A Seeking Heart

by Danni Roan

  “He hasn’t confessed, but I’m pretty sure he did. When he discovered that I was digging into the story and that I had joined up with you, he must have gotten worried.”

  “I think he’s the one that smashed into my truck as well,” David continued. “I found this in his pack.” David brandished his own journal as Coatins walked back inside accompanied by two uniformed officers with large, bright flash lights.

  “That’s your man.” the former detective pointed at Clark who now huddled into the wall.

  “Are you the two who were attacked?” one officer asked breaking away from the trio. “I’ll need your statements.”

  The other officer moved to the old man huddled on the dirt floor, pulling him upright by one arm and slipping the gag from his mouth.

  A string of obscenities filled the little cabin as Clark blasted both David and Susan with his ire. “You two meddling kids!” he bellowed. “You should have kept your noses out of this mess. The past was dead and buried. It should have stayed that way. What does one grubby moonshiner mean in the grand scheme of things?”

  “He was my grandfather,” David shot back. “He had a wife, a family, a life.”

  Coatins patted David on the shoulder. “Save your breath son,” he drawled as the officer began reading the other man his rights. “It won’t do any good.”

  David nodded, pulling Susan closer as he turned his back on the man being led from the cabin.

  “Coatins, if you’ll accompany me, we’ll see this fellow to the car at the head of the trail.” The officer added.

  “We’ll all go,” Susan interjected. “I want to see him cuffed and in the car before I go home.”

  David squeezed her shoulders knowing how badly she wanted answers.

  “Suit yourself,” the first officer said as handcuffs clicked into place on the stooped old man.

  A half hour later the small group stood at the trail head bathed in the red lights of the police car.

  Susan felt drained and her head buzzed with questions. They had given their statements and watched as the officers prepared to leave.

  “Son, you up to driving to the Holmes house?” Mr. Coatins slapped a hand on David’s shoulder. “We can talk this thing through there.”

  “Yes, sir.” David’s answer was brief as he led Susan back to her Jeep extending his hand for the keys before helping her into the passenger seat.

  “Thank you,” Susan said meeting his eyes as she climbed wearily into the Jeep, buckling her seatbelt.

  “What happened?” Alan Holmes opened the door, taking in Susan’s ashen face.

  “Mrs. Holmes,” Coatins called over David’s shoulder. “If we could come in, we’ll explain everything.”

  Alana looked up at the man’s face. “Aren’t you that police man that came to see me when I first found the horses?” she asked then nodded pulling the door wide as David and Susan headed for the kitchen.

  “Yes ma’am,” Coatins grinned, “and it looks like I finally got my answers.”

  “I’ll start the coffee.” Alana said. “Come on back to the kitchen where we’ll be comfortable.”

  “Make it strong,” Susan said with a halfhearted smile a she sagged into her favorite chair. “David will you please explain?”

  David sat, twining his fingers with Susan’s as her grandmother placed cups and cookies on the table as if they were having a friendly visit. “I don’t really know where to start,” he turned looking at the old detective. “I think it is obvious though that my grandfather was murdered by a man named Clark for discovering that Clark, a revenue agent, was shaking down moonshine makers and bypassing the law. Grandpa Watkins was working to find out who was getting kickback for the police commissioner at the time.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Alana said placing a pretty coffee set on the table and beginning to pour. “I know you were prepared, but it is so sad. All these years, people thought the worst of him, and it turns out that Harcourt Watkins was working for the law.”

  David nodded, there was no arguing the fact that the news was sad, though vindicating.

  “Start from the beginning,” Alana’s eyes never left David’s face as she handed off cups of piping coffee.

  David sipped his coffee looking over at Susan who smiled encouragingly up at him. “Yes, everything.”

  The tale was a twisted path of discovery from what David and Coatins had put together from glimpses of the journal. His grandfather had moved into the mountains trying to determine who had been behind much of the graft of the time. Harcourt had set up a false still only to be arrested by Coatins and released later by the sheriff.

  “I always wondered about that,” the old detective said. “He didn’t even spend a night in jail, and I caught him red handed. Of course it seems now that he wasn’t actually brewing, just setting up to try to catch Clark.”

  “So your grandmother was right,” Alana said. “She knew her husband better than anyone. What sweet devotion over all those years.”

  David cut his eyes toward Susan, wondering if they could build a love like his grandparents had.

  “Why didn’t he ever tell her though?” Susan asked. “They were obviously very close.”

  “I think I can answer that,” Coatins lifted a finger. “If it were me, I would have been quiet to protect those I loved. If Clark was willing to kill your grandfather, he wouldn’t have hesitated to hurt someone else in the family.”

  “How horrid,” Alana gasped. “But what happened?”

