Chapter 70
CHAPTER
THE LIGHTS WERE ON IN the house, and Nash watched as Rosie Parker moved across the front picture window.
For a moment it was as though Nash had slipped back in time and he was returning home from his paper route and glimpsing his mother headed to the kitchen to start his breakfast. But his mother was dead, he was no longer a child, and this was not his home.
I don’t really have a home, not anymore.
He walked up to the front porch with his cover story rehearsed. This would also be a good test, and hopefully a source of information.
He knocked, and a few moments later Parker answered the door.
She had clearly taken Nash’s advice on getting some new clothes, and the slacks and colorful sweater rode well on her long, lean frame, which, he was glad to see, had filled out a bit.
And she was wearing her hair in a new style that Nash thought attractively enhanced her features.
“Yes?” she said, looking nervous. Nash realized he probably looked intimidating to the woman just by his appearance. And at this hour of the evening it likely amplified her apprehension in a neighborhood that Nash was aware had its issues.
He took off his hat and said in a voice very much unlike his own, “I’m Dillon Hope, ma’am. I’m the son of one of Ty Nash’s old Army buddies. I told my old man if I was ever passing by here I’d say hello.”
Parker’s features softened. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I’m afraid Mr. Nash died quite some time ago.”
“Oh, damn. My pop will sure be sad. He told me lotta stories ’bout Ty Nash.”
“I’m sure. He’d been sick for a long time and was in a lot of pain.”
Nash looked over her shoulder and saw a blown-up photo in a frame on the wall of his father and Shock in their Army uniforms. He pointed. “My daddy has some pictures from when they were all in Nam.”
Parker turned to look and her face crinkled in pleasure. “He was one handsome man, Ty Nash.”
“My daddy said he was the best soldier the Army ever had. And that man there next to him, Isaiah York? He said the same ’bout him, one helluva soldier.”
“Oh, so you know him?”
“Shock? Oh yeah. He came by to visit us. He was Ty’s best friend, my daddy said.”
“Yes, he was. I haven’t seen him since Ty’s funeral,” she added wistfully.
“He’s probably still getting over Ty being gone. Well, I guess I’d better be heading on…” He hesitated and glanced at her with a hopeful expression.
Parker said, “Look, um, would you like to come in? I can make some coffee? And we could… talk?”
“Well, that’d be real nice, ma’am. Thank you.”
“You can call me Rosie, Dillon.”
She led him into the kitchen and made them both coffees.
“I heard Ty’s wife, Nikki, died years ago,” he said as she set the cup down in front of him.
She sat across from him, cradling her coffee. “Yes, she did. I met Ty when he came to the VA for treatment. We… well, we became friends and then more than friends. We were together for nearly two years before he died.”
“Well, I’m sure you were a real comfort to him. So, you here alone then?”
“Yes, my mother lived here with me, but she passed away not long after Ty did.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“She had a good, long life. I guess it was just her time,” added Parker sadly.
“You keep in touch with Ty’s family then? My pop said he had a son—name ’a Walter, I believe. Thought Pop said he lived around here somewhere.”
Parker shot him a surprised look. “You… you haven’t heard?”
“Heard what?”
“About Walter Nash. It was all over the news.”
“I’ve been working outside the country the last couple years or so. I’m afraid I’m a little behind and such. What happened? Did he die, too?”
Parker shook her head and told him everything, including Nash’s being accused of molesting his daughter, the death of the security guard, and, finally, the discovery of Maggie’s remains.
Nash knew all this, of course, but when Parker had talked about Maggie, her accusations, and then her death, he had to glance away for a couple of moments as he felt himself being overcome with emotion.
Composing himself he said, “Jesus, his daughter. Do you believe he did all that?”
Parker gazed at him sternly over the rim of her cup.
“Not for one minute. The man I knew, the man I respected?” She shook her head.
“I’ve run into molesters before. A man at the VA.
Not a patient, one of the orderlies who worked there.
He was a pedophile. I suspected right away.
Some children in the apartment building where he lived…
” She took a sip of coffee and said quickly, “Anyway, it’s ridiculous to anyone who knew him.
And it made me so mad that people just accepted that he was a monster, including his own wife. ”
“But you said there was the video with his daughter.”
“Videos can be manipulated. I’m no expert on it, but I at least know that. These days you can make anyone say anything and it’s not true at all. But with Walter they just believed it. It was… unforgivable.”
“You said he disappeared? I guess that didn’t help his case.”
“What else could he do?” She glanced out the window. “And when they found Maggie’s remains?” She shook her head sadly. “And they just blamed that on him, too, although there was no evidence. None at all.”
“So what do you think happened then?” asked Nash. He respected this woman greatly and really wanted to hear her opinion.
“I think somebody framed Walter, that’s what.”
“But who, and why?”
“He worked at this big, fancy company. Lots of money whirling around there. Then the man who owned it all ups and jumps off his balcony, or so the police said.”
“Good God!”
“And then that man’s son, Rhett Temple? Well, he’s now very cozy with Mrs. Nash.
I saw them together at the funeral service for Maggie.
And I saw them once when I was downtown.
They were in his car driving into a parking garage at one of those big, expensive residential buildings. I bet he lives there.”
“Damn, you think they’re… you know?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised at all,” she said primly. “It’s just all so wrong.”
“I wonder what happened to Walter?”
“I don’t know. I just hope he’s out there somewhere trying to… oh, I don’t know, figure it all out. He was real good at that. He helped me so much. Got me all set in life with this house and my finances and everything. So kind, so… capable. I… I miss him.”
“Sounds as though you thought a lot of him.”
“I did. I do. And Ty would have known if his son was some sort of monster like that. But Ty died with his son’s name on his lips. He loved his boy. So that’s all I need to know.”
Nash again had to look away at these comments because he had suddenly teared up.
After a few more minutes of conversation he rose to leave. “Well, thank you, Rosie, for the coffee. And the talk.”
She gazed curiously up at him. “You know, you look familiar somehow. Have we ever met before?”
He gave her a lopsided grin that was hiding more than a little anxiety. “Hell, in this crazy old world, who really knows?”