Chapter Twenty-One
NEARLY A WEEK LATER, CORDELIA PARKED HER CAR, HEADLIGHTS OFF, in the middle of the brush country, a mile away from the Abernathy compound.
Thanks to a conversation Daisy had overhead between Edna and Beatrice St. James at Tilly’s Closet, they knew the fake midnight auction invitation had worked.
They just had to sit tight and wait for Corbin to leave.
As soon as the pinpricks of light from his pickup truck disappeared into the vast plains on the way into town, Cordelia moved her car into Abernathy territory.
It would take Corbin ten minutes to pick up Edna from his home base, and another hour from there to reach Crystal Creek.
That bought them roughly an hour and a half to break in, search for evidence, and make their exit with plenty of time to spare.
Hopefully, without Corbin being any the wiser.
Cordelia parked behind the largest building, a giant warehouse with a tin roof and corrugated walls. They had nothing but endless miles of flat plains, scrub grass, and sky at their backs. A safety precaution in case anyone came up the main road by surprise.
Arline’s orthopedic shoes crunched on the hard-packed gravel behind the smallest building, a wooden structure that looked like a double-wide storage shed. Cordelia stood beside her with her hands on her hips as she surveyed the property.
None of them had ever gotten so close to the parcel of land the Abernathys protected like rabid dogs.
They assumed a workspace of some kind had been built, which accounted for the large, shadowy structure that rose from the earth like the sole tomb in a long-abandoned cemetery.
They hadn’t been prepared for the smaller buildings that had been camouflaged by the warehouse. Or all the heavy machinery.
“What do you suppose this is about?” Cordelia nodded toward the rows of metal rods lined up on the ground, along with pieces of what looked like a pulley system.
“Oil.” Arline sniffed like she could smell it in the wind. “He’s got all the pieces for a rig right here. He’s probably just waiting for the permits to start building.”
“Or access to the right parcel of land,” Belinda Sue said, a sneer curling her lip as she stood on Cordelia’s opposite side. “I’m thinking this here is the real reason why he wants to get his hands on the Chickadee so bad.”
“There’s oil on Chickadee land?” Cordelia asked.
“Penelope thought there might be,” Belinda Sue said. “Of course, she also thought there was an abandoned gold mine and buried treasure from Gulf pirates too. The Chickadee’s got a whole host of legends around it, but none of them have ever been proven.”
Cordelia gestured at the scene laid out before them. “Obviously, Corbin thinks some of the legends are true, but he seems to be banking an awful lot on a rumor.”
“I don’t think this is strictly bankrolled by Corbin,” Belinda Sue said. “The Abernathys have always made their fortune in land development. Oil isn’t a casual side hobby. This looks like it’s got someone else’s fingerprints on it.”
“Who?” Cordelia asked.
“Only one way to find out.” Arline took a step forward, and Belinda Sue yanked on the back of her zebra-print caftan, dragging her back.
“We’re not having a repeat of that whole debacle with the church,” Belinda Sue said. “Save your bulling for someone else’s china shop. Daisy’s got this one.”
Daisy came rushing forward, waving a small metal box in her hand. “It’s been a minute since I picked a lock, but I’m sure it’s like riding a bike.”
Cordelia didn’t know how Daisy had learned to pick locks, or why she’d needed to use that particular skill often enough for it to become as habitual as bike riding, but that was one of those questions she’d learned not to ask. Nine times out of ten, she regretted knowing the answers.
The four of them approached the warehouse first. Cordelia held her phone’s flashlight up, while Daisy went to work on the giant padlock securing a set of chains wound tight around a pair of rolling metal doors.
From the Chickadee, this building had looked so squat and unimpressive, but up close it was large enough to house a few planes.
Daisy muttered to herself as she dug around in the lock, waiting for the telltale click.
A bead of sweat rolled down her temple. Cordelia chewed on a hangnail, trying not to put too much pressure on Daisy, but every second they spent trying to get into the warehouse was a second of searching time they lost. And they still had three more office buildings to check.
Letting loose an annoyed grunt, Arline clomped around to the other side of the warehouse. The grinding squeal of rusty hinges split the night air.
“If y’all are done playing with that lock, there’s an open window back here one of you could climb into,” Arline hollered.
Cordelia rushed around the corner with Daisy and Belinda Sue on her heels.
Arline stood on a metal barrel and had a window six feet off the ground pushed all the way open.
It would require a certain amount of upper-arm strength to pull herself up there, but Cordelia was likely the only one of them who could attempt it.
She hadn’t forgotten how long it took the four of them to drag the pastor’s body to her car.
“Why don’t I peek around in here, while Daisy tries the locks on the smaller buildings?” Cordelia offered Arline her hand so she could take her place on the barrel. “If we split up, we can cover more ground and get out of here sooner.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Belinda Sue said.
The chicks left Cordelia with the warehouse while they went off to tinker with the smaller office buildings.
She grabbed the sides of the window, wincing as she sliced her finger on a wayward nail.
Throwing one leg onto the sill, Cordelia gripped the upper edges of the opening and pushed her arms back.
Her muscles tightened, making her skin stretch as she seesawed her way in.
Kicking her other leg against the corrugated shell of the warehouse, she tried to find purchase.
Her bones burned from the strain, but she managed to pull herself up.
She dropped through the opening. Her ankle bent and her bone smacked the concrete floor as she landed at an awkward angle, but nothing snapped.
She remained steady on her feet, with adrenaline keeping pain at bay.
Dust particles floated in the air and she sneezed.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, but a series of high windows and skylights allowed plenty of moonlight to cast a silvery glow on the cavernous space.
Most of the open warehouse was taken up by more machinery, likely related to drilling.
