
He snorted. "Saundra might not see the distinction."
"What about the aunt's fiancé? Did Grandma suspect he was murdered?"
"Another topic for another day."
I watched him drive away. The rational part of me said I should tell him I might have foreseen my own death. I knew exactly what he and my mother would do: put me under house arrest.
That might not be a bad idea.
Chapter Eighteen
"I don't like you driving around by yourself with Eric Rodman out of jail, but I know you want to see your friends before we leave."
My mother stood in the doorway to my room and watched me guzzle a bottle of water. Between us were several boxes packed, taped, and labeled. I'd made up for slipping out of the house earlier.
"I'll be at Tessa's for a little while, then I'll come back to change for my date with Dean."
She gaped at me. "A date with Dean?"
I frowned. "Did I say date?"
She nodded.
I hadn't realized I said it. "Oh...yeah. A date with Dean.
She had an isn't-that-cute expression on her face, so I averted my gaze.
"Will Zeke be there?"
I shrugged.
"Well, be careful. If Eric does anything homicidal again, you stop and call 911, then call me."
"Skeeter was the target, not me."
She raised her eyebrows. "And if Skeeter is the killer—"
"He's not, okay? He's just a sad former druggie."
"Oh, is that all? Makes me feel better."
I laughed and followed her downstairs. She watched me stuff myself with leftover lasagna. She was overdoing the maternal thing. I kissed her goodbye, promised to be careful, and assured her I had my stun gun and cell phone.
On the way over, I memorized what I was going to say to Zeke if I saw him. I pulled up in front of the house and saw his Jeep in the driveway. I turned off the engine, took a deep breath, and loosened my grip on the steering wheel. I was leaving Ridge Grove. If I said something I ended up regretting, I wouldn't have to see him or feel his coldness in school five days a week anymore.
The front door opened before I rang the bell. Zeke stood in the door rubbing his eyes, something he did when he was sleepy.
When I left the house, it was close to four. "Did you just wake up?"
A crooked smile spread across his face. "Just one of those lazy days, you know? To what do I owe this pleasure?"
My cheeks grew hot. I wanted to forget all about Tamzen, but I set my face in a serious expression. "I need to talk to you."
His waved a hand, offering me entrance. I shook my head.
"I'd rather talk out here."
His smile wavered a bit, but he nodded. He followed me to the driveway awning on the side of the house. He leaned against his father's SUV, and I stood in front of him, stiff with tension.
"What's up, G?"
We used to call each other "Z" and "G" sometimes, a long time ago. I took a calming breath. "Why on earth did you tell Tamzen we went to lunch?"
He didn't seem surprised by the question. "She talked to you, huh? I figured."
I folded my arms across my chest. "Well?"
He folded his arms, too. "After we broke up, she kept calling, texting. I told her about us, thinking it would make her mad enough to leave me alone."
"And what about me?"
He rubbed his chin and gave me a look that made me want to forget all about my best friend. I averted my eyes and continued my rant.
"She came to my house this morning very upset. You could have at least warned me."
He shifted his weight and yawned. "I honestly didn't think she'd confront you."
"Right, Zeke. The guy who dumped told her takes her best friend out, and she's going to let it go."
Color drained from his cheeks, and he looked at this feet. "I'm sorry."
I let out a frustrated sigh. "You're sorry? Why didn't you keep quiet about it?"
He slowly raised his head and looked me square in the eye. "Maybe I'm tired of keeping quiet about things."
Silence drifted in the space between us. I waited for him to continue speaking. When I realized he wasn't going to, I started to leave. Then I changed my mind.
"I'd like to go talk to Eric."
His chastened expression vanished. "Are you crazy?"
I shrugged. "Probably. I was hoping you'd, uh, come with me."
He stared at me, shaking his head. "Still investigating, huh? You know, when I saw you, I really thought you'd come to..." He trailed off. "You do realize my father was sleeping with his girlfriend."
"That's not your fault."
He threw his hands in the air. "I'll ride along. Why not?"
I smiled, and he followed me to my car.
"I'm sure you've heard by now why he got kicked off the team?"
I nodded.
"He might be a meth-head or crazy or both," he said, "but the police don't seem to think he killed Kate."
"How do you know?"
He brushed a lock of hair off his forehead. "Because my father's pretty sure they're going to arrest him."
***
I was glad Zeke came with me, because Eric was glaring at me like he wanted to strangle me. When I'd pulled up in front of his house, I'd caught a glimpse of him sitting in the backyard. There was probably some legal reason I shouldn't be in contact with him, and vice versa, but I wanted to find out what was up.
He didn't seem surprised to see us when we traipsed through his backyard. He sat slumped in a lawn chair under a huge oak tree. An assortment of gadgets and wires lay scattered across a low wooden table in front of him.
"You two together now?" he said. "You get around, Zeke. Like father, like son."
Zeke ignored the comment. I pretended to be interested in the stuff on the table.
"What are you making?"
Eric smirked. "A machine to block witches from reading my mind."
Zeke scoffed. "Find a new insult, already."
