Chapter 34
The following day I was awakened by Sarah jumping on my bed and Mardi barking.
I’d been forced by Beau and Felicity to listen to Dr. Longo and stay overnight in the hospital for observation and so my ankle could be resplinted but had returned to the apartment before dawn so I could go back to sleep in my own bed with Mardi curled at my side.
The doctor had scolded me almost as much as Melanie did after Jolene, acting on my wishes, had called my parents and let them know all that had happened since Sarah’s arrival.
I was still foggy headed when I’d spoken to Melanie, but I vaguely recalled her saying she wouldn’t fly to New Orleans immediately if I would promise to continue the conversation when I was home at Christmas.
I agreed only because it gave me time to make other plans.
Especially since I didn’t know if Cooper remembered offering to drive me to Charleston for the holidays.
I’d heard nothing from him since I’d ignored his last text.
That one act must have told him that I’d learned his secret.
Not that it mattered. There was too much to think about, so in true Melanie fashion I decided to think about it later.
The toxicology report confirmed my suspicion that Henry had swiped some of my pain pills when he dropped by with Felicity to check on me and that Camille had added them to her soup.
Fortunately, her goal had been only to incapacitate me and not to kill me outright, so it would appear as if I’d overdosed on pain pills and alcohol and fallen down the stairs.
After all my efforts to remain sober, that was the part that hurt the most.
“Time to get up, sleepyhead,” Sarah said, mirroring Melanie’s morning greeting. “I’m all packed and ready for the drive to the airport. Jolene has a muffin and coffee waiting for you.”
The image of both did perk me up. Sarah threw off my blanket and quilt. “She says you have exactly forty-five minutes to make yourself presentable and to put a fire under your rear end—her words, not mine. You’ll get your coffee and muffin as soon as you’re done.”
I groaned but allowed her to help me out of bed, and I didn’t even complain when she made me use my crutches instead of hopping.
As I exited the bathroom, dressed in my jeans and a sweater, the doorbell rang. Like Pavlov’s dog, I immediately ducked into my bedroom to apply lipstick before I even knew what I was doing.
“It’s Cooper,” Sarah said, looking at the security app on my phone. I really needed to change my password.
Jolene emerged from the kitchen with a steaming mug of coffee and a muffin on a plate. She pulled out a chair at the table and motioned for me to sit. “I’ll go tell him that he’s not welcome here. I wish I had my daddy’s shotgun to show him I mean business.”
“That won’t be necessary, Jolene. I need to talk to him.”
“I’ll let him in,” Sarah said, already heading toward the door.
Jolene and Sarah discreetly retreated into the kitchen as Cooper joined me at the table, his good manners dictating that he remain standing until I told him to take a seat. Which I didn’t.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I should have texted or called when you didn’t respond.”
I looked up at him, the scar on his chin appearing more vivid. “Yes, you should have. Not that it would have made a difference.” Maybe I was more foggy headed than I thought, because I had the uncharacteristic urge to lay everything out then and there. “I know about Lilly.”
I gave him points for not trying to pretend he didn’t know what I was talking about. His fingers absently brushed the scar. He didn’t ask how I knew, and I didn’t volunteer the information. I was still too hurt to add Beau’s part in how I’d learned.
“I’ve been wanting to tell you for so long. It’s like I’m stuck between the past with Lilly and the possibility of a future with you, but my feet are glued to the ground and I can’t move. I’ve been trying, but…”
I wanted to lash out at him, tell him to leave and never let me see him again. But his face reminded me too much of my mom, of how sincere her apologies were during her rare sober moments. “But guilt and remorse are terrible things. Some of us turn to alcohol to smother those feelings.”
He dipped his head. “And some of us drown ourselves in denial and work.” Raising his eyes to meet mine, he said, “So. Are we over?”
“Did we really ever begin?”
He attempted a smile. “I’d like to think so.
I think we both felt…something. Something more than just getting over someone.
Could we start over—as friends? I need someone to talk to.
I haven’t even told my family about Lilly.
They knew I was dating someone, but they don’t know the rest. It’s all so…
awful. I don’t think I could handle their disappointment in me. ”
He sounded so desperate. And so much like me that it hurt my heart. I reached over and took his hands in mine. “I think we could. I think we could be good friends. For now.”
“Good.” He sighed with relief. “I have a rental car. Can I drive Sarah to the airport? I figure that would give you and me a chance to talk on the way back. There’s so much I need to tell you.”
“Same,” I said, needing to tell him about what had happened at the house on Esplanade, and about the doll and the key and Camille and the rest of it.
I also needed to tell him what Sarah had said about Lilly.
About why she was angry. And why she needed him to let her go.
I checked my watch. “If we hurry, we’ll have time to make a stop.
I just need to make a quick phone call first.”
—
Honey was waiting on the steps when Cooper pulled his rental car up in front of the house.
The gray Honda sedan—from this vantage point I could tell it was an Accord—sat parked facing the empty carport, its owner no longer attempting to keep it hidden.
Joan’s Cadillac was absent; Honey had told me Joan would be gone, at Bible study.
