Secondhand Sister

by Rhett DeVane

  Her brother shuffled into the living room, a cup of coffee in hand. Leigh appeared behind him with Tank propped on her hip.

  “You’re getting too heavy for your mama to tote.” Leigh put the toddler down. He dug into a basket of toy trains and trucks.

  “What in the world has you so fired up?” Bobby asked. “Hardly ever see you this alive before ten.”

  Hattie waved the envelope in the air. “I’m pretty sure this is the test results.”

  Bobby made a circular motion with one hand. “Don’t just stand there, open the dadgum thing. We can settle this once and for all.”

  “I can’t.” She handed the letter to him. “You do it.”

  Bobby stared at the envelope in his hand as if it contained a viper. “I don’t know—”

  Leigh snatched the letter. “Oh for heaven’s sake. I’ll open it.” She peeled back the glued flap and unfolded the paper.

  “What?” Hattie jiggled from one foot to the other. “What does it say?”

  Leigh looked first at Hattie, then at Bobby. “The DNA proves a positive sibling match with Mary-Esther Sloat. Looks like you two have a sister.”

  “I knew it!” Hattie whooped and bear-hugged both of them then clasped her hands together. “Wait until Jake and Elvina hear. I have to run tell Holston!” She jerked. “I have to let Mary-Esther know. Jeez, wish she had a phone. Why doesn’t she have a stupid phone? I have to find her right now!” She paused, folded the letter and slipped it back into the envelope. “No, maybe not. I should let myself settle for a day. Yeah, that’s a plan.”

  “All of this, and you’re not going to jump in the car and head up there?” Leigh asked.

  “Jake says I have a way of overwhelming people when I’m emotional. Mary-Esther and I have only begun to know each other. I’ll find her when I go into town to the grocery store.” Hattie snapped her fingers. “I’ll work in the flowerbeds today. That’ll keep me from blasting off.”

  Bobby blew out a breath and ran his fingers through his hair.

  Hattie noted the way his temples pulsed. Guess he was pretty excited too. Been a while since she’d seen him clench his teeth like that.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Jake Witherspoon slowed the Dragonfly Florist’s delivery truck. He inched past the Herring residence. A large transport truck hunkered in the driveway with its back hatch open. He fumbled for the cell phone and jabbed a speed dial entry.

  “Elvina?” he asked.

  “What are you up to, this late in the evening?”

  “Had to deliver flowers to a memorial service in Sneads. How are you?”

  “On the upswing,” Elvina said. “Can’t talk as much as I’d like yet without coughing, but my fever broke yesterday and my throat no longer feels like it’s been scoured with steel wool. Reckon I’m going to live.”

  “That’s good, because I have something to tell you. There’s a moving van pulled up beside the Herrings’. Bet you good money those charlatans from Chipley are back. I wonder if Mary-Esther knows about it.”

  “Where are you now?”

  “On the way back to the shop. Why?”

  “Come get me. I need you to take me to the Herrings’. I don’t have time to explain. Step on it!”

  By the time Jake pulled to Elvina’s side door, the old woman had made her way down the wooden ramp, a manila envelope clasped in her free hand. Jake shoved the shift lever into park and jumped out to hold the door open for her.

  “You sure you should be out? You’ll relapse, ’Vina. Tell me what you need and I’ll take care of it.”

  “You can’t do this, but you can stand behind me when I do.” Elvina motioned frantically. “Now put this damn thing in gear and get me to that house!”

  When they reached the Herrings’, they met a burly man hauling a chest of drawers out the side door.

  “Save yourself the trouble of putting that on your truck, buddy. Take it right back to where you got it from,” Elvina ordered. “You’re not taking anything from this property.”

  “Not what I’ve been told, lady.” He steadied the loaded dolly.

  “I’ll take this cane and beat you to within an inch of your life if you defy me.”

  Jake stared at Elvina, his mouth agape.

  The mover set the chest down with a thud. “I don’t get paid enough to put up with any crap. Take it up with Mrs. Watson.”

  Elvina and Jake entered through the back door. Sue Ellen Watson stood at the kitchen counter, swaddling crystal goblets in bubble wrap. Her husband crouched beside a large cardboard box, packing the protected glassware in careful rows.

