by Mary Coley
Mandy stepped to the central easel and removed the drape from the painting.
The artist’s viewpoint in the painting was higher and closer, the colors darker, but the subject was Jenna in a glass crypt, even more full of terror than in the gallery painting. The unfinished shapes surrounding her were unidentifiable.
“What the—” Lamar said.
“You didn’t tell me Chad was an artist.”
“Artist, painter, sculptor, welder. He’s sold a few things, but he’s apparently still obsessed with the Bergen girls. Who would want a painting of a woman suffocating and screaming?”
“Jenna saw a similar painting in Tulsa. That’s why she ran.”
Lamar looked closer at the half-finished work. “Was that painting signed?”
“Mike looked closely at the artist’s signature. He said it looked like ‘Cha Har,’ and he asked the store clerk who that was and how he could get in touch with him.”
“Cha Har…” Lamar took three steps over to the paintings covered with drapes. He uncovered the first one, a dark painting of a house fully engulfed in flames. The signature in the bottom right corner was Cha Har. “Chad Hardesty.”
Mandy shivered.
Lamar stooped to look at the next. Another fire, but in this one, a figure stood in the open door of a burning cabin, her hair ablaze.
“He’s painting scenes from that night.” Mandy rubbed the gooseflesh on her arms.
“Looks like it. I had no idea.”
“But you knew the combination to the lock.”
“It was a wild guess. His life was divided, before the fire and after the fire, when the Bergens died and the girls disappeared. I tried the date of the fire for the combination.”
Had Chad taken the painting to Tulsa, hoping to meet with Jenna at the funeral parlor? “I saw a glass crypt in a funeral parlor down the street from that art gallery. Is there a connection? Does anyone Chad knows have friends or relatives in Tulsa, in the embalming business?”
Lamar shrugged. “No one comes to mind.”
“I think Jenna was meeting someone at Paducka’s Funeral Parlor the day she found the painting. I found a note stuck in a book inviting her to come there. When I was snooping around, I met the owner. His name was Adam Hughes.”
“Adam! I have a second cousin by that name. He married Max and Chad’s sister. You say he’s a funeral director in Tulsa. That’s crazy.” Lamar shook his head.
“And another coincidence. Chad’s painting shows up in Tulsa and Jenna sees it when she’s on the way to meet someone at your cousin’s funeral business. I think she was meeting Chad earlier this week.”
“You’ll have to ask Chad about that.” Lamar put the painting down and covered it once again with the drape.
Back in the truck, Lamar turned on the country western station again. They were both silent as a George Strait hit played, both lost in thought during the drive down the twisting road toward town.
Lamar passed the turn to Jandafar Hills without stopping. “Thought I’d drive to Sparks, find out about your car and whether Chad’s been at work lately. Maybe we can figure out if Chad was in Tulsa earlier this week.”
“Will Max be mad at you for missing out on the fence repair? I need to get back in time to help Dale with the work like I promised.”
“Won’t take long. And Max will agree that checking on Chad is important. He cares about him a lot more than he lets on. Can’t tell you how many times he’s tried to get Chad to move in at Jandafar and work for him. But Chad won’t do it.”
“Did they argue about something Chad can’t get over?”
Lamar threw her a quick sideways glance. “They’re brothers. Ever heard of sibling rivalry? That’s all it is. That and too much testosterone.”
Mandy wanted to talk to Max about his brother. There had to be more to this than Lamar was telling her. Either he didn’t know it all or he was choosing not to tell her. Lamar was undeniably handsome, but she’d learned from her experience with Mike. Handsome didn’t mean honest.
~ Chapter 47 ~
Jenna
Jenna Wade stared up at the attic rafters. Daylight seeped in around the roof vents and fell in shafts into the dark space. Dust motes floated and swirled in an occasional draft of moving air.
It was time to act, but her body was immobilized. Coming here had seemed like the right thing to do, but now she was here she seemed incapable of action. She was in limbo, unable to move forward and unable to go back.
