Chapter Eleven #2
“And Cole. Good Lord God, you’re such a fussy grandma when he’s around. You do everything but shove butterscotch candies into his mouth. It’s clear you love him. Both of them. I know it’s gotta be killing you pretending like they’re not yours.”
Jude forced herself to maintain eye contact with Celia. They had been best friends until Jude had turned her back on North Falls. She had abandoned Celia along with everyone else. But there was no cruelty in her expression, just curiosity.
Celia asked, “Aunt Millie knows, right? Which means Father Nate knows, too.”
Jude cleared her throat. “And now you and Tommy.”
“What about the father?”
Jude shook her head. “Guitar player with a nasty pill habit.”
“Some girls really do marry their daddies.”
Jude shrugged, but she was right about Jonah. “He was a good guy. Very talented. Stubborn. Maddening. I never told him I was pregnant. He was murdered a few years later when a drug deal went bad.”
“Aren’t all drug deals bad?”
“Depends on the drug.”
Celia chuckled. “For what it’s worth, Tommy thinks you should tell her.”
Jude took a deep breath. “And you?”
“All I know is she’s smarter than her grandmother, and twice as clever as her mother. She’ll figure it out eventually. And if you wait too long to tell her, it’s gonna feel less like kindness and more like cowardice.”
“When?” Jude asked, because she really wanted to know.
“We buried Dad six weeks ago and Mom yesterday afternoon. She’s in the middle of a complicated investigation.
She’s already cracking under the pressure.
She snipes at me every time I open my mouth.
I can tell she knows that something is off.
But if I tell her the truth now, it could break her.
Whether or not you agree with what I did, a mother’s job is to protect her child. ”
“Of course it is, babe, but at what cost? It’s clearly tearing you apart.”
Jude didn’t think her own feelings mattered. “If I tell her for my sake, she’ll never believe I lied for hers.”
“You’re not the only liar in the family. Gerald always deferred to Myrna, and Myrna could’ve fixed this when they were both alive instead of leaving a mess for the rest of us to clean up.” Celia put down her mug. “She was greedy. She knew she didn’t have much time. She wanted Emmy all to herself.”
Jude shrugged, because she understood that greed. “Can you blame her?”
They both turned toward the window as tires crunched on the gravel drive.
Jude grabbed a paper towel to dry her tears.
She was sitting at the table when Emmy walked through the door.
Her bad mood was as pronounced as a rain cloud enveloping the sky.
Jude knew that feeling. The investigation had stalled. Again.
Emmy narrowed her eyes at Jude. “Why are you crying?”
“Don’t be an asshole to your sister.” Celia stood up, then kissed the side of Emmy’s head to lighten her words. “It’s normal to cry when your mother dies.”
Grief broke across Emmy’s expression before she turned away.
She took her time looping her vest and utility belt over the middle hook by the door.
Her fingers reflexively reached out and tapped the one on the right.
In Jude’s time, there had only been one hook.
Gerald had left his belt on it every night, and at least once a month, Myrna had complained about the marks it left on the wall.
Emmy cleared her throat before turning back around. She asked Celia, “What can you tell me about Mandy Vickery?”
“Good morning to you, too, sunshine.” Celia turned in her chair and grinned at Emmy.
“I didn’t know anything about her. Had to look up her file.
She was sent to my office a couple of years ago.
Part of a group of girls who were being bitchy little jackasses.
Spreading gossip about each other, being prickly and mean.
It was more about the drama than actual malice.
I gave them all detention. Never heard any complaints about Mandy again.
Sixteen’s about the age they start to grow out of that. ”
“Did you call in Allison to talk?”
“I’m sure I talked to all the parents, but I have absolutely no memory of what any of them said. Probably some horseshit about how they were gonna sue me for punishing their kids. I swear to God sometimes I wish I taught at an orphanage.”
“I’m going to send a deputy by the school to search Mandy’s locker.”
“She doesn’t have one.” Celia tapped her finger to the side of her nose like Paul Newman in The Sting. “You’re not the only detective in the family.”
“Can you send me a list of her teachers?”
“Check your email.”
Emmy tried again, “What about any strange men hanging around?”
“I should be so lucky.” Celia gave a heady laugh. “Honey, are you really asking me if I saw a strange man hanging around the school and decided to keep it to myself?”
