Heat Lightning

by Michaela Thompson

  He called again, “Anybody home?” He didn’t expect an answer and he didn’t get one. The door was latched but he put his shoulder to it and got it open in a couple of tries. Inside there was just one room, cobwebs everywhere, a couple of cots with lumpy stained mattresses, a wooden kitchen counter with a hand pump and a rust-stained sink.

  A cardboard box on the counter held matches, a can opener, an assortment of plastic eating utensils, a hammer and some rusty nails. In a cupboard he found a selection of canned goods— pork and beans, spaghetti, lima beans, creamed corn. The cans looked old, but Leo wasn’t going to check any expiration dates. He left his backpack on the table and went out to move his boat around to the back, where it would be less visible. When he returned, he sat on one of the cots and gazed around in the gathering darkness. He had found his next hiding place.

  – 35 –

  “Daddy?” Vickie Ann’s hand was slippery on the phone receiver. The word was already out about Daddy Jim, and the house was full of people commiserating and bringing food. The preacher was sitting in the living room waiting to lead a prayer. Vickie Ann had excused herself, saying she was going to the bathroom, but she’d have only a minute before she had to go back.

  “I’m here,” Coby said.

  Vickie Ann felt sobs welling up. “Daddy, remember I told you that Daddy Jim knocked me out and ran off?”

  “Sure I do.”

  “Well, Patsy found him out at Luton’s Landing. He drowned in the canal!”

  “Naw,” said Coby. “How do they think that happened?”

  “Nobody knows. Patsy says he must’ve walked out on the dock and lost his balance and fell in. Patsy is all to pieces!”

  “Sugar, that is awful,” Coby said. “I can tell you’re real upset.”

  “I am, Daddy! I wish Daddy Jim hadn’t hit me like he did. But I didn’t know he was going to die!”

  “It’s too bad he took a notion to run off,” Coby said. “If he’d stayed at home, this wouldn’t have happened.”

  “No, it wouldn’t. I’d be fixing us some supper right now, and he’d be out there watching his tv shows.” Vickie Ann sniffled and blotted her eyes.

  “But he hit you and ran off, and now he’s dead, right? So I hate to say this, but old Jim kind of brought the whole thing on himself, if you see what I mean.”

  “I do see what you mean,” Vickie Ann said. “He shouldn’t have hit me. There was no call for that.”

  “Not a bit.” Coby cleared his throat. “Vickie Ann? Where do we stand on that three hundred dollars you were going to get out of the bank for me?”

  Vickie Ann put a hand to her forehead. “Oh my gosh! I’d forgotten all about it!”

  “I thought maybe you had. That why I’m asking.”

  “Oh mercy, I’m going to have a house full of people here tomorrow, too! The preacher is here right now—”

  “I wouldn’t bring it up if it wasn’t important, baby.”

  Vickie Ann closed her eyes, took a breath, and opened them again. “I’ll get it,” she said. “I’ll get it tomorrow.”

  “That’s my girl.”

  “But there’s going to be people here, and—”

  “All right. Just leave it in the garage. You can do that, can’t you? Put it in the top drawer of that old sewing machine. You’ll figure it out, won’t you?”

  “Yes. I will. Daddy?”

  “What?”

  “Daddy, you didn’t—”

  “I didn’t what, girl?” Coby’s voice was guarded.

  “You didn’t see Daddy Jim, did you? At the Landing?” Vickie Ann blurted.

  “God dang it!” Coby erupted. “No, I sure to God did not! What’s the matter with you, asking me that?”

  “I just wanted to be sure.”

  “Well, are you sure now?”

  “Yes sir, I’m sure. And I was wondering—” Vickie Ann’s voice trailed off.

  “Wondering what else?”

  Vickie Ann waited for another breath or two. “I thought maybe I could come and live with you.”

  “Whoa now, Vickie Ann. That’s something we’d have to think about.”

  “But listen! Daddy Jim left everything to me. So we can set up our business together, like you said.”

  There was a silence. Then Coby said, “That’s quite an idea you got, Vickie. But for right now let’s start with the three hundred dollars, all right?”

  “All right.”