There probably wasn’t much to go back to. Sean wouldn’t want her as his wife once he knew. Mandy wouldn’t want her as a friend, either. She shouldn’t even try to salvage anything in Tulsa. She’d have to move on. It didn’t matter what happened here, didn’t matter what anyone said or did.
Her thoughts darted back toward the memories again. She’d fought them for so long. She didn’t want to fight them anymore. She was here, in the midst of it all, and the memories were too strong, too thick, too tied up with the smells of this place, the way the air shifted, the scent of the grass and the dust.
A sob broke free, and she slammed a hand over her mouth.
She hadn’t intended to get drunk that night. But the beer had fizzed in her mouth and buzzed her head, helping her to forget that she was a fake. People thought she was one way, but she wasn’t. She talked big. She’d learned the talk from the kids in the girls’ bathroom—the way they tossed the sex talk around, the way they giggled, the way their eyes rolled. She’d played the part. And everyone had believed.
She hadn’t intended to knock over the candle during the argument. But her father had grabbed her arm and she had whirled, hoping that Chad wouldn’t see how disgusting she was, how out of control. She’d been reaching for him, wanting to leave her father behind. Daddy’s little girl was no longer little or a girl. It was time to move on. Chad was so sweet. He loved her.
She hadn’t intended to kill her parents. She wouldn’t have left them there, in the burning cabin, but he had dragged her away. He had changed the course of her life. Because of him, she had lost everything, including her sister.
Was she alive? The painting made her believe so. Made her believe there was something she could still do to set things right. A way to get them to believe that it had all been a tragic accident.
Who would believe her now? She had been on the run for twenty years.
~ Chapter 48 ~
Mandy
“We got yer radiator fixed. Fixed the lamp in the busted headlight. You’ll have to have that grill work done somewhere else. But the thing’s drivable, although not too pretty. It’ll get you where you need to go.” The old mechanic winked at Mandy, nodded at Lamar.
“Thanks, Sparky.” Lamar patted the man’s shoulder.
“You seen that lowlife Chad out at Jandafar lately?” Sparky asked.
“Nope, I was going to ask you if he’d been in to work this week.”
“Not since Wednesday. He left not long after this lady’s car came in and haven’t seen hide nor hair of him since. TJ came in yesterday to help out so I could work on her car. Chad’s pushing his luck here, and TJ wants full time. I’ve half a mind to give it to him.”
“If I see Chad, I’ll tell him he better check with you ’cause TJ’s moving on him. You ready to go, Mandy?”
She paid Sparky for the repairs and retrieved her keys.
Lamar followed her back to Jandafar.
The two dogs greeted them, barking, as they drove through the gate. Lamar followed her to the duplex. He rolled down his window and called, “I’m going to find Max. He needs to know Chad is AWOL. Do you need me to follow you back into town to return that rental?”
“I’ll see if Dale is available first. Check with me later.”
Lamar rolled up his window, turned the truck around, and drove toward the narrow track that passed through the closest meadow. In the distance, horses grazed.
Mandy filled the dog bowl with kibble and set it and a water bowl on the cabin’s porch. The
dogs had raced away again.
Inside the main house, Dale was vacuuming. She turned the machine off as Mandy stepped in. “You still willing to help me ready the cabins?”
“Sure. Lamar took me into town. My SUV was ready. I drove it here, so I’ll need to return that rental later today. Do you need to run into town? What time will your guests be here?”
“Mid-afternoon. We can go to town after lunch. There’s always something I need. Can’t seem to remember everything. It’s these headaches.”
“I’ll return my rental to Champion’s and help you with your shopping list.”
Mandy grabbed the two empty plastic pails Dale had set by the door and the ring of keys that lay on the counter.
“Cabins 3 and 4. Dust and sweep, wipe the kitchen counters and clean the bathroom. By the time you’ve finished, lunch will be ready. Linens are in the storage room around the corner here, and so’s the to-do list and cleaning supplies. I’m sure there’s nothing on there you haven’t done before.”