  David shrugged. “We don’t have all the pieces yet, but it looks like Grandpa found out who Clark was and what he was doing. He came to the old still or maybe the cabin and killed Harcourt there. Clark may have been trying to shake down grandpa for money, or maybe he had figured out that Pap-pap was working for the sheriff.”

  “I’m sure we’ll find out for sure in time, son.” Mr. Coatins turned sad eyes on the young man. “I’m just glad you didn’t join him.”

  It took a good five minutes to calm Susan’s grandmother once it came out that Clark had pulled a gun on the two amateur sleuths, assuring her that everyone was fine and that Susan had suffered no more than a bump to the head.

  “But what about the horses?” Susan finally asked, trying to distract her grandmother “Where did they come from?”

  “One of the entries in the journal stated that Pap-pap had seen the paint in the woods a few times. If I understood it right, he started to suspect that the paint was used to pack kegs from the hills or collect money. You all know how rough those trails could be. The problem was Clark didn’t know if Harcourt had told anyone about the horses so he turned the animal or animals loose thinking it would die up there. He couldn’t take the risk of the horse being traced back to him.”

  “So he couldn’t claim the horses in case someone put the pieces together and connected the horses to him and then to your grandfather’s disappearance?”

  “Yes, I still don’t know where the colt came from. Maybe there was a mare in the mix and she died leaving the colt with the horse you named Israel.”

  “When we started connecting the dots, that’s what panicked Clark.” Susan turned, looking at the others. “David and I putting our heads together scared him so badly he rammed David’s truck to get his hands on the journal. Only it wasn’t the journal we found in the cabin.”

  “When I met you two young people at the Alexander I started to worry about you. When I saw the state of your apartment, it really put my hackles up. Young folks like you seem to charge right into things without thinking about the consequences. You’re lucky I came along when I did.” Coatins’ grin was kind, but his eyes held a serious glint.

  “We are so thankful you did.” Susan looked back at David. He had risked his life attacking Mr. Clark. He could have been shot. “I’m just thankful that no one was seriously hurt.

  “I wasn’t thinking at the time I jumped the old man,” David blushed. “All I knew was that he had a gun on you and I couldn’t let anything happen to yo
u.”

  Susan felt her face heat and her heart melt. “Do you think he would have shot us?” She dragged her eyes from David turning to speak to the retired police officer. “After all I had given him the journal.”

  “I don’t think he wanted to,” Coatins smiled. “More than anything, he was too old to hide the bodies.”

  Alana gasped, clutching her string of bright pearls. “Surely not!”

  The old man shrugged. “It doesn’t matter now. The man’s in jail and we’ll soon know the outcome. You two will be called as witnesses of course, and in time, you’ll get your grandfather’s journal back.” He smiled at David. “In the mean time, why don’t you make sure this young lady stays out of trouble. You might be amateurs, but you both have a tenacity that a good detective needs.” Standing Coatins slipped his long rain coat from Susan’s shoulders and nodded heading for the door. “I’ll see you at the hearing.”

  “I’ll see you out,” Gram added, jumping to her feet quicker than a woman her age had a right to do as she scurried from the room leaving David and Susan alone.

  David leaned over pressing his lips to Susan’s and feeling her tiny gasp of surprise before she leaned in, wrapping her arms around his neck.

  The kiss was sweet, full of hope and promise and all of the things he wanted to say and didn’t know how. A single kiss. A new beginning. A promise of adventures to come.

  Epilogue

  Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

  John 15:13

  Susan turned in a slow circle looking down at the gorgeous gown wrapping her in swaths of satin and crepe. “It’s stunning, Gram,” she smiled looking at her grandmother.

  “Well of course it is,” Susan’s mother looked up dabbing at tears as she gazed at her only daughter. “You would make anything look beautiful.”

  October had arrived and the long hot days of summer had faded to the cool rich colors of fall. The mountains, bedecked in their autumn splendor were a dazzling back drop of gold and red to her peachy wedding.

  “You certainly didn’t waste any time once you found your young man,” Mrs. Holmes grinned. “You rather took your father and me by surprise. All that time at college and no MRS Degree. Now, here you are getting married.”

  “Mom,” Susan drawled on a giggle. “You love David, so does Daddy.”

  “I know, but a little more time might have been nice. What’s the hurry anyway?”

  “David finished his degree and is starting a new job in Athens. Besides what’s the point of waiting when you know someone is right for you?”

  Alana and her daughter-in-law swooped in hugging Susan. “We can’t argue with that, can we, Brittney?” Alana asked.

  “No, and I know God has brought the two of you together.” Again Susan’s mother dabbed at her eyes. “Come on, don’t dawdle,” she grinned thrusting a bouquet of pink and white roses into Susan’s hands. “Your father will have his tie off before you’re under the arches at this rate.”

