"Glenn! You're early," Jackie
whined. "Arlene hasn't finished making me beautiful for tonight."
Glenn Manis, short, stocky and sweating
profusely wiped his face with a white handkerchief and flopped his
wide butt down on the K-Mart wicker sofa in the waiting area.
Arlene had known Glenn since they
were kids. He was a nice guy, with a good job as a maintenance man for
the city of Noble's Crossing. He seemed to be hog-wild crazy over Jackie.
The two had been dating nearly a year now.
"I'm in no hurry." Glenn
smiled at his girlfriend, the action adding a few character lines to
his amazingly youthful face. At forty, Glenn didn't have any noticeable
wrinkles, and his once blond hair had darkened to a light brown. "As
far as I'm concerned, you're already beautiful enough for any occasion."
"How come you're early?"
Jackie asked.
"I walked over straight from
the mayor's office, with a bit of news I thought you and Arlene might
find interesting."
Arlene sprayed Jackie's hair until
not even a hurricane force wind could have mussed it. "Wouldn't be
something about Kent Graham's murder, would it? I swear, it's the only
thing this town is talking about."
"I can't reveal any privileged
information without endangering my job with the city, but since Penny
Walsh overheard it, too, then the news is bound to be all over town before
sundown." Glenn crossed his hefty right leg over his left knee. "I
could be persuaded to share my news if you'd get me a Coke."
Arlene patted Jackie on the shoulders.
"Sit still. I'll do your nails as soon as I get Glenn his Coke."
While Arlene raided the cola machine,
Jackie whirled around in the swivel chair and gave her boyfriend a
hard stare. "Is it something deliriously juicy?"
Arlene popped the lid on the can
and handed Glenn his cola. "Here's your bribe. Now tell us."
Glenn's face flushed slightly.
"Y’all never will guess who might be coming back to town." Tilting
the cola to his lips, Glenn gulped down the refreshing drink.
"What sort of news is
that?" Standing, Jackie unsnapped her plastic cape and tossed it
onto a nearby chair. Snips of shimmering platinum hail dropped to the
floor. "Come on, Arlene, do my nails."
"So, who's coming back to
town?" Arlene followed Jackie to the manicurist's table.
"Don't you girls want to guess?"
"Lord, what is this, twenty questions?"
Arlene sat across from Jackie, then lifted the woman's hand into a dish
of warm, soapy water.''Are we playing a game?’’
"The news is very interesting,"
Glenn said. "Come on. I'll give y'all a few clues."
"You're acting totally ridiculous."
Jackie puckered her plump, pink lips into a pout.
"It's a man who left town fifteen
years ago." Glenn sipped from the cola can. "He lived over in
Myer’s Trailer Park. You dated him a time or two, Arlene. And so did you,
Jackie."
"You can't mean Johnny
Mack!" Arlene's big hazel eyes widened; her mouth gaped open.
"Johnny Mack is coming back to
town?" Jackie asked, her voice quivering slightly. "But why would
he come back, after all these years?"
"Yeah, I wondered the same
thing," Glenn said. "While I was changing out the light fixture
in Penny's office, I heard Mayor Ware talking to the DA on the phone. Seems
some guy claiming to be Johnny Mack Cahill had called the DA's office and
was asking some questions about Kent Graham's murder." Glenn finished
off his cola and tossed the empty can into a nearby wicker wastebasket.
"That phone call sure as hell upset James Ware. He called Miss Edith
right away. Me and Penny heard every word."
"Wonder how Johnny Mack turned
out?" Arlene smiled, then sighed. "Now there was a man for you.
Even at twenty, he was a force to be reckoned with, wasn't he? Folks used to
say the likes of him would wind up in jail for sure."
"I still say, why would he come
back to Noble's Crossing after all this time?" Jackie repeated her
question. "He hated this town as much as it hated him."
"Well, it seems Kent Graham's
murder isn't all Johnny Mack was interested in," Glenn told them.
