CHAPTER SEVEN #2
“At first she wouldn’t take a penny.” A faint smile came and went. “Said neighbors ought to look after neighbors. But I’m not blind. I could see she was struggling. Car needed work. Rent always hovering over her. So, I persuaded her to take some money each week.”
Connor asked, “How much?”
“About two hundred dollars.”
Connor looked at him over the rim of his glass. “That’s a decent amount of money per week for someone doing a few odd jobs here and there.”
Gus gave a crooked grin. “It’s not like my savings will go anywhere but the state when I die. My kid brother’s gone. Neither of us had children. I enjoyed knowing I was helping Brenda.”
That answer came without hesitation. No embarrassment. No secretive shift in his eyes. If there had been anything inappropriate there, Selena thought, it did not sit close to the surface.
She took out her notebook. “Did Brenda ever talk to you about religion, Gus?”
“Religion?”
“Yes. Church, faith, scripture, things like that. Did she ever mention it?”
Gus frowned and shook his head. “Not that I recall. She didn’t seem to have strong religious convictions one way or the other.”
Selena’s gaze moved past him to a framed piece of embroidery hanging at the rear of the room. Blue thread on cream fabric, worked by hand with care and patience.
The words read: The Lord is my shepherd.
“You’re religious?” she asked.
Gus followed her line of sight and smiled more sadly this time. “Only privately.”
He turned in his chair enough to look at the embroidery. “That was made by my mother. It’s more there out of sentimentality than religious conviction.”
Selena nodded. “Did Brenda ever mention St. Bartholomew’s? The old church in Eagleton?”
The old man’s brow furrowed. “No.”
Selena let the question pass rather than answer it directly. “Did she seem frightened lately? Distracted? Like someone was bothering her?”
Gus considered. “Tired, maybe. Quiet sometimes. But that wasn’t unusual. Life can wear a person down without there being any mystery to it.”
Connor set his glass down. “Did she talk to you about Dale Mitch?”
Gus’s expression hardened. “Only when she had to. I’m glad she saw sense and kicked that punk to the curb.”
“Did she seem afraid of him?” Selena asked.
Gus took his time before replying. “Afraid isn’t always the word. Sometimes a woman just gets tired of a man taking up space in her mind. Brenda wanted rid of him. That much was plain. She just wanted some peace.”
Selena scribbled that down. A car drove slowly past outside as, somewhere in the house, a pipe clanked.
“Old heating.” Gus smiled. “I must ask Brenda to get someone to look at that.”
Gus shook his head suddenly in confusion. “No. Sorry. I can’t very well do that, can I?”
Selena wondered if he was just being forgetful or was suffering from the early stages of dementia. If it was the latter, it would make his answers less reliable.
Gus folded the tissue carefully in his lap. He had steadied himself, but grief still sat on him heavily, making his already slight frame seem smaller in the chair.
“I… I’m very tired. I’m sorry, I think I should lie down.” He struggled to his feet. Connor reached out and helped him.
Selena closed the notebook. “That’s quite all right. Mr. Farley, if you think of anything else, anything at all, call us, please.” Connor took the empty glasses to the kitchen, then returned. “We’re sorry to bring this to your door, Gus. And we’re sorry for your loss.”
Gus looked up at him. “That’s okay. It’s always a pleasure talking to Arthur Chase’s son. You tell him I said hi.”
Selena caught a look in Connor’s eyes. A look that said he wasn’t willing to correct the poor memory of the man. If he thought Arthur was still alive, perhaps that was an illusion that was best left alive.
Connor held his gaze. “I appreciate you saying so.”
The old man gave a faint nod.
“We’ll let ourselves out,” Connor said.
Outside, the afternoon had dulled toward evening. The sky had gone flatter, the light thinning at the edges. Selena and Connor crossed the yard in silence and passed through the squealing gate back to the road.
Connor spoke first. “It was nice to hear that my dad helped Gus.”
Selena glanced at him. “Your dad helped everyone.”
“Yeah.” He smiled, small and genuine. “He did.”
The moment hung there for half a second. A pause that was filled with the silence of never knowing the right words.
Selena felt the wall go up in her almost by reflex.
Old stories, old warmth, old shared pieces of the past, that was exactly how this place got under a person’s skin.
She did not want to stand on a roadside in Harlan County talking fondly about Arthur Chase and everything that had been lost since those years.
She turned to practical ground instead. “We should split up.”
Connor’s head came around. “What?”
“We’ll cover more ground that way.”
Something in him cooled. “Right.”
Selena kept her voice even. “You’ve got better local footing. Ask around. See if anyone saw Brenda, or anyone else, skulking around the old church lately.”
Connor looked at her, annoyance just visible behind his eyes now. Then he nodded once. “I’ll look into local resources. I’ll ask around. If anything hits, I’ll get back to you. What are you going to do?” he asked.
Selena opened her car door. “Go over the case files again. Think through a strategy to canvass the area with limited sources. I might visit the coroner and see if he’s found anything new.”
“I should come with you, he’s a bit of a character.”
“No thanks.” Selena’s words sounded harsher than she meant them to be.
Connor rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say.”
The remark scraped.
She chose not to bite.
Connor got into his SUV, then paused with the door still open. “If you’re really just going to kick dust so you don’t have to be around me, you should go see Jessie or your dad.”
Selena looked over at him sharply.
He pointed upward toward the fading sky. “It’ll be getting dark sooner rather than later. Remember you’re back in the country now.”
Then he pulled the door shut and drove off.
Selena stood beside her rental car for a moment, watching the sheriff’s SUV disappear up the road.
Annoyance rose first at his remark about Jessie and her dad.
Then the worst truth came behind it.
Connor was probably right.