  They said good-bye. Vickie Ann couldn’t stop shaking. She wiped the damp phone receiver with the tail of her blouse, straightened her shoulders, and went to the living room to pray for Daddy Jim.

  – 36 –

  Aaron’s place was a ranch-style house on a street of ranch-style homes with two-car garages, neat lawns, flower beds by the front door. Clara, following him in her car, thought it looked settled and respectable, an area where the neighbors and the neighbors’ children knew one another. She pulled up beside Aaron’s car in the garage and Aaron opened her door. He was carrying the bag of burgers and fries he had picked up at the Blue Jay Café. “This is it,” he said.

  He led her up a walkway to the front door and ushered her into the living room. The heavy swagged curtains and dark red velvet furniture were more formal than she would’ve expected. There were china figurines in a glass case, a cabinet containing a silver coffee service, another cabinet filled with rows of dolls in elaborate gowns. Waving a hand to encompass it all, Aaron said, “This stuff belongs to Stacey, my ex-wife. I’ve asked her if she wants it or what I should do with it, but she doesn’t seem interested. She lives up in Michigan now.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t have room,” Clara said.

  “Well, neither do I,” he said with a tinge of annoyance.

  He motioned to an adjoining dining room where the table was strewn with what looked like several days’ accumulation of mail, along with scattered magazines and newspapers. “You don’t mind eating in the kitchen, do you?”

  “Not at all.”

  She followed him into the kitchen, where there was a breakfast nook. Aaron was a pretty good housekeeper, she noticed. There were no dirty dishes in the sink, and the counter tops were clean.

  Aaron set out plates, napkins, and eating utensils. He took a couple of tall mugs from a cabinet. “Is beer OK?”

  “Sure. Fine.” Considering what an awful day it had been, Clara had not thought she’d be hungry. She was wrong. She was ravenous, and the burger and fries tasted better than anything she’d eaten in months. Aaron seemed to be feeling the same, and they ate steadily and in silence until they were on their second beers and only a few fries were left in the salty bottom of the cardboard container.

  “Want some dessert? I’ve got ice cream,” Aaron said.

  “I couldn’t.”

  “Aw, come on. It’s chocolate.” He got up and served two dishes of ice cream, and Clara was happy to eat that, too.

  Aaron sighed and pushed his empty dish away. “What a day,” he said. He looked at Clara. “It was good to have you along, Clara. I mean that.”

  “I think it was best for both of us,” Clara said. She went on, “I’m going back to Luna Bay tomorrow, though. The break-in is one thing too much for me. I’m not at all sure it was just vandals, or addicts looking for pills. There’s something disturbing going on, and I believe it’s something I started when I came here.”

  “What kind of place is St. Elmo, then?” Aaron said. “You were within your rights to come here, you had a right to ask questions. You didn’t break any laws.”

  She gave him a tired smile. “Surely you remember that you warned me against it yourself. You do remember, don’t you?”

  “Of course I do,” Aaron said. “I didn’t understand it, I thought it was a bad idea, but that doesn’t mean you had no right to do it. I’m not in the business of intimidating people. That’s not what I went into law enforcement for.”

  “Why did you? What was the attraction?”

  Aaron shrugged. “Sometimes it�
�s hard to remember,” he said. “Some of it had to do with my father being the Sheriff, and me being a directionless kid. There was pressure from him to follow in his footsteps. I wouldn’t say law enforcement came natural to me, to tell you the truth. I did have this notion of helping people. And I more or less put one foot in front of the other after that. I’m not ashamed. Don’t get me wrong. I’m going to retire soon, and then— well, I don’t know. But let’s just say I’m going to retire soon and I’m not ashamed of the work I’ve done.”

  “It’s good that you can say that.”

  “Yes. I guess it is.”

  As they put the dishes in the dishwasher, Clara couldn’t help thinking how different in every way Aaron was from Ronan. Aaron’s deliberate, calm demeanor was the opposite of Ronan’s unpredictability. What would Clara have thought of Aaron when she was younger? That he was boring, uninteresting. A plodder. His kindness would have escaped her notice.