Mandy walked down the hall to the supply room. She found the cleaning list attached to a clipboard and gathered the necessary supplies.
She took Moby with her, and in each cabin the dog found a spot for a nap and remained quiet as she worked.
If Mandy had felt any true interest in accepting Dale’s open position, it had died by the time she was a third of the way into preparing the second cabin for the weekend visitors.
She dusted, cleaned countertops, swept and mopped kitchens, dinettes, and bedroom floors, cleaned the bathrooms, stocked the towels and bathroom supplies, then made beds before she filled the guests’ welcome baskets with fruits, candies, and bags of 100-calorie snacks.
She checked all the light bulbs to be sure they were working and turned on the a/c systems to 74 degrees. The cabins weren’t that dirty, but the tasks were tedious. She wanted to be in town, talking to the police chief about Mike and to Mrs. Childers about her other roomers. She wanted to check every possible place where Jenna could be staying, and while she was looking, she’d look for Chad, too. If Jenna was Sharon, there had been chemistry between her and Chad years ago. Had it somehow been rekindled despite her marriage to Sean?
Mandy thought of the portrait she and Mike had seen in the gallery. Had seeing it brought Jenna here to Jandafar? Had she met with Chad, the artist, her former lover? Then, why had she been so frightened Tuesday afternoon?
Mandy thought back to the handsome funeral director. She scrubbed out the tub in the second cabin and ran the water to wash the suds away. She tried to picture the funeral director’s face but instead saw Lamar’s twinkling green eyes and his lips.
When the second cabin was clean and ready for its tenants, she carried her supply buckets down to her cabin and set them on the porch. She needed to wash her hands and face, reapply makeup, and pull her hair back smooth into a ponytail. She could only imagine what she must look like after hours of housecleaning.
Although she was sure she’d locked her cabin when she left in the predawn with Lamar, she found the cabin door unlocked.
She stepped carefully in; Moby padded along beside her. “Hello?”
Her carryall sat on the floor in the middle of the living room. Someone had pinned a note to it. She bent over to read the unfamiliar scrawl.
“I’m fine. Please go home.” The note was signed, “Jenna.”
She grabbed the note and ran for the ranch house, leaving Moby inside the cabin.
“It isn’t her writing,” Mandy explained to Dale. “But someone wants me to think she wrote it. And the cabin was unlocked. How did someone get in?”
“I honestly don’t know. I’ve been here all morning, getting the common areas cleaned, baking bread, cookies and muffins. Other than a couple of phone calls, I worked straight through the morning.” A worry line deepened on Dale’s forehead. “And believe me, I don’t like the thought that somebody is roaming around in the cabins.”
“There’s something else I haven’t mentioned. Someone was in the other side of the duplex last night. They tried to come through the connecting door. When I called out and Moby barked, they left. I was awake the rest of the night. They didn’t try to get in again.”
Dale pushed her dark hair off her forehead. “I should have made you stay up here last night—and I will tonight. I wish we didn’t have these customers coming in, badly as we need the income. Scares me that something might happen with them here. I sure don’t need a customer getting hurt. And that includes you, Mandy. Did you and Lamar find out anything at Chad’s about the Bergen girls?”
“He wasn’t at the house. Hasn’t been at work in two days, either.”
“Bet Lamar couldn’t wait to carry that news out to Max.”
“He did say that Max would want to know. He was headed out to tell him. Won’t they be in for lunch soon?”
Dale glanced at the clock. “Anytime now. And that’ll put Max in a bear of a mood, I’m afraid. If anybody can do that, it’s Chad.” Her voice was weary.
“Do you get along with Chad?” Mandy was sticking her nose in where it didn’t belong, but Chad must be the key to finding Jenna. And she’d stay here until she did, despite the note.
