The Black Sheep, Part 2: Greed (The Seven Deadly Kins #4)

Chapter Fifteen

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The Promised Land

G randpa Wilde stood inside an old, dilapidated barn that smelled of old leather from several abandoned horse saddles, rotting hay, and damp earth. It may not have been much to look at, with the ramshackle silage, random bits of debris, plentiful old cobwebs, and antiquated, broken-down farming equipment, but the land it was on was invaluable.

The same land he’d stood on as a young man with a special young lady. So very long ago… The same land that was coveted in the community back in his day. Where the wealthy came for clandestine meetings, elaborate southern dinners after church, and live fiddle concerts from some of the best musicians in all of Houston. When he looked over yonder, he could still envision the big white house that had once stood there. It had two winding porches, balconies, a butler and maid entrance, beautiful white and pink roses, and horse stables occupied by healthy stallions and gorgeous ponies. Now there was nothing more there than fragments of rotten plywood, broken shards of dust covered glass and pottery, overgrown weeds, and an old blue shutter that had somehow missed being tossed away with the rest of the housing wreckage. Right before the home was bulldozed, squatters utilized the place.

It had no heat, air, or running water. No plumbing, but it was such a lofty, magnificent estate, that it attracted vagrants all the same. The copper was plundered, and any squirreled away or forgotten items that may have brought in a dollar or two, were stolen and hawked to pawn shops. Some claimed, even many years back when he was a young man, that it was haunted. It was the Allen family’s land. Oil folks, but they’d all gone and abandoned the place when Mr. Theodore Allen came into serious legal trouble due to some salacious scandals that erupted regarding his abuse of some minor boys. The details were ghastly and haunted the entire community. The family fled in a panic; their lives threatened after such incredulous accusations were met with proof found in the attic. A big heaping collection of photographs of unclothed teenage boys.

He ruined his life due to his perversions… He ruined his family… Brought shame to his wife and children. I remember that house. It was a beacon of hope and life. Somethin’ to aspire to. He turned it into a place of ill repute and misery. Dem boys had a hard time getting out from under that once the truth came out. Honorable men don’t do such things. No sir! Goes to show you that not all that glitters is gold.

The house used to be a showstopper. Big bashes, fancy parties with the best liquor, and saucy dancing on Saturday evenings. He was never invited. His impoverished father sure as hell wasn’t either. The surname Wilde was banned from such events. But sometimes he came anyway. Drifting in the darkness. Behind a bush or in the stable with the livestock. He wanted to observe how wealthy people lived. In the daytime, and nighttime, too. He’d sometimes manage to slip in through the butler door and take a memento. A silver fork, a tiny porcelain teacup for his mama, or a slice of vanilla cream cake. He enjoyed mostly just looking in the windows.

Watching the people dance in their nice threads, laughing at jokes that weren’t all that damn funny. It got to a point where he didn’t always enjoy watching it though. He started to hate the people. It was like they were in a beautiful snow globe, and he was in a chow line. Dresses flowing with each step a spoiled princess of a woman made. Flutes filled with bubbling libations. Trays of appetizers he couldn’t even pronounce. Yes, he could see it all still in his mind… Fresh like it just happened only a day ago. When the property was vibrant and ripe with wealth, robust plants, trees, and cattle, he wanted what Mr. Allen had. Cyrus Wilde was just a poor country boy though… trying to figure out how to get his hands on the keys to success. On riches. He figured out early the rich acquired admiration and social supremacy. The poor got nothin’ but spit at, made fun of, and turned away. He swore that one day that when he was able, he’d purchase that beautiful place for his bride, and prove himself worthy of the estate. Tina loved that house, too…

He promised her that land would be theirs in the near future, and he’d build her the house of her dreams on it. They’d get married, have babies, and live out the rest of their days together. She chastised him and called him foolish. After all, they were both quite young, he hadn’t made anywhere near the money he possessed now, and they had other issues to contend with, too—but he didn’t care. He’d made a promise. And he planned to stick by it, with or without her believing his promise. Today was that day.

