by Danni Roan
David felt his temper rise to a slow burn as both women stared at him. His family had been treated this way ever since his grandfather’s disappearance. Clenching his fingers into fists, he opened his mouth, speaking calmly.
“I would like to ask you a few questions about that day in ’66 when you found the horses above the falls. I’m trying to uncover what really happened to my grandfather all those years ago.”
Susan stared at the young man who stood before her grandmother, hands clenched as he battled his anger. She had heard the rumors for years about the Watkins family. It was widely known that Old Mr. Watkins had been a notorious moonshiner and that even as an old man he ran a still in the mountains of the Chattahoochee National Forrest.
Most of the people in town who knew the story believed that Old Mr. Watkins had quarreled with a rival and the argument had turned violent. No one could agree however, on whether Watkins had murdered his rival and fled, or if it had gone the other way and his body still moldered somewhere in the far hills.
“Your grandfather was a moonshiner and law breaker,” Alana said, her bright eyes scanning the young man. “Still, it isn’t right that no one knows what actually happened to him.” The old woman waved a hand toward a chair. “Sit and we’ll chat.” She lifted her eyes to her granddaughter. “Susan why don’t you bring that tea I suggested earlier. Perhaps Mr. Watkins will help us figure out how Israel and Oreo ended up wandering the hills on their own all those years ago.”
Susan gaped at her grandmother. Only minutes ago the old tyrant had declared Susan’s mission a waste of time and now she was all for Mr. Watkins picking up the thread. The mystery belonged to her, and she had no intention of sharing it with the handsome young man sitting awkwardly in her grandmother’s parlor.
“Go on then,” Alana urged shooing her like a pesky child. “I’ll chat with Mr. Watkins while you’re gone.”
“Thank you,” David looked between the two women, trying to relax as he sat in the high-backed chair opposite the senior Holmes. “As you know, my grandfather disappeared right around the time you found those two horses. Unfortunately, in all that time, we have not been able to find a single clue that would set our family on the path of discovering what happened to Harcourt Watkins.”
“Your grandpa was no saint,” Alana said, lifting her chin. “He was a moonshiner and was earning money in a very unsavory manner. Yes, yes,” the old woman waved her hand in the air before David could argue. “I know moonshining was a pass time for many in this part of the state, especially since it was a dry county, but selling it without paying taxes was highly illegal. And before you try to argue your grandfather’s case,” the old woman leaned forward pinning David with her eyes. “I saw him myself walking through campus with his shotgun in hand. He looked like some wild mountain man before the invention of the bath.”
“You actually saw him?” David slid forward on the edge of his seat. “In ’66 you saw my grandfather alive?”
“We students were under strict orders not to traverse the woods behind the falls back then,” Alana, shook her head. “The board was afraid we would stumble onto a still and get shot. It wasn’t uncommon to see a few scruffy men traipse through the campus, with a hand cart full of hooch and a shotgun over their shoulder. They looked beyond horrid,” The old woman shivered.
“But you went hiking anyway,” David smiled liking the pluck of this old woman. No matter what her views on his grandfather’s behavior, she could know something that would help him put this age old mystery to rest. No matter what anyone had said for all those years, his recently departed grandmother had never believed a single rumor.
“Tea?” The pretty woman from a few moments ago walked back into the room carrying a tray full of shimmering glasses full of the iced amber delight. She was an attractive woman with blue eyes and light brown hair, her appearance seemed suck all the air out of the room.
“Thank you,” David cleared his throat as a strange sensation swarmed him, like group of agitated bees, and he looked up to meet bright blue eyes full of irritation. Silently he reached up taking the proffered glass, his fingers grazing hers as they met half way. A shiver raced down David’s spine and he gasped, gripping the sweat beaded glass tighter. The last thing he needed to do was drop his drink in this fancy house.
“Susan do sit down,” Alana barked at her granddaughter. “Put the tray on the table. What on earth has gotten into you?” The old woman shook her head of perfectly coiffed white curls. “Susan was just asking me to tell her the story of when I found the horses. She’s far too curious about such things if you ask me. It isn’t safe for a young single woman to be so curious.”
Susan almost choked on her own sip of sweet tea, coughing and spluttering as she sat it on a coaster on the side table and stared at her grandmother.
“How can you say that when you’re the one who found the horses in the first place? Despite the orders against going into that forest. I just want to understand what happened. I’ll find out too,” she added glaring at Mr. Watkins.
Alana Holmes looked between her granddaughter and the young man who had finally gotten his emotions under control. “Perhaps you and Mr. Watkins can work together,” she mused, sipping from her frosty glass. “That way I won’t worry about you so much.” Blue eyes pinned Susan from above the rim of the tall crystal glass making the younger woman squirm.
Susan’s eyes grew wide at her grandmother’s suggestion. Alana Holmes knew better than anyone how much Susan wanted to solve this mystery; alone. She had been investigating quietly for years, reading news reports, police journals, and digging for every clue she could find. “Gram?”