  Aaron brought Clara’s suitcase in from her car and showed her the guest room and the bathroom in the hall. At the guest room door Clara said, “Aaron, thank you for everything. I’m sorry about your mother. I understand why she was proud of you.”

  His eyes pinkened, and he bobbed his head in acknowledgment. On impulse, Clara put her arms around him. When he hugged her in return, she felt his lips brush the top of her head.

  The next morning, she got up early and left for Luna Bay.

  – 37 –

  “Vickie Ann’s head hurt. I told her to stay home and I’d drive around and try to find Jim,” Patsy Orr said. “I went all over town and never saw him. Then I got to thinking maybe somebody gave him a ride out to Luton’s Landing. He was always talking about Luton’s Landing, and how he saw Coby there the day Alice was killed.”

  Patsy was tremulous and emotional, twisting her hands in her lap. She wore a skirt printed with poodles, and there was a poodle pin at the neck of her blouse. She was sitting across from Aaron in his office, his first appointment of the day. Aaron had read the reports of Jim Tuttle’s drowning, but he wanted to hear Patsy’s story for himself. “Why would anybody give Jim a ride to Luton’s Landing?” he said.

  Patsy shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe he told somebody he lived out there.” She blew her nose. “I can’t believe this has happened,” she said, her voice breaking.

  “So you just had a notion he was out there and thought you’d check?”

  She blew her nose again. “I thought maybe he managed to get out there somehow. He could be determined, when he got an idea in his head. And he was very agitated about Alice’s murder these days.”

  Aaron nodded grimly.

  “So—” Patsy drew an unsteady breath— “I drove up and parked in that vacant lot and walked down to the canal. I didn’t even see him at first, floating—” Patsy sobbed briefly and went on, “and then I saw him, not moving. I thought he must be dead but I couldn’t believe it. He was too far out for me to reach him. I didn’t know what to do, so I ran to a trailer back in the woods and got a man to come help.”

  Aaron was chagrined and disgusted. He had had no idea that Jim Tuttle had a gun and that Vickie Ann wore the cabinet key around her neck. “You should’ve called the police in the first place,” he said.

  “Vickie Ann didn’t want to! She didn’t want anybody to know!”

  “You should’ve called anyway.”

  “I understand that now!” Patsy’s face was scarlet. “I thought I could find him and bring him back home. I thought everything would be all right!”

  Aaron said, “So you went to a trailer and got a man to help.”

  “There was a trailer back in the woods. He came to the door and he went to the canal with me.”

  “And did he help?”

  Patsy nodded. “He got an oar and guided Jim’s body to the dock. He pulled it to shore and up on the bank.”

  “Then what?”

  “Jim was dead. We could see he was dead. So the man said he didn’t have a phone so I’d better report this. And that’s what I did.”

  “Who was the man? Did he wait there with you?”

  “No.” Patsy frowned. “I made the call, and he said— I think he said he’d left his stove on. And— now I remember— he said he’d be right back, and he left.”

  “Did he come back?”

  “No. No he didn’t. The ambulance came.”

  Aaron thought this was odd. “What was the man’s name?”

  “I don’t know. He never told me.” Patsy’s eyes were large behind the lenses of her glasses. “It’s strange, now that I think of it.”

  “Yes. It is,” Aaron said. “Where was this trailer again?”

  Patsy gave him vague directions, and Aaron said, “That’s all for now, Patsy. You can go.”

  Patsy gathered her things, and Aaron stood to see her out. At the door, she turned and said, “If Clara Trent hadn’t come to town— if she hadn’t gotten things all stirred up—”

  Aaron shook his head. “I’m not listening to that. What happened had nothing to do with Clara Trent. And if you want to blame somebody, blame me. I’m the one who closed the murder case. That’s what got Jim riled up.”

  “Well, if she hadn’t come—”

  “Good-bye, Patsy.”

  Aaron closed the door and sat behind his desk again. Patsy mentioning Clara had touched a sore spot. Aaron wished that Clara hadn’t left town. He wished he could have a beer with her and talk about this. He didn’t blame her for wanting to get out of the Villas, but she had left exactly at the time she might have been getting somewhere.