  Together the three women laughed, opening the door and stepping out onto a perfectly manicured lawn. Susan had decided that she wanted her wedding to take place at her ancestral home under a bright Georgia sun, much to her grandmother’s delight.

  The entire house had been turned upside down, the large kitchen was now a caterer’s dream, and the backyard looked like something from a romance movie set.

  Pots of late fall flowers held a white paper path against the slightest breeze. Several of her friends, draped in modern dresses of the palest peach waited at the end of the line, where a tall white arch took center stage.

  Susan squeezed her father’s arm, her stomach full of butterflies. “I’m ready,” she whispered, looking up at the man who had given her his love and strength throughout the years.

  “I’m not,” Mr. Holmes smiled, patting her hand. “I am happy for you sweetheart,” he added, leaning down and kissing her cheek. “You picked a real keeper.”

  Susan’s light laugh echoed down the gossamer pathway lifting David’s eyes in her direction, and his brilliant smile outshone the sun. Even from the back of the line, she could see the love in his caramel colored eyes.

  Today her whole world was changing. The old would pass away, and a new life waited on the other side of this moment.

  Susan’s heart fluttered, taking in the handsome man in the black tuxedo, who only had eyes for her, as she fell into slow step with her father.

  The sun was warm on Susan’s bare shoulders as her father slipped her hand into David’s, and the world seemed to turn, shifting and righting itself as David squeezed her fingers in his.

  “Hi beautiful,” David whispered turning them both to face the preacher as a sense of peace engulfed Susan. She had given her whole being to God, and now, He had given her heart to the wonderful man at her side.

  Susan smiled as the preacher began to speak, soaking in the joyous wonder of the day. The truth of the vows, their solid promise sealing her heart to David as words were spoken and rings exchanged. She never could have believed that a few questions about the mysterious painted ponies could have led to this day. What a wondrous and marvelous world.

  The ceremony turned to the reception, a huge affair in the back yard that extended to the wide wraparound porch, graced with propane heaters, to ward of the chill for those more susceptible to cold.

  Susan giggled as David took her hand leading her out onto a small wooden dance floor that had been erected for the occasion.

  “I’m glad you’re happy,” he said, pulling her close as the music began.

  “I am.” Susan looked up, her blue eyes full of love and joy. “I’m also laughing because half the people here are your cousins.”

  David’s chuckle rolled through her as they began to dance. “I do have a lot of cousins.” The handsome man led her around the dance floor while others began to join them, moving to the music with light steps. “Is that your grandmother?” David looked over Susan’s shoulder, spinning her so that she could see.

  “Oh my goodness, Gram is dancing with Mr. Coatins.” Susan gaped.

  “They’re really cutting a rug too, if I remember my terminology right.” David chuckled again. “Do you think she likes him?”

  “David?” Susan laughed turning her attention back to him. “My grandmother likes everyone.”

  David twirled his beautiful wife as the music continued. He never would have believed this day would come. “She does have good taste,” he grinned again. “After all she loves me.”

  “How could anyone resist such charm,” Susan slipped closer looking up into David’s eyes. “I couldn’t.”

  David lowered his head as the world around him faded, leaving only the two of them on the earth as his lips met hers once more.

  The whoops and loud cheers of their guests pulled the couple back to reality, and David laughed again at the bright blush on Susan’s face.

  “Is it truly over?” Susan asked holding tight to David’s hand as they gazed down at the gravestone on the hill.

  “It is,” David replied tracing the newly added date on the headstone. “Grandpa can rest in peace now. I can’t believe that Clark confessed to everything even telling the police where he had buried Pap-pap.”

  “I think the guilt of all those years must have weighed heavily on him. He’s an old man with not long to live if the doctors are to be believed.”

  David nodded, wrapping an arm around his young bride. They had returned from a honeymoon in Virginia to find that the family had moved Harcourt’s remains to rest beside his beloved wife. “She never once doubted him. All those years of rumors and questions, and she never doubted once.”

  “She loved him,” Susan said turning to face the man she loved with all her heart. “It’s sad that they didn’t have all those years together.”

  “I know she missed him. She used to tell me stories about when they were young. I always hoped and prayed that I would find someone to love like that, and now, I have you
.”

  Susan felt the prickle of tears behind her eyes. “Just before we wed, Gram told me something. She said that from the time I was born she had prayed for my husband. She had prayed that God would send the perfect mate for me. Someone who would love, honor, and cherish me quirks and all. Now that I have you, I know her prayers have been answered.”

  David leaned in kissing his beautiful wife as tears of joy and sorrow mingled. He regretted all the years that he never had with his grandfather, but he wouldn’t trade the treasure in his arms for the whole world.

  “I’m glad we came to see this,” David said pulling Susan close. “Who knows some day when we have a little tiff, I can come out and ask Pap-pap for some advice.” David blew out a breath as Susan poked him in the stomach.