“I’m sorry,” Mr. Watkins placed his icy glass on the table before him. “I work alone.”
“That’s a pity,” Alana said her eyes dancing. “It’s a shame you have completely wasted your time.” She turned looking at Susan, a mock sorrow on her face. “I might even have shared a secret I never told a soul.”
Silence descended on the room like a shroud, covering everyone in a heavy, oppressive weight.
David turned looking at the young woman to his right. She was wearing a simple yellow shirt, and denim Capri pants that fit her slim curves perfectly. Her brown hair was loose, falling over her shoulders in soft waves and she looked shocked.
“Perhaps,” he stuttered, his eyes never leaving her blue gaze, “perhaps we could work together.”
Susan glared at the young man, matching his amber stare with a flash of her own. She had worked too hard on this mystery to have to share it with someone she didn’t know. With someone who was trying to clear the name of a notorious scoundrel. “No.” Susan pressed the words between tight lips.
“I guess we’ll never know then,” Mrs. Holmes, lifted her glass of tea with a shrug. “I’m sorry you wasted your time.” She looked back at the young man, whose brows were knit in a hard scowl.
David sagged in his chair. He had worked so hard to compile the information surrounding his grandfather’s disappearance, and his heart ached as he remembered his grandmother’s tenacious disbelief in her husband’s wrongdoing. No matter how many people whispered disparities against Harcourt, Grandmother Watkins had never given in. She was so positive that her husband’s disappearance had nothing to do with making moonshine that she had infected her grandson with the same fervent faith as hers.
Closing his eyes, David willed his heart to settle then looked at the pretty young woman. “Please,” he pleaded. “I’m doing this for my grandmother. She never believed any of the things people said about Grandpa Watkins. Right up to the end she was certain he had done nothing wrong.”
Susan squirmed in her seat, a feeling of unease sliding down her spine as the man’s eyes collided with hers. He seemed so sincere. So honest, that guilt nibbled at her insides. “I, I’ve worked so hard to find the answer,” she stammered. “I,”
“You need help,” Alana snapped. “Now stop hedging and give in. You both have the same goals, might as well
pool resources and get on with it.” The old woman’s eyes flashed and a glimpse of the tough adventurous woman she had been shone through.
Susan couldn’t believe her grandmother’s words. She had never known Alana to be so sharp before.
“You can have all the credit,” David urged. “Please don’t send me away empty handed.”
Susan felt her resolve melt under the onslaught of pleas. “Alright, but it’s my case.”
A soft huff from her grandmother’s chair made both young people turn caught in the old woman’s gaze of disgust. “Case, you’d think you were detectives or something. This case has been cold for years, and why two silly young people think they can find the answer when professionals couldn’t is beyond me, but if you are determined, I’ll tell you everything I know.” She turned her bright eyes pinning David to his chair once more. “You need to promise me something though,”
“Anything,” David practically bounced in his seat.
“You have to protect my granddaughter.” She waved a dismissive hand at Susan’s outraged gasp. “Yes, I know you modern woman who doesn’t need a man to look out for her, but we were made man and woman for a reason, and there’s a plan to God making most men stronger than us girls. Now both of you settle down, and I’ll tell you every detail of what happened that day on the mountain. Even things I thought I had imagined.”
David let his eyes wander to the young woman sitting stiff and straight in the chair across from him. He could see the anger dancing in her eyes, but something inside told him that Old Mrs. Watkins was right. Just because this case had been abandoned so long ago did not mean that the parties involved weren’t still lurking somewhere in the shadows, and if they got too close, danger could be a real issue.
If they had worked so hard to cover their tracks back then, what would they do now if two armature sleuths began to poke around where they weren’t wanted?
Deep down the iron entered his soul, and David knew he would do whatever it took to keep one Miss Susan Holmes safe.
Susan looked between her grandmother and the sandy haired man sipping tea in her family’s home. He was a nice looking man, but right now, she would have liked nothing better than to toss him out on his ear. She didn’t need a meddlesome Watkins interfering with her investigation. She could do this on her own.
Pulling her eyes away from the handsome, well chiseled face, she glared at her grandmother who sipped her tea innocently. Gram had never before indicated there was anything more to the story than what she had told them for years.
Was Alana Holmes really going to divulge a golden nugget of truth or was she simply trying to insure that Susan would work with the young man with the nosey disposition?
Gram, as sophisticated as she was, was still very old fashioned in some ways. Susan didn’t need a man to keep an eye on her. Susan lifted her glass of iced tea to hide her smile behind her beverage. Perhaps she didn’t need a man to help her solve this mystery, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t garner something from the partnership. Her blue eyes strayed to the leather journal the young man was opening, and she felt her heart zing with excitement at the idea of seeing what tidbits were hidden within.