  Aaron blinked. What did he mean, telling himself Clara might’ve been getting somewhere? He had wanted her to leave town and leave the case alone, so what was his problem?

  One answer was that his mother had died yesterday and he wasn’t thinking straight. Now he’d better concentrate on what he needed to do, which was go to Luton’s Landing and find a nameless man who lived in a trailer. He went to the parking lot in the morning heat, got in his car, and started for Luton’s Landing.

  Standing on the edge of the canal, he tried to imagine what Patsy had seen. She had approached from the same direction he had, since Aaron had parked in the same grassy lot. But how had Jim gotten here? He couldn’t have walked from the highway. He must have gotten a ride all the way down the dirt road to the landing. Aaron surveyed the ground, which was churned up with footprints.

  He moved closer and stood at the dock. Patsy came and parked, she walked to where Aaron was standing now, and she saw Jim’s body in the water. At that point she took off through the woods to find help.

  Aaron scanned the undergrowth and spotted a point where branches were broken. Maybe that was the way Patsy went, or the way she and the mystery man came back. As he looked more closely, he saw broken branches and trampled weeds leading through the woods. Mosquitoes buzzed in his ears as he followed the makeshift track. In five minutes or so, he had found the trailer.

  It sat in a tangle of vines and palmettos. Aaron stepped up to the front door. He knocked, then turned the knob. The door opened.

  He pushed the door open and stuck his head inside. He inspected briefly and discovered that nobody was there. Still, the place didn’t look uninhabited. He found food in the cabinets, sheets on the bed. Maybe the man had gone somewhere and would be back. But why had he left yesterday, after helping Patsy with Jim’s body? Aaron needed to know more.

  As Aaron saw it, he had two choices. He could stay at the trailer and wait for the occupant to show up— if he ever did— or he could ask around. He decided to ask around.

  He returned to his car and drove down the dirt track to the paved road leading to the highway. He took the turn, cruised past the Villas, and pulled up in the parking lot at Margene’s MiniMart.

  He found Margene’s daughter Jasmine behind the counter. Jasmine had blonde hair streaked liberally with raspberry pink and tattoos up and down both arms. Aaron had known her since she was a baby. She smiled when she saw him and said,
“Hey, Aaron.”

  “Miss Jasmine,” Aaron said. “Everything all right?”

  “Not too bad. What can I do for you?”

  “I’m going to get a Coke and some peanuts.”

  After Aaron made his purchases he said, “Maybe you can help me. I’m looking for a man that lives in a trailer out near Luton’s Landing.”

  He noticed a change in Jasmine’s face as she said, “Has he done something wrong?”

  “Not that I’m aware of. I just need to talk to him. Do you know him?”

  Jasmine grimaced. “You came to the right place.”

  “No fooling.”

  She nodded. “The guy that lives out there in the woods? In a trailer?”

  “That’s him.”

  Jasmine leaned toward him over the counter. “He’s the night clerk here. Or let me put it this way. He used to be the night clerk.”

  “What happened?”

  “He didn’t show up for his shift last night, the jerk. I was supposed to go to the softball game over in Westpoint. I couldn’t get anybody to work in his place, so it ended up I couldn’t go. He left me flat. No phone call, no nothing. Does that help you at all?”

  “It might,” Aaron said. “What’s his name?”

  “His name is Leo Swain,” Jasmine said. “If you find him, tell him from my mama and me that his ass is fired.”

  – 38 –

  Vickie Ann had had a busy morning. There had been so many phone calls, so many offers of help and sympathy that she hadn’t yet gone to the bank to get the money for Coby. Any minute, people would be showing up once again to sit with her and comfort her about losing Daddy Jim. Vickie Ann knew she had to be at home to greet them, let them in, and thank them for their kindness.

  Vickie Ann was grateful, she truly was, but she didn’t want to think about what would happen if she didn’t get Coby’s three hundred dollars and put it in the sewing machine in the garage. He would never understand why she couldn’t do it. He might be so disgusted he’d go away, and she’d never see him again. Their business deal would be off. All because people wanted to come to her house, bring food, and hold her hand and talk about Daddy Jim.