Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Summer
I was a bundle of nerves as I drove to Rachel’s house. Somehow, I was going to have to figure out a way to convince this woman to tell me the truth, and I wasn’t sure I was capable of the task. If I screwed it up, I might screw it up for good.
“You’re gonna do fine,” Dixie said as I turned onto Rachel’s property.
My stomach tumbled. “What makes you think I need the pep talk?”
“Because you’re a nervous wreck.”
“I thought I was doing a good job of hiding it,” I said.
“You are,” she said. “That’s how I know you’re nervous. You’re sitting as still as a church mouse. But trust me. You’ll do great.”
“You can jump in at any time,” I said. “You’re just as good at this as I am. Sometimes better. I’m not sure I would have handled Mr. Petty as well. I meant it when I said you should take a case or two in the next season. And when we’re not filming too.”
Her face flushed. “Thanks, Summer.”
The dogs were out when we parked in front of Rachel’s house, and they rushed over to greet us as we got out, their tails wagging. I leaned over to pet the dog nearest me, but I straightened when I heard a banging sound coming from the barn.
Dixie shot me a look and we silently agreed to head that direction, with me in the lead. The dogs trailed behind.
“Hello?” I called out from outside the partially open barn door. “Rachel, are you in there?”
The banging stopped, and seconds later, Rachel appeared at the threshold, clearly irritated. “I thought we took care of our business this morning.”
“Actually,” I said, “we’re not quite done.”
“We just had a chat with Tim McCree,” Dixie said. “After we started asking a lot of questions about Chuck Petty, he said that if we wanted answers, we needed to talk to you.”
She stiffened, then crossed her arms over her chest. “Tim?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Dixie said. “He was pretty insistent that you could help us.”
Rachel was quick to refute Tim’s claim with an aggressive shake of her head. “I’ve got nothin’ to tell you. Everything I had to say was already said to the sheriff back on the awful day Bethany was found.”
“Maybe you could tell us anyway,” I said. “A lot gets lost in a police report.”
“I don’t see the point,” she said, lifting her chin. “There’s no changing what happened. Bethany’s still dead. She’s not gonna come back to life, so y’all need to leave. Now.”
I had hoped to buy us a little more time before I played the Magnolia card. “Miss Rachel, we’re not here to cause trouble. We only want to find answers for our client. I know you were close to Lila, and I know you care about her daughter, Magnolia. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be keeping track of her.”
She pinned me with a dark glare. “Who said I was keeping track of her?”
“You knew about the podcast episodes,” Dixie said gently. “Mo and Molly.”
“What about that makes you think I’ve been keeping track of her?” she challenged. “Maybe I just heard about it.”
Dixie propped her hands on her hips. “Because if you were a regular listener of their podcasts, you would have known that they’d done a few episodes on Summer.”
Rachel started to say something, then stopped. She took a breath. “Maybe I just happened to stumble upon it.”
“Maybe you did,” I said. “It’s not out of the question given everybody in Sweet Briar has been overfocused on her for the last six months, so maybe you heard about it in town. But I don’t think so. I think you’re keeping an eye on her.” On a hunch, I added, “And part of you was doing it for her mother.”
“For her mother ?” Rachel released a bitter laugh. “I haven’t talked to Lila in years, and now she’s dead. I never even met Magnolia, so why would I be keepin’ an eye on her?”
I gave her a sympathetic look. “Because you still love Lila.”
Her mouth dropped open, and I could see the thoughts spinning in her head as she sorted through possible answers. “What did you say?”
“Because you love Lila,” I said. It was a risk pushing this narrative, and it had the huge potential to backfire, but I suspected Belinda might be onto something. “There’s no shame in it. But I know it was frowned upon back then. I understand why you’d have wanted to keep it a secret.”
She lifted her hand to her forehead and pushed her hair back, glancing to the side with a panicked look.
“Rachel,” I said, “we’re not here to cause trouble. I promise you that. We’re only here to find answers.”
“For your client,” she said hatefully. “How do I know your client isn’t People Magazine tryin’ to do an exposé on Magnolia Steele’s mother?”
“Because,” I said, “our client is Magnolia Steele herself.”
Rachel’s hand dropped to her side and her face went blank. “Say what?”
“Magnolia Steele is our client,” I said softly. “She’s hired us to find out why her mother left Sweet Briar. To the best of Magnolia’s knowledge, Lila never came back to her hometown, and she rarely talked about her life here. Magnolia had no idea her mother owned her grandparents’ farm until she received a letter from a Sweet Briar attorney telling her that the land transferred to her after Lila’s death.”
Rachel’s piercing gaze swung from me to Dixie, as though seeking verification I was telling the truth.
“The attorney has a buyer for the land,” Dixie said. “But Magnolia wanted to see the property for herself. That was how she found out she had an aunt. Her mother never told her.”
Alarm widened Rachel’s eyes. “She can’t sell that land. Lila said the land would stay in her family for generations.”
“What does it matter?” Dixie asked. “Why can’t she sell it?”