“This is what I have so far,” Detective John Garrison stated as he walked into the barn and handed him two thick envelopes. “It’s copies of everywhere I’ve looked for her, and the places I plan to go. Receipts and travel expenses. Nothing more.” The big, hulking guy with a mop of messy gray hair looked rather disappointed, as if he, too, had lost his one true love. The man’s dark wide-set eyes hid behind a thick pair of green spectacles. Detective Garrison was supposed to be one of the best in all of Houston. He wasn’t cheap and came highly recommended. It looked as if he’d met his match.

“Tina is eluding everyone. Every time I hire someone to find this woman, who doesn’t have the ability or superpower to be invisible, one of you bastards comes to me with envelopes, receipts, and the whole nine, but still emptyhanded. Why, in your professional opinion, is she so damn hard to find?”

“I suspect she’s changed her identity multiple times, Mr. Wilde. And I mean all aspects of that. Her hair color. Her style of clothing. Her legal and all nicknames and even social security number. She’s livin’ low key, too. She has to be. No marriages, no reachin’ out to old friends and family, and never giving birth nor adopting. Children would draw attention to her. There’s no other way she could be this difficult to find without that being a reality. Unfortunately,” he shrugged, “she has no DNA in a database. I’m still on the case, though. I know you’re frustrated as hell. This isn’t my first hard nut to crack.”

“The guy before you said it was impossible.”

“This isn’t impossible, but it’s definitely difficult.”

Grandpa reached down and picked up a piece of straw. He stood back up, looked at it real close, then twirled it about between his thumb and forefinger. “It has been far too long, so many, many, many years since I’ve set eyes on my beautiful Tina… No phone calls. No letters. No nothin’. She’s a woman of intelligence. She’d know how to find me.”

He’d called her bluff when she’d stormed out on him on the last day he’d ever seen her. At the time, he wasn’t worried. Besides, she’d done that move several times before, threatened to leave or did so, runnin’ off to her mama, but always returned. This time, she was gone for good. As the days turned into weeks and months and years, he became darker and angrier as reality set in. He’d lost the best woman he’d ever had. He’d married many more times after that, but it was never the same… Nobody was Tina. He spent half the time trying to convince himself that her absence didn’t hurt, and the other half determined to get her back, no matter what the hell it took. He refused to believe that he’d done all he could. There had to be more. He’d even searched for her on his own. Nothing. He’d offered monetary rewards for her whereabouts. All he got were false leads that helped feed his false hope. Grandpa Wilde had been through seven detectives over the years, all of them coming up empty.

“…I have to find her, Garrison.”

“It’s important that I get closure for you, if nothing else. Whatever is going on, I will get to the bottom of it. It’ll just take more time, is all.”

“A part of me would like to hurt her, the way she hurt me,” he bent down again, this time picking up a pebble. He dropped the blade of straw and threw the rock as hard as he could. It flew into the air to finally thump against the dull red wall. “Another part of me just wants to love on her and tell her how much I missed her. Ask her for forgiveness.”

“Mr. Wilde, can I ask you somethin’? I’ve asked before, but—”

“I know what your question is.” He smirked, shook his head. “You want to know why Tina decided to leave me. Doesn’t every good PI ask that?” The detective cleared his throat and cocked his head to the side. “You’ve asked me a dozen times… and I tell ya the same thing each fucking time. All you need to know is that I never hit her. I never abused her. I never even cheated on her, either. I treated ’er like a queen. That’s the way she deserved to be treated. She never had to get a restraining order out on me, and she never told me she was afraid of me, or didn’t love me anymore.