Cordelia had never seen land rigs in pieces before, so she couldn’t be sure, but the equipment looked new and expensive.
Corbin and Edna had money by Sarsaparilla Falls standards, but they weren’t rich enough to eat their laying hens. So who was footing the bill?
And what had they promised in return?
Along the back wall, a long metal table built into the structure ran the length of the warehouse.
Various papers and receipts littered the surface.
Cordelia pulled out her phone and snapped pictures of everything scattered across the desk.
She didn’t pause to read anything or parse out the relevant from the useless.
They’d already burned through at least half an hour and she had no idea if the chicks were having any luck with the other buildings.
Behind a classic car that looked out of place, Cordelia ran across a five-drawer filing cabinet.
Three of them were locked, and seeing as how she didn’t possess Daisy’s picking skills, she had to skip over those.
The fourth drawer held old tax forms, while the bottom drawer contained a whole dossier on her Great-Aunt Penelope.
A list of the ladies who had been employed by her over the years, where they were now, and what kind of record they each possessed.
Arline had a folder three times thicker than everyone else’s.
Cordelia could only imagine what it held.
There were also records of Great-Aunt Penelope’s clients, business associates, charity contributions, and taxes.
Torn between wanting to protect the privacy of the chicks and gathering as much evidence as possible, Cordelia snapped pictures of Great-Aunt Penelope’s dealings and left everyone else’s files alone.
It wasn’t her business to know that information any more than it was Corbin’s, though she figured her great-aunt wouldn’t mind the privacy invasion.
Cordelia had just begun to stuff the files back in the drawer when a thin folder came loose from the binder and caught under the cabinet.
She picked it up, stopping cold when she came across her own name.
They had maybe another fifteen minutes before they needed to hightail it out of there, but Cordelia plopped down right there on the filthy floor, not caring about the dirt for possibly the first time in her life, and read every note hastily scribbled on the papers.
Corbin Abernathy had an entire breakdown of Cordelia’s life.
Her history with the people of Sarsaparilla Falls, her mother’s every indiscretion, her odds of seeing through the terms of the trust, her reception from the locals she’d interacted with, a list of possible enemies and alliances.
He’d even managed to learn that she hadn’t been honest with her momma about her return to town at first, and he’d jotted down a few notes on how he intended to use that to his advantage.
It didn’t look like he knew she’d since told her momma the truth, but he must’ve had eyes on her in Dallas in a limited capacity. At least enough to know her routines and working hours. The thought of that sleazy snake going anywhere near her momma made her blood run cold.
It was one thing to mess with her—she understood that Corbin Abernathy was not her friend—but to drag her momma into his dirty dealings?
After everything she’d overcome? That was a bridge too far for Cordelia.
If she’d had a match, she would’ve been real tempted to light fire to that filing cabinet and watch the whole thing burn.
As it was, she wasn’t leaving these notes behind.
If Corbin wanted a war, he’d have to stick to her.
Her momma had already fought her share of battles and had won them by the skin of her teeth.
Cordelia wouldn’t allow her to go back. Not to her dark days, when her demons got the best of her, and not to the town that refused to help when she’d been down.
Cordelia stuffed the papers into the lining of her dress where she’d sewn a secret pocket for things like house keys and chewing gum.
Knowing she only had minutes left, she debated on taking the chicks’ folders, too, just to stick it to Corbin, but the goal had been to get out of there without him ever being aware they’d paid him a visit.
So she reluctantly left the filing cabinet behind and hustled back to the open window.
Dragging a sturdy metal stool with a dented seat to the window, she hoisted herself up and worked her way back through the opening.
Just as her foot touched the barrel on the other side of the warehouse, flashing red-and-blue lights lit up the surrounding area.
Sirens blared loud enough to make her teeth rattle.
Without a backward glance, Cordelia hopped off the barrel and started running for her car.
Thick clouds blanketed the moon, extinguishing the light, and shrieks echoed in the near pitch black as a dark figure charged her from between two of the smaller buildings.
Cordelia recognized the deputy guarding Honey’s cell.
She dodged him with ease, her heart pounding faster than green grass through a goose.
The front of her foot slid into a divot in the ground, rolling her already tender ankle, and Cordelia went down hard. Rough dirt bit into her palms. She pushed herself to her knees, but it was too late. The deputy was on her like a duck on a June bug.
“If you fight me, you’re only going to make it worse for yourself, Miss Cordelia.
” The deputy yanked her arms behind her back as she flailed against the useless ground.
She couldn’t find so much as a loose stick to grab on to.
“The sheriff has the others in the back of his car. You’re not getting out of this one. ”
With that, Cordelia gave up the fight. There was no point.
She wasn’t going to let the chicks be hauled off to jail while she went home and did what?
Took a hot bath? Relaxed with a book and a cup of tea?
The sheriff already knew they’d broken into the Abernathy compound.
His deputy had her on the ground with her hands pinned behind her back. The jig was up.
“I’ll come quietly,” Cordelia said. “You don’t have to pull so hard.”
“Sorry about that.” The deputy lifted her to her feet and tried to dust off the front of her clothes, then turned red and dropped his hand when he realized just what he was whacking away at.
“Corbin Abernathy told us to rough y’all up a bit, but I told the sheriff I don’t want nothing to do with that.
My momma would tan my hide and sell me at a discount. ”
“Your momma sounds like good people,” Cordelia said absently.
She swiveled her neck as she tried to catch sight of the chicks.
They must’ve been scared out of their minds.
Had Belinda Sue taken her heart medication this morning?
Was Arline’s blood pressure climbing through the roof?
She’d get them out of this. Though she wasn’t entirely sure how she’d go about doing it, she had a need to protect that ran down her bones.
Maybe this was what it felt like to be a madam.