"I heard James Ware ask the DA what possible interest the man claiming
to be Johnny Mack Cahill could have in Will Graham."
"A very good question. Why
would he be interested in Will Graham?" Arlene asked.
"Are you saying that Johnny
Mack Cahill is coming back to Noble's Crossing because of that boy?"
Jackie lifted her hand out of the water. "But why?"
"Weren't you listening, honey
pie? That's what the mayor wanted to know." Crossing his big arms over
his rotund chest, Glenn leaned back on the sofa.
"Why would Johnny Mack give a
hoot about Kent Graham's kid?" Arlene asked. "Those two despised
each other." Arlene reached for Jackie's hand, but she jerked it
away.
Jackie turned around to face
Glenn. "That boy isn't anybody to Johnny Mack. Doesn't make any sense
why he'd be interested."
"Could be the old rumors are
true about Johnny Mack and Kent being half brothers," Arlene speculated.
"If that's so, then Will would be Johnny Mack's nephew."
"Could be," Glenn said.
"But I got my own notion about why he'd come back to town, if he thought
that Will and Lane needed him." Glenn glanced from his girlfriend
to Arlene and then back to his girlfriend. "We all know Will's adopted,
so that means, somewhere, Will has a real mama and daddy. Right?"
‘'Right," Arlene said.
"Lord have mercy! Now I know who Will reminds me of. He looks like
Johnny Mack did when he was a kid. Why didn't we see if before now, Jackie?
You and I were as close to Johnny Mack as anybody in this town."
"Speak for yourself,"
Jackie said.
"Excuse me, Ms. Cummings, but
the truth is that you and I both dated Johnny Mack."
"Everyone knows that you dated
him on and off for years, whenever a certain someone else wasn't available,
but I never really dated him. He pursued me… and I shunned him."
"Lightning's going to strike
you dead, Jackie Cummings." Arlene laughed, a hoarse, throaty,
life-time smoker's rumbling chuckle. "You were as hot for Johnny
Mack as every other girl in town."
"I was not! I found him uncouth
and crude and-"
"And exciting," Arlene
said. "We all did. He was the boy even the Magnolia Avenue girls fantasized
about."
Glenn cleared his throat.
"Well, explain this to me, ladies, if Johnny Mack is Will's natural
father, why on earth would Kent and Lane have adopted him?" Glenn shook
his head and grunted. "Johnny Mack and Kent sure weren't friends, and
they certainly didn't run with the same crowd."
"Nobody ran with Johnny
Mack," Jackie said. "He was a loner."
"So maybe the answer doesn't
lie with Johnny Mack. Maybe it lies with whoever Will's real mother
is," Glenn said. "Could be that Lane and Kent knew when they married
they could never have a child oil their own and someone in town told them
about a girl with a child she wanted to give away. Nobody knows where they
got that boy."
Arlene tapped her long fake nails
atop the manicurist's desk. "I feel sorry for Will, and sorry for
Johnny Mack if Will really is his son."
"And for the poor girl who had
to give away her lover's baby?" Glenn asked as he exchanged a pensive
glance with Arlene.
"I think y'all are assuming
an awful lot." Jackie laid both of her hands flat atop the desk.
"Do my nails! Glenn and I are supposed to be at Hearfbreakers by
seven, and I still have to go home and change. This is my one night off
tins week, and I want to make the most of it."
"I guess we could narrow
down the possibilities," Arlene said. "Every girl in town
didn't sleep with Johnny Mack that last summer before he left town. He was
mostly fooling around with the Magnolia Avenue girls."
"Any smart girl from Magnolia
Avenue could have gotten an abortion." Jackie snatched her hand
out of Arlene's grasp, inspecting the beginnings of her manicure.
"So that means Will's mama was probably trash just like Johnny Mack.
Now, wouldn't that be something? The bastard son of white trash being raised
in the lap of luxury as the child of Lane Noble Graham. If Miss Edith suspected
such a thing, she'd have a heart attack and keel over dead. Can you imagine
her having Johnny Mack Cahill's child as her heir?"