“She just can’t.”
Such insistence from someone who had no claims on the Brewer property. What was it about the land that had her so doggedly devoted to keeping it in the Brewer family? I suspected Rachel had been visiting the property, if that bouquet of cut flowers was any indication, and she’d positioned herself to keep doing so, staying close after all these years…but why?
“Rachel,” I said softly, treading carefully, “why haven’t you moved away from this farm?”
An indignant look flashed in her eyes. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
“There’s some reason you stayed,” I insisted. “Why?”
She shifted her weight, then made a move to walk back into the barn. But she abruptly stopped, keeping her gaze on the fields. “Bethany was murdered there. I pay my respects by looking over the land.”
Dixie gaped at her in disbelief. “The house and the barn look like they’re about to collapse. From where I’m standing, it doesn’t look like you were lookin’ over it at all.”
Dixie was right. Even if the flowers that had been left at the Brewer property were hers…it still didn’t make sense. “That’s not what you were looking over, was it?”
Rachel turned to me, her eyes still wide, and her chin trembling now. “What are you talkin’ about?”
“You were looking after something else besides the structures on the property.”
“I promised Lila that I’d watch over the land until the day I died,” she said, “and that’s what I intend to do. If you sell it to someone else, I can’t do that.”
“But Rachel,” Dixie said. “What difference does it make whether Lila—or now Magnolia—owns the land or not?”
“Because,” Rachel said, her words rushing out, “it’s a sacred place. We can’t have somebody buildin’ a house on it, or a boat dock on the pond, or who knows what they’ll do there.”
“What does it matter?” Dixie pressed. “The house and the barn are falling apart. Chief Montgomery had to go inside with Magnolia and her sister-in-law to make sure they were safe when they checked it out. Those buildings should be torn down and replaced.”
“Bethany died there,” she reiterated. “Her memory needs to be protected.”
“And how is her memory being protected?” I asked. “Lila left when she was eighteen years old, and to the best of anyone’s knowledge, never came back. Instead, she kept the land and ignored it.”
“She didn’t ignore it,” Rachel snapped. “I’ve been watchin’ over it.”
I lowered my voice and asked in a soothing tone, “By placing flowers by the creek?”
She went stock-still.
“Dixie and I looked around the property,” I said. “Granted, not everywhere, but we were trying to figure out how the person who killed Bethany got onto the property unnoticed, and then we remembered that your property had once connected to Lila’s, and you said there was a path between the two places.”
Rachel looked like she was about to bolt back into the barn, but then she let out a sigh and drooped against the barn door. “There’s a lot that’s gone unsaid, and maybe it’s time it came out.”
Defiance hardened her eyes and she stood up straight. “But I’m not tellin’ it to you. There’s only one person I’m gonna tell this story to, and that’s Magnolia Steele herself.”
“And how do we know you’re not lyin’?” Dixie challenged. “How do we know you’re not just sayin’ that so you can meet Magnolia Steele and get her autograph or something?”
“Because I’m not a fan of Magnolia Steele,” Rachel said, venom in her voice. “Sure, I admit to followin’ her, but I did it because Summer’s right: I loved her mother, only Lila wasn’t strong enough, not in the end. But I still protected her secret, because I promised her that I would until my dyin’ day.” Her chin lifted. “The only person I’ll tell is Magnolia Steele herself, so you get her here. And then she can decide who else will hear the story and where to go from there.”
What was she hiding? Why did she feel the need to protect Lila? Had Lila killed her own sister and Rachel had protected her secret all these years?
I didn’t know what to do, but deep down I did . I just didn’t want to do it. Magnolia seemed so fragile. I wasn’t sure if she could handle meeting with this woman and hearing her truth, especially if her mother was the one who’d killed her aunt. But at the same time, it wasn’t my call to make. My job was to find the facts and then deliver them to her. She was coming back to town anyway, which would present her with an easy opportunity to meet with Rachel. But that didn’t mean she’d agree to do so.
“It’s not my decision to make,” I said. “It’s Magnolia’s. If she does agree to meet with you, what is your availability for the next few days?” I sure wasn’t going to tell her that Magnolia was coming to Sweet Briar tomorrow. I still didn’t entirely trust this woman.
“I’m always out here,” Rachel said. “Taking care of my animals. Watching over Lila’s land. You know where to find me.” Then she turned around and went back into the barn, letting us know she was finished with us.
Dixie and I headed back out to the car, not saying anything until we’d left the property.
“Do you think Magnolia will meet with her?” she asked, her voice hitching with worry.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But even if she does, I’m not sure it’s a good idea. You saw Magnolia yesterday. This might be what pushes her over the edge. Still,” I added when Dixie started to say something, “it’s not my call to make. It’s Magnolia’s. So all we can do is tell her and Belinda what we found out and let Magnolia decide for herself.”
Dixie nodded in agreement, but she didn’t look any happier than I felt. “I guess that means we’re free for family dinner tonight.”
“Yeah,” I sighed, awash with mounting worries. It was going to be interesting to see how this went.