Chapter 22 #2
Of course. She’d never been able to understand how something could have happened to her father between the courthouse and the bar.
There was the possibility that someone had picked him up in a vehicle, or forced him into a building when he was passing by, but it made no sense that no one had noticed anything.
This was a town who kept a close watch on their neighbors.
Now it made sense. He’d strolled into the diner like he did every other day. There was nothing to catch anyone’s attention.
“Yes,” Bea continued. “He wanted to thank me for all I’d done over the years. And to tell me goodbye.”
“That’s what he said? Goodbye?”
“He was planning to pack up and leave.” Bea lifted her glass and drained the last of the tea. “He said he couldn’t stay in Canton. Not after everything that had happened.”
Jesse wasn’t entirely surprised. Her dad had hinted in the courthouse that he needed a break from Canton. Who could blame him?
Obviously Bea Hartman.
“But you didn’t want him to leave,” Jesse said. It wasn’t a question.
A sudden fury twisted Bea’s features. “After all I’d done for him?
All the years of being his friend and confidante?
” she rasped, smacking her hand on the table.
“I was always here when he needed a shoulder to cry on, or someone to take care of you, or to loan him money to keep his lights on. It was me. And I did it without asking for anything in return. All I wanted was for us to be together. A family, even if it wasn’t a traditional one. And he was going to abandon me.”
Jesse’s stomach twisted. Last night she’d paced the floor, deciphering each word that Tegan had spewed during their confrontation. Her stepsister had filled in most of the blanks that had haunted Jesse, but not the biggest one.
What had happened to her dad?
Victoria was dead and Tegan was already in Little Rock with her drug-dealing dad. They obviously weren’t responsible.
It wasn’t until she was wondering if it was Dix who’d contacted Buzz that she realized there might have been someone who’d overheard Dix call Victoria by her real name.
The most obvious choice would be his employer.
The woman who claimed she had no memory of him despite the fact that Dix worked in her diner as a dishwasher.
Oddly, from there it’d been painfully easy to imagine Bea as the killer. At least after she considered the fact that her dad hadn’t been murdered out of hate. But out of love.
“What did you do?”
“I told him there was a leak in the cellar. I asked him to go down there and see if he could fix it.”
“And then?”
“I shot him in the back of the head.”
A pained gasp was wrenched from her throat. “Oh God.”
Bea never glanced up, her shoulders hunched. “Once I was sure he was dead, I put him in an old walk-in freezer I have down there.”
Jesse blinked back her tears. Her poor dad. He would never have dreamed this woman could be so evil. He’d walked into that cellar without once suspecting he was walking into his grave.
“And then you brought me muffins, as if nothing was wrong,” Jesse accused.
“What choice did I have? I needed him to stay. Don’t you see? He belonged to me.”
Jesse shook her head. There was no point in arguing. This woman was obviously unhinged, no matter how well she might be able to hide her madness.
“How did he get in the foundation?”
“I needed repairs done. I asked Noah to come to replace the old bricks. Once he finished, I pulled them out before they dried and …” Her words trailed away, and she reached up to wipe a layer of sweat that had bloomed on her forehead.
“And I put your dad’s body between our two walls.
Then I replaced the bricks and put in new mortar.
It was sloppy, but no one goes down there. ”
Jesse swallowed the lump in her throat. She had her answers as to what had happened. But that didn’t ease her confusion.
“Why?” she demanded. “Why move his body after he was dead?”
“I couldn’t let him stay with her, could I?” Bea muttered. “He deserved better, even if he disappointed me. Besides, I wanted him to rest in the home he loved so much.”
Jesse parted her lips to point out that her dad was beyond caring where his remains were buried when the older woman’s words sank in.
“Wait. What do you mean, you didn’t want him with her?”
Bea managed to hunch even lower. “That’s another story.”
Dread rolled through Jesse, but she forced herself to demand answers. “Tell me, Bea. It’s time for the truth. The whole truth.”
There was a tense silence before Bea heaved a deep sigh. “I suppose you’re right.”
“What happened?”
“Kelly showed up late one night a couple of years ago. Just out of the blue.”
It took a second for Jesse to realize who Bea meant. “Noah’s ex?”
“Horrible girl. A sneaky, selfish bitch,” Bea snapped.
“What did she want?”
Bea visibly shuddered as she recalled the visit.
“She sat here at this table and told me that she’d come to the diner on the day your father was released from jail.
She said that her mother was in the hospital and was begging for one of my peach pies.
The woman was already losing her mind, and Kelly was willing to do anything to please her.
” Bea licked her lips, as if they were dry.
“When she found I’d closed the restaurant for the day to go to Mac’s hearing, she went to the back door to see if it was unlocked.
I suppose she intended to break in and see if she could find some pie. ” Bea sniffed. “Like I said, sneaky.”
“Did she get in?”
“No, but she was peeking through the window and saw me urging your dad to go down the stairs. Then she heard the gunshot.”
Jesse flinched. Bea said the words with a callous indifference. As if she wasn’t talking about killing the man she claimed to love.
“Why didn’t she say anything?”
“She told me she was scared.” Bea made a sound of disgust. “Just another lie. She was simply waiting for the right time to use the information.”
“That’s why she came here?”
“Yes. After Joe dumped her and moved in with another woman she decided she didn’t want to stay in Des Moines.”
“Did she want to come back here?”
“Good lord, no. She thought she was too good for Canton. She wanted to go to Florida. She said she intended to buy a condo on the beach, but she needed money. My money.”
Jesse arched a brow. Kelly had obviously been a victim, but her willingness to profit from Mac Hudson’s murder made Jesse less than sympathetic. If Kelly had gone to the sheriff the moment she heard the gunshot, she could have prevented so much heartache.
“What did you do?”
“I told her I’d give her what cash I had in the safe and then offered her a piece of the peach pie that her mother had wanted all those years ago.
It seemed fitting. She sat where you’re sitting now and cleaned her plate.
By the time I returned with the cash, I didn’t have to worry about her anymore. ”
Ice crawled down Jesse’s spine. She didn’t have to ask how Kelly had died. Bea obviously had sprinkled some sort of poison into the pie.
“She’s still in the freezer downstairs?”
Bea nodded. “Her old car is in the shed across the alley. I occasionally put out a rumor that she’d been seen by someone in Des Moines, but honestly, it’s never been necessary. No one ever missed her.”
A sharp, bitter regret sliced through Jesse. So much pain. So much loss.
“Oh Bea.”
Bea at last looked up, a strange glitter in her eyes as she reached out to push the glass in front of Jesse an inch closer.
“Drink your tea, Jesse.”
Something in the older woman’s expression had Jesse slowly rising to her feet, a new sense of horror swelling in her heart. There was something in the tea. Just as there had been something in the peach pie.
That was why Bea was dripping in sweat and a line of blue was visible around her lips.
“I don’t think so.” Jesse pulled out her phone to dial 911. It was becoming a habit.
“Please drink, Jesse,” the older woman pleaded, her voice faltering. “Come with me. We can all be together again. A real family.”
“No, Bea.” Jesse headed for the door to wait for the ambulance without looking back. “You were never my family.”