"Well, my money's on Johnny
Mack being the lather," Glenn said. "But who could the mother have
been? There weren't many women between the age of sixteen and sixty who
would have said no to Johnny Mack."
‘’I think there's one possibility
that we've all overlooked," Jackie said.
"What's that?" Arlene asked.
"That Lane Noble is Will's natural
mother."
* * *
Johnny Mack checked into the Four
Way, a deal but inexpensive motel on the other side of the river. The
place hadn't changed much over the years. Soma new furniture. A fresh coat
of paint. A bigger neon sign.
Johnny Mack glanced at his watch.
Nearly six-thirty. He wanted to shower and change before he called on anyone
here in Noble's Crossing. For the time being, he didn't want anyone to
suspect just how successful he was. How rich and powerful. Later, when it
served his purposes to reveal the truth, he would let everyone know
just who they were dealing with.
Picking up his suitcase, he tossed
it on the bed snapped open the lid and reached inside for his favorite
pair of faded black jeans. Even though he was accustomed to tailor-made
suits, linen shirts and silk ties, he was still more comfortable in jeans
and boots. Despite his innate ability to wheel and deal with the best
of them, he found the most pleasure in the days he spent at the ranch. Although
the Hill Country was peaceful and serene, somehow he never felt quite
as lonesome there as he did surrounded by people in Houston.
He had spent fifteen years trying
to escape from his past, trying to become someone other than the town
bad boy. And he had spent the past ten years trying to atone for the mistakes
he had made when he'd been too young and stupid to realize that actions
had consequences.
God in heaven, had he gotten some
girl pregnant that last summer here in Noble's Crossing? Had he really
left behind a child?
Just as he stripped out of his clothes,
the cellular phone in his jacket rang. He reached down on the bed, slipped
his hand inside the pocket, lifted the phone and flipped it open.
"Cahill."
"Johnny Mack, I've got a report
sitting on my desk that I think will interest you," Benton Pike said.
"An update from the PI?"
"Yep."
"Did he get the information
I wanted?"
"He sure did. We know who John
William Graham's natural mother is."
Chapter 5
"He's registered at the Four
Way," Police Chief Buddy Lawler said. "From the description
the desk clerk gave me, it could be Johnny Mack."
"He registered under the name
Johnny Mack Cahill, right?" James Ware merely wanted to confirm what
his old friend had already told him. "And he paid for a week in advance?"
"What are the odds it could be
Johnny Mack?’’ Buddy paced the polished oak floor in the paneled study of
the Graham mansion. "We both know that he was fish food fifteen years
ago. How could he have survived that beating, let alone had the strength
to swim ashore?"
"He was as tough as they come."
James poured himself a drink from the bottle of Scotch he kept on his desk.
Nodding toward the liquor, he asked, "Care for some?"
"No. I'm keeping a clear head
until I find out for sure who our visitor is."
"And what are we going to do
if it turns out to be Johnny Mack?" James lifted the glass to his lips,
took a sip and swallowed.
"Let's say it is him,"
Buddy suggested. "He's stayed away for fifteen years. Why would he
return now?"
"Wes Stevens said that this
man-whoever the hell he is-called his office and inquired about Kent's
murder and about Lane and Will. It's possible that he's found out the
truth about Will."
"How the hell would he have
found out?" Buddy removed his tie, undid the top button on his shirt
and loosened the collar. "Unless he's kept in touch with someone here
in Noble's Crossing all these years."
"The same someone who might
have helped him fifteen years ago," James said. "Someone who
knows what we did to him."
"Don't jump to conclusions.
We don't know anything for sure. We don't even know if this man really is
Johnny Mack Cahill."
"Sure we do." James downed
the remainder of his Scotch, set the glass aside and wiped the perspiration
from his forehead with the back of his hand. "He was the kind of guy
you couldn't kill. We should have known he wasn't dead. If he made it to
shore, just about any woman in this town would have helped him."