Tires crunched in the driveway again. Emmy glanced out the kitchen door. She told Jude, “Cole’s here. Make sure you give him his assignments before you fly back to Quantico, Dr. Archer.”
Celia rolled her eyes.
Jude pressed her hands flat to the table.
She wasn’t sure she was up to being Emmy’s punching bag this morning.
Celia’s revelation had left her feeling exposed.
She was anxious about Tommy figuring out the truth but also relieved that he wasn’t punishing her.
All Jude ever got from Millie was sharp accusations, and Father Nate glared at her like he would just as soon burn her for a witch.
Only Celia had acknowledged the toll carrying the secret was taking.
“Chin up.” Celia winked at Jude as she made to leave. “Emmy Lou Clifton, you be nice to your sister.”
Cole passed her on the porch. Their voices were muffled in Jude’s ears. She made herself busy by clearing the table, finding two more mugs for coffee. She opened the fridge. Looked for something that could pass for breakfast.
Cole came up behind her. “I’ve never seen that much food in my life.”
“I’ll fix you a plate,” Jude offered. “Take a load off.”
Cole grabbed one of the coffees and slumped into his chair with an exhausted groan.
Jude felt herself smiling as she pulled out a breakfast casserole and scooped a healthy portion onto a plate. Celia was right. She was a fussy grandma. “How did it go?”
“It went.” Emmy’s tone had a pointed edge. She was back in control. She tapped Cole’s shoulder for him to sit up straight, telling him, “Get some sleep after breakfast, then I need you on all the CCTV from the strip mall behind Allison’s house. I’m gonna take a shower and head back out.”
Cole waited until the pipes started banging from the shower upstairs to slouch back down in his chair. Any other grown man pouting so openly would’ve earned a sharp rebuke from Jude, but she felt his disappointment tug at her heart.
She put his food in the microwave and sat down. “Well?”
“She’s pissed off at Brett. He talked to some reporter in Atlanta who did a story on the shooting. Told them the second he was sworn in as sheriff, he was gonna make an arrest. He didn’t say who, but everybody knows it’s Bill Garrison.”
Jude was momentarily speechless. “Did Brett say anything about gathering actual evidence?”
“The reporter didn’t push him, but it’s blowing up online. Bill Garrison’s mother is shitposting every comment. His brothers are dicks. They’re all trashing Mom, saying she’s in over her head.”
“Okay.” Jude knew what it felt like to have a colleague stab you in the back. Everyone had questioned her methods until she’d arrested Freddy Henley, then everyone had wanted credit for being part of the chase. “We can’t do anything about assholes online. Catch me up on what you’ve been doing.”
“Whole lotta nothin’ with a side of bullshit.”
“Start with the bullshit.”
“She stuck me behind my desk while everybody else went out.”
“And the whole lotta nothin’?”
“Sherry says it’ll take a few days to crack the passwords on the phones and laptops.
The subpoenas for all the CCTV, electronics and bank records will take weeks to come in, but we got all the paperwork from Allison’s dining room and brought it back to the station.
There’s some old credit card stuff from last year.
A couple dozen phone bills. Nothing to follow up on.
From what I could tell, most of Allison’s private eye work was chasing around cheaters and documenting divorce cases.
Half this town’s got gonorrhea, by the way. ”
Some things never changed. “What else?”
“Gregg and Julian got to rattle doors up and down Clayville to see if anybody would give Woody an alibi. Like people are gonna turn on him. I mean, that’s crazy.
He’s terrifying. And she wouldn’t even tell them why she was asking.
I mean, what’s a North Falls kid got to do with a stone-cold drug dealer?
It’s not like Mandy was shooting eight-balls, and Allison was a cop.
That’s, like, the one thing bad guys never do.
You murder a cop and your entire world gets pulled down. ”
Cole looked up at the ceiling. The banging pipes had stilled. Emmy was out of the shower. He leaned closer to Jude so he wouldn’t be overheard.
“Then she had us search for reports about strangers spotted around the high school and within a mile of Clifton Gardens and along the back roads in between. Wouldn’t say why.
Couldn’t give a description beyond an older man who looked like he didn’t belong.
” He shrugged. “And she had me send her links to all Mandy’s socials.
Wanted to see if she could notice anything off.
Wouldn’t tell me what she was looking for. ”
Jude nodded, because these were all good ideas, but not for Emmy. She should’ve delegated so she could focus on the bigger picture. “Did you get some sleep?”