“But there was this one thing she just couldn’t stomach…” He looked out the barn doors, towards the glints of light that kissed the serrated bits of broken glass. “…just this one thing that she couldn’t take. It’s the same reason that she refused to give me a baby. She’d been sneakin’ off to some charlatan of a doctor and taking birth control pills behind my back. I know full well why she left me.” He ran his fingers against his nose, curing an itch, then latched his gaze on the man who promised to grant him a miracle. “All you need to know is that she took issue with something that had nothin’ to do with my love for her, and nothing that I did to her personally.”

“An occupational hazard?”

“My personal fucking business is just that. The details about this woman’s and my life that have nothin’ to do with the scope of what you need, are off limits, unless I make them your business. Do you hear me?” The detective raised both hands as if in surrender, backing off. “I don’t have the right to blame ’er. Her feelings were reasonable,” he tossed up his hands and paced, “but I still hate that she did it. She had to have known I’d come after her eventually… that I couldn’t just let her go.” And kill any man sniffin’ around her, a boyfriend or a new husband trying to take what was rightfully mine. If I found out that someone else besides me had even eaten her pussy, let alone been inside of her, I’d cut their fucking tongue out. I told her as much.”

He looked down at the grimy floor of the barn. His black cowboy boots with silver detailing were dull with the dirt now, too. In fact, specs of dark soil and soot dotted his gray shirt and jeans, flecks of muck and filth. He was indecent and unclean. Not just on the outside, but on the inside, too. He had to have been, for that’s what caused his better half to pack her bags and leave him standing there with nothing but a broken heart, a half empty bottle of her favorite perfume she’d left on her vanity, and a present he’d given her on her birthday. An expensive shawl. Returned to sender.

He looked towards the wide-open doors of the barn once more.

Somewhere out there was freedom. Like the wild horses who’d needed tamed. Or maybe the soil was tainted and trapped with the spirits of bad men who’d done bad things? Imprisoned by their horrid deeds? The faint scent of burning leaves wafted nearby. It, too, evoked painful memories.

“I’m now the proud new owner of this land, John.” He looked around that big shed again, this time recalling how he and Tina had snuck into the premises, and in that far right corner, he’d slid her against the wall, and they’d made love on top of a stack of fresh hay. His eyes sheened with love lost but not forgotten. Sweet and clammy remembrances dripping from his memory bank. The way her eyes rolled back when he’d thrust deep inside of her warm, tight, honeyed pussy, or how her full, soft lips pressed against his own as he climaxed inside of her… Horny, sweaty, and so in love that the thought of losing her made him hurt deep inside of his very soul. Tina, I remember your kiss, the smell of your skin, the feel of your breasts, the softness of your hair and the curves of your body… I remember every mole on your physique, and I remember the first time you told me you loved me…Did you lie then?

He tossed the envelopes down on a stack of rotten wood and removed his cowboy hat from his head. His silvery white tresses broke free, falling partially in front of his face, brushing against his back, then blowing in the breeze. A burst of wind from the open barn doors brought that odor of burnt leaves to his nostrils once again. She was inside of his blood and bones. He could never let her go, and he could never forget her.

He looked off into the distance. The ‘For Sale’ sign that was once jammed into the hard soil was now gone, replaced with a ‘SOLD’ logo, instead.

“It took a long time to finally buy this place. I’ve tried negotiating for it over the years, and nothin’ worked. Then finally, my agent gave me the long-awaited call. Said, ‘That piece of shit can finally be yours.’” He chuckled. “Garrison, you and I been knowin’ each other a while.”

“We sure have, Mr. Wilde.”

“I have to find her, you know that, right? There’s no way that I can’t. It’s not an option. That woman belongs to me. She’s as much mine as my right arm. I don’t care if it takes until I breathe my last breath. God makes only one woman that can handle a son of a bitch like me. I discovered my soulmate. She was my heaven on earth. Usually, we never find that one woman. I did .”

“I understand that you’re determined, and I’m doing all I can. I have spoken to the few family members I can find of hers, and they haven’t seen her, either. I asked for DNA samples, they refused. I did surveillance, and she didn’t show up. I checked out all the numbers going out and comin’ in, for their landlines and cellphones. I looked through family marriage and death records. Nothin’. It’s like she’s vanished in thin air, but we know people don’t just vanish. The only other conclusion, if she didn’t change her identity, is that she’s deceased.”