She would glean any information she could from David Watkins then run with it until she had solved the age old mystery of the lost horses of Toccoa Falls, and the missing moonshiner that had left so many in a mess. Susan Holmes was a mystery solver. She would follow every lead until the whole town knew she had found the answers.
A soft shiver raced through her, pooling in Susan’s stomach as she lifted her eyes from the journal only to have them captured by the keen warm eyes of Mr. Watkins. This was bound to be the adventure of a lifetime if Susan played her cards just right.
“So what is this big secret you never told anyone,” Susan wrenched her eyes away from the handsome man and turned to her grandmother. “Why didn’t you ever tell anyone?”
“Because I wasn’t sure if I really saw it,” Gram snapped her eyes between the two younger people. “I was focused on the horses, and you know there are all kinds of critters up in those woods.”
“You never told anyone?” Susan asked, her brows furrowing.
“No, I asked Gary if he had seen anything, but he said all he saw were the horses. It didn’t seem important at the time, but now I don’t know.”
Chapter 2
'Two are better than one… If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up!… A cord of three strands is not quickly broken' Ecclesiastes 4:9–12
“Your notes are very comprehensive,” Susan’s voice was reluctantly encouraging. “There are even notes here I haven’t seen before.”
“I’ve interviewed my whole family,” David replied, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Twice he had nearly lost his battle as he resisted the urge to push a strand of dark hair away from Susan’s face. Together they stood over a dark rich wooden desk in a decidedly masculine office off the foyer. David’s lips twitched as the young woman ducked her head peering at his journal, and that same stubborn strand of hair fell along her heart shaped face.
“It hasn’t always been easy.” The young man spoke. “Some felt that my grandfather got what he deserved while others swear he was a good law abiding man, who never sold moonshine. They all agree he was peaceful, whatever his other shortcomings might have been.”
“What do you think about what Gram said?” Susan looked up meeting his eyes. “Do you really think she saw something the day she found Israel and Oreo?”
David shrugged. “I don’t know. The forest is thick now, but people camp, hike, and hunt in there all the time. Maybe it was just a flash from some hiker walking by. I can’t believe it could be anything else.”
Susan bit her bottom lip, pondering the notion. Grandma Holmes was convinced that she had seen a flash of light in the woods, but what did that mean exactly? A car never would have made it up there, would it? Even before the dam upstream had burst, there were very few roads into the forest.
“Do you think you could find the spot where your grandmother found the horses?” David asked absently, his eyes fixed on Susan’s glistening lips. “I mean we could take a look around and see if we find anything up there. It’s crazy,” he added turning his back and pacing to a book shelf. “Maybe if we look at it with fresh eyes, we might get a feeling for something.”
“A feeling?” Susan placed her knuckles flat on her hips. “A feeling? How is that supposed to help?” She threw her hands in the air. “Maybe we should just call in a psychic, and they’ll be able to walk us to your grandfather’s grave.”
“We don’t even know if he’s dead,” David’s voice rose and he wheeled glaring at the beautiful woman still standing by the desk. “That’s the problem; no one knows where he is, or what happened to him. I’ve spent years watching my grandmother grieve the loss of her husband, but she couldn’t even put a marker up in his memory because she didn’t know what had happened to him.” All of the frustration of years spent wondering, spilled over and his light brown eyes sparked with anger. “If only I could have put her mind to rest. If only there had been answers. We buried her last month under a stone bearing two names but no dates for Pap-pap. Do you know how infuriating that is?”
Susan took a step back, the force of David’s passion washing over her like a wave. “What if you find out something you don’t want to know? What if everything the people of this town have whispered for years is true?”
David sagged under the young woman’s words. “Then at least we’ll have the truth, and I can move on. I promised my grandmother I would find out what happened to Pap-pap. I can’t quit now.”
Something turned over in Susan’s heart, and though she was still determined to solve the mystery herself, she felt a softening toward the young man with the sand colored hair.
“Come on,” she groaned, grabbing her keys. “I’ll take you to the place where Gram found Israel and Oreo. I hope you aren’t afraid of
a hike though. It isn’t easy to get to.”
David followed Susan out through the kitchen to a small parking area at the back of the house and smiled at the Jeep Wrangler sitting, top down, under a tree. “I take it this is yours?” He raised a brow examining the bright blue four-by-four.
“Yep, I like the hills and get out there as much as I can.” Susan slipped behind the wheel and David hurried to jump in the passenger seat, as the engine roared. He barely had time to buckle up before Ms. Holmes was tearing out of the driveway and headed for the mountain road that brought you the back way into the forest.
A warm breeze ruffled his hair as they sped through town, past the library and down one long hill only to charge up the other.
“You love this kind of thing don’t you?” David smiled as the young woman focused on the road, her dark hair blowing on the wind.
“Pretty much,” Susan didn’t look at the man. She was focused on where they were going. This was the easy part of the trek. Stealing a glance at her companion, she wondered if he would be up to the rest of it. The man was tall, lean, and looked fit, but you couldn’t always tell.