“What’s not to get along with? He keeps to himself. Doesn’t hurt anybody or cause problems. It’s my husband’s ranting and raving that’s unbearable. And it’s been going on for years. You’d think two grown men would learn to let go of something they can’t do anything about and can’t change.”
Dale bit her lip and turned away when Max and Lamar came through the door. Dale was right about Max’s mood. He didn’t speak to either of them but set about making his sandwich and choosing from a variety of salads and chips Dale had laid out on the serving counter. He scooted his chair up to the table, eyes focused outside the window on the tree-covered hills.
He’d eaten most of his lunch when Dale ventured to speak. “Mandy said Chad’s not home. You gonna go look for him?”
“Do I usually? What’s different this time?” He glared at his wife.
Dale glanced at Mandy and Lamar. “You know the answer to that. What’s different is that Mandy has a friend who’s missing who might be Molly, and she has another friend who came here to help her who was murdered.”
“Don’t mean either thing has anything to do with Chad.”
Dale looked at her husband, but he refused to acknowledge her. Finally, she said, “Mandy and I are going into town. She’s gonna take her rental back to Doug and help me gather supplies for the weekend. Cabins 3 and 4 are booked for tonight and Saturday night. We’ll do a barbecue tomorrow evening. You want ribs or steak?”
Before the men left, Mandy held Lamar to one side while Max and Dale talked. She showed him the note she’d found in her cabin.
“You’re sure this isn’t Jenna’s writing?” Lamar asked.
“I’m sure of it. I’m not going anywhere, no matter what this note says. I’m not going back to Tulsa without talking to her face to face.”
Lamar nodded. “I didn’t think you’d fold up camp and go. Come by the stable when you and Dale get back from town. I’ll be brushing the horses, getting them ready in case the guests want to take a sunset ride after dinner. Maybe I can get Max to tell me more about Chad, and these paintings of his while we’re working this afternoon.”
“You stay in the cabin, Moby. And don’t let anyone in,” Mandy instructed the dog after lunch. She had looked for more evidence that someone had been in the cabin earlier but found nothing.
She drove the rental into town, following close behind Dale’s SUV. They returned her rental, then stopped at the grocery. After buying food for the weekend, Dale drove to the police station.
“Sheriff Mark in?” Dale asked the receptionist.
“He’s over at Mrs. Childers.”
“If he calls in, would you tell him I’m on my way and that Mandy’s with me and needs to see him?”
When they arrived at the boarding house, Mandy hopped out before Dale had brought the
SUV to a complete stop. If Jenna was here, she had to see her, had to tell her about the pictures Mike had been taking before the sheriff had a chance to spring them on her.
In the parlor, a thin, dark-haired woman in her forties sat on the sofa in the living room, talking to the sheriff, while Mrs. Childers hovered in the entry. The woman’s face bore no trace of makeup, and she wore khaki shorts, a T-shirt and hiking boots. Across from the woman a dark-haired man sat hunched over, hands resting on his knees, his back to Mandy.
The woman on the sofa wasn’t Jenna. Disappointed, Mandy entered the room. The man straightened and turned toward her.
It was Sean Wade.
~ Chapter 49 ~
Sean
“My God, Mandy! You’re here. Have you seen Jenna?” He rushed across the room and gripped her shoulders. He eased his grip when she winced. She looked exhausted.
“I haven’t seen her. I’m staying out at Jandafar, where her parents died.”
Sean frowned. His mouth opened and closed. He searched for the right words. “I was there last night, looking for her. Are you staying in that duplex?”
“I heard you. I called out. When did you learn about Jandafar?”
“A dog barked, and I didn’t recognize your voice. I’m sorry I scared you. Jenna has to be out there.” He pondered how much to tell her. Maybe she already knew it all.
“I hate to interrupt this interesting reunion,” the sheriff began, “but I was trying to get a clear picture of where Mr. Wade and Miss Bean were at the time Mike McNally was murdered last night. Both were off the property, but neither have any witnesses to corroborate their whereabouts.”