  “Sure didn’t take the circling vultures long to land, now did it?” Elvina asked.

  Jake hesitated in the doorway behind her, watching the delicious drama unfold.

  Jonathan rose. “Now, that’s not a very Christian-like way to speak.”

  “I wouldn’t bring the Lord into this,” Elvina fired back. “He wouldn’t touch this with a ten-foot angel wing.”

  Sue Ellen stepped forward. “We simply don’t have time for whatever it is you seem to be upset about, old woman. Leave. Now.”

  Elvina’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t think I will. But you will.”

  “My, my . . . Gloves off,” Jake said in a low voice. “No pound cake and niceties this time around.”

  “Oh really? By whose authority?” Sue Ellen spat out the words. “We have every right to be here. My husband and I own this house and everything in it.” Sue Ellen spread her arms, then hugged them to her chest.

  An evil smile spread across Elvina’s lips. “Where is Mary-Esther?”

  “That white trash?” Sue Ellen snorted. “We told her to move along. She left out of here like a scalded dog. And I’m certain she took dear Rose’s dolls with her. As soon as we finish packing, we plan to stop by the police department and report the theft.”

  “You threw her out?” Elvina asked. “Where did she go?”

  “How should I know?” Sue Ellen curled her upper lip. “Good riddance to bad rubbish. Jonathan and I have to clean out that apartment, and she would’ve been in our way. She probably carted off the furniture too.”

  Jonathan kept mute, but his porcine eyes watched the action as if it was a prizefight.

  Elvina stepped forward. Jake edged behind.

  “I’m the one who’s going to call the law if you don’t leave here immediately.” Elvina shook the brown envelope in Sue Ellen and Jonathan’s direction. “I do so love to be the bearer of your bad news. Rose changed her will and the trust right after your last little visit. You are no longer the trustees. You get nothing. Nada. Big zippy-dee-doo-dah-day, nothing!”

  Sue Ellen snatched the envelope from Elvina’s hand and ripped the seal. Her painted lips moved as she read the enclosed paper. “This can’t be.” Her gaze shifted from Elvina to her husband. “Jonathan?” Her screechy soprano upped the tension. Jake jiggled his cane, tap! tap! on the linoleum.

  Jonathan took the document. He read. He looked up. “This has to be some kind of hoax. My cousin Eustis set up that trust.”

  “As I told you once before,” Elvina said, “Rose was her husband’s sole heir. It was within her legal rights to write a will and set up a new trust and trustee. Which is exactly what she did. She called me, and I drove her to Tallahassee to a lawyer Hattie recommended.”

  Sue Ellen stomped one heel. “Jonathan?”

  “I want a copy of this.” Jonathan shoved the papers back toward Elvina. “I plan to pursue this. Believe you, me.”

  “I will be happy to have Rose’s attorney speak with you,” Elvina said with the same sugary sarcasm Jake had heard her use with phone telemarketers and rude salespeople. “Matter of fact, I picked up an extra one of these.” She pulled a business card from her purse and held it out. “Told her you might be calling. Phone her now if you wish. She’s a very nice lady.”

  Sue Ellen snatched the card. “What do you expect us to do? We’ve already packed all of this!”

 
“I’ll call the police before that van moves even two feet from the driveway if you try to leave with so much as a piece of toilet paper. Have your men put everything back.”

  Sue Ellen’s pencil-thin eyebrows shot up. “That will cost us a fortune.”

  Elvina crossed her arms in front of her chest. “You’d best get them started, and pull out your checkbook. I’m not leaving here until I’m satisfied nothing is missing and you hand me the keys you obviously removed from beneath Rose’s hidey hole on the porch.”

  Jake and Elvina stepped outside.

  “You can go on to the shop, Jake. I’ll be all right here. As soon as they talk to Claire, they’ll know they’ve been kicked to the curb. I can have those men unpack an easy chair so I can prop my foot up while I watch over things.”

  “And miss this? I’m not going anywhere. This scene will go down in the annals of Chattahoochee history.” Jake tapped his phone. “I’ll call Jolene. She can take care of things at the shop.”

  “Suit yourself.” Elvina turned to step back inside.