"Actually, I'd love it if you made a machine like that. I don't want to sense people's emotions. It's mostly guilt and regret, anyway."
"It's not that bad, is it?" Zeke said, frowning.
"Hey. Do you mind? Take the intimate talk somewhere else."
Zeke and I both look away from each other.
"Why did you follow me to Chelsea," I said, "harass me, then run me off the road?"
He folded his arms and jerked his head at Zeke. "Is that why he came here with you? You thought I'd attack you or something?"
"I came with her because I thought you'd do something stupid."
Eric gazed at the sky and shook his head. "I can't wait to get out of this town."
"The only place you're going is jail," Zeke said. "You could have killed her."
"If I wanted her dead, she'd be dead."
"Like Kate?" I said.
Eric winced.
"You were getting back at Skeeter for screwing you in a drug deal," I said. "But did you think about the innocent person in the car?"
"I'm not supposed to be talking about this outside the presence of my lawyer."
"I hate that you made bail," Zeke said, shaking his head. "You should still be locked up. Psycho."
Eric leaned back. "Sticks and stones." He was careful to avoid maintaining eye contact with me. "Are we done here?"
I decided to bluff. "Do you know if Kate was pregnant when she was killed?"
He finally looked into my eyes
long enough for me to read him. Shock, anger, and an unexpected tenderness. "Nice try. If she'd been pregnant, it would have been major news." He looked at Zeke. "And your boyfriend here would've had a new baby brother or sister."
Zeke let this roll off his back, but I sensed his tension. Eric was watching him, waiting to see if he'd pounce. But the moment passed.
"What my father did was wrong. I don't like it, and I don't excuse it."
Eric's lips were drawn into a tight line.
"What you did to Guinan and Skeeter was wrong, too. Aren't you even sorry about it?"
Eric frowned and let out a breath. Then he looked me in the eye. "I was after Skeeter. Dumb way to handle it, but there you go."
Zeke looked at me and shrugged. "I guess that's supposed to be an apology."
Eric looked him up and down. "I'm surprised. I thought you'd get in my face. Are you going to join the prayer circle, too?"
"Prayer circle?"
"My mother told a group of church ladies about my, uh, drug issues." He smirked. "They came over one day after church, and my mother made me sit there while they prayed for me."
Zeke snorted. "It didn't help."
Eric glared at him. "Anyway, your mother was one of them. Think she knew about Kate and her husband then?"
"When was this?" I said.
"About a week before Kate was...If I knew then what I know now, I'd have asked your mother if she was praying that her husband stopped sleeping with teenagers."
It was the truth, and it stung. Zeke shifted beside me.
"If you think I'm a terrible, horrible person," Eric said, "I've got nothing on Skeeter. You'd better stay away from him."
"You put me in the hospital."
"Look," he said, sliding to the edge of the chair, "if I could take it back, I would. He looked at Zeke. "I agreed to do rehab. Outpatient."
"That doesn't mean you're not dangerous—"
"Skeeter Watson is a drug dealer," Eric said. "If you don't want anything to happen to your girlfriend, keep her away from him."
"You might be more dangerous," Zeke said, apparently choosing to ignore the girlfriend part.
Eric slid back in the chair and took a long swig from his water bottle. "Watson's a thief, too. You remember that bat my dad had custom-made for me?"
Zeke shrugged. "Yeah, so?"
"It's gone. I can't find it. I think Skeeter stole it. He takes my money and my property."
"Was the bat worth anything?" I said.
"It wasn't a collector's item, if that's what you mean. Just a custom-made bat."
"Yeah, I remember," Zeke said. "It was nothing special."
Eric glared at him.
"What I mean is, it didn't seem valuable. But whoever took it probably thought it was."
"What do you mean 'whoever'? Skeeter took it."
"Maybe," I said, trying to visualize Skeeter's space. I hadn't seen a bat. "How long has it been missing?"
"I don't know. I haven't looked for it since I was kicked...since I left the team. I kept it in my car. Sometimes, the garage."
"Is that the only thing missing?" I said.
Eric shrugged. "That's the only thing I noticed."
The former teammates started talking about baseball collectors' items, and I tuned them out.
Was Kate killed with a bat? I tried to remember what the weapon in my dream looked like. Long and slender. It could have been a bat. Then again, Eric probably just forgot where he'd laid it. I caught the tail-end of their conversation.
"Besides," Zeke said, "everybody on the team had access to it."
Eric laughed. "Yeah, even you."
His cheeks flushed.
I looked at Eric. "Did Kate ever mention a favorite name to you? Like for a future baby?"
He rolled his eyes. "She liked the name Zachary for a boy and Bethany for a girl."
Chapter Nineteen
Zeke and I rode in silence for most of the trip back to his house. I glanced at him every now and then, and he seemed deep in thought.
"Why does your father think he'll be arrested?"
He shifted in his seat. "They keep questioning him about that night. They've searched our house, the cars. He feels like the sole focus of the investigation."
I told him about the first and second set of tree carvings. "That's why I mentioned pregnancy before," I said. "I figured BH stood for a baby."
He chewed on his lip and shrugged.