Grandpa turned sharply in his direction. “No…” He waved his finger sternly. “She ain’t dead. My heart would tell me.”

“Your heart would tell you?”

“Yes. My heart understands life and death. I can feel it. When you’ve had as many children and grandchildren as me and lost some of them prematurely, too, you know what the Grim Reaper looks like. You can smell him comin’. You know what new life looks like, too. Always the sun bursting through a cloudy day. When I look at Tina’s picture, I don’t smell no Grim Reaper. All I see is the sun… Contrary to popular belief, I do in fact possess a heart, still.” He chuckled. “She’s the only woman I ever truly loved with every fiber of my being. I’ve loved plenty of women in my lifetime, but it wasn’t that deep, rich, addictive, I-will-turn-the-world-inside-out-for-you kind of love. Tina and I had this supernatural connection. It was cosmic. Time travelling. Magnificent… The other bitches that came into my life?” He sucked his teeth. “No stayin’ power.

“We weren’t even supposed to be together, Garrison, but we were. We defied the odds, in more ways than one.” He was quiet for a moment as he rolled over ideas and fantasies inside his mind. “You go back and offer ten thousand for a DNA sample from her one sister. The one that is still alive. You found her brother, too, right?”

“I did.”

“That brother of hers has a different pappy. I remember that. He wouldn’t be as good of a match, and he’s in hospice last I checked.” Garrison nodded in understanding.

“If you don’t mind me sayin’, Mr. Wilde, I’ve never seen a man of your mature age still pining over a woman to this extent. It’s admirable, actually.”

Grandpa faced him head on; his heart now full.

“I want you to imagine the most beautiful woman you’ve ever laid eyes on, Garrison. I want you to imagine that lady, if you will, standing in front of you right this very moment. And then, I want you to multiply that loveliness, that magnificence, by one hundred. That’s not an exaggeration.” He stroked his beard. “That’s the reality. I’ve never been fond of fairy tales. The first time I saw Tina, she was like some radiant princess walking around in a castle. I took a look at that woman, and I forgot how to fucking speak.”

“I saw the old photo of her… she definitely was a showstopper. She looked like a living doll,” he complimented. “It’s obvious why you were so smitten with her.”

“When Tina stepped into a room, men damn near fainted. Once she opened her mouth to speak, she mesmerized you with cool charm, sweet eloquence, and somethin’ mysteriously arousing, dark, and damn near deadly. She’s the only person who made me weak at the knees.” He swallowed. His eyes followed a dust ball rolling around from side to side. “This woman was a ten in every category. She had the type of intelligence that you might run into once in a lifetime. She was humble, warm, and wise. She had boundaries. Didn’t lie but delivered bad news with cherries and whipped cream. She saw somethin’ in me… potential, she called it.” He picked up a tiny sharp rock from the floor. Rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger. “That’s when I was still rough around the edges,” he added with mock severity.

“You know, Mr. Wilde, it might help me with the search. You’ve told me the last time you saw her, but remind me: Do you happen to recall the last thing she said to you?”

“Yes, I do.” Grandpa forced a smile as his blood turned hot, flowing like lava through his veins. The detective removed a pen and pad of paper from his jacket, and began writing. Garrison was old school. No recorders for these private meetings.

“And what was it she said?”

“We’d had a rather unfortunate disagreement, and she looked me in the eye and said, ‘I’m gone, Cyrus. Don’t look for me. You won’t find me.’ I laughed at her. Not taking her seriously. I said, ‘And just where do you think you’re going?’ Tina got right in my face and pointed her finger at my nose. ‘I’ll be where you’re afraid to explore. Deep inside of you. Dancing with the ancestors that cursed you, the angels who’ve discarded you, and the God that you’ve long forgotten …”