  Jake waved both hands. “Wait, ’Vina. You can’t keep me in suspense. Who’s the heir? You?”

  Elvina frowned. “Don’t be absurd. Why would Rose Herring leave everything to me? I don’t have need of another house, and I’m beyond wanting a pot load of possessions at my age.”

  “Who then? Tell, tell, tell!”

  Elvina grinned and winked. “Mary-Esther. That’s who. And we must find that gal, pronto.”

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Jake pulled the delivery van in front of the farmhouse on The Hill and shut off the engine. He took a moment to sit, watching the cardinals and wrens visit the birdfeeders beside the porch. Could set a watch by those creatures, nine a.m. and six p.m. He knew that fact from when he had lived on The Hill with Hattie, before both of them were happily connected to their respective life partners.

  He got out, walked to the front door, and girded the strength and words to tell his best friend that her sister had disappeared from her life, again. He knocked in their code—shave and a haircut, two bits—five staccato raps, a pause, two short taps. No real need to knock, since he was family by love. He did it to make her smile.

  “C’mon in!” Hattie’s voice called from within.

  Jake entered. His best friend in the whole wide world, heck the universe, stood by the sink, sipping from a tall mug. And wearing a tiny smile. Bingo. How he hated to take away that smile. He stopped by the playpen and kissed Sarah Chuntian on the cheek.

  The nature of friendship baffled Jake Witherspoon. Few of his New York buddies had kept in touch over the years since his move back to the Deep South. Many had shared the deaths of friends and lovers whose bodies suffered the ravages of impaired immune systems. The bonds forged in the fires of intense emotion should’ve survived distance and time. But they had not.

  Only one person remained a constant in Jake’s life: Hattie. Since childhood, the two clung together like soul twins, sharing secrets, weaving dreams, and healing wounds. Jake substituted for the sister Hattie never had. Sex and maleness had nothing to do with it. The two friends—one button-down collar straight, and one, feather-boa gay—had so much tangled karma, they could never separate.

  “Sister-girl, you really should join some kind of Java-junkie support group. I’m surprised you don’t mainline the stuff.”

  “It’s only my second cup, and this one’s decaf. Don’t act like I’m stealing from my grandmother to support a crack habit.” She took a loud slurp. “To what do I owe the pleasure? Oh, don’t tell me, someone ordered flowers for me.”

  “Like I need a reason to visit?” Jake toddled past, rummaged in the refrigerator, and pulled out a diet soda. “I can’t pop by and see my best love? Since your shoulder has been on the fritz, I haven’t seen your smiling puss at the shop as much as usual.”

  “I could easily turn into a hermit. Hopefully, if my shoulder continues to improve, I can start back a little bit in a couple of weeks.” Hattie regarded him with narrowed eyes. “You’re always welcome out here on The Hill. You know that. You don’t usually come out this early in the day.” She topped off her mug. “Glad you stopped by, whatever the reason. I was going to come find you before Sarah and I went to the grocery store. I have huge news. And it’s way too big for telling over the silly phone.”

  Jake settled onto one of the bar stools next to the kitchen counter. “I’m all ears.” His report could wait, and maybe, be cushioned by whatever Hattie had to share.

  Hattie rummaged in a basket of opened mail and handed him a torn envelope.

  “What? Your letter from the IRS stating you overlooked a huge allowable deduction and they’re sending you a check? When can we go shopping?”

  She pointed. “Read.”

  Jake pulled out the folded sheet. He looked up. “It’s official then.”

  “Yes!” Hattie clasped her hands together. “Mary-Esther is my sister. Can you believe it? I’m going to stop by the Homeplace soon as I get to town. Tell her this gurr-reat news.”

  Jake closed his eyes. The second before spoken truths drew blood seemed worse than the aftermath. “Sister-girl, I have something to tell you. Mary-Esther is gone.”

  “What do you mean, gone?” Her brows crimped together. “I just saw her. She came out and we had the most wonderful afternoon.”

  Jake related the scene at the Herrings’.

  “They ran her off?”

  Jake nodded. “Seems that way. She wasn’t at her apartment, and it looked like she’d left in a hurry.”

  Hattie sank onto the barstool next to his. “No, Jakey. That can’t be so. She told me she liked it here.”