Cooper helped me out of the car and handed me my crutches. “Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?”
“I’m sure.” I began making my way toward Honey, and she met me halfway.
After greeting me, she said, “It’s best that you don’t come inside. And it’s important that you leave before Joan gets back. I won’t call it a conspiracy if you won’t, but the fewer the people who know, the better.”
“Agreed.” I dug into the hip pocket of my jeans and withdrew the storage-room key and fob that had been hidden inside the doll. “I’m guessing you already know what’s in the storage unit.”
She took the key but didn’t answer. I glanced at the elusive gray Honda. “How long have you known that Jessica and Lynda are alive?”
Honey regarded me with her large, round eyes, cobalt blue mascara dusting her eyelashes. “Are you sure you want to know?”
“Yeah. I do. I think the trauma of what I went through at the house yesterday grants me the privilege.”
“I suppose it does. I’m not supposed to believe in…
all that. But I’ve experienced enough things I can’t explain to know that there’s so much we don’t understand.
What you told me about Sybil, about how she protected you and our uncle Patrick…
that’s exactly who she was. And Mark…” She shook her head.
“I loved him because he was my brother, but there was something loose inside of him. Our father was a wonderful, kind, and gentle man, unless he was drinking. Then he became a cruel brute. Joan and I were spared the worst of his brutality, but poor Mark, who had the misfortune of being his only son, wasn’t as lucky. ”
She looked over her shoulder at the house, then took a step closer to me.
“Mark learned things he shouldn’t have. Jessica told me stories…
” Honey pressed her lips together. “He was violent toward women his entire life, including to his wife and daughter, so it’s no surprise that death didn’t change him. ”
She took a deep breath. “To answer your question, I’ve always known Jessica and Lynda were alive.
And that Mark was dead. I’ve known since the night of the murder.
Jessica called me, hysterical. Mark had hit little Lynda, and when Sybil tried to stop him he killed her.
His own mother! And then he turned back to Lynda.
So Jessica did what any mother would do.
” Honey’s face softened. “I couldn’t place any blame on her, and I knew I had to help her.
If she called the police, she could go to jail, and then Lynda would go into foster care.
Joan and I could apply to be her guardians, but that would take too long.
And Lynda was too traumatized to be separated from her mother. I did what I thought was right.”
A small tear escaped from the corner of her eye.
“I gave Jessica the name and address of an old friend in Summerville, outside of Charleston, where she and Lynda could go and be safe. And then we had to hide Mark’s body.
I immediately thought of the storage facility.
I got the lease on it after my husband died and I moved in with Joan and needed a place to store my things.
My husband was a big hunter, so we had a giant meat freezer. ”
I did my best not to focus on the last two words.
“I told Jessica to hide the key somewhere just in case they were stopped, because we couldn’t have the key being found anywhere near her.
I didn’t know she’d hidden it in the doll until yesterday, when Jessica came to see me.
She was worried that the key would be found now that the house was sold.
That’s why you kept seeing their car. Jessica was trying to find a way to gain access without breaking in.
Getting arrested wasn’t something she could afford. ”
I nodded slowly, absorbing everything she’d just told me. “You did a good job of pretending you didn’t know anything—probably for your sister’s benefit. I’m guessing Joan doesn’t know any of this?”
Honey took a deep breath, her penciled-in brows knitting together.
“My sister most likely suspects the truth but doesn’t look too closely because she doesn’t really want to know.
She would feel compelled to alert the authorities if she knew the full story.
Not because she doesn’t love Jessica, but because she has an exaggerated sense of right and wrong.
She doesn’t understand the gray area between black and white.
” With surprising strength, she gripped my upper arms. “Do you?”
I’d never seen the world in just black and white.
I was a musician. A lover of old houses.
Both things meant that I saw the world in terms of the possibilities that existed in the gray areas.
I considered for a moment the men who’d used and abused my mother and had never been held accountable.
She’d been an absent mother, her focus always on nursing her career disappointments with illegal and legal substances.
But she’d been there yesterday, helping to protect me.
Maybe this was the one chance I had to take a stand in her memory.
I took a deep breath and looked Honey in the eyes. “The truth is that I haven’t seen Lynda or Jessica. And I’ve never been to Guidry Moving and Storage. That’s all I know. And I would suggest destroying what is left of the doll before Mimi changes her mind and wants to hold it.”
She stood on her tiptoes and kissed me on the cheek with a loud smack. “I knew you were good people the minute I met you.” She stepped back. “You should be going. I need to say good-bye to my guests before Joan comes home.”
Our gazes locked in mutual understanding. “Good-bye, Honey.” Then I made my way back to the car where Cooper and Sarah waited.
“Did you learn anything new?” Cooper asked as he and Sarah helped me into the backseat.
“Not a thing.”
He looked at me for a long moment, waiting for me to say more, while I spent more time and concentration than necessary adjusting my seat belt and getting situated in the backseat. He’d known me long enough to know that I was a terrible liar.
Without a word, he closed my door and returned to the driver’s seat before putting the car in drive, then pulling out onto the street. I didn’t look back.