I kept in mind how sensitive this was for him. I'm certain he was uncomfortable talking to me about his family's business. We'd fallen out over it once before.
I cleared my throat. "Have you talked to your father about the affair?"
He gave me a sideways glance, his eyebrows raised. I thought he might start yelling, but all he said was, "No."
"I wonder if he ever thought Kate was trying to pregnant."
"She would have been trying for a long time." I looked at him, frowning. "My father had a vasectomy after my mother got pregnant with the twins."
I stared at the road and made the calculations in my head. I didn't want to think about Zeke's father sleeping with a fifteen-year-old. Instead, I wondered if Kate told Tim she was pregnant to get his reaction. She would have been in for a surprise.
I suddenly felt in over my head. I certainly couldn't ask Tim such questions, and the details of their affair might not have anything to do with Kate's murder, anyway.
Zeke must have heard the wheels in my head grinding to a halt.
"Why don't you come inside with me?" he said, his gaze earnest.
"I don't want to bother your family."
"It's your family, too."
I gave him a fleeting look. I hardly thought of him as family. Kissing cousins.
"If my father is arrested, I don't know what I'll do."
"Come on, I don't think that'll happen."
"If there's a trial, all sorts of stuff will come out."
I changed the subject and told him I was a little nervous about going to a new school in the fall. It didn't help his mood.
When I arrived at his house, I followed him inside. The smell of pot roast wafted through the air. My stomach grumbled. Tessa's whole world had turned upside down, and she hadn't missed a beat. Zeke and I walked into the empty kitchen. Neat, clean, and everything in its place.
"I'll go get my dad."
Before I could stop or stall him, he was gone. I eased into a chair. I peered around the room, a lump forming in my throat. I took a deep breath and fanned my face. I will not cry. I had no right to be here, ready to ask Tim some very personal questions. I didn't work for the police. But Zeke had invited me in knowing what I wanted to do. This fact made me feel better. Well, less bad, anyway.
When Tim appeared in the doorway, I'd half-convinced myself that my information gathering served greater purposes: truth, justice, and all that.
"Your grandfather know you're here?" he said. He wore a white and blue T-shirt with the Ridge Grove Police Department logo in it. His dark blue shorts came to his knees. I wiped my hands on my jeans and watched him take a bottle of water from the refrigerator. He leaned against the kitchen sink and scratched his stubbly chin.
"Well?"
"I don't think so. I mean, no. You guys know I'm leaving on tomorrow, right?"
He didn't answer. He opened the water and took a long swallow.
I folded my hands in my lap and studied them. Why was I so afraid? Worst-case scenario—he'd curse me out. I could handle that. I steeled myself and looked him in the face.
"I was at Jepson's Point the other day, and I saw initials carved on that tree near Kate's body." He frowned and shrugged. I told him about TM + KH = BH. "Apparently, that stands for you and Kate." I waited for his reaction. He was still frowning. "But who is BH?"
He took another swig before answering. "I don't know what you're talking about."
I bit my lip. "I guess that's not really important. Was Kate ever pregnant or trying to get pregnant?"
He scoff
ed and shook his head. "She wasn't getting a baby by me, that's for sure. Somebody else, maybe. You're getting a kick out of this, aren't? Asking questions all over town."
"I haven't been asking questions all over town," I said. My voice sounded steadier than I felt. "I don't think you did it, by the way."
He stared at the bottle. "I came home the night after our date and crashed. I think I drank too much. I'm pretty sure I didn't wake until morning."
"Did Kate ever talk to you about a favorite name for a boy or a girl?"
He furrowed his brow. "I don't remember. Maybe."
The more I thought about it, the more I realized she would have talked to another girl about such things. Maybe Kate was the sort to joke about baby names to a married man she'd been sleeping with. The humor would have been lost on Tim, I was sure.
"I have one more nosy question. I know you've probably told this police this, but when did you start seeing her?"
"The first time was in February of this year. It happened twice that month, then once in April. After that, it was over as far as I was concerned. It was just a fling. Nothing to lose my marriage over."
His nonchalant veneer cracked. He rubbed his forehead.
"It was a stupid, stupid thing to do."
"How did Kate take the break-up?"
He looked up at me and smiled weakly. "Not well. She called the station a few times wanting to talk to me. Called here once. Blew up my cell with calls and texts."
"When did Tessa find out?"
He blinked at me, then turned to the sound of a toddler's high-pitched giggle. Tessa came into the kitchen carrying Jude.
"As I already told the police," she said, "I'd seen a text message on Tim's cell from Kate a couple of months ago. I knew right away what must have happened."
I rose from the chair as if I'd been caught in a compromising situation with her husband. "I'm sorry. I just..." I trailed off when I saw her expression.
She walked up to her husband and handed him the baby. Jude immediately settled down and grinned at me. His chubby cheeks and bright eyes made me ache. Tim sat down at the kitchen table.
I silently cursed Kate Mansfield—her existence and her death. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be leaving Ridge Grove, and I wouldn't be so alienated from the Hickses.
Black-Eyed Moon (A Guinan Jones Paranormal Mystery #1) Page 11