  “I rode up to the lake to make sure she wasn’t camping like she did when she first came. One guy said he had seen a van pull in, but he heard it crank up before dawn.”

  “I refuse to believe she would just up and leave.”

  “Do you know her well enough to say for sure, Sister-girl? Or is it wishful thinking?”

  Hattie jumped up, riffled in a drawer, and pulled out a thin local phonebook. “I bet she’s with that deputy guy from Quincy. Has to be it. Where else would she go?”

  Jake considered. “A possibility. Know his name?”

  “Jerry Blount. She talked about him. Sounds like it was getting serious, maybe.”

  “It’s a good place to start. If he doesn’t know, at least he has the resources to locate her. It’s important in more ways than one.”

  Hattie followed a fine line of print with a finger and punched a set of numbers into the handset.

  “Mary-Esther is the sole heir for the Herring estate, Hattie.”

  Hattie’s mouth hung open. “You’re kidding me.”

  “Sister-girl, I’m serious as a drag queen in Army fatigues.”

  *

  Sergeant Jerry Blount stepped into the Homeplace Restaurant, scanned the room, and walked to a booth where Hattie, Jake, and Elvina waited. The expressions on their faces pumped his heartrate higher.

  “I came as soon as I could.” Jerry sat down. “Any ideas on where she might have gone?”

  Hattie twisted a paper napkin in her hands. “We hoped you knew.”

  “She gave no indication of leaving town last time I saw her.” Jerry’s thoughts skipped to the instant his lips had touched Mary-Esther’s.

  “We have the Watsons to thank for this mess,” Elvina said. “The gall of those people! Coming over here and marching in like they owned the place. What kind of decent people would pitch someone into the street without proper warning?”

  Jake patted Elvina’s wrinkled hand. “Water under the bridge, ’Vina. We need to brainstorm here.”

  “Jake’s right,” Jerry said. “Has anyone asked Mr. Bill if he’s heard from Mary-Esther?”

  “We didn’t even think of that.” Elvina tapped her temple. “Goes to show you how a person’s mind shuts down when it’s rattled.”

  Julie appeared beside the table carrying a coffee carafe. “Hi Jerry.
Coffee?”

  “I could use a cup. Thank you.”

  Jerry emptied a sugar and a little cream into the steaming cup and asked, “Julie, have you talked to Mary-Esther?”

  “Why do you think I look like a semi ran over me?” Julie topped off the other coffee mugs. “More hot water, Elvina?”

  Elvina shook her head.

  “She called me early yesterday morning,” Julie continued, “said she was leaving town. We’re short two people. One of the other servers is out with the flu.”

  “At least we know she bothered to contact someone,” Elvina commented.

  “What did she say, exactly?” Jerry asked.

  Julie hesitated. “Let’s see . . . something about her grandma’s house and having to take care of things.”

  “So she’s coming back, then?” Hattie leaned forward.

  “I kind of assumed that.” Julie tapped her pencil on her chin. “Come to think of it, she didn’t commit one way or the other.”

  “You haven’t heard about what happened?” Elvina asked.

  “Hang on a sec.” Julie checked on her other diner, refilled his mug, then returned and pulled up a chair at the end of their booth.

  Elvina said, “Those carpet-baggers from Chipley threw her out.”

  Julie held one arm akimbo. “Get outta here!”

  “Sure enough. Guess she felt she had no place to go.” Elvina snorted. “Little does she know, but she has plenty of people in this town who gladly would’ve taken her in. I can’t fathom why she didn’t ask.”

  Julie held her hand to her chest. “Mary-Esther could’ve camped out on my couch for a couple of days.”

  “Bobby and I both have extra bedrooms,” Hattie said. “No sister of ours would have to sleep on the streets.”

  Julie, Jerry, and Elvina stared at Hattie.

  “Sister?” Elvina asked.

  Hattie bobbed her head up and down. “I got the DNA report. Mary-Esther Sloat is our biological sister.”

  Elvina cut her eyes at Jake. “Did you know this?”

  “Sorry, ’Vina. Hattie told me. Didn’t think it was my news to share, not until Hattie had a chance to tell Mary-Esther.”